Academic literature on the topic 'Tiv (African people)'

Eurhythmics in Dalcroze study is defined as the engagement of human body in rhythmic movement and active listening. Jaques-Dalcroze’s involvement of Eurhythmics in music pedagogy is aimed at securing steady position for the body and mind as well as a calculated and unconstrained expression of rhythm. African indigenous music and dance is predominantly functional with intensive assignation of the body and soul of the participants to satisfy the rhythmic drum patterns provided by the musicians. The teaching of music in traditional African settings may be generally informal, yet deliberate. The training technique of the notable indigenous dances in Nigeria informally employ the Dalcroze Eurhythmics teaching technique in the step by step movement pattern and dynamics employed during their group practices, especially with younger members of the group. Among the various traditional dance found in the Tiv clan of central Nigeria, the Swange dance is purposefully selected for this study to validate the relevance of Dalcroze to indigenous Nigerian culture, with regard to music and movement. This paper employ the ethnographic study approach; it combines participatory and observation research methodologies, theoretical engagement, and ample illustrative style of writing, to portray the everyday complexities of music/dance learning among the people.

The chieftaincy and traditional rulership institution is dynamic and one of the most enduring legacies from traditional African societies. Until the coming of the colonialists, the traditional institution led by chiefs, emirs, obas, Ezes, etc performed legislative and judicial functions as well as political, religious, social and economic roles etc. The chieftaincy and traditional rulership institution among the Tiv was not organised in a systematic manner until the creation of the Tor Tiv stool in 1946. With several reformations, the chieftaincy institution has taken a definite stage in Tiv society. However, the problem of the study has to do with the fact that there has arisen in the Tiv chieftaincy scene; the ator a zan adua (Christian traditional rulers) who rather than protect and preserve Tiv cultural heritage are in the vanguard of the corrosion of a culture they had taken an oath to protect and preserve. If prompt action is not taken by the Tiv, their culture would soon disappear as these ator a zan adua have “churchmentised” and Christianised Tiv culture. As scholars of Tiv History, Religion and Culture, the researchers are alarmed at this cultural imperialism being perpetrated by Tiv traditional rulers. The study adopts the historical, descriptive and evaluative methods. In data collection, the primary and secondary methods have been adopted. In the primary source, oral interviews and the observation methods have been used; whereas in the secondary sources of data collection, documented sources from books, journal articles, newspapers and e-sources have been employed. The study established that by the orientation of ator a zan a dua as Christians, they are on the verge of completely supplanting Tiv culture with a foreign one. The study noted that culture gives an identity to a group of people and without it, they cannot be defined. In view of this challenge, the study made various suggestions as means of preserving and sustaining Tiv cultural heritage for generations yet unborn. One of these suggestions is that traditional rulers in Tiv be made to take their oath of office by Swem (the Tiv symbol of justice) so that when they renege on their oath, they would immediately bear the consequences (death by swollen stomach, limbs and severe headache). The study concluded that Tiv culture must not be sacrificed on the altar of Christianity by anybody not even the ator (traditional rulers).

This paper analyses how gender is constructed by the Tivs through their interpretation of Hamlet in comparison with how Shakespeare projects these characters. Hamlet, a tragic play by Shakespeare, presents a patriarchal system of governance with strong themes of betrayal, love, kinship, religion, and revenge. The lack of agency and autonomy of women, sexual objectification, and their plagues as victims of patriarchy portrayed in Hamlet is a vivid presentation of the fate of women in a patriarchal world. While these may seem universal, the contradictory interpretation of Hamlet by the Tivs in Nigeria demands an inquiry into how the people of Tiv construct and interpret gender in Shakespeare's Hamlet. This paper, therefore, compares the Tiv's culture and gender values with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The paper argues that the Tiv’s construction of gender contradicts Western conceptions of gruesome patriarchal performance in Africa as presented in Western literature. The analysis revealed that the Tiv’s construction of gender gave more agency, power, and respect to women and differed significantly from how Shakespeare constructed gender in Hamlet. The masculinization of witchcraft and the demeaning of the male characters in Hamlet gave less honour and power to the male characters. Tiv’s interpretations and gender constructions present a rather diverging representation of women in Hamlet based on cultural negotiations and lived experiences; thereby, demonstrating how cultural dynamism shapes gender constructions.

