TOBACCO PIPES FROM EXCAVATIONS AT THE MUSEUM SITE, JENNE, MALI

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Keech McIntosh ◽  
Daphne Gallagher ◽  
Roderick J. McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Frames Of Reference ◽  
Multivariate Approach ◽  
Historic Period ◽  
Tobacco Pipes ◽  
Inland Niger Delta

Tobacco pipes are among the most frequently recorded artifacts from historic period sites in West Africa, and can be used to both establish tight chronologies and address issues of social and economic change.This paper is a discussion of the 300-year sequence of tobacco pipes recovered from excavations at Jenne, Mali in 1999. The assemblage, which includes over 300 fragments, is first placed in its historical and archaeological context. The pipes are fully described using a multivariate approach, and the results illustrate a clear sequence. Following a reassessment of Daget & Ligers’ previously proposed pipe chronology for the Inland Niger Delta, the pipes are analyzed using two primary frames of reference. On a broad regional scale, the assemblage is compared with those from sites throughout West Africa, while on the local level possible motivations for the types of changes seen in the assemblage are discussed.

scholarly journals Holocene changes in African vegetation: tradeoff between climate and water availability

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 681-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Hély ◽  
A.-M. Lézine ◽  
APD contributors
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Water Availability ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Plant Distribution ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
Tropical Plants ◽  
Plant Migration ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Instrumental Records

Abstract. Although past climate change is well documented in West Africa through instrumental records, modeling activities, and paleo-data, little is known about regional-scale ecosystem vulnerability and long-term impacts of climate on plant distribution and biodiversity. Here we use paleohydrological and paleobotanical data to discuss the relation between available surface water, monsoon rainfall and vegetation distribution in West Africa during the Holocene. The individual patterns of plant migration or community shifts in latitude are explained by differences among tolerance limits of species to rainfall amount and seasonality. Using the probability density function methodology, we show here that the widespread development of lakes, wetlands and rivers at the time of the "Green Sahara" played an additional role in forming a network of topographically defined water availability, allowing for tropical plants to migrate north from 15 to 24° N (reached ca. 9 cal ka BP). The analysis of the spatio–temporal changes in biodiversity, through both pollen occurrence and richness, shows that the core of the tropical rainbelt associated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone was centered at 15–20° N during the early Holocene wet period, with comparatively drier/more seasonal climate conditions south of 15° N.

West Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-123
Author(s):  
Danilo Mandić
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
World War ◽  
Boko Haram ◽  
The World

This chapter focuses on West Africa during 1989–2019. West Africa's transnational smuggling enterprises are hardly a novelty — or as menacing as they sound. Troc, or barter trade, is a way of life that preceded and survived colonialism. Commerce is known as al-frud, from the French fraude (fraud), reflecting the World War II-era tradition of regional smuggling. What is new in the globalized period is that mafias in five nations — and just as many budding ones — have played formative roles in regional politics. Three of the host states (Mali, Senegal, and Nigeria) were significantly torn by ethnocentric, separatist-controlled rackets in drugs and migrants (Azawad), marijuana (Casamance), and extortion (Boko Haram). Nigeria employed ethnocentric Niger Delta mafias to fight its northern separatists. In Niger's Agadez and Cameroon's Ambazonia, however, organized crime promoted cohesion.

scholarly journals Characterization of groundrolls in the North-West of Niger Delta Nigeria, West Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-552
Author(s):  
S.A. Ugwu ◽  
C.N. Nwankwo ◽  
J.O. Sule
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
North West ◽  
The North

The Dia archaeological project: rescuing cultural heritage in the Inland Niger Delta (Mali)

Antiquity ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (290) ◽  
pp. 837-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rogier Bedaux ◽  
Kevin MacDonald ◽  
Alain Person ◽  
Jean Polet ◽  
Kléna Sanogo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Illicit Trade ◽  
Site Survey ◽  
University College London ◽  
Sciences Humaines ◽  
Close Cooperation ◽  
Inland Niger Delta

Mali is a country with a rich history and diverse cultures. Its cultural heritage is, however, threatened by both the pillage of archaeological sites and illicit trade (ICOM 1995; Bedaux & Rowlands, this volunle). Looting has dramatically increased in recent years, especially in the Inland Delta of the Niger, and has obliged Malian authorities to take measures to counteract this destruction. Within the framework of a long-term Malian-Dutch cultural heritage programme, the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde at Leiden recently initiated large-scale excavations in the Inland Niger Delta at Dia, in close cooperation with the Université du Mali, the Institut des Sciences Humaines and the Musée National du Mali in Bamako, the Mission Culturelle in Djenné, the Universities of Paris I and VI, the C.N.R.S., University College London and Leiden University. This excavation, financed principally by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, started in 1998 and will continue until 2004. It is a continuation of previous international programmes of site survey and documentation in the Inland Niger Delta, which the Institut des Sciences Humaines in Bamako has co-ordinated over the past two decades (e.g. Raimbault & Sanogo 1991; Dembele et al. 1993; Togola 1996). An initial season of prospection was carried out in 1998 in the Inland Delta, following which the vicinity of Dia was chosen as the principal research zone for the project.

