Images as Afro-positivist narratives and counter hegemonic strategy: A study of #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou

To arrest the negative stereotypes of Africa in and outside the African continent, a number of civil society organizations and activists have launched various social media-assisted initiatives aimed at showcasing the positive facets of African cultures as well as the beautiful touristic attractions existing on the continent. One of such initiatives is the #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou movement launched in 2015 to combat the negative and colonial stereotypes of Africa through the sharing of beautiful images and videos of Africa on Twitter. The movement encouraged Africans of all horizons to share attractive images of Africa, particularly the ones that are rarely or never shown on mainstream media. Six years after the project was launched, it is high time to evaluate its strength and know some of its merits and implications. In line with this aphorism, this paper uses secondary sources and a qualitative analysis of images and videos shared on Twitter to examine the contribution of the #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou movement to the imperative of challenging colonial representations of Africa. It specifically discusses the genesis, trans-nationalization and promises of the project; and assesses the movement in the light of two philosophico-cultural currents/theories namely Afro-positivism and counter hegemony. The paper argues that the #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou movement put to question the popular but problematic belief that Africa is all about negativisms. It started a visual-assisted conversation not only about the wonders found on African soil but also about some of the cultures which non-Africans have often viewed as problematic or controversial. Such a conversation is a proof that Afro-optimism is still much alive on the continent and that; Africans are conscious that the fight against colonial stereotypes is a perpetual battle which must be fought even with the help of new digital cultures such as digitalized image-based activism.

COVID-19 pandemic preventive guidelines and protocols: How does this affect the Yoruba funeral rites in Nigeria

Funeral rites are significant instrument used in expressing, reaffirming and reinforcing life after death among the Yoruba’ and its not just limited to burying the dead but involves a series of rituals that are performed prior to and after the burial depending on the circumstances that surrounds the death of the deceased, the religious affiliation and the community which the deceased belonged. This is usually marked by some form of celebration especially when the deceased is said to have lived a fulfilled life and died at a ripe old age. However, with the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent preventive guidelines and protocols outlined by the World Health Organization that are expected to be implemented by various governments all over the world including Nigeria, there are indications that the funeral rites may have been altered. This study therefore examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic preventive guidelines and protocols on the Yoruba funeral rites. In order to substantiate some of the claims presented in the study, primary data was obtained through in-depth interview from twenty (20) participants while participants were recruited through snow ball sampling method. Data retrieved was analyzed using the qualitative data analysis program ATLAS.ti version 8. Findings from the study revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic preventive guidelines and protocols affects the Yoruba funeral rites in the areas of grieving and mourning, preparation for burial, funeral service and burial as well as burial ceremony.

The Saharo-Canarian Circle: The forgotten Prehistory of Euro African Atlantic façade and its lack of eastern demic diffusion evidences

Canarians, North Africans and Iberians show a close genetic relatedness. Greeks have a Sub-Saharan gene input according to HLA and other autosomic markers. Also, there is a genetic kinship between both Atlantic Euro Africans and North African/Arabic people. This is concordant with a drying humid Sahara Desert, which may have occurred about 6,000 years BC, and the subsequent northwards emigration of Saharan people may have also happened in Pharaonic times. This genetic input into Atlantic and Mediterranean Europe/Africa is also supported with Lineal Megalithic Scripts in Canary Islands (as well as in Iberia) together with simple Iberian semi-syllabary rock inscriptions both at Canary Islands and Ti-m Missaou (Algeria, Central southern Sahara). Lineal African/European scripts are found in certain languages scripts like Berber/Tuareg, Iberian, Runes, Etruscan, Bulgarian (Sitovo and Gradeshnitza, 6,000 years BP), Italian Old Scripts (Lepontic, Venetic, Raetic), Minoan Lineal A and Vinca scripts (Romania, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, about 4,000 years BP). The possibility that Megalithic Lineal Scripts have given rise to these languages lineal writing is feasible because admixture of languages rock scripts and Megalithic Lineal Scripts have been found. Thus, resistance of Canarian aborigines (Guanches) to Carthage, Rome and Arabs left a bulk of Canarian-Saharan information which is used to study both Saharan and Canarian Prehistory, and also Atlantic and Mediterranean beginning of European and other civilizations: this preserved prehistoric inheritance may be named the “Saharo-Canarian Circle” of prehistoric knowledge. Also, linguistics-epigraphy, physical anthropology, archaeology, and domesticated cattle shows a close North Africa-Iberia Mesolithic/Neolithic relationship and demonstrates that the demic diffusion model does not exist in Iberia. Also, Tassili Sahara paintings of domesticated cattle appear 1,000 years before those agricultural practices started at Middle East. Finally, it is also inferred that circum-Mediterranean contacts during thousand years between ice and desert constructed Mediterranean cultures from Canary Islands to Ancient Great Persia and this is the origin of Classical Mediterranean cultures that was later exclusively attributed to Rome and Greece.