The evolution of digital technology has affected traditional theatre practice in Tiv society just like it has done in many other African societies. Contemporary developments in theatre have marked differences from the theatre of the past due to massive revolution being witnessed in theatre practice. This is based on the changing phases of human development orchestrated by the advancement in digital and information technology around the globe. Notwithstanding is the hybridization of cultures which has brought about far reaching changing norms and forms in traditional performances of all kinds. The introduction of social media and its various platforms to society has transported traditional theatre from the local mode into a digital media which closes the barrier of distance and increases its visibility to a larger audience. Despite some limitations, the prospects are extensive. This paper considers the Tiv Ijov Mbakuv performance from its conduct in the local mode and its transmission to digital platforms on social media. The finding is that, Tiv Ijov Mbakuv performance in the digital media is not a counter-theatre but a theatre that has taken advantage of technological advancement and yet, maintaining the elements of its origin and opening the culture of a people for wider access and appreciation by varied audiences. Therefore, the paper notes that, theatre is part of society, the ever-changing nature of society also demands for changes in theatre forms so as to meet up with the yearnings and privileges of a new society. Ijov Mbakuv performance in the digital media is a response to new social demands.

African economies have long been a matter of concern to anthropologists, not least in the pages of Africa. These economies are situated, somewhat contradictorily, between global settings of financialized capitalism on the one hand and impoverished local arenas where cash-based economic transfers predominate on the other. The more such economies appear to be tied to wider global arenas and operations that place them beyond the reach of ordinary people, the more necessary it is to explore the logics and decisions that tie them inexorably to specific everyday settings.

The euphoria greeting the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the forty-fourth president of the United States seized the popular imagination in Africa, much as it did in the U. S. There was hope and enormous goodwill on the continent, derived from President Obama's special tie to Africa—the dreams from his father that he has translated so eloquently. There was hope that the Obama administration would initiate new policies based on mutual respect, multilateral collaboration, and an awareness that there will be no security unless there is common security—and also that security must be broadly defined, extending beyond the military to include the environment, the economy, and health, as well as political and social rights. Yet as many anticipated, given the enormous and wide-ranging problems confronting the new administration, Africa has not been front and center on its agenda. Although President Obama visited Egypt in June and Ghana in July 2009, only a few months into his presidency, Africa has not become a centerpiece of his foreign policy.In his much-publicized speech in Accra, President Obama lauded Ghana for its “repeated peaceful transfers of power,” declared that “development depends on good governance,” and urged Africans to take responsibility for their continent: “to hold [their] leaders accountable, and to build institutions that serve the people.” He pledged that the United States would support their efforts and committed his administration to opening the doors to African goods and services in ways that previous administrations have not. He pledged $63 billion to a new, comprehensive global health strategy that would promote public health systems and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, polio, and other devastating diseases. In the months that followed, he pledged to double American foreign aid to $50 billion a year and to develop a multilateral program to combat hunger.

