bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The fire next time. Cosmology, allegoresis, and salvation in the Derveni Papyrus
Authors: Most Glenn W.
Published: May 2006

Just in case there were any hardened sceptics who still doubted, in the second half of the twentieth century, that our world is ruled by an inept and rather junior God with immature judgment and a nasty sense of humour, He did his best to convince them by arranging for the discovery of the Derveni papyrus in 1962. The soldier who was cremated and buried in that Macedonian village towards the end of the fourth centurybchad intended that the text of this papyrus be devoured by the flames of his pyre; but as it happened one of the burning logs fell onto the roll, covering and charring its top third and thereby saving that part both from immediate annihilation by the fire itself and from subsequent destruction by organic decomposition; then the Greek excavators sharp-wittedly recognized that the roll was not wood but papyrus, and the restorer of the Viennese papyrus collection managed to put together the more than 200 fragments into 26 columns of text. As A.E. Housman wrote in another connection, such a series of highly unlikely incidents can evidently not be ascribed to ‘chance and the common course of nature’, but only to divine intervention: ‘and when one considers the history of man and the spectacle of the universe I hope one may say without impiety that divine intervention might have been better employed elsewhere’.
Neoptolemus and the bow: ritualtheaand theatrical vision in Sophocles'Philoctetes
Authors: Lada-Richards Ismene
Published: May 2006

Much has been written in recent years on the ways in which ritual forms, patterns and sequences are remoulded into the imagery and action of classical Greek plays. A tragedy which offers exceptionally fertile ground for studies on ‘ritual and drama' is Sophocles’Philoctetes, since theatrical and ritual strands are so intimately interwoven in its plot as to create an inextricable knot. In forthcoming work I explore in full both the ritual liminality of Philoctetes' and Neoptolemus' existence as well as the subtle ways in which the vital dramatic experiences of ‘acting’ and ‘viewing’ are inherently intertwined in this play with the initiatory strands of rites of maturation. The present note, conversely, is less ambitious in its scope, as its exclusive focus isonepivotal moment of the play's action, namely the dramatic exhibition of the bow to Neoptolemus' and the spectator's eyes. No matter how inherently interwoven with the action Philoctetes' bow is, Neoptolemus' close look, as he accepts it in his hands (Phil. 776), ‘theatricalises’ the object by converting it into a dramatic spectacle, athea. But even before being formally delivered to Neoptolemus' custody (Phil. 762-78), the bow is prominently singled out as the prime focus of attention, becoming, as it does, a stage-prop uniquely capturing the boy's concentrated sight.
The harbor at Pylos, 425 B.C.
Authors: Strassler Robert B.
Published: May 2006

Thucydides' full description of the harbor at Pylos is part of his discussion of the Spartan strategy for the
campaign (iv 8).

. . . and the Lacedaimonians . . . expected the Attic fleet from Zacynthos to come to the rescue and intended, if they had not captured Pylos by that time, to block up the entrances to the harbor, so that the Athenians could not sail in and use it as an anchorage. (The island called Sphacteria extends alongside the harbor, and lies close to it: hence the anchorage is safe and the entrances narrow–the entrance by Pylos and the Athenian fortifications giving a passage for two ships through the channel, and the entrance by the mainland on the other side a passage for eight or nine . . . ) These entrances then, they intended to block up tightly with ships lying parallel to each other, prows to the enemy: and since they were frightened that the Athenians might use Sphacteria as a military base, they ferried hoplites across to it, and stationed others along the mainland. By this plan, they thought, the Athenians would find both the island to be enemy-occupied and the mainland, which gave them no chance of landing (for the coast of Pylos itself, outside the entrance and towards the open sea, is harborless, and would give them no base of operations to help their troops): and equally they themselves would probably be able to capture the place by siege, without a sea-battle or any unnecessary danger–there was no food in it, and it had not been properly prepared for a siege. This, then, was their agreed plan . . .

