Using Social Media to Advocate LGBT Rights in Black Africa

The prevalence of draconian homophobic laws in Cameroon and Nigeria has systematically stultified sympathy for the LGBT communities and made pro-gay street activism a risky venture in these two countries. In view of this, a good number of gay rights activists have resorted to the social media as a suitable platform for a less risky advocacy. Using the social media has afforded them the opportunity to explore interactive, post-modern, and personified approaches to sensitizing and mobilizing their readership in favour of gay proselytism in Cameroon, Nigeria, and some other parts of Africa. Based on a content analysis of 200 blog posts and web/facebook pages generated by Cameroonian and Nigerian gay activists, this chapter measures the extent to which gay activists adopt a national/local perspective versus the level to which they adopt an international perspective in their online advocacy. The chapter equally examines the degree to which these citizen journalist/activists construct their advocacy discourse from the prism of a cultural war between the West and Africa.

SCIENTIFIC LINGUISTICS, A NEVER-ENDING HISTORY

1866 was a turning point in scientific linguistics when the Linguistic Society of Paris banned all papers and presentations on the origin of language. De Saussure locked up the debate with two concepts, diachrony and synchrony. I intend to examine the emergence of the hypothesis of a single origin of human articulated languages, in Africa first, and then Black Africa. The phylogenic approach of biological studies has today spread to linguistics. Sally McBrearty rejected the idea of a Neolithic revolution. Consequently, Black Africa became a major field of archaeological research. Yuval Noah Harari stating the existence of a symbolic revolution around 70,000 years ago, rejected Black Africa along with the Americas, and the Denisovans. Asia has become a major archaeological field. Julien d’Huy implements phylogenetic arborescent technique to the study of myths. The oldest form of a myth is not the origin of it. In oral civlizations some literate individual had to tell the story behind representations for the people to understand, appreciate, and remember them. I will then consider structural linguistics (Noam Chomsky & Universal Grammar). UG has never been able to develop semantics within its own system (Generative Semantics & George Lakoff). Science is always a temporarily approximate vision of what it considers. First, what any science explores is constantly evolving following phylogenic dynamics that are contained in the very objects of such scientific studies. Second, any new knowledge appearing in the field concerned causes a complete restructuration of what we knew before.

Effect of Azadirachta indica and Senna siamea Decoction on CD4+ and CD8+ Level, Toxicological, and Antioxidant Profile in HIV/AIDS Positive Persons

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a major public health problem affecting several countries with predominance in black Africa. Faced with therapeutic failure caused by resistance and supply disruptions, searching for other antiretroviral agents, in particular from natural sources, becomes necessary. Given popular consumption of Azadirachta indica and Senna siamea decoction in the Northern Cameroon region and the traditionally attributed antiretroviral value, information on its efficacy and safety consumption is relevant to confirm its use. A total of 297 participants aged 18–52 and HIV-positive were recruited and divided into 3 groups: one taking only the decoction (group 1), another taking only antiretroviral therapy (ARTs) (group 2), and finally, one taking the decoction and antiretroviral (group 3). During 6 months, all the participants of the concerned groups consumed daily (morning and evening) 250 mL of Azadirachta indica and Senna siamea decoction. CD4+ and CD8+ levels were measured by flow cytometry. Hepatic and renal toxicity and oxidative stress were evaluated spectrophotometrically by measuring ALT, AST, ALP, BUN, CREAT, SOD, CAT, and GSH parameters. We note an increase in the CD4+ level of the three groups with values much more pronounced in the group treated by ARTs + decoction, from 328 ± 106 to 752 ± 140. Group 2 presented not only biological signs of hepatic and renal toxicity but also significant oxidative stress. No signs of toxicity were detected in the other groups. The study concludes that a decoction of Azadirachta indica and Senna siamea stimulates the production of CD4+ and is not toxic. On the contrary, it would reduce the toxicity caused by ARTs intake.