SUMMARY Language and Development in Africa Development in Africa is often defined in technocratic terms that do not take language into account. Yet, the continent is beset by problems of development that are language-related. The integration of national languages and the full participation of all the population will greatly enhance development in Africa. Over the last three decades, dependency on superimposed international languages to achieve development has proven to be a failure. Instead of leading to national unity, this attitude has contributed to the socioeconomic and political instability of most African nations. The people of Africa are the ones who will make it, or fail to make it, a developed continent. It would be most unwise to force upon them foreign linguistic and cultural models divorced from local realities. RESUMO Lingvoj kaj evoluo en Afriko Evoluon en Afriko oni ofte difinas lau teknokrataj kriterioj, kiuj ne prenas en konsideron la lingvan dimension. Sed la kontinenton sieĝas evoluproblemoj lingvorilataj. La integrigo de naciaj lingvoj kaj la plena partopreno de la tuta logantaro multe fortigos evoluon en Afriko. Tra la pasintaj tri jardekoj, dependo je altruditaj internaciaj lingvoj por atingi evoluon montriĝis malsukcesa. Anstataŭ konduki al nacia unueco, tia aliro kontribuis al la sociekonomia kaj politika nestabileco de plej multaj afrikaj nacioj. La afrikanoj estas tiuj, kiuj igos, au ne igos, Afrikon evoluinta kontinento. Estus tre malsaĝe trudi al ili fremdajn lingvajn kaj kulturajn modelojn malkongruajn al lokaj realoj.

This paper argues that Yorùbá dress codes (fondly called traditional dress) ought to be symbols of both cultural and formal identity. As part of the being of the Yorùbá, dressing represents more than covering human nakedness, it defines the individual just as it symbolizes different things and moods. Colours, designs and functions all serve as symbols. Unfortunately, within these symbolisms the Yorùbá dresses are not generally welcomed as symbols of formal environments (especially nongovernmental corporate offices). Such outfits at best may be allowed as a dress-down. Formal symbolisms of Yorùbá dresses are restricted to political office holders or government functionaries, beyond which cultural attires are reserved for social functions. In other words, corporate dress codes do not give room for normative or psychological recognition of Yorùbá cultural dressing. Although in recent years Africans have given life to very rich indigenous identities, which have begun to re-affirm the functionality of our arts, yet not many people today have tried to relate these to questions of corporate dressing. It is believed that African cultural symbols are better reflected as traditional symbols. The methods of exposition, hermeneutics, conceptual analysis and critical evaluative reasoning are used in this paper to expose on the one hand Yorùbá dress symbolisms and on the other hand to submit that Yorùbá costumes are as formal as wearing a tie and suit to the office. This lends a voice to the recognition and incorporation of Yorùbá garments (and other African cultural dresses) into general formal symbols.

Ask any Civil War historian about the cost of the Civil War and they will recite a host of well-known assessments, from military casualties and government expenditures to various measures of direct and indirect costs. But those numbers are not likely to include an appraisal of the humanitarian crisis and suffering caused by the wartime destruction of slavery. Peace-time emancipation in other regions (the northern U.S., for example) and in other societies (like the British West Indies) certainly presented dangers and difficulties for the formerly enslaved, but wartime emancipation chained the new opportunities and possibilities for freedom to war’s violence, civil chaos, destruction and deprivation. The resulting health crisis, including illness, injury, and trauma, had immediate and lasting consequences for black civilians and soldiers. Although historians are more accustomed to thinking of enslaved people as the beneficiaries of this war, rather than its victims, we cannot assess the cost of this war until we answer two important questions: first, what price did enslaved people have to pay because their freedom was achieved through warfare rather than a peacetime process; and secondly, in this war in which so many Americans paid such a high cost, to what extent did racism inflate the cost paid by people of African descent? In answering these questions, we reconsider this specific war, but we must also tie the U.S. Civil War to a larger scholarship on how wars impact civilians, create refugee populations, and accelerate harsh treatment of people regarded as racial, religious, or ethnic outsiders. We are reminded that war is not an equal-opportunity killer.

Sierra Leone is one of several countries along the Rice Coast of West Africa. Gullah Geechee people live in the coastal region of the United States from Pender County, North Carolina to St. Johns County, Florida. The essential tie between Sierra Leoneans and Gullah Geechee people is rice. The purpose of the article is to present information that assess satisfaction, perceptions, preferences and characteristics of a tour of Gullah Geechee people to Sierra Leone. The study data enabled the analysis and identification of tourist satisfaction, as well as provided understanding of potential trip improvements. Implications from the study bring Sierra Leone into the fold of heritage tours as seen in Ghana and Senegal, people discovering their roots, enabling social investments in developing nations and can be of service to the Government of Sierra Leone.

