Unemployment and Youth Restiveness in Africa: Implications for Counselling

Restiveness among youths has become one of the nagging global challenges. Consequently, its prevalence in Africa has become more worrisome now than ever before. This paper therefore examined unemployment and the incidences of youth restiveness in Africa: Implication for counseling. The paper adopted a qualitative approach relying mainly on secondary materials from documented evidences. Available data indicates persistent rise in the level of unemployment across different African countries. By the same token there have also been high incidences of restiveness among the youths in Africa within the same period. However, the paper brought to the fore specific instances of restiveness in select African countries namely; militancy and insurgency in Nigeria Niger Delta, xenophobic attacks in South Africa, socio-political crises in southern Cameroun, ethnic and religiously motivated restiveness in Mali and rising piracy and terrorism in Somalia as case studies. The paper identified poverty, unemployment, socio-economic and political inequality and marginalization as factors of youth restiveness. These factors no doubt are in high prevalence in Africa. Given the scenario, the implication for counseling is of great consequence as the concern revolves around how counselling services can be leveraged in the context so that the youths can be properly engaged to embrace genuine efforts towards self-development, skills acquisition, self-reliance and nation building. It is argued that the solution to unemployment and youth restiveness problems lie in part on counsellors constructive engagement with youths, on awareness creation through the media, education of the youth towards self-realization and on their pivotal roles in nation building.

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High prevalence of non-dipping patterns among Black Africans with uncontrolled hypertension: a secondary analysis of the CREOLE trial

BMC Cardiovascular Disorders ◽

10.1186/s12872-021-02074-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Prossie Merab Ingabire ◽

◽

Dike B. Ojji ◽

Brian Rayner ◽

Elijah Ogola ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Blood Pressure ◽

Blood Pressure Monitoring ◽

Secondary Analysis ◽

Uncontrolled Hypertension ◽

African Countries ◽

Night Time ◽

Black Africans ◽

Long Term Outcome ◽

Black African ◽

High Prevalence

Abstract Background Dipping of blood pressure (BP) at night is a normal physiological phenomenon. However, a non-dipping pattern is associated with hypertension mediated organ damage, secondary forms of hypertension and poorer long-term outcome. Identifying a non-dipping pattern may be useful in assessing risk, aiding the decision to investigate for secondary causes, initiating treatment, assisting decisions on choice and timing of antihypertensive therapy, and intensifying salt restriction. Objectives To estimate the prevalence and factors associated with non-dipping pattern and determine the effect of 6 months of three antihypertensive regimens on the dipping pattern among Black African hypertensive patients. Methods This was a secondary analysis of the CREOLE Study which was a randomized, single blind, three-group trial conducted in 10 sites in 6 Sub-Saharan African countries. The participants were 721 Black African patients, aged between 30 and 79 years, with uncontrolled hypertension and a baseline 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). Dipping was calculated from the average day and average night systolic blood pressure measures. Results The prevalence of non-dipping pattern was 78% (564 of 721). Factors that were independently associated with non-dipping were: serum sodium > 140 mmol/l (OR = 1.72, 95% CI 1.17–2.51, p-value 0.005), a higher office systolic BP (OR = 1.03, 95% CI 1.01–1.05, p-value 0.003) and a lower office diastolic BP (OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.95–0.99, p-value 0.03). Treatment allocation did not change dipping status at 6 months (McNemar’s Chi2 0.71, p-value 0.40). Conclusion There was a high prevalence of non-dipping among Black Africans with uncontrolled hypertension. ABPM should be considered more routinely in Black Africans with uncontrolled hypertension, if resources permit, to help personalise therapy. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms and causes of non-dipping pattern and if targeting night-time BP improves clinical outcomes. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02742467).

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Studying National Commemoration and Political Celebrations in Africa: The Online Archive African Independence Days

Africa Bibliography ◽

10.1017/s026667312000001x ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. vii-xxviii

Author(s):

Marie-Christin Gabriel ◽

Carola Lentz

Keyword(s):