Developing a Proactive Environmental Management System (PEMS) in Offshore West Africa

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. O. Ogunsanya ◽  
A. J. Ifebajo
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Management ◽  
West Africa ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Management System ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Environmental Control ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Environmental Management System ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Management Style

Abstract Every industry that seeks to remain efficient and relevant in this millennium should constantly be looking for ways of becoming more environmentally responsible — no business may call itself efficient if it threatens the environment within which it operates. As the quest for hydrocarbons intensifies in our deeper waters, we see environmental performance quality playing an increasingly critical role in every company’s business performance. In the last couple of years, reports from onshore E&P activities in Nigeria have shown that operating in the Niger Delta region poses some of the toughest challenges in the world. This region has witnessed a spate of attacks on oil and gas facilities, staff and contractors. Consequently, major oil and gas players have to contend with complex operational uncertainties due to increased pressures from the local communities for improved environmental control measures. In this project, we have outlined safe and effective plans, actions, and procedures to help pre-empt these pressures; maintain harmony with local communities, and effectively manage operational uncertainties within complex environmental settings like the Nigerian Niger Delta area. A proactive environmental management style based on continuous consultation, goal-oriented monitoring, as well as a continuous improvement attitude (CIA) are some of the various solutions proposed in this work. Finally, we are confident that this kind of environmental management system will undoubtedly enhance the economic viability, as well as the global competitiveness of our deep-water fields in offshore West Africa.

Ancient Developments in the Middle Senegal Valley and the Inland Niger Delta

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alioune Dème
Keyword(s):  
Niger Delta ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Ecological Diversity ◽  
Horizontal Differentiation ◽  
Secret Societies ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Inland Niger Delta ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Complexity Theories

The study of West Africa has contributed to the expansion of comparative arid-lands floodplain prehistory, from both the data collection (cultural and historical) and the theoretical aspects. The neoevolutionary approach that often pictures Africa as a backward continent has been successfully challenged. In the Middle Senegal Valley and in the Inland Niger Delta, research on their societies’ complexity done along these two subcontinent’s floodplains has described new processes (including urbanization) that were not previously featured in the archaeological literature. The two floodplains, because of their ecological diversity, with the richness of their ecological diversity, attracted Saharan populations affected by drought at the end of the second millennium and the first millennium BC. However, after their initiation occupation the two areas took different trajectories in complexity and settlement organization. Large complex settlements have been found at Jenne-jeno and in the Ile a Morphil that illustrate whole new trajectories of civilization. These forms of complexity, found in areas with historically known polities, were not included in the range of possibilities predicted by standard complexity theories regarding civilizational development. Ethnographic and historical data, reveal the existence of societies with a central authority embedded within and balanced by a diffuse, segmented and heterarchical power structure; often as a strategy to resist the individual consolidation of power. These societies exhibit evidence of horizontal differentiation and consensus-based decision making. All these types of organization are characterized by the presence of several sources of power vested in corporate entities, such as lineages, age groups, cults and secret societies.

scholarly journals Improving the Accuracy of Hydrodynamic Simulations in Data Scarce Environments Using Bayesian Model Averaging: A Case Study of the Inner Niger Delta, Mali, West Africa

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Mominul Haque ◽  
Ousmane Seidou ◽  
Abdolmajid Mohammadian ◽  
Abdouramane Gado Djibo ◽  
Stefan Liersch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Bayesian Model ◽  
Bayesian Model Averaging ◽  
Model Averaging ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Performance Criteria ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Elevation Data ◽  
Inundation Extent

In this paper, the study area was the Inner Niger Delta (IND) in Mali, West Africa. The IND is threatened by climate change, increasing irrigation, and dam operations. 2D hydrodynamic modelling was used to simulate water levels, discharge, and inundation extent in the IND. Three different digital elevation models (DEM) (SRTM, MERIT, and a DEM derived from satellite images were used as a source of elevation data. Six different models were created, with different sources of elevation data and different downstream boundary conditions. Given that the performance of the models varies according to the location in the IND, the variable under consideration and the performance criteria, Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) was used to assess the relative performance of each of the six models. The BMA weights, along with deterministic performance measures, such as the Nash Sutcliffe coefficient (NS) and the Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r), provide quantitative evidence as to which model is the best when simulating a particular hydraulic variable at a particular location. After the models were combined with BMA, both discharge and water levels could be simulated with reasonable precision (NS > 0.8). The results of this work can contribute to the more efficient management of water resources in the IND.

Upscaling Action Research and implications for community organizing practice

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa A Currie ◽  
Janni Sorensen
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Neighborhood Change ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Built Form ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Research Findings

Case studies are an effective vehicle for telling important stories that may have broader implications, but how is the research study made relevant, or generalizable, to other places or events? This paper discusses the upscaling of Action Research where Action Research was the starting point at the local level that led to additional layers with larger, regional scale implications. The story behind the development process and resulting built form of Windy Ridge, a relatively new subdivision in Charlotte, North Carolina dubbed a “Neighborhood Built to Fail,” presents a compelling story. We trace the development of knowledge around three topics originating in Action Research and how we scaled those topics up to have policy implications: (1) owner occupancy and absentee landlords; (2) stability, instability, and neighborhood resiliency; and (3) zoning changes and environmental justice issues. We reflect on implications for practitioners and academics based on several years of neighborhood partnership and how Action Research can reveal structural issues at work within communities. Action Research findings provided a research- and evidence-based platform from which to advocate for neighborhood change and the motivation for the extended research. This approach produced an expanding research model emanating from Action Research data and questions originating with residents.

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