Lineal Megalithic Rock Scripts as precursors of Iberian and other lineal Mediterranean/Euro African ancient writings: the case of Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain)

Lineal Megalithic/Paleolithic Lineal signs/lines may have a variety of purposes or representations. Some authors have proposed they represent sky, planets and stars and their movements, space/time representations or others, including letters/syllables or symbols/events. Some are painted, other incised; the latter are relatively more common in Megalithic scripts. Man is “writing” or creating handmade figures on stones /rocks and other supports, which sometimes have intentionally been polished since Paleolithic times: at least 70,000 years BP (Blombos Cave, South Africa). Megalithic script is named because it is associated to megalithic structures, although not exclusively. Von Petzinger 40,000 years old “symbols” and/or writing are extended worldwide in Paleolithic caves and other rocks. Man connection was worldwide in Paleolithic times. Canary Islands incise or picketed lineal writing exists with a transcribed and translated meaning collection of signs (Ibero-Guanche or Latin inscriptions and Lybic ones). Also, other African/European/Mediterranean lineal scripts there exist and examples are given in the present paper. Fuerteventura Island contains in addition many small or bigger stones and rocks with these Paleolithic/Megalithic incised lines all over its territory. About timing in which these stones that were incised by man, we are only referring to a kind of stone crafting. However, we do not discard that they were made by man several thousand years BP. Some Paleolithic/Megalithic scripts are mixed with clear Iberian semi-syllabary signs in Fuerteventura and other Canary Islands. They may reflect the evolution of more ancient Megalithic scripts to lineal writings like those detailed in the present paper and others. Finally, writing concept should be redefined whenever more precise data and dating be available.

Egalitarianism to gender inequality: Cross-cultural exploration of gender relations, in economic systems

Gender inequality has generated a lot of debates among scholars across disciplines. Much of these studies have not explored a robust scholarship on the historical development of gender inequality by comparing different human societies and their subsistence strategies. This review study is designed to fill this gap, thereby contributing to corpus of literature on gender inequality in economic relations. As a historical research, the study uses secondary materials. These materials are mainly ethnographies of the societies under comparison. The study compares the roles of each of the gender categories in subsistence activities, in economic systems, to trace the sources of gender inequality in economic relations. Data available suggest egalitarian gender and economic relations. However, as societies evolved, there became a gradual decline in egalitarianism, leading to marked inequality. The inequality is relative to the complexity of social structure peculiar to the societies under review.

Women, Islam, and politics in Samarkand (1991–2021)

This article is devoted to the analysis of the following issues: state policy in Uzbekistan in the field of Islam and gender, the modern understanding of local Muslim societies‘ traditions, the spread of the hijab in Samarkand, and discourses around the hijab. There are various interpretations of religious practices in which women are involved. Some of these rituals are considered non-Islamic by the official Muslim clergy. We argue that the various discourses that existed around the Muslim societies‘ tradition contributed to the emergence of different motivations for wearing the hijab. In different eras, various symbolic meanings were attached to the hijab, with religiosity, modesty, backwardness, traditions, etc. If in the 1990s the hijab meant a return to pre-Soviet gender traditions for certain groups of women in certain regions of Uzbekistan, now it is perceived as part of modernity, which is understood differently by Muslims of Uzbekistan. For every one of these women, the hijab has its own personal meaning and there are various reasons for wearing it such as to consider it related to Islam or a symbol associated with Islam and the symbolization of moral categories of the spiritual purity and good manners.

Abir's Enlightenment Revolution is the basic element leading to the end of the corrupt regime resulting from the poisoned Tunisian revolution 2011

Ten years after the launch of its 2011 revolution, Tunisia has reached a catastrophic socio-economic situation that confirms that none of major goals of this revolution have been achieved. Here, from an anthropological analysis of major events happened during this decade I reveal and discuss mysteries of this revolution, and I show how and why it got to her final stage. I qualified it as „poisoned‟ because of clandestine interventions from some foreign countries that were able to steer it on a corrupt and dangerous path from the very beginning. In fact, although it was started by young people who have no political and ideological affiliation, many opportunist politicians rode its wave and given a false revolutionary label to their parties. One of these parties, „Ennahdha‟, in a clear relationship with some countries, very likely got secretly considerable funds. The use of these moneys, coupled with dissemination of religious misinformation, during the pre-elections period permitted this party to be the first to come to power. Since then, it began (1) to support secretly those who perform the corrupt instrumentalization of Islam leading to terrorism and obscurantism, (2) not to apply laws that conflict with its interests, and (3) to develop corruption through wide networks spread in most of the national institutions particularly in judicial and security sectors. This has ensured it permanent influence over the major joints of the State even if it does not have the highest representation in the Government. At the end of this despaired decade, a glimmer of hope appeared with the emergence of the wonderful leader ‟Abir Moussi‟ who called for Enlightenment Revolution. Her heroic struggle is the basic element leading to the end of the poisoned revolution 2011 and the resulting corrupt regime, which was mainly fabricated and dominated by Ennahdha, the last dangerous stronghold of the World Brotherhood Sect. I end this study by presenting recommendations aimed at eliminating the corrupt instrumentalization of Islam and preventing its return.

