Tendencias de la escritura

Godfrey M. Musila, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai, Japheth Biegon, Matilda Lasseko, Antony Laibuta, Deji Adekunle, Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua. [ASC Leiden abstract]

202 Lame, Danielle de

Lame and Ciraj Rassool (eds.). - Tervuren : Royal Museum for Central Africa, 2010. - 294 p. ; 24 cm. - (Collection Sciences Humaines, ISSN 1781-9857 ; vol. 171) - Met bibliogr., noten.

ISBN 9789074752794

ASC Subject Headings:

The essays in this volume address aspects of popular culture in Cape Town (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya), and Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo). An introduction by Danielle de Lame is followed by 14 chapters which are organized in four parts: 1. Sharing and discriminating: Building social selves: contemporary post-scriptural creativity in Congo (Bogumil Jewsiewicki); The Sheng generation: language and youth identity in Nairobi (Kiprop Lagat); Meeting in bars and grills: Nyama Choma as places of differential conviviality (Mercy Gakii and Martin Tindi) - 2. Dissenting or adjusting: The postcolonial city as "prey and predator" in Meja Mwangi's "urban novels" (Tom Odhiambo); Providing the dissenting voices: the evolution of popular interactive participatory community educational theatre from the experimental "drumbeats on Kerenyaga" to the development of the 'Sigana' art form as the collective voice of the masses in the post-Kamirithu era (Oby Obyerodhyambo); Dynamics of popular transgression: the speed culture of Nairobi 'matatu' (Mbugua wa-Mungai); Let's laugh it off: Mufwankolo's theatre and the quest for morality (Donatien Dibwe dia Mwembu) - 3. Displaying and ritualizing: Fetishes in the wrestling ring: sport as a ritual twilight (Richar Kabeke Lubembo); Cape Town: the ambiguous heritage of creolization in South Africa (Denis-Constant Martin); Apartheid's icons in the new millennium: the making and remaking of settler histories (Leslie Witz) - 4. Storing and transforming: Gazing at District Six: from fairyland to the Arab quarter (Zuleiga Adams); Mapping museum-community relations in Lwandle (Bongani Mgijima and Vusi Buthelezi); Ethnography and indigeneity in post-apartheid South Africa: continuities and contestations of culture (Ciraj Rassool); "Refiguring" the music archive in South Africa (Valmont Layne). [ASC Leiden abstract]

203 McCann, Gerard

Review of African Political Economy: (2010), vol. 37, no. 126, p. 465-482.

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ASC Subject Headings

This paper analyses contemporary non-Western engagement with Africa through the lens of India. Much of the literature on India's renewed interest in Africa is panoramic, highlighting concepts of 'South-South' cooperation in ways uncritical of Indian claims to the Nehruvian moral high ground in the developing world. This article, by contrast, focuses on critical realities of India's relations with a single country - Kenya, a nation with which India has had close links due to the historic presence of South Asian communities in the region. It critiques notions that 'diasporic' ties between India and Kenya facilitate contemporary Indian economic ambitions. Rather, fractious historical race relations in Kenya, and the cynosure of 'African' homogenization of 'Asians' within an 'ethnicized' postcolonial political economy, might impede Indian ambitions relative to capital-rich foreign suitors devoid of such historical baggage. The second argument holds that the State-led imperatives of much economic liaison within Kenya favour certain 'partners' with statist investment models in contrast to India's more explicit private sector-led engagement. Most importantly, analysis within a localized African context points to African agency in encounters with the 'Asian drivers', a term implying a certain unidirectional power flow. The competitive interest of a range of 'new' suitors has allowed African leaders unprecedented choice in international negotiations. The danger, however, is that these new liaisons can reify divisive sociopolitical conflicts in which many African nations are mired. This appears to be pertinent to Kenya. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]

204 Mutua, Florence

Florence Mutua ... [et al.] - In: Nordic Journal of African Studies: (2010), vol. 19, no. 1, p. 43-57.