Faith and culture enjoy a harmonious relationship. In the past centuries of Catholicism, evangelization did not take into cognizance the culture of a people. The translation and adaptation approaches were the dominant models missionaries often used in the context of evangelization. Sadly, these approaches failed to create adequate contact with the local cultures where the faith was transplanted. The distance between faith and culture has caused the Catholic faith to be foreign in many cultures across the globe including, North African countries and Japan. In Tiv society of central Nigeria too, Catholicism is yet to take concrete root.

Building on the worship experiences of educated emerging adult Catholics in institutions of higher education in Tivland, this dissertation uses the circle method and other related contextual approaches to contextualize Catholicism in Tiv culture. The data gathered from participant observation, one-on-one interviews, and focus groups discussions was narrowed to what most connects emerging adults with Catholic worship, and what the Catholic Church needs to know about them. The data revealed a constantly recurring notion of unappealing worship and inadequate catechesis on core doctrines. One way to connect their experiences of worship is by synthesizing cultural symbols with Catholic worship symbols.

Community formations, intensive catechesis, and service to the church are the three practical strategies that can synthesize faith and culture and ground the Catholic Church in Tiv culture. Pious organizations that bring emerging adults together as community will serve as forum to adequately catechize them by synthesizing Catholic symbols with cultural texts that are already familiar to them. This leads to a mutual enrichment of both Tiv cultural practices and Catholic worship symbols ultimately making emerging adults community theologians who can effectively articulating the faith to others including, those in rural communities.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study has focused on interpreting the Passover in the Exodus tradition as a narrative of origin and migration among the Tiv of Nigeria. The main aim of the study is to go beyond a theology of liberation from slavery and colonialism which has been the crux of the interpretation of Exodus to a theology of identity that commemorates the beginning of the migration from Egypt through the ritual festival of the Passover. The study has argued that one’s identity could be used as an indigenous interpretive resource to interpret the Passover in the Exodus tradition among the Tiv of Nigeria who are mostly from an oral context. By employing a literary and socio-rhetorical approach (cf. Robbins 1996a:1), the research has analyzed the inner-texture, inter-texture, socio-cultural and ideological/theological intertexture of the Passover text of Exodus 12:1-28. It is argued that the Passover tradition had to survive the onslaught of royal and priestly ideology evident in its changing character from being a family oriented feast (Ex. 12:1-28) to a centralized feast held in the temple in Jerusalem. Despite the onslaught, the Passover prevailed as a family feast in the end and theology triumphed over ideology – in a manner of speaking. The different stages of development and celebration of the Passover in biblical times from family/non-priestly to priestly and centralized feast in the temple is also regarded as a clue to its survival of the onslaught of royal and priestly ideology. The socio-rhetorical approach is deemed appropriate for the interpretation of the Passover in the Exodus tradition to an orality-based audience such as the Tiv of Nigeria especially in terms of the oral-scribal intertexture. The approach is relevant to the oral community because it integrates the text with history and the readers to enable readers of any given text to interact with it using their context full of different life experiences to come up with new and informed interpretations that are