Journal articles on the topic 'Ghana (Empire)'

Radio is hailed as Africa’s medium of choice in the global communication age. Introduced as a colonial tool of information, education and entertainment in the early 1930s, radio broadcasting was mainly in colonial languages as colonial administrators perceived local language broadcasting a threat to their empire building and ‘civilization’ agendas. The fortunes of local language broadcasting did not dramatically change in the independence era when broadcast media were in the firm control of the state. From the beginning of the twenty-first century, however, mostly resulting from a more liberalized media environment, local language broadcasting has undergone unprecedented growth. Drawing on written archival material, including internal communication among policy-makers, audience letters, key informant interviews and findings from a recent audience study, this article charts the progressive development of local language radio broadcasting in Ghana, and engages with the role played by early audiences and broadcasters in indigenizing broadcast content.

Ashanti was an empire which flourished in the forest region of present-day Ghana in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ashanti was a monarchy with a bureaucracy financed through taxes. The system of tax collection was one of apportionment among the levels of the social strata that were required to bear the tax burden. Accounting controls over funds which finally reached the coffers of the monarch involved boxes.The operations and uses of Adaka Kesie (the Big Box) and Apim Adaka (the Box of Thousand) could be likened to a current account and a petty cash account respectively.

History education in Ghana has been situated within the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial trajectories and debates. Whereas there is a conscious effort by history teacher associations, academics and other interest groups to advance and develop the teaching of the subject at different levels of the educational system in Ghana, little attention has been paid to how the textbooks have conceptualised the cultural, ethnic and indigenous histories with their attendant differences and how they have affected or complicated narratives in the postcolonial setting of Ghana. Essentially, this contribution highlights how historical themes on empire, colonisation, decolonisation and the Commonwealth, and associated events, are explored in historiography and in the curricula of Ghana. This involves an examination of the dynamic relationship between political traditions, curriculum, historiography, and scholarship at university level. Overall, the paper highlights the political contexts that have shaped the various stages and manifestations of the history curriculum as it concerns British influence, decolonisation, independence and postcolonialism in Ghana before, during and after the development of the Nkrumahist and Danquah-Busia traditions.

This article aims to address the question of the emergence of empires in West Africa from the ninth century to the present day. The author plans to make an in-depth analysis of the political formation of the different empires which have succeeded each other in this vast West African space which nowadays shelters the current republics of Mali and Mauritania in particular and in general throughout other West African countries (Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Niger). The largest and most famous empires that appeared on the territory of what is now Mali is called the Ghana Empire in the 9th century and was succeeded by the Mali or Mandé Empire in the 13th century. The influence of these empires throughout Africa and the rest of the world shows us a particular interest in understanding over time the notion of the State in Africa before the colonization and destruction of the African political system and its replacement by colonial state with the arrival of Europeans. Today the question of the weakness of the modern or postcolonial state in Africa and Mali poses many questions not only in the concert of nations but also in the academic and university environment. We will try to demonstrate in this article the link between the break in the evolution of the African state and the imposition of the modern European state through the colonial state which is at the root of the backwardness of African countries in terms political, economic and social compared to the rest of the world.

Psychology as taught in Ghanaian universities is largely Eurocentric and imported. Calls have been made to indigenize psychology in Ghana. In response to this call, this paper attempts to construct a history of psychology in Ghana so as to provide a background for the study of the content and process of what psychology would and/or ought to become in Ghana. It does so by going as far back as the University of Sankore, Timbuktu established in 989AD where intellectual development flourished in the ancient Empire of Mali through to the 1700s and 1800s when Black Muslim scholars established Koranic schools, paying particular attention to scholarly works in medicine, theology and philosophy. Attention is then drawn to Anton Wilhelm Amo’s dissertation, De Humanae Mentis “Apatheia” and Disputatio Philosophica Continens Ideam Distinctam (both written in 1734) as well as some 18th and 19th century Ghanaian scholars. Special mention is also made about the contributions by the Department of Psychology at the University of Ghana (established in May 1967) in postcolonial Ghana as one of the first departments of psychology in Anglophone West Africa. The paper also discusses the challenges associated with the application of psychological knowledge in its current form in Ghana and ends by attempting to formulate the form an indigenous Ghanaian psychology could to take.