ASC Subject Headings

This paper examines farmer beliefs and perceptions concerning local pig farming practices and explores opportunities for improved located production in selected villages in Kakamega District, western Kenya. The paper seeks to understand why the local pig breed still remains the predominant breed in these areas despite numerous calls to introduce better exotic breeds. Most pigs in Kenya are of exotic breeds, intensively managed on commercial farms. Focus group discussions were used to gather data. Discussions were taped, transcribed and translated from Swahili into English. The authors show that farmers use pigs to guard homes at night; pigs also act as a charm to protect families against evil spirits. Women farmers manage the family pigs, while men sell the pigs. Farmers identified feeding, marketing, and breeding as the main challenges affecting the sector. The discussions identified a number of opportunities for improved production, and are likely to have strengthened the bond between the farmers, researchers and staff. This created an

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outlook that can now be used in further public engagement as ongoing research studies on appropriate feed, health and improvement of market access are being analysed. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]

205 Obamba, Milton O.

Journal of Higher Education in Africa: (2009), vol. 7, no. 3, p. 125-149.

ASC Subject Headings

Tremendous transformations in policy and structure have modified the higher education landscape across sub-Saharan Africa in the last decade of the twentieth and the first decade of the twenty-first century. The defining features of the transformation include the diversification of sources of funding, privatization and liberalization of the university sector, and severe reductions on government funding of universities across the region. In the Kenyan context, the discourses of global competitiveness, internationalization and pursuit of world-class quality assurance standards have featured prominently in a wide variety of the major recent policy documents. This article reviews a range of policy discourses and instruments to reconstruct and analyse the growing rhetoric of "global" competitiveness and the phenomenon of marketization in higher education in Kenya and explore the complex political economy of educational commodities. It argues that government policy and university activities strongly emphasize market-oriented logics of expansion and commercialization, but within the context of a highly fragmented and incomplete market landscape. As for the internationalization aspect of the policy, it pertains more to myth and ceremony than to action. Bibliogr., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract, edited]

206 Okuro, Samwel Ong'wen

Okuro - In: African Journal of AIDS Research: (2009), vol. 8, no. 3, p. 275-283.

ASC Subject Headings

The contrasting outcomes to HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation processes in sub-Saharan Africa have not been adequately investigated or explained. Specifically, few scholars have attempted to root the responses to HIV and AIDS within the socioeconomic and political realities of those countries severely impacted by the disease. This article seeks to explain the ambivalent political response to HIV and AIDS in Kenya in the context of the neopatrimonial leadership of former president Daniel arap Moi, between 1983, when the disease was first identified, and 2002, when Moi finally left office. The article relies on rigorous interpretation and corroboration of secondary and primary data collected between 2004 and 2006. The findings suggest that the slow and inadequate response to HIV and

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AIDS in Kenya during Moi's presidency was primarily dictated by the need to maintain the structures of his neopatrimonial leadership. Bibliogr., ref., sum. [Journal abstract]

207 Onyango, Agatha Christine

Walingo and Lucas Othuon - In: African Journal of AIDS Research: (2009), vol. 8, no. 3, p. 359-366 : tab.

ASC Subject Headings

HIV or AIDS and malnutrition often operate in tandem. Poor nutrition increases the risk of falling ill and the progression of diseases and, in turn, disease exacerbates malnutrition. Food deficiency and nutritional inadequacy compromize individuals' physical status and work capacity, and may also diminish their resource base and household provisioning. In the context of the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in Kenya, which threatens food production systems, the present study assesses food and nutrient intake in HIV-affected versus non- HIV-affected households in this country. Purposive sampling was used to select 160 households (77 HIV-affected households and 83 non-HIV-affected households) in Kisumu district, a lowland area along Lake Victoria. A consolidated questionnaire that included a food-frequency checklist and personal 24-hour dietary recall was used to gather information from 40 households. The findings reveal a significant relationship between a household's HIV/AIDS status and nutrient intake. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]

208 Onyuma, Samuel O.

O. Onyuma - In: Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review: (2009), vol. 25, no. 2, p. 53-74 : tab.

ASC Subject Headings

Capital markets are normally assumed to be efficient in relation to the instantaneous incorporation of all known and new arriving information into prices of securities. Studies assessing the efficiency of capital markets have reported mixed results, some of which are against the efficient markets theory. The purpose of this study is to determine if daily and monthly seasonal anomalies do exist in the Kenyan stock market. Data on prices and adjusted returns derived from the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) 20 index are analysed using regression analysis to identify the behaviour of stock investors in Kenya during 1980- 2006. Results indicate that Monday produces the lowest negative returns, while Friday and January produce the largest positive returns. These results are useful in providing evidence of deviation from the efficient markets theory and in drawing conclusions about anomalies in an emerging stock market. Finding highest return volatility on Friday and lowest on