Although one would think this a clear and detailed geographic description, historians have not yet found a location at Pylos for the harbor which satisfactorily matches it.
Comparative analysis of enzyme activities and mRNA levels of peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerases in various organs of wild type and Pin1−/− mice
Authors: Fanghänel Jörg , Akiyama Hirotada , Uchida Chiyoko , Uchida Takafumi
Published: May 2006

We investigated the enzyme activity of peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerases (PPIases) in brain, testis, lung, liver, and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) of Pin1
+/+ and Pin1
−/− mice. The aim of this study is to determine if other PPIases can substitute for the loss of Pin1 activity in Pin1
−/− mice and what influence Pin1 depletion has on the activities of other PPIases members. The results show that high PPIase activities of Pin1 are found in organs that have the tendency to develop Pin1 knockout phenotypes and, therefore, provide for the first time an enzymological basis for these observations. Furthermore we determined the specific activity (k
cat/K
M) of endogenous Pin1 and found that it is strongly reduced as compared with the recombinant protein in all investigated organs. These results suggest that posttranslational modifications may influence the PPIase activity in vivo. The activities originating from cyclophilin and FKBP are not influenced by the Pin1 knockout, but a basal enzymatic activity towards phosphorylated substrates could be found in Pin1
−/− lysates. Real time PCR experiments of all PPIases in different mouse organs and MEF of Pin1
+/+ and Pin1
−/− mice support the finding and reveal the specific expression profiles of PPIases in mice.
Second Beginnings: The New Political Framework
Authors: Whitaker C. S.
Published: May 2006

The focus of any discussion of Nigeria at this time in its history is the outlook for success of its recently reconstituted democratic political system. Equally in question should be the validity of external assessments of the Nigerian political situation, some of which in the past have tended, I believe, to rest on misunderstandings of Nigerian politics.
Democracy for the Second Republic
Authors: Sklar Richard L.
Published: May 2006

Following the collapse of many civilian and constitutional governments in postcolonial Africa, most political analysts and commentators drew a dismal conclusion. They decided that democratic representation based upon freedom of speech and association would be abandoned in Africa and they proclaimed the onset of an era of authoritarian rule. Some analysts, in the tradition of colonialist thought, asserted that cultural and social conditions in Africa are simply unsuited to the practice of liberal democracy.
The Ethnic Trap: Notes on the Nigerian Campaign and Elections, 1978–79
Authors: Joseph Richard A.
Published: May 2006

In his opening address to the fifty members of the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) on 18 October, 1975, the head of Nigeria’s new military government, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, declared: “It is important that we avoid a reopening of the deep splits which caused trauma in the country.” Those splits, as was made known to the outside world during the civil war, were ethnic, regional, and, to a lesser extent, religious in nature. Of these three modes of overt division, Nigerians have always been most successful in controlling the religious aspect. General Murtala’s statement is instructive on the problem of regional splits: “The fear of the predominance of one Region over another has . . . been removed to a large extent by the simple Constitutional Act of creating more States.” Four months later, following the assassination of Murtala, the successor regime of General Obasanjo declared the creation of seven more states, bringing the number up to nineteen from the twelve established by General Gowon in May 1967. While it is evident that the existence of “regions” has not been obliterated by their subdivision into states, this development has reduced the immediate political visibility and at least some of the salience of regional boundaries.
Islamic Political Culture and Constitutional Change in Nigeria
Authors: Paden John N.
Published: May 2006

This essay attempts to summarize the Islamic aspect of political culture in Nigeria. It is not intended as an analysis of the recent elections in Nigeria whereby civilian governments were established to replace the military regime. Yet the emphasis on constitutional change, focuses on those aspects of Islamic culture in Nigeria which are likely to affect what ordinary citizens feel ought to be among the basic purposes of government. This essay is largely interpretative rather than empirical, and is based on a profound respect for many of the varieties of Islamic culture in Nigeria.
Prospects for the Administration of Justice in Nigeria: Courts, Police, and Politics
Authors: Carter Helen Marshall
Published: May 2006

In assessing the outlook for the administration of justice under the second Nigerian Republic, one should consider in retrospect the political significance of courts and police, particularly as these agencies affect the work of political development and nation-building. Perhaps in deference to the myth of the apolitical judicial and legal process, little attention has been paid to the political impact of both courts and police, beyond the judicial-review powers of the higher courts or the use of the police as agents of terror.’ Comment on the more “ordinary” doings of police and courts is all too often an afterthought or is missing entirely.
Constitutional and Legal Reform in the Postcolony of Kenya
Authors: Ciekawy Diane
Published: May 2006