Les Sissé étaient un clan royal établi au Ghana dont le règne s'étendait au moins jusqu'à l'époque almoravide. La plupart des historiens partagent en effet la conviction que l'empire du Ghana des auteurs arabes correspond au Wagadou de la tradition soninké et de ce fait ils estiment que les Sissé connus par la tradition furent les rois du Ghana. Mais, malgré ces identifications plausibles il est évident que la reconstruction de l'histoire du plus ancien empire ds l'Afrique occidentale qui en ressort est fondée sur des bases fragiles. La fragilité de cette reconstruction devient éclatante quand on se tourne vers la question de la dislocation du Ghana.Jusqu'à une date récente l'opinion prévalait que le Ghana fut l'objet d'une conquête par les Almoravides à la suite de laquelle sa vitalité fut brisée. D. Conrad et H. Fisher ont pris le contre-pied de cette opinion en soutenant que ni les textes écrits, ni les traditions orales ne portaient trace d'une telle conquête. Ils contestent l'existence d'une rupture dynastique correspondante et ils nient que le Ghana fut affaibli par l'intermède almoravide. D'autres voix se sont levées qui mettent en évidence les dangers d'une approche trop littéraliste. Mais malgré les efforts déployés une quasi-certitude ne fut jamais mise en question: l'emplacement de l'empire du Ghana. Pour les auteurs concernés l'identité entre le Ghana et le Wagadou constituait un problème, mais la solution de ce problème fut toujours cherchée dans la convergence des différentes indications sur Koumbi Saleh en tant que capitale de l'empire des Sissé et donc des Soninké.

Writing about the Eritrean conflict in the Horn of Africa is a difficult task, because it involves the issue of dismembership of a state. From the Greek Empire to the Roman, from the feudal era to the colonial times, and now in the post-colonial era, dismembership of the state has been a highly controversial and emotional issue. From the colonial era to decolonization, Africans did not have to face this problem. In fact, not only did they applaud the dismembership of the colonial empire, they worked hard to insure the disintegration of the colonies. In their optimism for the future of Africa, they developed a rhetoric that went beyond cooperation among future independent states to continental political unity. “Africa must unite” said the vibrant and dynamic leader of Ghana, Nkrumah.

Osei-Tutu / John Kwadwo / Smith / Victoria Ellen (Ed.): Shadows of Empire in West Africa. New Perspectives on European Fortification. 368 S., Palgrave Macmillan, London 2018 Osei-Tutu / John Kwadwo (Ed.): Forts, Castles and Society in West Africa. Gold Coast and Dahomey, 1450 – 1960. 376 S., Brill, Leiden / Boston 2018 Wazi Apoh: Revelations of Domination and Resilience. Unearthing the buried Past of the Akpini, Akan, Germans and British at Kpando, Ghana. 336 S., Sub-Saharan Publishers, Legon-Accra 2019

The political history of the medieval Western Sudan was dominated by a succession of empires exerting their domination over the region: Ghana, Mali, and finally Songhay. Oral tradition is our only evidence for the existence of yet another empire. It was called Susu and exerted its supremacy after the decline of Ghana and before the rise of Mali. Most historical treatises locate enigmatic Susu in the Kaniaga region northwest of Segou. These treatises are mainly based on oral traditions and medieval Arabic chronicles.After rereading the conventional historical sources and examining passages in Portuguese sources thus far untapped for the history of the Western Sudan, I feel induced to present a new identification for Susu. The Portuguese evidence appears to point to a vast but nearly forgotten kingdom in the Futa Jalon and Upper Niger region as the historical descendant of ancient Susu, thus indicating the latter's location. This kingdom was called Jalo and Concho. Its ethnic core were the Susu and Jalonke, and it was on its ruins that the Muslim Fula conquerors erected the state of Futa Jalon in the eighteenth century. My interpretation of oral traditions and Arabic sources also leads me to assume an identity of Susu with the kingdoms of Sankaran and Do. I will attempt to demonstrate the identity of the polities bearing these different names in sections introducing these polities, most of which have never been subjected to close historical investigation.

Laurie Maffly-Kipp's address to the American Society of Church History proffers the challenge of engaging seriously with the “church” in church history. She notes that scholarship on Christianity has increasingly focused on broader cultural themes in lieu of a more strict concern with churches as institutions in their own right. Maffly-Kipp's challenge reminded me of a particular context in the history of Christianity: the eighteenth-century city-state of Ogua (or, more familiarly, Cape Coast), in present-day Ghana. In the 1750s, the family of a local youth sent their child, Philip Quaque, to study abroad in London under the auspices of the Anglican Church. The young Quaque spent the next eleven years of this life cultivating expertise in Anglican liturgy, Christian theology, and British mores. Before returning home in his early twenties, he was ordained to the Anglican priesthood—the first African to have done so.

This article examines the origins and dynamics of Aberewa, an anti-witchcraft movement that rose to prominence in the Akan forest region of Asante and the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1906–10. It suggests that while the political, social and economic changes of the early colonial period acted as a catalyst for its widespread expansion, Aberewa emerged from an earlier cult called Sakrabundi that was already moving from the savanna into the northern reaches of the Asante empire by the 1880s. The ritual trajectory and popular appeal of Sakrabundi and Aberewa are explored within the context of the ambivalent relationship between the Akan peoples and their northern savanna neighbours. An argument is made for the need to consider witchcraft and anti-witchcraft in Africa as historical processes rather than as a set of structural beliefs and practices.

