Towards a Better Understanding of Sub-Saharan Settlement Mounds before AD 1400: The Tells of Sadia on the Seno Plain (Dogon Country, Mali)

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Huysecom ◽  
Sylvain Ozainne ◽  
Chrystel Jeanbourquin ◽  
Anne Mayor ◽  
Marie Canetti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Area ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Relative Lack ◽  
Environmental Sequence ◽  
Early State ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Insight Into

In the Niger Bend, many studies have shown the existence of settlement mounds which mainly developed between the 1st millennium BC and the 15th century AD. While knowledge about tell-type sites in sub-Saharan Africa has advanced in recent years, many aspects of this topic remain poorly understood. Considering the vast geographic area and time span, there is very little accurate chronostratigraphic information available. This relative lack of long sequences strongly limits the diachronic integration of cultural, economic and environmental data, necessary to unravel the socio-economic mechanisms underlying the emergence and development of this type of site. In this paper, we present the results of the excavations we recently conducted on a group of settlement mounds at Sadia, on the Seno Plain (Dogon Country, Mali), which allow a precise chronological, cultural and environmental sequence to be defined. By combining this work and the results from an extensive approach applied throughout the Dogon Country for more than fifteen years, we provide a scenario for the Seno tells and an insight into the development of Sahelian rural societies, including considerations on their interactions with the early State polities of the Niger Bend, prior to AD 1400.

Professors without Borders: The Benefits of a Scholastic Mentoring Program

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Maul
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Mentoring Program ◽  
Mentorship Program ◽  
Postgraduate Study ◽  
Industrialized Nations ◽  
Similar Program ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Insight Into

Universities in sub-Saharan Africa currently struggle to maintain adequate faculty and resources to take on Ph.D. candidates. Expanding enrolment in recent decades has not been met with improvements in university facilities, and neglect from development agencies has made it difficult for the higher education sector to meet the demands of the knowledge economy. As a result African graduate students have few opportunities to pursue postgraduate study in the region and sub-Saharan Africa’s brain drain persists. In order to address the lack of opportunity for graduate study, the Professors without Borders program has been developed. Professors without Borders is a mentorship program, whereby graduate students in sub-Saharan Africa are partnered with professors and academics at universities in industrialized nations and the students are mentored during the course of their degree. The program aims to promote internationalization among universities as well as facilitate development. This report examines the motivation behind the program and its potential for success. The literature review on higher education in sub-Saharan African summarizes the problems facing the sector but indicates the potential for higher education to contribute to economic growth. In addition, the reception of the Professors without Borders idea among African universities indicates unanimously that such a mentorship program would be very much welcomed and beneficial to African Ph.D. students. The experience of a similar program known as BrainRetain by the Irish-Africa Partnership provides insight into the challenges and logistics of making such a mentorship program successful and sustainable.

Selecting indicators of drought impacts: the importance of context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarra Kchouk ◽  
Pieter van Oel ◽  
Lieke Melsen
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Drought Impacts ◽  
Direct Linkage ◽  
Drought Indicators ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Drought Early Warning

<p>Drought Early Warning Systems (DEWS) and Drought Monitoring Systems (DMS) are the principal tools used to tackle drought at an early stage and reduce the possibility of harm or loss. They are based on the use of drought indicators attributed to either : meteorological, agricultural and hydrological drought. This means that it is mostly hydro-climatic variables that are used to determine the onset, end and severity of a drought.  Drought impacts are rarely continuously monitored or even not included in DEWS and DMS. In this configuration, the likelihood of experiencing impacts is linearly linked to the severity of climatic features only. The aim of our study is to question the direct linkage between the delivery of hydro-climatic information and the detection of drought impacts and their severity. We reviewed scientific literature on drought drivers and impacts and analyzed how these two compare. We conducted a bibliometric analysis based on 4000+ scientific studies sorted by geographic area in which selected (i) drought indicators and (ii) impacts of drought were mentioned. Our review points toward an attachment to a conceptual view of drought by the main and broader use of meteorological (computed and remotely sensed) drought indicators. Studies reporting impacts related to food and water securities are more localized, respectively in Sub-Saharan Africa and Australasia. This mismatch suggests a tendency to translate hydroclimatic indicators of drought directly into impacts while neglecting relevant local contextual information. With the aim of sharpening the information provided by DEWS and DMS, we argue in favor of an additional consideration of drought indicators oriented towards the SDGs.</p>

