scholarly journals Ethnic heterogeneity of knowledge on termites and human consumption in southern Cameroon

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sevilor KEKEUNOU ◽  
Koche MOUSTAPHA ◽  
Christian Landry DJUIDEU TCHOUAMOU ◽  
Mercy Bih LOH ACHU ◽  
Barthelemy NGAMENI ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Food Resources ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Ethnic Heterogeneity ◽  
Vernacular Names ◽  
Southern Cameroon ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Knowledge And Acceptance

Termites are both pests and non-conventional food resources in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many are reluctant to eat them, and the reasons for this rejection are poorly known. This study examined level of knowledge, and acceptance by members of the 10 main ethnic groups of southern Cameroon. Most respondents (86 percent) were aware of termites as food with sixteen vernacular names in the study areas. Acceptance among ethnic groups for consumption varied between 96 percent and 8 percent of people in a group. Barriers included being raised to not eat termites, not having many opportunities to eat termites, and dislike of the taste.

scholarly journals Fine scale human genetic structure in three regions of Cameroon reveals episodic diversifying selection

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin K. Esoh ◽  
Tobias O. Apinjoh ◽  
Steven G. Nyanjom ◽  
Ambroise Wonkam ◽  
Emile R. Chimusa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Structure ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Genetic Association ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Genetic Association Studies ◽  
Genomic Region ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Sub Saharan

AbstractInferences from genetic association studies rely largely on the definition and description of the underlying populations that highlight their genetic similarities and differences. The clustering of human populations into subgroups (population structure) can significantly confound disease associations. This study investigated the fine-scale genetic structure within Cameroon that may underlie disparities observed with Cameroonian ethnicities in malaria genome-wide association studies in sub-Saharan Africa. Genotype data of 1073 individuals from three regions and three ethnic groups in Cameroon were analyzed using measures of genetic proximity to ascertain fine-scale genetic structure. Model-based clustering revealed distinct ancestral proportions among the Bantu, Semi-Bantu and Foulbe ethnic groups, while haplotype-based coancestry estimation revealed possible longstanding and ongoing sympatric differentiation among individuals of the Foulbe ethnic group, and their Bantu and Semi-Bantu counterparts. A genome scan found strong selection signatures in the HLA gene region, confirming longstanding knowledge of natural selection on this genomic region in African populations following immense disease pressure. Signatures of selection were also observed in the HBB gene cluster, a genomic region known to be under strong balancing selection in sub-Saharan Africa due to its co-evolution with malaria. This study further supports the role of evolution in shaping genomes of Cameroonian populations and reveals fine-scale hierarchical structure among and within Cameroonian ethnicities that may impact genetic association studies in the country.

scholarly journals Keeping It in the Family: Lineage Organization and the Scope of Trust in Sub-Saharan Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (5) ◽  
pp. 565-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Moscona ◽  
Nathan Nunn ◽  
James A. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Important Determinant ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Causal Interpretation ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Traditional Structure ◽  
The Family ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Limited Scope

We present evidence that the traditional structure of society is an important determinant of the scope of trust today. Within Africa, individuals belonging to ethnic groups that organized society using segmentary lineages exhibit a more limited scope of trust, measured by the gap between trust in relatives and trust in non-relatives. This trust gap arises because of lower levels of trust in non-relatives and not higher levels of trust in relatives. A causal interpretation of these correlations is supported by the fact that the effects are primarily found in rural areas where these forms of organization are still prevalent.

Ethnicity and Power in Sub-Saharan Africa: Do Colonial Institutions Still Matter?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Rabinowitz
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Colonial Legacies ◽  
Colonial Histories ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Institutional Legacies

It has been sixty years since the first sub-Saharan nation declared independence. Over the past three decades, the region has undergone significant changes. Though few, if any, would question that colonial histories shaped African societies, it is unclear to what extent these legacies continue to be relevant to contemporary inter-group relations. Does it still make sense to speak about colonial legacies? And if so, which ones? This article explores these questions by examining whether ethnic groups who were privileged during the colonial period are more likely to hold political power decades later. To do so, I conduct a multiple case study analysis of twenty-five sub-Saharan countries from which I create an original dataset of how ethnic groups were positioned during the latter stages of colonialism. With these data, I run auto-regressive logistical models correlating former colonial position to executive power since independence. I find that many of the assumptions made in the scholarship about the importance of colonial privilege are not supported by these models. However, colonial institutional legacies may still help us understand inter-group dynamics and be the source of contemporary political grievances.

