Religion as a tool in strengthening the democratic process in Ghana
June 2011
Recent elections in Ghana bear witness to the extraordinary power of religion to affect social and political change. This paper illustrates a few varieties of this power through case studies which examine the role of religious leaders in promoting peaceful elections, the way inter-faith dialogue enhances civic duties and fosters peace by bolstering values of justice, forgiveness and cooperation, and the...
Hopes and hiccups expressed: Barriers to university female lecturers’ promotion
May 2011
The study explored barriers to promotion for university female lecturers to leadership positions. In Zimbabwe, women have gained legal rights through government pronounced policies such as the Gender policy and Affirmative Action policy (Government of Zimbabwe, 2004; Chabaya et al., 2009). The theoretical framework used is critical feminism which deals with issues that marginalize women from leadership roles...
Motivating Zimbabwean secondary school students to learn: A challenge
May 2011
Motivating Zimbabwean secondary school students to learn has been a daunting task for both parents and teachers. The economic and social situation obtaining in Zimbabwe has not encouraged secondary school students to take education seriously and prepare themselves for service and contribution to nation building and self- development. Thus the study sought to understand factors that militate against student...
“India and China’s growing economic involvement in sub-Saharan Africaâ€
April 2011
India and China have dramatically increased their economic and commercial ties with sub-Saharan Africa during the past decade and a half, centered on mineral exploitation, although this is slowly changing. Many of the natural resource-rich states in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from the resource curse – the failure of resource-abundant countries to benefit from their natural endowments. China and...
Art and societal dialectics in sub-Saharan Africa: A critique of Wa Thiong’o and Osofisan as dramatists
April 2011
Art, indeed, remains an effective means of representing reality. It has undoubtedly become instrumental in understanding and interpreting aspects of society – its inherent dialectics – its realities. Drama, therefore, as the most social of art forms invariably predisposes the dramatist/artist as invaluable in the solemn task of mirroring these realities. This paper surveys the socio-political...
Impact of land tenure change on subsistence agriculture: Implication on farm productivity of the farming system in Bukoba district, Tanzania
March 2011
Discussions on land tenure change in Africa often lack an appreciation of farming systems and their structure. This disconnection is remarkable because tenure change is often seen as means to enhance the productivity of African agriculture. In this article, we examine the structure of the agro-ecological system and its productivity in relation to land tenure arrangements in the banana-based farming system in...
Can capitalist ‘core’ survive the history driving development in the African ‘periphery’? Re-evaluating Immanuel Wallerstein’s world systems analysis
February 2011
This paper in interdisciplinary studies investigated the discursive effects of African development in the face of western capitalism and its hegemonic altruism [1] with close reference to insights from selected African creative art and social ‘writings’. It found out that I.Wallerstein’s world systems and its analysis are limited in spatial scope and explanatory power because of...
Prostitution in selected colonial and post - colonial Shona novels
February 2011
This paper comparatively analyses the portrayal of prostitution in Garandichauya (1964), Pafunge (1972), Mapenzi (1999) and Ndozviudza Aniko? (2006). It mainly focuses on the causes of prostitution as well as the images given to the prostitutes. The first two novels are set in colonial Zimbabwe whilst the other two in the post-colonial era. In Garandichauya, the author fails to put prostitution in its proper...
In search of aid-free Africa: An eye on Tandon’s exit strategy
February 2011
Life during pre-colonial Africa was determined by nature, during the colonial times it was miserable and in post-colonial Africa it has remained horrible in many African countries. The source of this state of the art remains controversial thus leaving contending views such as civilization, exploitation and absence of democracy to dominate the center stage of the development discourse. The same ambivalence is...
ECD policies in South Africa – What about children with disabilities?
January 2011
The importance of the young child in South African policy has been recognised through the inclusion of early childhood development (ECD) planning in documents relating to the National Departments of Health, Education and Social Development. However, despite the inclusion of the ECD sector in these three key departments there has been no indication of how policy will be implemented, nor how the young child...
Views of parents on the inclusion of children with special needs in physical education in Masvingo, Zimbabwe
January 2011
The aim of this study was to investigate the views of parents on the inclusion of children with special needs (CSN) in physical education at primary school level in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. A survey involving parents was conducted with the questionnaire used as a data collection instrument. The questionnaire was administered to 40 parents of both the children without disabilities and those whose children had...
The force of charms in Elechi Amadi's “The concubine†and “The great pondsâ€
December 2010
Most often when people speak of fetish, enchantment or spell in traditional African societies, they refer to the inexplicable side of religious beliefs inherited from forebears. There are two kinds of fetishes: negative and positive. The first is a preparation destined to harm the enemy, while the second is concocted in order to heighten the merit of someone or his destiny. The...
The changing philosophy of African marriage: The relevance of the Shona customary marriage practice of Kukumbira
December 2010
This paper is a philosophical examination of African forms of marriage, particularly the customary marriage practice of Kukumbira (asking for a bride/woman’s hand in marriage from her parents, but with her informed consent) and adopts the Shona ethnic group of Zimbabwe as a case study. It investigates the perception of the Shona people towards the practice of the customary...