meaningful and appropriate to them. Thus, the study has argued that oral discourse should work hand-in-hand with the written as far as the interpretation of the Exodus and Passover (Ex. 12:1-28) among oral cultures such as the Tiv are concerned. Readers and interpreters of the Passover tradition are enjoined to keep their eyes open to detect oral elements in the literary text and carry out interpretations of portions of the written text that cannot be explained through literary devices by taking into account orality. The study has also registered the need to pay more attention to a theological approach that appreciates readers from an oral culture and their interpretation of and interaction with the written text when placed side by side with the reader’s oral text that is full of stories of origin and migration, identity, life experiences. Furthermore, the multidimensional approach by Robbins (1996a & 1996b) has been employed to analyze the texture of Exodus 12:1-28 and its parallel texts in the Pentateuch, Prophets (Former and Latter) and the Writings. Eleven pericopes on the Passover were identified that stretch from the Pentateuch to the Latter Prophets and they cut across the three biblical legal codes namely the Covenant Code (Ex. 23:14-19), the Holiness Code (Lev. 23:5-8) and the Deuteronomic Code (Deut. 16:1-8). The pericopes also span non-priestly texts (Ex. 12:1-28) and priestly texts (Ex. 34:18-26; Num. 9:1-14; 28:16-25). In another sense, the Passover texts could be said to cover the Deuteronomistic text (Jos. 5:10-12; 2 Kg. 23:21-23), Chronist text (2 Chron. 35:1-18) and the Latter Prophets (Ezek. 45:21-24). By analyzing the Passover text of Exodus 12:1-28 against the backdrop of parallel texts in the Old Testament, the study has also identified eight variables in the texts on the Passover namely different terminologies, place, date, sacrifice, preparation, officials and different links between the Passover and unleavened bread as well as different links between the Passover and the Exodus tradition. The eight variables demonstrate that the Passover has a dynamic and ongoing character; as such, it should be interpreted as a ritual festival that commemorates the beginning of the migration of a chosen people out of slavery in Egypt. However, it should also be seen as a festival commemorating the identity of celebrants with different ideologies, cultures, religious ideas, and life circumstances over time and in different contexts. The different modes of celebrating or interpreting the Passover in different periods and contexts to different audiences with different needs have shown that the narratives of origin and migration of the Tiv could be used as an indigenous interpretive resource for the interpretation of the Passover in the Exodus tradition among people from an oral culture. In addition, the Passover should be interpreted as an ongoing ritual commemoration of the beginning of the migration from Egypt to mark the identity of celebrants in different contexts and cultures. In this way, as the Tiv people celebrate their New Yam festival at the family level or the annual Tiv Day at a centralized place to commemorate their origin as a people that migrated from Congo via Swem in the Cameroon plains to their present home in Benue-Nigeria, fresh memories would be evoked of the Passover festival commemorating the liberation from Egypt to create hope of future survival in present celebrants.