Misinformation about COVID-19 among internet users in Nigeria: Tools to effective public awareness, prevention and control

Since the World Health Organization announced in early 2020 that the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by an infodemic of misinformation, we are left with the question of public perspective-driven compliance to safety measures. This preliminary study evaluated some claims about COVID-19 including vaccine conspiracy theories among Nigerians with factors influencing it. An online structured questionnaire was designed to collect one-time data from voluntary participants. Demographically, major respondents were; bachelor: 284 (75.1%), age-group between 18 and 30 years: 312 (82.5%) and male: 207 (54.8%). Those that do not know the range of infected population in the country accounted for 260 (72.2%). In opinion, 57 (15.1%) supported that SARS-COV-2 cannot survive the warm climate of African continent, and 41 (10.8%) believed the hoax theory about COVID-19. Unapproved herbal medication was reported to be used by 251 (66.4%) of the respondents while 92 (24.3%) made use of Chloroquine. For transmission related conceptions, 52 (13.8%) indicated that an asymptomatic carrier cannot spread the virus to another healthy individual. About half of the respondents 182 (48.1%) suspected that SARS-COV-2 was an engineered virus and 173 (45.8%) supported that there are underlying negative intentions on the clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccines on Africans. There is a weak correlation between the demographic data of the respondents and the claims. The level of misconception Nigerians have about COVID-19 is a major concern. Thus, it is imperative to continuously engage in community awareness and education using proven facts about the virus, and its available prophylaxis measures in order to avoid the dangers that are associated with the prevailing misconceptions. Keywords: Misinformation, Vaccine conspiracy, COVID-19, Compliance

Megaliths in Tropical Africa: Social Dynamics and Mortuary Practices in Ancient Senegambia (ca. 1350 BCE – 1500 CE)

When analyzed systematically, Tropical Africa megalithism appears to have emerged in contexts of friction between different lifeways, agriculturalists versus foragers, pastoralists versus hunter-gatherers-fishermen, or agriculturalists versus fishing folks. The monuments built were clearly part of actual territorial strategies. Research conducted by the Sine Ngayene Archaeological Project (2002-2012) frontally addressed the “Why” of the emergence of megalithism in that part of the world, and probes the reasons for the performance of the elaborate burial practices preserved in the archaeological record. This paper emphasizes the diversity and complexity of burial protocols invented by Senegambian “megalith-builders” communities from 1450 BCE to 1500 CE. Senegambian megalithism is shown to have proceeded from territorial marking imperatives, shaping a multi-layered cultural landscape through the implemented mortuary programs anchored on the construction of Ancestorhood. Keywords: Megaliths; Senegambia; Cultural landscape; Mortuary program; Burial practice; Monolith-circle; Sine-Ngayene;

Misinformation about COVID-19 among internet users in Nigeria: Tools to effective public awareness, prevention and control

Since the World Health Organization announced in early 2020 that the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by an infodemic of misinformation, we are left with the question of public perspective-driven compliance to safety measures. This preliminary study evaluated some claims about COVID-19 including vaccine conspiracy theories among Nigerians with factors influencing it. An online structured questionnaire was designed to collect one-time data from voluntary participants. Demographically, major respondents were; bachelor: 284 (75.1%), age-group between 18 and 30 years: 312 (82.5%) and male: 207 (54.8%). Those that do not know the range of infected population in the country accounted for 260 (72.2%). In opinion, 57 (15.1%) supported that SARS-COV-2 cannot survive the warm climate of African continent, and 41 (10.8%) believed the hoax theory about COVID-19. Unapproved herbal medication was reported to be used by 251 (66.4%) of the respondents while 92 (24.3%) made use of Chloroquine. For transmission related conceptions, 52 (13.8%) indicated that an asymptomatic carrier cannot spread the virus to another healthy individual. About half of the respondents 182 (48.1%) suspected that SARS-COV-2 was an engineered virus and 173 (45.8%) supported that there are underlying negative intentions on the clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccines on Africans. There is a weak correlation between the demographic data of the respondents and the claims. The level of misconception Nigerians have about COVID-19 is a major concern. Thus, it is imperative to continuously engage in community awareness and education using proven facts about the virus, and its available prophylaxis measures in order to avoid the dangers that are associated with the prevailing misconceptions. Keywords: Misinformation, Vaccine conspiracy, COVID-19, Compliance