Given its enduring association with “civilized Africa,” “urban Africa,” “rich Africa,” and “commercial Africa,” it is hardly surprising that the trans-Saharan salt-gold trade caught the imagination of Arab authors between the eighth and sixteenth centuries. We recall, for example, that al-Ya'qubi (872/73), the principal source on the Mande empire of Ghana before al-Bakri's Kitab al-masalik wa-'lmamalik (1067/68) first revealed “commercial Africa” to the Islamic world, drawing attention to the two major trans-Saharan routes leading south to the Sudan from Zawila in the east and Sijilmasa in the west, both roads eventually conjoining at the kingdom of Ghana, an ancient heartland of the Mande world. Or that Ibn Hawqal (988) astonished the Islamic world with accounts of “rich Africa” by thrice repeating (at least) his story of the promissory note for 42,000 dinars owed by one Muhammad b. Abi Sa'dun—a salt-gold trade from Awdaghost dealing with the Soninke of Ghana—to his counterpart(s) in Sijilmasa. Or that al-Bakri (1068) confirmed the stories of “urban Africa” with his account of Sijilmasa, the trading entrepot “built in the year 575-758,” and surrounded by “numerous suburbs with lofty mansions and other splendid buildings (where) there are also many gardens.” Or that traveling south from Sijilmasa to Mali—a later heartland of the Mande world—Ibn Battuta (1355), not in the least impressed with Taghaza (the western Sahara's major saline), nonetheless acknowledged as its only virtue the “qintar upon qintar of gold” arriving there from the Malian mines, which Taghaza's inhabitants (“slaves of the Masufa,” he sniffed) exchanged for salt.

Our paper examines the education of African children in countries that were colonized by Britain, including Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. We show how education plays an important role in shaping and transforming cultures and societies. Although the colonies received education, schools were segregated according to race and ethnicity, and were designed to produce racially stratified societies, while loyalty and allegiance to Britain were encouraged so that all felt they belonged to the British Empire or the Commonwealth. In writing about the education of African children in British colonies, the intention is not to convey the impression that education in Africa began with the arrival of the colonizers. Africans had their own system and history of education, but this changed with the incursion by missionaries, educators as well as conquest and colonialism.

While most American academics and policymakers are familiar with the problems facing the growing elderly population in the United States, many are surprised to learn of the troubles confronting the aged in Africa. In stark contrast to the mythic image of the tightly-knit extended family, where grandparents are lovingly cared for as a respected and integral part of the family unit, is the unforgiving reality of hunger, ill health, and loneliness that is the daily existence for many elderly Africans. It is critical that the problems of the aged in Africa and other parts of the developing world be examined, but we must recognize that these problems do not signify a simple convergence toward a common social ill across the globe. Rather, the nature of inter-generational solidarity varies, sometimes dramatically, over time and across contexts. This study employs a comparative analysis to reveal important differences in the nature of inter-generational solidarity over time between two similar sub-regions in neighboring Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa, and asks what explains those differences.

AbstractThe history of medieval West Africa is defined by the age of three great empires that succeeded one another: Ghāna, Māli, and Songhay. How did these empires come to frame our view of the West African past? To answer the question, we have to understand first how the European and Eurocentric concept of an empire was imposed on a specific African context and why it thrived. In this respect, the case of Sudanic empires in particular illuminates the process of history writing and scholars’ relationship with their time and object of study. In the last few years, Sudanic empires have made a prominent return to the historical conversation. I propose here a critical reflection on ‘empire’ and ‘imperial tradition’ in the western Sahel based on europhone and non-europhone (Arabic) historiographies, from the first histories written in postmedieval West Africa to those produced by twenty-first-century scholarship.

This paper attempts to examine in a descriptive way the pioneering model of “World Englishes” proposed by Kachru in the mid-1980s that allocates the presence of English into three concentric circles: The Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle. The Inner Circle presents the countries where English is used as a native language and as a first language among people. These countries include the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The Outer Circle includes countries that have old historical British colonial relations and where English is commonly used in social life or the government sectors. Most of the countries that belong to this circle are former colonies of the British Empire, such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, Ghana, Kenya, and others. The usage of English in these countries is similar to what is known as English as a second language. The third circle, The Expanding Circle, includes countries that introduce English as a foreign language in schools and universities, mostly for communicating in English with the Inner and Outer Circles. Such countries include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, The Emirates, Japan, China, Korea, and others. Since its first introduction in 1985, Kachru's Three Concentric Circles Model of English Language has occasioned a great debate. Many linguists considered it one of the most influential models for understanding the use of English in different countries. Some, on the other hand, including Kachru himself, criticized the model for its oversimplification and the unclear membership to the circles. In addition to an overview of criticism on Kachru's model based on different studies, this paper tries to locate the place of ELT in Kuwait among the three circles.