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif fokus op die interpretasie van die Paasfees binne die Eksodustradisie as ‘n verhaal aangaande oorsprong en migrasie onder die Tiv van Nigerië. Die hoofdoel van die studie is om verder te gaan as die gebruiklike kontekstualisering van Eksodus as bevrydingsteologie van slawerny en kolonialisme en om ‘n teologiese interpretasie te ontwikkel wat identiteit in ag neem met die herdenking van die begin van die migrasie vanuit Egipte tydens die rituele viering van die Paasfees. In die proefskrif word geargumenteer dat identiteit gebruik kan word as ‘n inheemse bron vir die interpretasie van die Paasfees onder die Tiv wat ‘n sterk mondelinge kultuur het. Daar is gebruik gemaak van Vernon Robbins (1996a) se sosio-retoriese metodologie en sodoende is aandag verleen aan die “inner” en “inter-texture”, sowel as die sosio-kulturele en ideologies-teologiese intertekste van die Paasfees in Eksodus 12: 1-28. Dit word aangetoon hoe die Paasfeestradisie die ideologiese aanslae van koninklike en priesterlike ideologieë moes weerstaan toe koning Josia dit van ‘n familiefees verander het na ‘n gesentraliseerde fees by die tempel in Jerusalem. Ten spyte van hierdie aanslag het die Paasfees tog as familiefees oorleef en kan dit as ‘n voorbeeld gebruik word van hoe teologie ideologie te bowe kan kom. In die Ou Testament kan verskillende fases van ontwikkeling en viering van die Paasfees vanaf ‘n familiefees na ‘n priesterlik gedomineerde sentrale fees by die tempel in Jerusalem onderskei word en dit verleen ‘n aanduiding van hoe die priestelike en koninklike ideologiese aanslag oorwin is. Binne die sosio-retoriese benadering is die sogenaamde “oral-scribal intertexture” van besondere toepassing vir die interpretasie van die Paasfees in die Eksodustradisie binne ‘n mondelinge kultuur soos die van die Tiv in Nigerië. Die eksegetiese benadering is juis van toepassing binne ‘n mondelinge kultuur omdat die teks teen die agtergrond van mondelinge oorlewering verstaan word en die Tiv-lesers in staat stel om dit binne hulle eie konteks met hulle eie lewenservaring in verband te bring. Robbins (1996a & 1996b) se multidimensionele benadering is benut om die teks van Eksodus 12: 1 – 28 te analiseer, sowel as die parallele tekste in die Pentateug, Profete (Vroeëre en Latere) en die Geskrifte. Sodoende is elf intertekste geïdentifiseer wat met die Paasfees verband hou: voorbeelde is gevind in al drie belangrikste regsversamelings in die Ou Testament, naamlik die Verbondsboek (Eks 23:14-19), die Heiligheidswette (Lev 23:5-8) en die Deuteronomiese kodeks (Deut 16: 1-8). Daarmee saam is beide nie-priesterlike tekste (Eks 12: 1-28) sowel as priesterlike tektste (Eks 34:18-26; Num 9:1-14; 28:16-25) in ag geneem, asook Deuteronomistiese gedeeltes (Jos 5:10-12; 2 Kon 23: 21-23), ‘n Kronistiese teks (2 Kron 35: 1-18) en die latere profete (Eseg 45:21 24). Die ondersoek na die bestaande navorsing oor die Paasfees het agt veranderlikes geïdentifiseer wat ook binne die eie teksinterpretasie benut is: uiteenlopende terminologie, plek, datum, offerhande, voorbereiding, amptenare, verskillende bande tussen die Paasfees en die Fees van die Ongesuurde Brode en verskillende verbande tussen die Paasfees en die Eksodustradisie. Hierdie agt veranderlikes demonstreer hoe die Paasfees dinamies voortbestaan het en ook hoe dit verstaan kan word as ‘n feesritueel wat die aanvang van die migrasie uit die Egiptiese slawerny herdenk. Die navorsing het aangetoon hoe die verskillende maniere van paasviering verband hou met verskillende intepretasies van die Paasfees binne opeenvolgende periodes, kontekste, gehore en behoeftes. Daarom word die gevolgtrekking gemaak dat die verhale van oorsprong en migrasie van die Tiv benut kan word as ‘n inheemse bron vir die intepretasie van die Paasfees in die Eksodustradisie. Die proefskrif bevind ook dat dit belangrik is om daarop te let dat die klem val op die voortgaande rituele herdenking van die begin van die verhaal oor migrasie uit Egipte wat van besondere belang vir die identiteit van die feesgangers is – te midde van verskillende kontekste, kulture en ideologieë. Op ‘n soortgelyke manier vier die Tiv hulle “New Yam Festival” as ‘n familiefees en hulle nasionale Tiv Dag by ‘n gesentraliseerde plek as herdenking van hulle oorsprong as ‘n groep wat migreer het vanaf die Kongo via die Swemberg in die Kameroen na hulle huidige blyplek in Benue, Nigerië. Hiermee word die Paasfees ruimer as bevrydingsteologie herinterpreteer en skep dit nuwe hoop op die toekoms vir die deelnemers aan die feesviering.