Ethnic inequality and coups in sub-Saharan Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Houle ◽  
Cristina Bodea
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Demographic And Health Surveys ◽  
Ethnic Inequality ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Coups D'etat ◽  
Group Inequality

Does ethnic inequality breed coups? The recent literature on civil war shows both that inequality between ethnic groups induces war and, importantly, that civil wars and coups, although fundamentally different, are related. The literature on coups d’état, however, has yet to theorize and test the effect of ethnic inequality on coups. The link is plausible because many coups are ‘ethnic coups’, which depend on the capacity of plotters to mobilize their co-ethnics. We argue that large income and wealth disparities between ethnic groups accompanied by within-group homogeneity increase the salience of ethnicity and solidify within-group preferences vis-à-vis the preferences of other ethnic groups, increasing the appeal and feasibility of a coup. We use group-level data for 32 sub-Saharan African countries and 141 ethnic groups between 1960 and 2005 and provide the first large-N test to date of the effect of ethnic inequality on coups. Between- and within-group inequality measures are constructed based on survey data from the Afrobarometer and the Demographic and Health Surveys. We find strong support for our hypothesis: between-ethnic-group inequality (BGI) increases the likelihood that an ethnic group stages a coup only when within-ethnic-group inequality (WGI) is low. Coups remain frequent in sub-Saharan Africa and coups are the main threat to democracy in the region, by harming democratic consolidation and economic development, and by provoking further political instability. Our work provides a novel rationale to be concerned about ethnic inequality, showing that when ethnic and income cleavages overlap, destabilizing coups d’état are more likely.

scholarly journals Segmentary Lineage Organization and Conflict in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Econometrica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 1999-2036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Moscona ◽  
Nathan Nunn ◽  
James A. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Regression Discontinuity Design ◽  
Ethnic Boundaries ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
To Come

We test the longstanding hypothesis that ethnic groups organized around “segmentary lineages” are more prone to conflict. Ethnographic accounts suggest that in such societies, which are characterized by strong allegiances to distant relatives, individuals are obligated to come to the aid of fellow lineage members when they become involved in conflicts. As a consequence, small disagreements often escalate into larger‐scale conflicts involving many individuals. We test for a link between segmentary lineage organization and conflict across ethnic groups in sub‐Saharan Africa. Using a number of estimation strategies, including a regression discontinuity design at ethnic boundaries, we find that segmentary lineage societies experience more conflicts, and particularly ones that are retaliatory, long in duration, and large in scale.

Mobilization and Conflict in Multiethnic States

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Structural Explanation ◽  
Ethnic Organizations ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
European Colonialism ◽  
Ethnic Movements

Why are ethnic movements more likely to turn violent in some multiethnic countries than in others? Focusing on the long-term legacies of European colonialism, this book presents two ideal-typical logics of ethnic group mobilization—one of violent competition and another of nonviolent emancipatory opposition. The book’s theory first explains why ethnic grievances are translated into either violent or nonviolent forms of conflict as a function of distinct ethnic cleavage types, resulting from different colonial experiences. Violent intergroup conflict is least likely where settler colonialism resulted in persistent stratification, with ethnic groups organized as ethnoclasses. Such stratified societies are characterized by an equilibrium of inequality, in which historically marginalized groups lack both the organizational strength and the opportunities for armed rebellion. In contrast, where colonialism and decolonization divided ethnic groups into segmented, unranked subsocieties that feature distinct socioeconomic and cultural institutions, ethnic mobilization is more likely to trigger violent conflict. Second, the theory links this structural explanation to the political actors at the heart of ethnic movements—in particular, ethnic organizations. It elucidates how these organizations fuel the risk of civil conflict in segmented unranked societies, but peacefully promote the empowerment of historically marginalized groups in stratified societies. The book draws on an innovative mixed-methods design that combines large-n statistical analyses—using new data on the linguistic and religious segmentation of ethnic groups, as well as on ethnic organizations—with case studies based on original field research in four different countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

scholarly journals Phenology of Passerine bird migration in the Danube Delta, Romania