In recent years the impact of the Almoravid movement on the sahelian societies has been the object of some debate. Ancient Ghana seemed to be the most rewarding area of investigation, since al-Zuhrī (1154) and Ibn Khaldūn (end of the fourteenth century) suggested its ‘conquest’ by Almoravid forces. The evidence provided by these narrative sources has been disputed, but it could not be discarded.A new field of investigation was opened by the discovery in 1939 of a number of royal tombstones in Gao-Sané close to the old capital of the Gawgaw empire. The dates of the epitaphs extend from the early twelfth to the late thirteenth century. However, none of the Arabic names given to the rulers of Gao-Sané seemed to correspond to any of the names provided in the chronicles of Timbuktu, the T. al-Sūdān and the T. al-Fattāsh. A closer look at the epitaphs shows that the third ruler of Gao-Sané, called ‘Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb and also Yāmā b. K.mā and who died in 1120, is in fact identical with Yama Kitsi mentioned in the chronicles. The available evidence suggests that by 1080 the local Berbers of Gao-Sané were able to seize power from the earlier Qanda/Kanta dynasty of Old Gao. This change of dynasty was certainly not the result of a military conquest, although it is likely that Almoravid propagandists contributed to arouse the religious fervour of the local Muslims in both Gao-Sané with its community of traders and Old Gao with its Islamic court members and dynastic factions. The clear message of the Gao epitaphs is that the new rulers of Gao-Sané, the Zāghē, tried to establish good relations with members of the former ruling clan resorting to a policy of intermarriage. By the middle of the thirteenth century the Zāghē rulers were so much integrated into the local Mandé society that they adopted the title Z.wā (Zā) which was originally the title of the Kanta rulers. Thus it would appear that in spite of the far-reaching dynastic effects resulting from the religious and political upheaval of the Almoravid period, there was no major incursion of Berber people into the kingdom of Gawgaw. Indeed, there are reasons to believe that the basic institutions of the original‘Mande’ society were destroyed only in the course of the fifteenth century, when Songhay warrior groups from the east under the leadership of the Sonni radically changed the ethnic set-up of the Middle Niger. In spite of these changes the Zarma, whose aristocracy descend from the Zā, preserve the tradition of their origin from Mali until the present day.