AbstractSub-Saharan Africa is incredibly vulnerable to the increasing impacts of climate crisis. With a median age of 19 years old, it is also home to the largest youth population in the world. How this population understands their relationship to science and nature can have incredible impacts moving forward. The case study in this chapter is N*Gen, the first cross-African science TV show for kids. Filmed across Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia, its goals are to elevate girls and women in STEM, increase trust in science and scientists, and help give people the critical thinking tools to fight misinformation by exploring a range of topics, including ocean conservation, ecosystem change, zoology, vaccines, and human–wildlife interactions. This chapter also details broader aspects of the media landscape in Sub-Saharan Africa, existing science education efforts, and opportunities to use media to change knowledge, attitude, and behavior related to the climate crisis.

AbstractThe paper reports the discovery in 2018 of a Middle Paleolithic painted rock shelter (dubbed “The Hunter’s Shelter”) in the remote upper reaches of the Wadi Defeit in far southeastern Egypt (just north of the climatologically significant latitude 22° N) by a team from the University of California at Berkeley. The paintings depict two elephants being attacked by encircling human beings wielding spears, in dangerous procedures documented by ethnohistorical accounts of indigenous elephant hunts in central Africa. One of the elephants is partly superimposed on a running or leaping lion (not in scale with the figures of humans and elephants), which might have been made in an earlier episode of painting. The paintings can be dated in three ways: acacia gum inserted into gouges in one elephant’s belly yielded calibrated radiocarbon dates of c. 45 ka; the lion was partly covered by an oxolate crust dated by Uranium-Thorium decay to 60–45 ka; and windswept sand that partly covered the paintings yielded OSL dates of 45–40 ka. At present, the shelter is the earliest known dated painting site in the global prehistoric record. In addition to reporting the motivations and parameters of the project and its preliminary results, the paper discusses the “naturalistic” and “realistic” elements of the configurations and evaluates the regional MP cultural affiliations of the site and the people who likely made the paintings. It explores the idea, given the shelter’s location, that the makers were a Middle Paleolithic population of anatomically and “psychologically” modern humans who moved out of central East Africa through the mountains and wadi systems of the western Red Sea coast in a wave of dispersal dated to c. 75–45 ka; ultimately some of them left the continent altogether by way of land and/or sea travel to the Levant and/or Arabia at the tip(s) of the Red Sea, eventually populating much of the world with modern humans. The second half of the paper considers methodological and theoretical issues raised by the empirical findings of the project, speculating that picture making played a role in effecting the global dispersal of psychologically modern humans, presumably by helping them to remember and communicate lifeways and to understand and adapt to new environments and ecologies as they moved into them, though these possibilities remain to be investigated in detail on a global scale.

Abstract South Africa occupies the southernmost tip of Africa and borders Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It covers 1.2 million sq. km and has nearly 45 million people. Black Africans constitute 79% of the country’s population, whites 10%, coloreds just under 9% and indigenous groups 2.5% The country was colonized for more than 300 years. For most of the last century, the country had a system of institutionalized racial discrimination, known after 1948 as apartheid, which permeated and governed every aspect of South Africans’ lives. After decades of resistance and 30 years of armed struggle, the apartheid system was ended in April 1994 and the first democratic government elected. Nelson Mandela, former head of the African National Congress (ANC) was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa in 1994. He was succeeded by President Thabo Mbeki in 1999.

The Republic of South Africa, known as South Africa, occupies the most southern tip of Africa with a coastline stretching from the border of Namibia on the Atlantic Ocean (south-west coast) of Africa, down to the tip of Africa and then north along the south-east coast to the border of Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. South Africa is bordered by Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and Mozambique and surrounds the small landlocked Kingdom of Lesotho in the east-central region of South Africa. The total area of South Africa is approximately 1.22 million square kilometres (km), with a population of an estimated 58.78 million (2019). The country is divided into nine provinces, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Northwest, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo. Gauteng Province is the most densely populated province with approximately 809.6 people per square kilometre, Kwa-Zulu Natal being the second most densely populated at 120.7 people per square kilometre, with Western and Eastern Cape following substantially behind at 59.1 and 51.1 people per kilometres respectively. There are three capitals in South Africa: Pretoria in the Gauteng province (administrative), Cape Town in the Western Cape (Legislative), and Bloemfontein in the Free State (Judicial). The

The representation of African Americans in the media has been a major concern in mainstream American culture and is also a component of media bias in the United States. Representation, in itself, refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of “reality” such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities, and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures. Media representation of minorities is not always seen in a positive light; therefore, representation of African Americans in particular propagates somewhat controversial and misconstrued images of what African American represent. According to Potter, research on the portrayal of African Americans in prime-time television from 1955 to 1986 found that only 6% of the characters were African Americans, while 89% of the TV population was white. Among these African-American characters, 19% lacked a high school diploma, and 47% were low in economic status.