Burkina Faso ◽

Comparative Research ◽

Democratic Republic ◽

Nation Building ◽

African Countries ◽

Research Project ◽

Online Archive ◽

Republic Of The Congo ◽

History Of ◽

The Many

AbstractThe Department of Anthropology and African Studies (ifeas) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz hosts a comprehensive archive on African Independence Day celebrations. Created in 2010, the archive is one of the outcomes of a large comparative research project on African national days directed by Carola Lentz. It offers unique insights into practices of as well as debates on national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa. The archive holds more than 28,000 images, including photographs, newspaper articles, documents, and objects from twelve African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. It primarily consists of an online photo and newspaper archive (https://bildarchiv.uni-mainz.de/AUJ/; https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb07-ifeas-eng/departmental-archives/online-archive-african-independence-days/); some of the material is also stored in the physical archive on African Independence Days at ifeas as well as in the department's ethnographic collection (https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb07-ifeas-eng/ethnographic-collection/). Most of the material concerns recent celebrations, but the collection has been complemented by some documentation of earlier festivities. Archives hold many stories while they also have a story to tell in their own right. This article discusses both aspects. It first traces the history of the Online Archive African Independence Days at ifeas. It then provides an overview of the different categories of material stored in the archive and tells a few of the many stories that the photos, texts and objects contain. We hope to demonstrate that the archive holds a wealth of sources that can be mined for studies on national commemoration and political celebrations in Africa, and, more generally, on practices and processes of nation-building and state-making.

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Adapting to context: Creative strategies of video streaming services in Nigeria

Convergence The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies ◽

10.1177/13548565211017389 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 135485652110173

Author(s):

Godwin Iretomiwa Simon

Keyword(s):

Video On Demand ◽

Business Environment ◽

Media Industry ◽

Operational Environment ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

African Countries ◽

Innovative Strategies ◽

African Context ◽

The Media ◽

Streaming Services

This article examines the contextual challenges that characterize the video on demand (VOD) market in Africa. It provides critical analysis of the creative strategies employed by Nigeria-based streaming services to navigate the peculiar business environment on the continent. This research is on the background of the poor Internet infrastructure and economic divides in many African countries including Nigeria. Streaming services operating in these markets must understand a context where Internet access is complicated on the levels of availability and/or affordability, including significant lack of confidence in e-payment facilities. All these, together with epileptic power supply and poor standard of living, indicate that streaming services must innovate to capture subscribers within the continent. Despite the harsh operational environment, streaming services in Nigeria have continued to increase in number within the past 5 years. This is attributed to the transnational reach of the streaming services as they are patronized by Africans in diaspora across the globe, while they also enjoy popularity within African countries. This article specifically focuses on the innovative strategies employed by Nigerian streaming services to operate within their African markets in the context of their peculiar challenges. In so doing, it extends extant scholarship about Internet-distributed video using the African context. This article is situated within the Media Industry Studies framework and draws from semi-structured interviews with 7 streaming executives in Nigeria and 10 creative professionals in the Nigerian Video Film Industry (Nollywood). It also relies on desk research of press reports, industry publications, as well as the interfaces of streaming portals. This article underscores the necessity of contextualized research with the digital turn in video distribution. Through contextualized analysis of VOD market realities in a less studied terrain like Africa, it aligns with scholarly call to expand theories of Internet-distributed video to marginal contexts.

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Medier og selvstændighed i Grønland

Politik ◽

10.7146/politik.v22i1.114841 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Signe Ravn-Højgaard

Keyword(s):

Nation Building ◽

Digital Platforms ◽

The Public ◽

Media Regulation ◽

Media System ◽

The Media ◽

Streaming Services ◽

Potential Impact ◽

Media Systems ◽

Public Economy

This article discusses the potential impact of Greenlandic independence on Greenland’s media system and suggests initiatives necessary for maintaining strong Greenlandic media in the future. Using Manuel Puppis' (2009) theory of the characteristics of small media systems, the Greenlandic media system is described. It is shown that it is built with the following aim in mind: the media should support the Greenlandic society by being independent and diverse, strengthening the Greenlandic language, and providing quality journalism that can heighten the public debate. However, as a small media system it is vulnerable to global tendencies where legacy media lose users and advertisers to digital platforms like Facebook and streaming services. The article argues that the vulnerability of the Greenlandic media system could increase if independence leads to a tighter public economy, impeding the media's ability to support Greenlandic society and culture. An interventionist media regulation could, therefore, be a prerequisite for a strong Greenlandic media system that can act as a unifying and nation-building institution.

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Excluded Generations in Non-Inclusive Nations

The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of the Middle East ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190087470.013.25 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Philippe Fargues

Keyword(s):

Arab Countries ◽

The Other ◽

The Political ◽

Individual Freedom ◽

Full Membership ◽

Freedom Of Movement ◽

Political Crises ◽

High Prevalence ◽

Family Building ◽

Arab Societies

This chapter offers an interpretation of the political link in Arab societies through the lens of demography. The first section shows how young generations today do not resemble those of earlier times. Rising education has raised expectations, and the reduction of fertility and postponement of family building have provided young adults with unprecedented individual freedom of movement. If expectations are not met by opportunities and young people have a feeling of exclusion, freedom of movement becomes a driver of emigration and rebellion. The second part focuses on specific patterns of reproduction among Arab populations and the obstacles they put to building inclusive nations. On one side, the uniquely high prevalence of kinship endogamy means that marriage does not help unrelated population groups to integrate so that blood bonds remain stronger than national bonds. On the other side, while the circulation of people is the most significant form of exchange between Arab countries, nationality laws based on exclusive jus sanguinis do not provide newcomers with pathways to full membership; and therefore, non-citizens have emerged as a category in Arab countries. Excluded generations in non-inclusive nations set the stage for prolonged political crises.