scholarly journals The gut microbiome in konzo

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew S. Bramble ◽  
Neerja Vashist ◽  
Arthur Ko ◽  
Sambhawa Priya ◽  
Céleste Musasa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiome ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Metagenomic Sequencing ◽  
Childbearing Age ◽  
Shotgun Metagenomic Sequencing ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Study Population ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractKonzo, a distinct upper motor neuron disease associated with a cyanogenic diet and chronic malnutrition, predominately affects children and women of childbearing age in sub-Saharan Africa. While the exact biological mechanisms that cause this disease have largely remained elusive, host-genetics and environmental components such as the gut microbiome have been implicated. Using a large study population of 180 individuals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where konzo is most frequent, we investigate how the structure of the gut microbiome varied across geographical contexts, as well as provide the first insight into the gut flora of children affected with this debilitating disease using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. Our findings indicate that the gut microbiome structure is highly variable depending on region of sampling, but most interestingly, we identify unique enrichments of bacterial species and functional pathways that potentially modulate the susceptibility of konzo in prone regions of the Congo.

scholarly journals Admixture into and within sub-Saharan Africa

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
George BJ Busby ◽  
Gavin Band ◽  
Quang Si Le ◽  
Muminatou Jallow ◽  
Edith Bougama ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Shared Ancestry ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Linguistic Groups ◽  
Insight Into

Similarity between two individuals in the combination of genetic markers along their chromosomes indicates shared ancestry and can be used to identify historical connections between different population groups due to admixture. We use a genome-wide, haplotype-based, analysis to characterise the structure of genetic diversity and gene-flow in a collection of 48 sub-Saharan African groups. We show that coastal populations experienced an influx of Eurasian haplotypes over the last 7000 years, and that Eastern and Southern Niger-Congo speaking groups share ancestry with Central West Africans as a result of recent population expansions. In fact, most sub-Saharan populations share ancestry with groups from outside of their current geographic region as a result of gene-flow within the last 4000 years. Our in-depth analysis provides insight into haplotype sharing across different ethno-linguistic groups and the recent movement of alleles into new environments, both of which are relevant to studies of genetic epidemiology.

Regional Security Complexes and Organizations

2018 ◽  
pp. 682-696
Author(s):  
Matteo Legrenzi ◽  
Fred H. Lawson
Keyword(s):  
Civil Wars ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Security Governance ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Security Organizations ◽  
Insight Into

Regional dimensions of international security have become increasingly salient since the end of the Cold War. Some groups of states have coalesced into regional formations that resemble classic security communities. Several analytical concepts have been proposed to explain this trend, including revised theories of security community, security regimes, security complexes, and modes of security governance. Regional security complexes offer a useful framework for explicating the dynamics of interstate threats and governments’ coordinated responses to external danger. The utility of the concept can be illustrated by surveying recent scholarship on the cross-border spread of civil wars and disputes over water. Regional security complexes also provide insight into the formation and resurgence of regional security organizations, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

scholarly journals Maternal and Perinatal Mortality in the 21st Century

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-146
Author(s):  
Aris Antsaklis
Keyword(s):  
Perinatal Mortality ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Maternal Mortality Ratio ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Maternal Deaths ◽  
Neonatal Deaths ◽  
Live Births ◽  
Sub Saharan

ABSTRACT The maternal mortality ratio measures how safe it is to become pregnant and give birth in a geographic area or a population. The total number of maternal deaths observed annually fell from 526,000 in 1980 to 358,000 in 2008, a 34% decline over this period. Similarly, the global MMR declined from 422 in 1980 to 320 in 1990 and was 250 per 100,000 live births in 2008, a decline of 34% over the entire period and an average annual decline of 2.3%. More specifically, in 1990 around 58% of maternal deaths worldwide occurred in Asia and 36% in sub-Saharan Africa. In contrast, in 2008, 57% of global maternal deaths occurred in sub-Saharan Africa and 39% in Asia. In Europe, the main causes of death from any known direct obstetric complication remains bleeding (13%), thromboembolic events (10.1%), complicationassociated birth, hypertensive disease of pregnancy (9.2%), and amniotic fluid embolism (10.6%). Preterm birth is the most common cause of perinatal mortality (PNM) causing almost 30% of neonatal deaths, while birth defects cause about 21% of neonatal deaths. The PNM rate refers to the number of perinatal deaths per 1,000 total births. Perinatal mortality rate may be below 10 for certain developed countries and more than 10 times higher in developing countries. Perinatal health in Europe has improved dramatically in recent decades. In 1975, neonatal mortality ranged from 7 to 27 per 1,000 live births in the countries that now make up the EU. By 2005, it had declined to 8 per 1,000 live births. We need to bring together data from civil registration, medical birth registers, hospital discharge systems in order to have European Surveys which present exciting research possibilities. How to cite this article Antsaklis A. Maternal and Perinatal Mortality in the 21st Century. Donald School J Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2016;10(2):143-146.