This issue of the journal “History of Science and Technology” has been prepared in difficult conditions. In difficult conditions for authors… In difficult conditions for reviewers ... In difficult conditions for the editorial board… In difficult conditions for the whole world in general!!! This issue contains ten articles. The first of these articles came in late 2019, when the world did not know yet these terrible words: Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19); severe acute respiratory syndrome Corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)… COVID-19 was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, and has since spread worldwide, resulting in an ongoing pandemic. As on May 29, 2020, when these lines were written, more than 5 800 000 cases were recorded in 188 countries, killing more than 359 000 people. We hope that humanity will invent a vaccine as soon as possible, and these horrific death statistics will first stop growing and then stop altogether. For this, many events and activities are important, as history shows. Including the history of the development of science and technology, that is the subject area of our publication. In many sources on the history of electric power production the evolution of electric power production was studied both in developed and developing countries and its impact on economy. The growing demand for electric power became the most problem that stood before the power sector of Ghana. This issue begins with an article examining activities that in many ways helped to create a sustainable electricity supply for households and industries in Ghana, especially in the cities of Accra and Kumasi, between 1900 and 1960. Scientific-technical borrowings are one of those types of scientific support for the work of industrial sectors, whose role in the conditions of exiting the crisis to acquiring the particular importance. Since the mid-1920s, they have become the main way of scientific support for the organization of the development of Ukrainian electric machine-building industry in the context of large-scale electrification of the country. That was due to the need for a quick withdrawal of this industry from the previous crisis in the absence in the Ukrainian SSR of its own scientific support system for the electric machine engineering. An example of this measure, which was considered in the study, was an attempt to achieve the fastest possible increase in productivity of the Kharkiv Electromechanical Plant at minimal financial cost. The next article analyzes the activities of the mining industry in the south of the Russian Empire, of which Ukraine was a part of that time. An analysis of the so-called “coal crisis” and the role of large miners in collusion has been made. Market monopolization has been considered. Emphasis is made on the customs policy of the tsarist government, speculation on temporary fuel difficulties. The study shows that in the last quarter of the nineteenth century there was a consolidation and monopolization of the mining industry in the south of the Russian Empire. In the 21st century, every reputable journal also has an online version, which makes the dissemination of scientific information almost instantaneous. We are so accustomed to the conveniences of the information age that it is difficult for us to imagine the difficulties that scientists faced a little over 150 years ago. The genesis of science launched the process of forming branch of scientific communities and demanded stable ways of communication for productive and effective development of the branch. Scientific journals have become an ideal means of disseminating information, and a scientific article has been transformed from an ordinary letter into a modern form and has taken on an ideal form. The importance of international communication between scientists, on the example of consideration of the activities of Valerian Mykolaiovych Lihin, is discussed in the following study. He became the first Russian-speaking member of one of the oldest Mathematical Societies in Europe - the French. V. Lihin broke the tradition of “isolated” science when discoveries in the Russian Empire (and later in the USSR) were made separately from the rest of the world. In the next article an attempt to investigate in a chronological order the historical circumstances on the formation and development of the mainline electric locomotives engineering at the Luhansk diesel locomotives engineering plant (1957–2014) has been made. Historical and biographical research is continued by the article, which considers the factors shaping the scientific worldview of Mykola Pavlovych Petrov - an outstanding scientist and engineer against the background of his initiative and organizational efforts to develop the domestic scientific and technical space of the late nineteenth - early twentieth The article devoted to highlighting the contribution of academician Mariia Vasylivna Pavlova (Gortynska) in the development of palaeozoology science at the end of the XIX – the first third of the XX centuries continues the cycle of historical and biographical researches. We hope that our readers will be interested in scientific work, examining the research of Russian women in the field of human genetics in 1920-1930. The main task of the article was to determine the contribution of women scientists to the development of different fields of human genetics. Particular attention was given to reconstructing women’s geneticists’ research work, reviewing the content of their publications, and analyzing the theoretical and methodological approaches they employed in solving various scientific problems. In the history of Ukrainian archeology, there are many names of outstanding researchers who have devoted their lives to the study of our antiquity. Among them is Yulian Kulakovskyi, a well-known domestic historian and archeologist. In 1883 Yu. A. Kulakovskyi joined the Nestor Chronicler Historical Society. Since that time, his life and career have been closely linked to this scientific union. The analysis of the results of researches in the field of late antique archeology of the Crimea, published on the pages of “Readings of the Historical Society of Nestor the Chronicler”, is discussed in the next article. The development of the spread of COVID-19 shows that in the fight against it in the first place are such measures and actions as unrestricted access to information on methods of combating the spread of the virus; exchange of data at the international level on treatment methods of the disease; communication between scientists from different countries; timely quarantine measures, etc. In this sense, it is important to study the historical experience of mankind in the fight against pandemics. This issue of the journal History of Science and Technology concludes with an article on a critical analysis of nineteenth-century military interventions as the main cause of the spread of infectious diseases internationally. Emerging problems and solutions obtained as a result of a critical analysis of the materials of the International Sanitary Conferences reveal the history of the spread of infectious diseases and the methods of early statistics used for epidemiological purposes. Concluding this Preface, we emphasize once again the importance of a comprehensive study of international historical experience in the development of science and technology. Not limited to any one field or field of science, we are ready to provide the pages of our journal for the opportunity to exchange views with the international scientific community. Let peace and health be with everyone in these hard times!

Review of: A Broken Trust: Sir Herbert Samuel, Zionism and the Palestinians, Sahar Huneidi, foreword by Walid Khalidi (2001)London: I. B. Tauris, 340 pp.,ISBN 978-1-86064-172-5, h/bk, out-of-printThe Palestine Deception, 1915‐1923: The McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, the Balfour Declaration, and the Jewish National Home, J. M. N. Jeffries, edited and with an introduction by William M. Mathew (2014)Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies-USA, 175 pp.,ISBN 978-0-88728-320-8, p/bk, $16.00Palestine. The Reality. The Inside Story of the Balfour Declaration 1917‐1938, J. M. N. Jeffries, with a new introduction by Ghada Karmi (2017)Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 800 pp.,ISBN 978-1-56656-024-5, p/bk, $30Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict, Walter L. Hixson (2019)Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 324 pp.,ISBN 978-1-108-70532-5, p/bk, $29.99

