African Motors

In African Motors, Joshua Grace examines how Tanzanian drivers, mechanics, and passengers reconstituted the automobile into a uniquely African form between the late 1800s and the early 2000s. Drawing on hundreds of oral histories, extensive archival research, and his ethnographic fieldwork as an apprentice in Dar es Salaam's network of garages, Grace counters the pervasive narratives that Africa is incompatible with technology and that the African use of cars is merely an appropriation of technology created elsewhere. Although automobiles were invented in Europe and introduced as part of colonial rule, Grace shows how Tanzanians transformed them, increasingly associating their own car use with maendeleo, the Kiswahili word for progress or development. Focusing on the formation of masculinities based in automotive cultures, Grace also outlines the process through which African men remade themselves and their communities by adapting technological objects and systems for local purposes. Ultimately, African Motors is an African-centered story of development featuring everyday examples of Africans forging both individual and collective cultures of social and technological wellbeing through movement, making, and repair.

On the cultivation of the spirochete Obermeiera.

Currently, we know several types of human blood spirochetes. The best studied are the following four species: 1) spirochete Obermeier'a, or spir. recurrentis, the causative agent of European relapsing fever, discovered Obe g me ie th in 1873, 2) spiroch. Duttoni, the causative agent of the African form of relapsing fever, discovered by Ros S'OM and Mi1Pe'om, as well as Dutton'OM and Todd'oM in 1904, 3) spiroch. Kochi, discovered in 1905

A review of the ‘Candidatus Liberibacter africanus’ citrus pathosystem in Africa

It has been nearly 100 years since citrus growers in two distinct regions in the northern provinces of South Africa noticed unusual symptoms in their citrus trees, causing significant crop losses. They had no idea that these symptoms would later become part of an almost global pandemic of a disease called Greening or 'Huanglongbing’ (HLB). The rapid spread of the disease indicated that it might be caused by a transmissible pathogen, but it took more than 50 years to identify the causative agent as ‘Candidatus Liberibacter africanus’. Recently, the disease appeared in more African countries spreading by both infected planting material and Trioza erytreae. To date, five ‘Ca. L. africanus’ subspecies have been identified in various Rutaceous species with ‘Ca. L. africanus subsp. clausenae’ the only subspecies for which a biovar was detected in citrus. The detection of, and ability to differentiate HLB causing liberibacter species are ongoing and recent developments are discussed here. This review focuses on aspects of the African form of HLB, from its specific bacterial species and subspecies, its main insect vector, to the geographical distribution and current management strategies.

Trioza erytreae (African citrus psyllid).

The invasive African psyllid, Trioza erytrea, transmits the causal agent of the African form of citrus huanglongbing (greening) disease, Liberibacter africanum, a very destructive disease of citrus plants. It does this under natural conditions in Africa and the Middle East, and has been shown experimentally to transmit the Asian form, Liberibacter asiaticum. The psyllid itself severely distorts leaves, which become stunted and galled. T. erytreae affects species in the family Rutaceae, occurring on wild hosts as well as on Citrus species. T. erytreae is listed as an A1 quarantine pest by EPPO (OEPP/EPPO, 1988) and is also a quarantine pest for CPPC and OIRSA. The importation of plants for planting and cut branches of citrus from countries where either citrus greening bacterium or either of its vectors occur has been prohibited (OEPP/EPPO, 1990). T. erytreae occurs in Africa and parts of the Middle East but could probably establish and spread in Mediterranean countries without difficulty. Besides its role in citrus greening, the psyllid has itself significant damage potential.

XAV-19, a novel swine glyco-humanized polyclonal antibody against SARS-CoV-2 spike, efficiently neutralizes B.1.1.7 British and B.1.351 South-African variants.

Amino acid substitutions and deletions in spike (S) protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants can reduce the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). In contrast, heterologous polyclonal antibodies raised against S protein, through the recognition of multiple target epitopes, have the potential to maintain neutralization capacities. We report on XAV-19, a swine glyco-humanized polyclonal antibody (GH-pAb) raised against the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the Wuhan-Hu-1 spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. XAV-19 target epitopes are distributed all over the RBD and particularly cover the receptor binding motives (RBM), on direct contact sites with the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme-2 (ACE-2). Using spike/ACE2 interaction assays, we analyzed in vitro the impact of punctual and grouped mutations in the S protein corresponding to the B.1.1.7 (British form; UK) and B.1.351 (South-African form, SA) variants and recorded that neutralization by XAV-19 exhibited little if any sensitivity to these mutations. These results were confirmed by two independent tissue culture infective doses assays (TCID) showing 100% neutralization of the variants at close concentrations. XAV-19, which is currently evaluated in patients hospitalized for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the phase 2a-2b of the POLYCOR study (ClinicalTrial.gov, NCT04453384), may provide a novel effective therapeutic tool to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), caused by the original Wuhan form and by the UK/SA variants of concern.