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Monday might be due to several economic news announcements released on Thursdays and Fridays, and is consistent with informed trader argument. The returns are therefore influenced by foreign portfolio investor behaviour and delays in receiving news released from foreign financial markets. Day-of-the-week effect and January effect patterns in return and volatility might enable investors to take advantage of relatively regular shifts in the market by designing trading strategies, which accounts for such predictable patterns. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]

209 Osborne, Myles

Osborne - In: The International Journal of African Historical Studies: (2010), vol. 43, no. 1, p. 63-87.

ASC Subject Headings

In mid-1954, the conflict between the largely Kikuyu Mau Mau and the forces of the British colonial government reached its peak. While Kenya teetered at the brink of total upheaval, the Kamba, close cousins of the Kikuyu, were in a position to play a pivotal role in the struggle. The author first provides an outline of Kamba participation in Mau Mau, using memoirs written by Mau Mau fighters, the author's interviews, British colonial documents, and other assorted source material. He argues that Kamba participation was far greater than scholars have assumed. Second, he details the reasons why the Kamba did not join Mau Mau en masse. Three major, linked factors shaped that decision, viz. British manipulations of Kamba ethnicity; the effect of community development and welfare projects, shown here as important facets of imperial control; and, most crucially, the initiative and role of Kamba chiefs in the conflict. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]

210 Simiyu, Romborah

African Geographical Review: (2010), vol. 29, no. 1, p. 37-61 : krt., tab.

ASC Subject Headings

The friends and neighbours effect refers to the tendency for voters to support candidates from their home areas regardless of party affiliation, ostensibly because such candidates are better known to them, have a better grasp of local issues, share in local interests and would therefore be more motivated to address local problems if elected. Not so in the multi- ethnic Kwanza constituency where 'foreign' candidates have won each of six elections since the creation of the constituency in 1987, despite the residents' persistent desire to be represented in parliament by a co-resident. Against the backdrop of the highly ethnicized Kenyan political environment, elections are perceived as a zero sum game of winners and

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losers by competing ethnic groups supporting particular political parties. These ethnic- based partisanships have tended to obscure the politics of residency in the constituency. The former has shaped patterns of social and geographical interaction among voters, between voters and candidates, and influenced voters' assessment of candidates' issue platforms and political rhetoric. Hence, 'foreign' candidates who belonged to the 'right' parties always triumphed over local candidates associated with the 'wrong' parties. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]

RWANDA

211 Cieplak, Piotr A.

Journal of African Cinemas: (2010), vol. 2, no. 1, p. 49-63.

ASC Subject Headings

The 1994 Rwandan genocide has been a subject of filmic representation in and outside Africa. This article examines two examples of this portrayal and attempts to put them in the context of Western perception of African conflict and suffering and its depiction in feature- length fictionalized films. A close analysis of '100 Days' (Nick Hughes, UK/Rwanda) and 'Shooting Dogs' (Michael Caton-Jones, UK/Germany), accompanied by cited interviews with their directors, aims to examine the mechanism of the representation of 'otherness' in a situation when the term 'others' is not a straightforward antonym to 'us'. The argument revolves around the idea that 'others' are always a group defined by a common characteristic (the colour of their skin, cultural identity or suffering), while 'us' consists of individuals whose major qualifying feature is the fact that he or she is, individually and collectively, not like 'others'. Special attention is paid to the difference between formal and character-based 'othering', as well as to the films' adhesion to Western cinematic genres. The consideration is contextualized by the concept of 'the bestiality of representation', which becomes a manner of positioning an event within a socio-historical and individually cognitive context and determining the dynamic among the experience lived, the experience seen and objectivity. Lastly, the article looks at how the circumstances of the production process directly influence the stylistic and aesthetic choices made in films about the Rwandan genocide. In this, it relies on the examination of the trichotomy of politics, representation and the politics of representation. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]