In the new issue, our scientific journal offers you thirteen scientific articles. As always, we try to offer a wide variety of topics and areas and follow current trends in the history of science and technology. In the article by Olha Chumachenko, оn the basis of a wide base of sources, the article highlights and analyzes the development of research work of aircraft engine companies in Zaporizhzhia during the 1970s. The existence of a single system of functioning of the Zaporizhzhia production association “Motorobudivnyk” (now the Public Joint Stock Company “Motor Sich”) and the Zaporizhzhia Machine-Building Design Bureau “Progress” (now the State Enterprise “Ivchenko – Progress”) has been taken into account. Leonid Griffen and Nadiia Ryzheva present their vision of the essence of technology as a socio-historical phenomenon. The article reveals the authors' vision of the essence of the technology as a sociohistorical phenomenon. It is based on the idea that technology is not only a set of technical devices but a segment of the general system – a society – located between a social medium and its natural surroundings in the form of a peculiar social technosphere, which simultaneously separates and connects them. Definitely the article by Denis Kislov, which examines the period from the end of the XVII century to the beginning of the XIX century, is also of interest, when on the basis of deep philosophical concepts, a new vision of the development of statehood and human values raised. At this time, a certain re-thinking of the management and communication ideas of Antiquity and the Renaissance took place, which outlined the main promising trends in the statehood evolution, which to one degree or another were embodied in practice in the 19th and 20th centuries. A systematic approach and a comparative analysis of the causes and consequences of those years’ achievements for the present and the immediate future of the 21st century served as the methodological basis for a comprehensive review of the studies of that period. The article by Serhii Paliienko is devoted to an exploration of archaeological theory issues at the Institute of archaeology AS UkrSSR in the 1960s. This period is one of the worst studied in the history of Soviet archaeology. But it was the time when in the USSR archaeological researches reached the summit, quantitative methods and methods of natural sciences were applied and interest in theoretical issues had grown in archaeology. Now there are a lot of publications dedicated to theoretical discussions between archaeologists from Leningrad but the same researches about Kyiv scholars are still unknown The legacy of St. Luke in medical science, authors from Greece - this study aims to highlight key elements of the life of Valentyn Feliksovych Voino-Yasenetskyi and his scientific contribution to medicine. Among the scientists of European greatness, who at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries showed interest to the folklore of Galicia (Halychyna) and Galician Ukrainians, contributed to their national and cultural revival, one of the leading places is occupied by the outstanding Ukrainian scientist Ivan Verkhratskyi. He was both naturalist and philologist, as well as folklorist and ethnographer, organizer of scientific work, publisher and popularizer of Ukrainian literature, translator, publicist and famous public figure. I. H. Verkhratskyi was also an outstanding researcher of plants and animals of Eastern Galicia, a connoisseur of insects, especially butterflies, the author of the first school textbooks on natural science written in Ukrainian. A new emerging field that has seen the application of the drone technology is the healthcare sector. Over the years, the health sector has increasingly relied on the device for timely transportation of essential articles across the globe. Since its introduction in health, scholars have attempted to address the impact of drones on healthcare across Africa and the world at large. Among other things, it has been reported by scholars that the device has the ability to overcome the menace of weather constraints, inadequate personnel and inaccessible roads within the healthcare sector. This notwithstanding, data on drones and drone application in Ghana and her healthcare sector in particular appears to be little within the drone literature. Also, little attempt has been made by scholars to highlight the use of drones in African countries. By using a narrative review approach, the current study attempts to address the gap above. By this approach, a thorough literature search was performed to locate and assess scientific materials involving the application of drones in the military field and in the medical systems of Africans and Ghanaians in particular. The paper by Artemii Bernatskyi and Vladyslav Khaskin is devoted to the analysis of the history of the laser creation as one of the greatest technical inventions of the 20th century. This paper focuses on establishing a relation between the periodization of the stages of creation and implementation of certain types of lasers, with their influence on the invention of certain types of equipment and industrial technologies for processing the materials, the development of certain branches of the economy, and scientific-technological progress as a whole. The paper discusses the stages of: invention of the first laser; creation of the first commercial lasers; development of the first applications of lasers in industrial technologies for processing the materials. Special attention is paid to the “patent wars” that accompanied different stages of the creation of lasers. A comparative analysis of the market development for laser technology from the stage of creation to the present has been carried out. Nineteenth-century world exhibitions were platforms to demonstrate technical and technological changes that witnessed the modernization and industrialization of the world. World exhibitions have contributed to the promotion of new inventions and the popularization of already known, as well as the emergence of art objects of world importance. One of the most important world events at the turn of the century was the 1900 World's Fair in Paris. Thus, the author has tried to analyze the participation of representatives of the sugar industry in the World's Fair in 1900 and to define the role of exhibitions as indicators of economic development, to show the importance and influence of private entrepreneurs, especially from Ukraine, on the sugar industry and international contacts. The article by Viktor Verhunov highlights the life and creative path of the outstanding domestic scientist, theorist, methodologist and practitioner of agricultural engineering K. G. Schindler, associated with the formation of agricultural mechanics in Ukraine. The methodological foundation of the research is the principles of historicism, scientific nature and objectivity in reproducing the phenomena of the past based on the complex use of general scientific, special, interdisciplinary methods. For the first time a number of documents from Russian and Ukrainian archives, which reflect some facts of the professional biography of the scientist, were introduced into scientific circulation. The authors from Kremenchuk National University named after Mykhailo Ostrohradskyi presented a fascinating study of a bayonet fragment with severe damages of metal found in the city Kremenchuk (Ukraine) in one of the canals on the outskirts of the city, near the Dnipro River. Theoretical research to study blade weapons of the World War I period and the typology of the bayonets of that period, which made it possible to put forward an assumption about the possible identification of the object as a modified bayonet to the Mauser rifle has been carried out. Metal science expert examination was based on X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to determine the concentration of elements in the sample from the cleaned part of the blade. In the article by Mykola Ruban and Vadym Ponomarenko on the basis of the complex analysis of sources and scientific literature the attempt to investigate historical circumstances of development and construction of shunting electric locomotives at the Dnipropetrovsk electric locomotive plant has been made. The next scientific article continues the series of publications devoted to the assessment of activities of the heads of the Ministry of Railways of the Russian Empire. In this article, the authors have attempted to systematize and analyze historical data on the activities of Klavdii Semyonovych Nemeshaev as the Minister of Railways of the Russian Empire. The article also assesses the development and construction of railway network in the Russian Empire during Nemeshaev's office, in particular, of the Amur Line and Moscow Encircle Railway, as well as the increase in the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The article discusses K. S. Nemeshaev's contribution to the development of technology and the introduction of a new type of freight steam locomotive for state-owned railways. We hope that everyone will find interesting useful information in the new issue. And, of course, we welcome your new submissions.