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Women Entrepreneurs in Nigeria

Gender Economics ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7510-8.ch003 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 56-73

Author(s):

Tolulope Kayode-Adedeji ◽

Oyinkansola Ige ◽

Thelma Ekanem

Keyword(s):

Mass Media ◽

Gender Discrimination ◽

Equal Opportunity ◽

Data Gathering ◽

African Culture ◽

African Countries ◽

Younger Women ◽

The Media ◽

The Mass Media

For ages, the African culture has limited the activities of women and conditioned, to a large extent, the mentality of most African countries about the place and positioning of women in the society. The mass media have been used as a tool in this. Promoting the abilities and achievements of women in the society is one of the important roles of the media in reducing the rate of gender discrimination. These achievements are becoming noticeable in politics and entrepreneurship; thus, setting a standard for other women in the society to build on. This chapter will explore the role of the media in promoting the woman entrepreneur in Nigeria. The study employed the survey research method for data gathering. Findings showed that women have equal opportunity to grow their businesses. Data shows that this growth is slow as there are no significant differences between respondents who agree or disagree with the availability of enabling environment for women to grow their business as compared to their male counterpart. The study recommends that the mass media need to give more voice to their businesses and activities to pave way and encourage the younger women in the society.

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Differentiated Animated Social Stories to Enhance Social Skills Acquisition of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Handbook of Research on Human Development in the Digital Age - Advances in Human and Social Aspects of Technology ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-2838-8.ch014 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 300-329

Author(s):

Bee Theng Lau ◽

Ko Min Win

Keyword(s):

Social Skills ◽

Social Stories ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Skills Acquisition ◽

Interactive Learning Environment ◽

Web Based ◽

Children's Social Skills ◽

The Media ◽

Special Education School ◽

Prototype Evaluation

This study developed a web-based social skills intervention system accessible via a tablet/laptop computer which combines differentiated instructions, social stories, multimedia, and animations. This creates an interactive learning environment which (1) allows children to learn social skills repeatedly and pervasively; and (2) promotes teacher/caretaker-parent collaborations to boost the ASD children's social skills acquisition as, a simple logon to the portal enables parents/ caretakers and teachers to view the media prepared by others; track and reinforce the skills a child has learnt at home/ in school, and add his/her social stories which others can view. The prototype evaluation and observation of voluntary participants from the special education school who were treated with differentiated animated social stories demonstrates that digital-based differentiated social story interventions have made the learning of social skills more interactive, appealing and effective compared to the traditional social skill tools.

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Cologne and the (un)making of transnational approaches to sexual violence

European Journal of Women s Studies ◽

10.1177/1350506820938094 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 135050682093809

Author(s):

Júlia Garraio

Keyword(s):

Sexual Violence ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Sexual Assaults ◽

Political Debate ◽

African Countries ◽

Immigration Laws ◽

State Surveillance ◽

The Media ◽

Muslim Immigration ◽

Internal Pressures

The sexual assaults reported on New Year’s Eve 2015 in Cologne posed major challenges to feminists struggling with the tensions and entanglements of feminism, imperialism, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, sexism and nationalism. The aim of the present article is to examine these tensions through an analysis of the pressures framing the positionality of discourses. It examines how feminists, framed by the larger Western debates about the ‘failure of multiculturalism’ and the global Islamophobia underpinning the ‘war on terror’ era, engaged with the moral panic which pervaded the mediatization of the assaults. It argues that feminist initiatives like #ausnahmslos’, which situated anti-racism at the core of any engagement for gender equality, were a reaction to the femonationalist approach to the events pervading the media and the political debate, and attempts to counter arguments which associated the sexual assaults with cultural practices imported through (Muslim) immigration and which demanded (or condoned) stricter immigration laws and state surveillance of Muslims. Then, this article addresses the challenges posed by some feminists from Germany and from North African countries and/or with a Muslim background, who argued that the analysis of Cologne should address the religious-cultural background of the suspects. The article argues that the difficulty in engaging with their contributions in Germany derives from internal pressures, namely the risk of having their arguments co-opted by Islamophobic and anti-immigration agendas. By pointing at the role of positionality in defining priorities in a globalized world, this article addresses the constraints and potentials in developing transnational approaches to sexual violence.

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