scholarly journals Political Leadership After the British: A Study of Jomo Kenyatta and Julius Nyerere

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
James Baigent
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Leadership Experiences ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Theories Of Leadership ◽  
Insight Into

<p>In the post-World War Two era, political decolonisation swept across Africa. In the wake of decolonisation a wide variety of political leadership outcomes have emerged. In many national contexts indigenous political stakeholders were required to wrest political control from colonial powers. This study will compare the progress of the post-colonial political leadership experiences in Kenya and Tanzania - in order to ascertain the nature of the unique pressures and constraints placed upon first generation post-colonial political leaders. This will be framed and informed through the lens of contemporary and historical theories of leadership. Developing a greater understanding of the leadership experiences of these first-generation post decolonisation leaders will provide greater insight into the nature of post decolonisation leadership in sub-Saharan Africa.</p>

scholarly journals Evaluating Sub-Saharan Africa’s COVID-19 Research Contribution: A Preliminary bibliometric Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toluwase Asubiaro ◽  
Hafsah Shaik
Keyword(s):  
Research Collaboration ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Healthcare Needs ◽  
Pan African ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Insight Into

The response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the science community is unprecedented as indicated by the high number of research publications. Deeper insight into COVID-19 research at regional, and national levels through bibliometric research has revealed different levels of research evolution, depth, contribution, and collaboration patterns. Such reliable and evidence-based information is important for health research planning and policy making. This study aims at providing some evidence-based insight into Sub-Saharan Africa’s preliminary COVID-19 research by evaluating its research contributions, patterns of collaboration, and funding sources. COVID-19 publication data from all the 41 Sub-Saharan African countries was collected from Scopus for analysis. Results show that Sub-Saharan Africa contributed about two percent to global COVID-19 research. South Africa contributed 50.95% of all the COVID-19 publications from Sub-Saharan Africa while USA (28.48%) and the UK (24.47%), the top two external contributors, collaborated with Sub-Saharan African countries three times more than other countries. Collaborative papers between Sub-Saharan African countries - without contributions from outside the region- made up less than five percent of the sample, whereas over 50% of the papers were written in collaboration with researchers from outside the region. Organizations based in USA, UK, and EU funded more than 60% of all the COVID-19 research from Sub-Saharan Africa. More than 60% of all the funding from Sub-Saharan African countries came from South African organizations. This study provides evidence that pan-African COVID-19 research collaboration is low, perhaps due to poor funding and institutional support within Africa. There is a need to forge stronger pan-African research collaboration networks, through funding from Africa’s national and regional government organizations, with the specific objective of meeting COVID-19 healthcare needs of Africans.

scholarly journals WHICH OPTIONS FIT BEST? OPERATIONALIZING THE SOCIO-ECOLOGICAL NICHE CONCEPT

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (S1) ◽  
pp. 169-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATRIEN DESCHEEMAEKER ◽  
ESTHER RONNER ◽  
MARY OLLENBURGER ◽  
ANGELINUS C. FRANKE ◽  
CHARLOTTE J. KLAPWIJK ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Ecological Niche ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Niche Concept ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Farming Systems Analysis ◽  
On Farm

SUMMARYThe large diversity of farms and farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa calls for agricultural improvement options that are adapted to the context in which smallholder farmers operate. The socio-ecological niche concept incorporates the agro-ecological, socio-cultural, economic and institutional dimensions and the multiple levels of this context in order to identify which options fit best. In this paper, we illustrate how farming systems analysis, following the DEED cycle of Describe, Explain, Explore and Design, and embedding co-learning amongst researchers, farmers and other stakeholders, helps to operationalize the socio-ecological niche concept. Examples illustrate how farm typologies, detailed farm characterization and on-farm experimental work, in combination with modelling and participatory approaches inform the matching of options to the context at regional, village, farm and field level. Recommendation domains at these gradually finer levels form the basis for gradually more detailed baskets of options from which farmers and other stakeholders may choose, test and adjust to their specific needs. Tailored options identified through the DEED cycle proof to be more relevant, feasible and performant as compared to blanket recommendations in terms of both researcher and farmer-identified criteria. As part of DEED, on-farm experiments are particularly useful in revealing constraints and risks faced by farmers. We show that targeting options to the niches in which they perform best, helps to reduce this risk. Whereas the conclusions of our work about the potential for improving smallholders’ livelihoods are often sobering, farming systems analysis allows substantiating the limitations of technological options, thus highlighting the need for enabling policies and institutions that may improve the larger-scale context and increase the uptake potential of options.

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