The introduction sketches the contours of the British six-week invasion and eleven-month occupation of Havana in 1762–1763, a major event in the history of the Atlantic world. It describes the framework of the book, “an event history” that relies on multiple, overlapping temporal and spatial frames in order to tie together many different strands of history, historical actors, perspectives, and scales. In giving a long-term history of the causes, central dynamics, and enduring consequences of this event, the book focuses on the crucial role of the slave trade and people of African descent. The actions of people of African descent and imperial rivalry over the slave trade shaped both the invasion and occupation of Havana in ways yet to be fully understood. The rest of the book explores the painful irony that black soldiers’ brave service in Havana during the British siege helped lead to new Spanish policies that endorsed and expanded slavery and the slave trade.

Abstract Contrary to what the foregoing chapters might suggest, U.S. popular culture has, I think, often negotiated difference among African Americans in ways that, while not perfect, are at least potentially expansive, rather than limiting. Before I consider one instance of such negotiation from the notoriously pervasive medium of network television, let me offer two propositions that I think can serve as generally acceptable premises for my analysis: The first is that the representation of black people on U.S. network TV has been a highly contested phenomenon since at least the days of Amos ‘n’ Andy; the second, which has ramifications for the significance of the first, is that “representation” is an extremely complex affair whose intricacies we have only begun to theorize in the context of African-American cultural studies.

Abstract South Africa holds a privileged position as one of the few countries with an accessible, long, and “unbroken” history going back to the time of our now extinct prehuman ancestors. From about three million years ago, the nation’s earliest fossil traces are used to create lineages and linkages that connect to the “first people,” a label now ascribed to the foraging (hunting and gathering) Later Stone Age groups. Successive waves of migration and assimilation brought various identities to this southern tip of the continent, starting with Khoe herders, with whom the hunter–gatherer groups had an ambivalent relationship before creolizing into the Khoisan identity. Sedentary Bantu-speaking farmers then arrived several centuries before Europe completed the colonization of this subcontinent, about four hundred year ago. Material remains and scientific models are used to fingerprint these identities in ways that continue not only to trigger debates but also to shed light on the long history of humanity in South Africa. Better still, dedicated materials analyses also suggest novel insights, which peaked during the second millennium CE, when contact with the outside world intensified the existing local and regional networks.

Although the South is well known for its desserts, it might not always be clear how Southern dessert traditions developed as they did and how they figure in shaping the identities of the region’s people and practices. Burke (1966) reminds us that terministic screens direct our attention to certain realities and away from others, whereby we forget that baking constituted back breaking, sweaty repression for certain groups of Southerners. This chapter argues that familiar Southern desserts may tie us to our pasts, but through certain types of nostalgia and ritual they also provide space to help change the South’s narratives about race, gender, and community. Southern desserts are suspect in limiting women’s subjectivities, worry modern health sensibilities with their Southern sweetness, and carry the weight of troubling African American history. Our meal ends, however, by investigating how these traditions might offer a taste of connection and resilience along with satisfaction.

Even before the coronavirus crisis struck, people in the Middle East and North Africa were protesting against the injustice and inequality wrought by a decade of austerity. The pandemic and the lockdown measures taken by governments have paralysed economies and threaten to tip millions of people into poverty, with women, refugees, migrant workers and those working in the informal economy among the worst affected. A huge increase in inequality is very likely. More austerity following this crisis will mean more uprisings, more inequality, and more conflict. This paper argues that if another decade of pain is to be averted, governments need to take immediate action to reduce inequality through providing public services to protect ordinary people by taxing the richest and guaranteeing decent work.