The Ring ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Droz ◽  
Sabrina Joye ◽  
Alexandre de Titta ◽  
Fabian Schneider ◽  
Sylvain Antoniazza
Keyword(s):  
Bird Migration ◽  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
First Year ◽  
Migration System ◽  
Specific Analysis ◽  
Timing Of Migration ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract The Palearctic-African bird migration system has fascinated ornithologists for decades and is one of the most well-known. However, there is strong spatial variation in the level of knowledge, and the South-Eastern European Flyway (which passes through the Balkan Peninsula) has been studied far less than the Western European Flyway (which passes through the Iberian Peninsula and Italy). In this study, we describe the phenology of 16 common woodland species, with a detailed analysis of the pre-migration period as well as an age-specific analysis of the timing of migration. As a general trend for species wintering in sub-Saharan Africa, adult birds migrated before first-year birds, in contrast with short-distance Mediterranean wintering species, in which we observed no difference. We also provide information comparing the timing of the migration of birds with characters of subspecies of Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus and Chiffchaff Phyloscopus collybita, which have not previously been reported.

Evaluation of cowpea germplasm lines for protein and mineral concentrations in grains

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ousmane Boukar ◽  
Festo Massawe ◽  
Satoru Muranaka ◽  
Jorge Franco ◽  
Bussie Maziya-Dixon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Mineral Contents ◽  
Cowpea Varieties ◽  
Mixture Of Normal Distributions ◽  
Breeding Programmes ◽  
Report Data ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Different Origins ◽  
Mineral Concentrations

Cowpea, an indigenous crop to sub-Saharan Africa, is found mainly in the dry savanna regions along with cereals such as millets and sorghum. Cowpea is grown primarily for human consumption of the grains, which are rich in protein, carbohydrates and contain some minerals. The development and deployment of cowpea varieties with higher nutritional value will be of immense benefit to consumers. As a first step in the enhancement of mineral content in cowpea grains, several germplasm lines (1541) of different origins and obtained from the genetic resources unit at IITA were sown in the experimental field in Minjibir, Kano State, Nigeria. The grains were analysed for protein and nine mineral contents. However, in this study, we shall report data on crude protein, Fe, Zn, Ca, Mg, K and P. The data generated from the chemical analysis were subjected to the ‘mixture of normal distributions’ clustering method, which distributed the cowpea lines into nine groups. Groups G7 and G9 contained 174 genotypes and these were characterized by high mineral concentrations. The mean nutritional content values for group G9 were 24.7% for protein, and 58.9, 41.5, 1107, 2132, 15,282 and 5664 mg/kg for Fe, Zn, Ca, Mg, K and P, respectively. On the other hand, the 363 lines making up groups G2, G3 and G6 showed low amounts of nutrients in their grains. Some of the lines in G7 and G9 would be good as parents to use in breeding programmes that aimed at developing nutrient-dense cowpea varieties.

Ethnic Inequality and Coups d’État

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Bodea ◽  
Christian Houle
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Ethnic Inequality ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
Group Homogeneity ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Military

A coup d’état is an all-around consequential event, and coups remain frequent in sub-Saharan Africa. Historically, ethnic inequality—the measure of income disparities at the level of ethnic groups—has been paid little attention as a potential cause of coups and other types of regime breakdown. More work exists on the relationship between ethnicity broadly construed and coup d’état, and in particular the role of unequal access to the military for different ethnic groups and the role of ethnic exclusion from political power. Our own work presents a theory that links “between” and “within” ethnic group income inequality to coup d’état initiated by ethnic groups. The argument is that high income and wealth inequality between ethnic groups, coupled with within-group homogeneity, increases the salience of ethnicity and solidifies within-group preferences vis-à-vis the preferences of other ethnic groups, increasing the appeal and feasibility of a coup. Empirical findings from sub-Saharan Africa support the main theoretical claim linking ethnic inequality to coup d’état. Additional evidence from sub-Saharan Africa and a larger global sample are consistent with the causal mechanisms. More remains to be researched in this area, however. Directions for future research include looking at the access of ethnic groups to the military, the intervening role of natural resources in the calculus of ethnic groups, and the role of ethnic inequality in incumbent takeovers.

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