The central government of Kenya is well known for its use of the legal system, state structures, and the KANU (Kenya African National Union) party apparatus to threaten and thwart those who criticize its undemocratic practices and human rights violations. There are numerous and detailed accounts of attacks on the news media, the denial of permits for opposition public speaking events, the disruption of opposition party meetings, and the arrest and incarceration of reformist political and religious leaders. It is common for the central government to criminalize political activity by charging critics with sedition or holding an illegal meeting, and to use police violence to break up both licensed and unlicensed political events. Government officials and institutions played a major role in inciting and organizing violence in the Rift Valley from 1991 to 1993 that led to the deaths of over 1,500 people. The return to multiparty politics in 1991, after a lapse of 26 years when KANU reigned supreme, has done little to change these practices. Repression of the freedom of assembly, the freedom of association, and the freedom of expression is the modus operandi of the Kenyan nation-state.
Dr. Kadi Sesay: Sierra Leone Feminist and Advocate for Democracy
Authors: Day Lynda R.
Published: May 2006

Two hundred years ago, the Founding Fathers of America’s world-renowned democracy were wealthy, well-educated white males dedicated to throwing off the yoke of British oppression. In Sierra Leone since 1995, the person most associated with democracy is a petite, articulate, beautiful, in-your-face, dynamo of a woman named Dr. Kadi Sesay. Though Dr. Sesay’s job arises from a national emphasis on civic education for the masses, her work bears special scrutiny for its success in concretizing a feminist vision of female power articulated within the context of empowerment for all the country’s citizens.
Issues in African Academic Language Programming in the U.S.
Authors: Dwyer David J.
Published: May 2006

Support for academic African language programs (ALPs) in the US began at the national level with the National Defense Education Act of 1958 (renamed the Higher Education Act of 1965). The goal of this legislation was to establish a world-wide language and area studies knowledge base that could be called upon in the event of conflict, but in addition it has provided generations of students a wealth of knowledge about the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) and the communities where they are spoken. Although the Africa region’s share of this support has hovered around 12%, its effect has been substantial. For example, based on a world-wide listing of Africanist linguists, approximately half of these specialists live in Africa, with the remainder being equally divided between the countries of Europe and the US, a remarkable fact given that the US has no colonial legacy in Africa. Title VI of this legislation supports a set of National Resource Centers (NRCs) that promote language and area study of a specific region including Africa.
Economic Stagnation in Sub-Sahara Africa and Breaking the Implicit Bargain
Authors: Hentz James J.
Published: May 2006

Economic stagnation in most of Sub-Sahara Africa is so persistent that “afro-pessimism” has gone from a term of art to common usage. Africa is entering its second decade of economic reform through neoliberal Stabilization Programs (STABs) and Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). There is little evidence that these reforms work. Africa is largely to blame, but so too are the logically flawed structural adjustment programs propagated by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs).
Black African Muslim in the Jewish State: Lessons of Colonial Nigeria for Contemporary Jerusalem
Authors: Miles William F. S.
Published: May 2006

This paper represents an essay into Africanist social history and experimental biography. Thirteen years ago the pages of this journal carried a debate between Ali Mazrui and Hailu Habtu concerning Western and Semitic (Arab and Jewish) cultural influences in subsaharan Africa. In response to Professor Mazrui’s argument on the Jewish religious, metaphorical, economic, and political impact on Black Africa (foreshadowing Greco-Roman and Islamic influences), Professor Habtu vigorously rejected the “hidden premise...of an African cultural vacuum, or near-vacuum, destined to be filled by ‘universalistic’ civilizations.”
Academic Freedom, Transformation and Reconciliation
Authors: Mittelman James H.
Published: May 2006

Administration, Staff, Students, and Workers,

It gives me great pleasure to be with you tonight.

I thank you for inviting me to give this annual memorial lecture.
On African Responsibility for Economic Problems
Authors: Mshomba Richard E.
Published: May 2006

African countries, like many other developing countries, suffer the problems associated with poverty—malnutrition, poor health services, high infant mortality rates, low life expectancy, high illiteracy rates, poor infrastructure, and inadequate technology. These problems are especially severe in Sub-Saharan Africa.
African Female Circumcision and the Missionary Mentality
Authors: Russell-Robinson Joyce
Published: May 2006

Alice Walker and former Democratic Congresswoman Pat Schroeder of Colorado have something in common. Both advocate the cessation of female circumcision in African countries, and both tout themselves as feminists, though Walker, borrowing from African American culture, prefers to be labeled as a womanist. What the elders had in mind when they described young African American women as “womanish,” or as “omanish,” the eclipsed form of that same word, was that such girls were too fast, or that they obtruded upon areas that were not their business. While Schroeder cannot properly be called a womanist (to do so would be to misapply the term), one can say that, similar to Alice Walker, Schroeder is putting herself into other people’s business, specifically the business of female circumcision in African communities.
The Political Economy of Primary Care and “Health by the People”: An Historical Explanation
Authors: Gish Oscar
Published: May 2006

During the last several years “primary care” has come to the fore as the “new” priority in health care. In September, 1978 the World Health Organization and UNICEF jointly sponsored the first International Conference on Primary Health Care. The following general principles were put forward in 1975 by the 28th World Health Assembly as the basis of successful primary care efforts.