Islam in Nigeria is the product of A. R. I. Doi's twenty years of research on the spread and development of Islam in Nigeria. Professor Doi, currently the director of the Centre for Islamic Legal Studies at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, has also taught at the University of Nigeria at Nsukka and the University of lfe. His lengthy tenure in the different major geographical zones of Nigeria is reflected in the book. The twenty-one chapters begin with a general introductory overview of the spread of Islam in West Africa. Part I is devoted to the impact of Islam in the Northern States of Nigeria, Part II deals with the more recent spread of Islam into the Southern Nigerian States and Part III explicates a wide variety of issues germane to the understanding of Islam at the national level. The book is comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and is based on analyses of secondary sources as well as primary field research conducted in all parts of Nigeria. The book has nine maps, seventy-three photographs, detailed notes at the end of each chapter, a bibliography and an index. Professor Doi traces the spread of Islam through North Africa into the Ancient Empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai. As Islam moved into the Northern part of Nigeria, it had a dramatic impact on the seven Hausa states and on the Fulani peoples who carried out the jihad under Shehu Utham Dan Fodio and the Fulani Sultans of Sokoto. A link was established between the Umawz Arabs and the Kanem-Bornu State. Islam also influenced the Nupe and Ebirra peoples. With the arrival of the Royal Niger Company, British Imperialism and Christian missions began to move into Northern Nigeria about 1302 AH/1885 AC. The impact of colonialism and Christianity upon Islam in Northern Nigeria is analyzed by Dr. Doi. Of particular interest is the analysis of syncretism between Islam and the indigenous cultures and religions of Northern Nigeria. The Boori Cult and the belief in al-Jinni are described. The life cycle of the Hausa-Fulani Muslims includes descriptions of the ceremonies conducted at childbirth, the naming of a new child, engagement, marriage, divorce, and death. Non-Islamic beliefs which continue to persist among Muslims in Northern Nigeria are identified ...

Since the meeting of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Accra, Ghana (2004), and the adoption of the Accra Declaration, a debate has been raging in the churches about globalisation, socio-economic justice, ecological responsibility, political and cultural domination and globalised war. Central to this debate is the concept of empire and the way the United States is increasingly becoming its embodiment. Is the United States a global empire? This article argues that the United States has indeed become the expression of a modern empire and that this reality has considerable consequences, not just for global economics and politics but for theological refl ection as well.

The Accra Confession was formulated and adopted by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Accra, Ghana, in 2004. This article traces the historical development of the Accra Confession and its continued impact on the present. It aims to show the confession as a Reformed response to ‘empire’. The article explores the content, debates and challenges the Accra Confession offers to the notion of empire.