Amnesty and human capital development agenda for the Niger Delta
November 2010
The Niger Delta of Nigeria has become increasingly famous due to massive oil deposits and escalation of violence in the region. The emergence of deadly militant groups embodied oil pipeline vandalisation, hostage taking, massacre, and assassination. Unfortunately, the Nigerian government’s top-down measures for alleviating the spate of violence in the region have not yielded...
Community involvement in urban water and sanitation provision: The missing link in partnerships for improved service delivery in Ghana
November 2010
This paper examined how partnerships with communities can complement government’s efforts at improving access to adequate water supply and improved sanitation in urban areas of Ghana, using a descriptive cross-sectional study of the experiences of four communities selected from three regions in the country. The paper concludes that an active involvement of the user community in the planning and...
Public administration: Local government and decentralization in Ghana
October 2010
Public administration as an art is defined in the Ghanaian context regarding decentralization and public officials’ accountability. It examines decentralization, local elections and empowerment. While the paper advocates for regional and district level elections, it uses the literature to argue that local representatives are more accessible to their locals. It questions...
May be more intricate than you think: Making rural toilet facilities possible using the demand responsive approach
October 2010
This study determined whether and how the demand responsive approach (DRA) of the Volta Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project has changed access to toilet facilities in the Ho Municipality of Ghana. Community development theory and interpretivism drove the research. Focus group discussions, structured and semi-structured interview questions, and observation were used to collect the data. Findings show...
Revisiting the place of punishment in Zimbabwe’s primary and secondary school formal education system
October 2010
The paper examines the issue of punishment in the process of education within the Zimbabwean context, especially as it applies to primary and secondary school formal education. It addresses the problem as to whether punishment as a tool of educating should be part of the process of education, which is by and large a worthwhile activity. In essence, it addresses the issue of whether...
‘Aluta continua’: A critical reflection on the chimurenga-within-Third Chimurenga among the Ndau people in Chipinge district, Southeastern Zimbabwe
October 2010
The contemporary land reform programme, which is anchored in the framework of national struggles, and popularly known as the Third Chimurenga, is a contentious issue in Zimbabwe and has send shockwaves across the world. Many weird happenings have taken place in the history of the country on account of it and have only managed to put Zimbabwe on the international spotlight. This study argues that the history...
Why economic growth theories became a fiction of development in postcolonial Africa: Critiquing foreign aid policy as discourse
September 2010
This paper argued that, for the past fifty years, economic growth theories implemented as aid policy did not materialize into elevated GDPs, high per capita incomes and social progress for Africans as had been promised, but rather translated into underdevelopment through new discourses of dependency, power and ideology. Drawing insights from selected works of creative and film art, it maintains that the humanitarianism...
Power supply and environmental sustainabi-lity in the University of Uyo: An agenda for full-blown research in Nigeria
September 2010
Power supply remains an important factor for socio-economic and technological development of every nation. Despite this reality, most countries especially from the developing world have not been able to solve the problem of power supply for the citizens. The seriousness of this problem vary from country to country. In Nigeria, power supply has become the most critical factor that has...
A gendered dress code and how it influences the choice of dress by women in Zimbabwe
September 2010
The study examined how attitudes of middle-aged women towards a gendered dress code influence the choice of dress. The interpretive enquiry involved a case study. In-depth face-to-face interviews and observations were the data collecting tools. Ten women aged between thirty and fifty were purposefully sampled from Southerton suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe. Qualitative data...
Poverty and economic growth in Egypt, 1995 - 2000
September 2010
In this paper we use the rich set of unit-level data from the most recent Egyptian household surveys (1995 – 1996 and 1999 – 2000) to assess changes in poverty and inequality between 1995 and 2000. The study analysis is based on the new methodology of constructing household-specific poverty lines that account for the differences in regional prices, as well as differences...
Colonial effect or African cultural influence on corruption: A literary approach
August 2010
Corruption, a serious bottleneck for developing countries, is gaining field worldwide. It has several names depending on the areas. Bribery is qualified as chin hanchi (bribes), gôro (cola nut), gaisuwa (greetings) or aza dutsi (to put a stone on…) among the Hausa people; bribes or gratification in French and dash in some West African English speaking countries such as...
Institutional reforms and the development of Nigeria Prisons Service, 1999 - 2007
August 2010
Nigeria as a country experienced over twenty nine years of military rule. Consequently, the Nigeria Prisons were nothing less than a concentration camp where democrats, civil rights activists and some social deviants suffered. The emergence of civilian rule in 1999 with promises both to restore human rights and the rule of law and to reform the justice system of which the prisons are...
Poverty and growth in Cameroon during the post-devaluation period (1996-2001)
May 2010
According to macroeconomic data, Cameroon recovered economic growth during the period between 1996 and 2001 following the devaluation of the CFA franc relative to the French franc which took place in January 1994. However, there is cause for concern across the country about the question as to whether the economic growth recorded in official statistics has trickled down to the various...