Sjögren's Syndrome in Children: About 15 Cases in Guinea Conakry

Objectives- Sjögren's syndrome is difficult to diagnose in the African context. It is rarely reported in children in Black Africa. We report a series of 15 cases of Sjögren’s syndrome in order to clarify the particularities of this condition in children.Methods- This 2-year retrospective study focused on children under 16 years of age with a male predominance who were followed for AS in the rheumatology and pediatrics departments. Patient data were collected and analyzed using STATA/SE version 11.2 software. Anonymity and respect for ethical rules were the norm. There was no link between patients and researchers.Results- The average age of the patients was 11 years with extremes of 5 to 15 years. An anamnesis revealing dry mouth was found in more than half of the cases, i.e. in 10 (66.7%) patients. The clinical examination found oral ulceration and periodontitis in equal proportions, i.e. 6 (40%). The immunological assessment and the biopsy of the accessory salivary glands were used as diagnostic evidence in the 15 patients according to the American-European criteria of 2002.Conclusion- Sjögren's syndrome is a rare entity in pediatrics. It is difficult to diagnose in pediatrics and its severity is linked to the occurrence of visceral and lymphomatous late dry syndrome. Rapid diagnosis and the use of a synthetic antimalarial drug (Hydroxychloroquine) increases the hope of a cure.

Power Lies in the Barrel of a Gun: Diplomacy Without Strategic Military Capability Is Futile

The United States of America invests heavily on their military capability and it is estimated that it spends, alone, approximately 40 per cent of what the whole world spends on military. Four of the other super powers that make up the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UN-SC) also spend a significant percentage of their national budgets on military. Chinweizu has for a long time argued that Africa needs a well-resourced African Standby Force (or the Black Africa League) that will protect the interests of the continent so as to prevent the history of Africans enslavement and colonialism repeating itself. This article seeks to analyse Africa’s investment on its military defense capability vis-à-vis the five permanent members of the UN-SC and North Korea, by critiquing two case studies of two of the continent’s economic giants – South Africa and Egypt. Realist and Sankofa perspectives are used as the prisms through which the article was researched. In line with Chinweizu’s observation, the article argues that without serious political will and dedication to building Africa’s nuclear weapons capability and ensuring that Africa is economically self-reliant, diplomatic engagements with the rest of the world as (un)equal partners will remain a pipe dream and the looting of Africa’s mineral wealth will continue unabated. It is clear that given the reality of the African Holocust if African countries fail to collectively defend themselves, Africa will continue to be a political football for the rest of the world.

Power-with and Power-to and Building Asian Studies in Africa: Insights from the Field

Taking seriously Chinweizu’s (2004) call for Asian Studies in Africa this article examines the ways in which African Asianist scholars with their partners elsewhere decided to take counterhegemonic action, and how their approach differs from the status quo as a prefigurative politics of power-with society they seek. This work explores the establishment of Centres for Asian Studies in Africa as institutional actors in the counter-hegemonic project of decolonization. The processes that led to the setting up of the Centre for Asian Studies (the first in Black Africa excepting South Africa) at the University of Ghana serve as a case study. The article utilizes information gathered through the authors’ ongoing participation over the last eight years in the ideational, organizational, logistical, financial and institution building moves that are aiding the establishment of an ultimately emancipatory Asian Studies in Africa research framework. To establish the contextual challenge, the article engages discursively with how hegemony (power-over) functions within Global North/Western/modern research agendas, funding, and institutions; and explains how and why its colonial project is most evident in Area Studies in particular. The work concludes with pointers on how these moves for building Centres for Asian studies in Africa may be useful for other institutional intellectual decolonial efforts.

432 Centuries of Recorded Science and Technology in Black Africa

During the 1970s and 1980s, American and European investigators discovered evidence of such African scientific achievements as the following: (1) the domestication of assorted plants in The Egyptian Nile Valley ca. 18000 BP; and domesticated cattle in the Kenyan Highlands, ca, 15000 BP. These were achieved thousands of years before plant and animal domestication in South west Asia, the hitherto presumed place where domestication first occurred; and (2) the making of Carbon steel in Tanzania, in the 1st c. BC, using techniques the discoverers called “semi-conductor technology – the growing of crystals”. These and other records of advanced scientific achievements, and at such dates, should prompt a profound revision of our understanding of the scientific knowledge developed by pre-20th century Africans before Europeans conquered and colonized and shattered African societies. They should also prompt a revision of the history of science in the world. In this article I shall present 13 exhibits drawing from the history of spectacular African achievements in science and technology. They range in time from ca. 43200 BC to 1952 AD. And they cover, geographically, Lesotho in Southern Africa; to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in East Africa; to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa; to Egypt in North Africa; and to Liberia and Nigeria in West Africa.