1.

Primary health care should be shaped around the life patterns of the population it should serve and should meet the needs of the community.

2.

Primary health care should be an integral part of the national health system and other echelons of services should be designed in support of the needs of the peripheral level, especially as this pertains to technical supply, supervisory, and referral support.
The Philosophy of African Medical Practice
Authors: Onwuanibe Richard C.
Published: May 2006

The philosophy of African medical practice is rooted in the African world view. Those locating the cause and cure of sickness in traditional practice ask about the ultimate who, rather than what. The answers given are in terms of the cosmological beliefs of the people. I shall deal with the philosophical issues in African medicine with particular reference to causes and cures of sickness in the traditional practice, the human person in this practice, the Christian, the colonial, and modern impact on this view, and a look towards the future. In doing this, I shall show that African traditional medical practice has important contributions to make in technologically oriented medicine.
South Africa and Portugal
Authors: Davidson Basil
Published: May 2006

A central element in the story of southern Africa during the early 1970s is the quietly persistent penetration in to neighboring countries of dominant interests—whether economic, political or even military—of the Republic of South Africa. As the motives for this expansion have become clearer, so too has the crucial nature of the importance to the South African system of the Portuguese colonialist positions in Angola and Mozambique, and, by an inseparable extension, in Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde archipelago.

This significance to South Africa of the “Portuguese territories” is now observable in all major fields of public policy and action, and ranges from the military-logistical to the very interstices of the South African economic structure. An understanding of the South African government's relations with these territories, as well as of its relations with the Portuguese regime in Lisbon, must therefore be essential to a realistic estimate of likely developments in the subcontinent, and bears, accordingly, a direct meaning for the policies and intentions of the United Nations.
Diary of Inhaminga
Authors: Martens J. , Verdaasdonk A. , van Rijen J. , van Kampen A. , Tielemans J.
Published: May 2006

Portugal’s occupation of Africa began with violence, it was maintained by violence, and after five hundred years it is coming to an end through violence.

The story of Inhaminga, the bloody events of resistance and reprisal in the war in Mozambique, is the last chapter of the longest and most useless colonial ordeal in Africa’s history. It is one more measurement of the lives which were lost, the bodies which were sold, and the destruction which was wrought in the course of Portugal’s pursuit of gain and imperial dignity in Guinea, Angola, Mozambique.
Why U.S. Corporations Should Get out of South Africa
Authors: Seidman Ann
Published: May 2006

In evaluating the consequences of the $1.7 billion currently invested by U.S. corporations in South Africa, the issue is distinctly not whether or not the U.S. firms involved have adopted the Sullivan Principles. Those principles, purportedly designed to ensure upgrading and equal pay for blacks, are in reality little more than a smokescreen. Behind their rhetoric, U.S. transnational corporations continue to help South Africa build up its military-industry machinery to perpetuate oppression of the majority of black workers.
China's Changing Policies in Africa
Authors: El-Khawas Mohamed A.
Published: May 2006

China's foreign policy toward Africa has been of major concern to the great powers ever since the time that China embarked on an active policy in the African continent. By its action, China presented a direct challenge to Soviet leadership in the Third World, and at the same time put an end to the seclusion the United States had tried to impose on the Communist regime.
The OAU and the Mozambique Revolution
Authors: Dunn D. Elwood
Published: May 2006

One of the strongest impulses that led to the creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 was the desire of free Africa to hasten independence in colonized Africa. When the leaders of independent Africa convened to inaugurate the first international regional organization of its kind in Africa, there seemed total agreement on the principle of self-determination. What Kwame Nkrumah had proclaimed six years earlier upon Ghana's accession to independence was echoed in the keynote address of the Ethiopian Emperor: “Our liberty is meaningless unless all Africans are free. Our brothers in the Rhodesias … Mozambique … cry out in anguish for our support and assistance.”
Urbanism and Urbanization
Authors: Abate Yohannis
Published: May 2006