Oral artists are a common sight in traditional African societies and were most prominent in old empires such as Oyo, Benin, Songhai and Mali. They also existed in the Zulu empire, northern Nigeria and among the Akan in Ghana. Their place is integral to the social and political well-being of these empires. In the Oyo empire, court poets are known as Olohun-Iyo. They are called griots in Senegal and Mali and among the Akan of Ghana, they are called Kwadwumfo. Modern Nigerian dramatists such as Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi have appropriated the image and roles of the court poet in Death and The King’s Horseman and Ovonramwen Nogbaisi respectively. This paper defines who a court poet is, his role as a maker and wordsmith, and the nature of his work and patronage. It examines the qualities he must possess and the content of his poetry. In examining the place of memory and remembering in the discharge of the poet ́s duties, the paper investigates the various mnemonic and retrieval systems used by the poet to recall past accounts and great deeds of the kings. The roles of traditional court poets will be compared with the roles played by Olohun-iyo and Uzazakpo in the selected plays. The paper will also discuss what has become of oral artists in modern African societies. How viable is the art-form in the modern world with the advent of technology? Has civilization and modernity eroded their importance in society? While affirming their traditional advisory, prophetic, warning, motivational roles and as repositories of customs and culture, this paper concludes by stating the poet employs linguistic, para- linguistic and “medicinal” strategies to recall events at a given performance. KEYWORDS: COURT-POET, PRAISE SINGER, TRADITIONAL AFRICAN POETRY, WOLE SOYINKA, OLA ROTIMI

This research explores the political crisis in the Togolese Republic that has been going since the fall of 2017. The problems under investigation: the confrontation between the power personified in the President Faure Gnassinbé, and the opposition led by Jean-Pierre Fabre; the background of the conflict; a role of France in the murder of the First Togolese President Sylvanus Olympio, and the establishment of the half century dictatorship of the Gnassinbé clan. The special attention is paid to the tactic of the French President of the Fifth Republic Emmanuel Macron and the President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo, in the settlement of the Togolese crisis. The principle of historicism and the historical reconstruction served as the methods to determine multiple factors of the political instability in Togo. These methods allowed us to conclude that at the core of the situation is the determination of the Elysee Palace to preserve the political, economic and strategical interests of France in this African country. The confrontation between the Togolese President whose legitimacy is questioned by many, and the opposition that has already shifted to the violent resistance to the odious country leader, make French President face a difficult choice. On the one hand, the removal from power of the Gnassingbé clan could seriously politically, economically and strategically hurt the Fifth Republic and become sign of the erosion of the whole “Franceafrique” system. On the other hand, an open support of F. Gnassingbé is fraught with serious reputational damage both, for E. Macron personally and for the entire French diplomacy on the Black continent. This, in turn, could Illy affect the relations of France with its African clientele, the former colonies of the French Empire. All of the above stipulate Paris’ wait-and-see attitude. Apparently, the optimal solution of the problem, according to Macron, is the preservation of the presidential rule of F. Gnassingbé until the 2020 elections. In his opinion, the elections would either confirm the legitimacy of the acting president or would provide a democratic power succession. The time left until the elections he expects to use to secure guarantees from the leaders of the opposition for all the preferences the Fifth Republic enjoys in its relations with the Togolese Republic. In the event of the crisis escalation France is ready to play a political gambit to gain sympathy of the opposition leaders at the cost of removal from power of its former favorite F. Gnassingbé. The novelty and importance of the research is conditioned by the current events in Togo: the political crisis has not yet become a subject of analysis of the Russian and Western scholars.

This article proposes a feminist geopolitics of technology framework that analyzes the connections between global politics and techno-empires through the lens of feminist scholarship. This framework has three dimensions: (1) grounding in place, (2) attention to everyday surviving and thriving, and (3) community. We draw on two long-term, community-oriented ethnographic research engagements in Cambodia and Ghana to illustrate how this approach might be used. This framework provides a resource for scholars to make sense of the contrasts between dominant narratives and lived experiences, particularly encouraging more sensitive and generative approaches to analyzing the conditions and dimensions of a shifting geopolitics of technology. In writing stories of caring, thriving, and grounded alternatives, we hope to foster and support initiatives that encourage personal agency and living the full human experience amid inequality and structural violence.

Abstract In the 16th and 17th centuries Ottoman Turks conquered most countries of the Middle East and North Africa and reached Vienna. As а result, the power of Istanbul was established in the heterogeneous spaces of the Mediterranean. The seized territories in Europe became part of Dar al-Islam, increasing the area of direct spread of the Arab-Muslim spiritual tradition. In this context, the journey in search for knowledge (rihla) acquired special significance it contributed to the intensification of cultural and intellectual life of the Ottoman society and establishment of its ideological unity. The author examines the materials from the treatises of Medina theologian Muhammad Kibrit, Istanbul explorer Evliya Celebi and Damascus Sufi Abd al-Ghani al-Nablusi, who travelled through the territory of the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century, to explore the main pilgrimage routes and cultural centers of the region. The goal of this article is to analyze the content of civilizational exchange and to identify basic characteristics of new Ottoman cultural experience.