African Form of Indigenous Mass Communication in the Case of Ethiopia

The purpose of this article is to explore African form of indigenous mass communication with emphasis on Ethiopian indigenous form mass communication institutions, tools, manuscripts, and regulatory bodies. The method employed for this study is qualitative. First hand documents, tools and observation were considered as sources of primary data. Furthermore, pertinent literature was reviewed. The data was analyzed qualitatively where description of the responses on the bases of themes was given emphasis. The finding of this study argued that drum beating, horn blowing and town crying are a form of mass communications in the ancient time. In ancient time news in Africa was first made public from the tower in the center, squares of the city, palace main stairs, market and church. Town Criers, Azmari and shepherds were the journalists and the essential news presenters in ancient times. In the same manner, Afe Negus (mouth of the King) and Tsehafe Tezaze (Minister of Pen) were originally indigenous information regulatory bodies of the empire regime. This research discovered the oldest African newspaper in Ethiopia, a news sheet entitled Zenamewale (Daily News) and the first written newspaper and inscriptions of king Ezana are the first types of African form of news, which dates back to 320 A.D. Zena mewale is believed to be the first handmade press so far known in Africa for 700 years. This confirmed that Ethiopia has 3,000 years of indigenous forms of oral mass communication and handmade press history in Africa. Keywords: indigenous mass communication institutions, tools of traditional mass communication, manuscripts, regulatory bodies, Ethiopia

Palaver and Consensus as Metaphors for the Public Sphere

This chapter contributes to the rectification of a specific deficiency in political theory, namely, its lack of engagement with African political thought. It does this by exploring two metaphors for the public sphere in African philosophy: palaver and consensus. Specifically, it examines the different attempts to reconstruct these concepts to make explicit their possible contributions to political theory. As this analysis reveals, palaver and consensus are central to political legitimation, adjudication of conflicts, and general social interaction in African political thought. In contrast to views that argue both concepts designate an African form of democracy, this chapter proposes that they are better understood as metaphors for the public sphere, that is, as spaces for the enactment of a social drama where words become both a medium for the articulation of perspectives and the strategy for arresting the destructive potentials of anger. The chapter contends that the sort of public sphere embodied by palaver and consensus presents important challenges that should be taken seriously by normative political theory.

Description of a new long-tailed skink (Scincidae: Trachylepis) from Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are relatively unknown in terms of their herpetological diversity. Based on specimens collected in the Congolese region of the Katanga and the northeast of Angola during the first decades of the twentieth century, de Witte and Laurent independently suggested, based on morphological and coloration differences, that populations of T. megalura of these regions could belong a new “race”. We compared specimens of T. megalura (including the type specimens of T. megalura and T. massaiana) with Angolan and Katangan museum specimens as well as newly collected specimens from Angola. Coloration pattern and morphological characters, in combination with substantial divergence in the 16S mitochondrial gene, confirm the distinctiveness of the west Central African form, and it is here described as a new species. Data regarding its natural history, ecology and global distribution are presented.

Systematic revision of the living African Slender-snouted Crocodiles (Mecistops Gray, 1844)

Molecular and morphological evidence has shown that the African slender-snouted, or sharp-nosed, crocodile Mecistops cataphractus (Cuvier, 1824) is comprised of two superficially cryptic species: one endemic to West Africa and the other endemic to Central Africa. Our ability to characterize the two species is compromised by the complicated taxonomic history of the lineage and overlapping ranges of variation in distinguishing morphological features. The name M. cataphractus was evidently originally based on West African material, but the holotype is now lost. Although types exist for other names based on the West African form, the name M. cataphractus is sufficiently entrenched in the literature, and other names sufficiently obscure, to justify retypification. Here, we designate a neotype for M. cataphractus and restrict it to West Africa. We resurrect M. leptorhynchus as a valid species from Central Africa and identify exemplary referred specimens that, collectively, overcome the obscurity and diagnostic limits of the extant holotype. We additionally indicate suitable neotype material in the event the holotype is lost, destroyed, or otherwise needing replacement, and we rectify the previously erroneous type locality designation. We provide a revised diagnosis for crown Mecistops, and revise and update previous descriptions of the two living species, including providing both more complete descriptions and discussion of diagnostic characters. Finally, we provide considerable discussion of the current state of knowledge of these species’ ecology, natural history, and distribution.