Determining rural farmers’ income: A rural Nigeria experience
May 2010
This paper describes the earning activities of farmers in Afon district, a rural area in Kwara State, Nigeria with a view to assess factors determining rural farmers’ income. 268 farmers were interviewed through questionnaire administration, and the results show that a large number of rural farmers depend on family labour, local inputs and personal instincts to earn productive...
Population aging in Botswana: Trends and implications
April 2010
In 2001, Botswana had 36.6% of the total population below 15 years while the 65+ population is only 5%. The proportion of the economically active age group stood at 58%. The median age of the population has increased from 15.7 years in 1971 to 20.1 in 2001. However, the tempo1 of aging is rather slow. Botswana is favourably placed in terms of the so-called ‘demographic...
Governance and communal conflicts in a post-democratic Nigeria: A case of the oil-producing Niger Delta Region
April 2010
The Niger Delta Region of Nigeria is the store of Nigeria’s crude oil, which accounts for a substantial part of Nigeria’s revenue and exports. Despite this, the people remain poor, marginalized and restive. Resort to conflicts is the only way of expressing grievances in oil-rich communities in the Region. The conflict situation has been alarming since the present...
Upscaling community-arranged preparedness for preventing maternal mortality in Ghana: A case study of Keta and Akatsi districts of the Volta Region
April 2010
The main objective of the study is to assess maternal health in Ghana using empirical evidence from Akatsi and Keta districts of the Volta Region. Interviews were conducted from a sample size of 6,250 respondents within the reproductive age group of 15 - 49 years drawn from both districts in 2007. The results show that most of the women had only basic education and were generally...
Peri-urban dynamics and regional planning in Africa: Implications for building healthy cities
March 2010
Much as peri-urban zones in Africa are places of possible disaster outbreaks in terms of disease outbreaks and other social hazards due to their general lack of planning and institutional integration, they can act as cradles for building health cities. This is so for many practical reasons poised in the sustainable development framework – the prevalence of horticultural activities; their attractiveness...
A review of environmental entrepreneurship as an agenda for rural development: The case for Ghana
March 2010
The idea of “environmental entrepreneurship” exists in both the developed and the developing world, and the challenges and opportunities faced by this new industry are similar everywhere. This paper is designed to review and carefully synthesize some of the existing research about the characteristics of environmental entrepreneurs or green entrepreneurs that distinguishes them from regular...
Sustainable renewable energy resources, their development and applications
March 2010
People rely upon oil and this will continue for a few more decades. Other conventional sources may be more enduring, but are not without serious disadvantages. Power from natural resources has always had great appeal. Coal is plentiful, though there is concern about despoliation in winning it and pollution in burning it. Nuclear power has been developed with remarkable timeliness, but is not universally...
An assessment of the effect of acceptance and adoption on policy implementation: Case of Nigeria’s information technology policy
January 2010
Realizing the need for improvement in Nigeria by 2020 requires the introduction of reforms in all sectors. This reform can be achieved with good and efficient policies as well as strengthening and enforcing the existing policies. The urge to evaluate the Information Technology (IT) Policy of Nigeria which is believed to be the ‘bedrock for national survival and development’ raises the question on:...
An advocacy coalition approach to water policy change in Ghana: A look at belief systems and policy oriented learning
December 2009
The Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) was developed by Sabatier and Jenkins Smith in 1993 to explain and predict policy change. Bloomquist and other scholars have referred to the ACF as one of the most promising theoretical frameworks for studying the policy process. The ACF has been applied widely to policy change in a plethora of substantive policy areas in the United States, as well as in Canada, the...
Challenges of information and knowledge management in trade unions in Botswana within the context of millenium development goals
November 2009
The attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is closely tied to the challenges of globalization in Africa. Under the globalization drive, issues that centre on privatization, trade liberalization and foreign direct investment now call for most non-state actors such as the labour organizations to advocate for human centred approaches that stipulate MDGs projections. Globalization has also meant...
Foreign aid and development in Africa: What the literature says and what the reality is
November 2009
Evidence of ineffective foreign assistance is widespread in Africa. The debate on how aid can be effective and contribute to Africa’s development is, however, still ongoing without any clear way forward. This paper adopts a deductive approach to explaining aid and development in Africa. There is a high volume of literature on the impact of foreign aid on development in Africa, yet not many of them...
Matters arising: Polymorphous violence and state incapacitation in Nigeria’s fourth republic
January 2009
This paper critically examines the multifarious and multi-dimensional violence that have continuously threatened the Nigerian state, its democratization and the people’s well-being especially in the past ten years. The framework of analysis is eclectic in nature. It is a combination of Peter Ekeh's two publics, the different adaptations of Max Weber's patrimonialism, the World Bank's "state...
Page 5 of 5, showing 38 records out of 238 total, starting on record 201, ending on 238