Africa is now the least urbanized of the continents but is becoming more so at one of the fastest rates in the world. The history of urbanization in Africa predates the birth of Christ; it may have developed as early as 3500 B.C. in the flood plain of the lower Nile for control and administration of the Nile Valley by the Pharaohs, though most of the ancient and pre-colonial African urban centers are now insignificant towns and some have become extinct. Between 1500 B.C. and 500 A.D., the Mediterranean coast of North Africa saw the creation of many cities, which flourished because of trade between the Phoenicians and Carthaginians.
Prospects for Future Superpower Intervention in Africa
Authors: Anise Ladun
Published: May 2006

Conjecture on any aspect of future events in Africa is hazardous; applied to politics, it may be altogether unsafe. Yet one cannot avoid looking into the future in some way. In essence our guesswork consists of extrapolations based upon trend analysis. A number of present events and forces display characteristics that suggest persistence. The convergence of the forces and their persistence offer reasonable basis for projections into the future.

Judging by the nature of past superpower involvements in Africa, it is easy to make a case for future interventions by both superpowers and intermediate (European) powers in Africa beyond the year 2000.
Africa and World Economy: Prospects for Real Economic Growth
Authors: Seidman Ann
Published: May 2006

Crystal ball gazing is hardly the province of social scientists. The best one can do, in attempting to assess the prospects for real economic growth by the year 2000, is to examine the contradictory trends and struggles shaping the political economy of Africa and the world today, and suggest potential alternative outcomes. Even the possibilities are obscure.

What is clear is that, despite over ten years of independence for over 40 African countries, the majority of African peoples still confront the overriding problem of poverty. Living on a continent endowed with extensive mineral agricultural resources, they still suffer from among the lowest per capita incomes and the highest mortality rates in the world.
Refugees, War and Famine in the Sudan
Authors: Winter Roger P.
Published: May 2006

Sudan today is confronting the possibility of preventable human death on a massive scale. The framework for responding has dramatically deteriorated in the last year. The scope of the disaster is essentially nationwide with 9 to 11 million people in jeopardy of starvation. About half of the at-risk population is war-related, and half drought-related— but the two forces are interacting to produce the level of vulnerability. This contrasts somewhat with the at-risk population in 1988, which was made up primarily of war affected southerners, of whom a quarter-of-a-million died.
African-Arab Relations: From Slavery to Petro-Jihad
Authors: Wai Dunstan M.
Published: May 2006

The history of the Arabs in Africa has included a number of contradictions. The Arabs have been both conquerors and liberators, both traders in slaves and purveyors of new ideas. With the Arabs came both Islam and commerce. Indeed, trade and Islam have been companions throughout much of the modern history of Africa north of the Zambezi. In Northern and West Africa caravans of Muslim traders go back for centuries. In East Africa others have come for a millenium from the Gulf of Oman and Southern Arabia, consciously engaged in cultural dissemination. The spread of Islam in Africa has been due far less to consciously organized missionary activity than to trade and conquest. Ali A. Mazrui
Constitutional Engineering and Economic Recolonization in South Africa
Authors: Adam Heribert
Published: May 2006

On November 2, 1983, white voters in South Africa decided by a two-thirds majority in a nation-wide referendum to approve a new South African constitution. The new political dispensation still excludes the 70 percent African population from participation in central political decision making but includes symbolically the 10 percent so-called coloureds and 3 percent Indians in separate Parliaments. White control has been streamlined into a more technocratic, expanded executive state with greater powers for the ruling Nationalist Party and the office of the state president. The “coloureds” and Indians now play the minor role of educating whites in non-racialism.
Disaster in the Desert
Authors: Sheets Hal , Morris Roger
Published: May 2006

This article is excerpted from a study sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace which began in the summer of 1973. The work was conceived as a relatively limited inquiry into the role of planning in disaster relief, and as it progressed, the scope of the study broadened to include other dimensions of the United States and United Nations response to the tragedy in the Sahel. What follows, however, is but a fragment of the complex story of the disaster and the continuing international relief effort. It is mainly an account of how the crisis was dealt with by the U.S. government. As such, it is only a beginning of the research and analysis that should be prompted by this catastrophe.
Law of What Order?
Authors: Lukele Andrew
Published: May 2006

A recent book by Anthony S. Mathews bears the sort of impressive title which will no doubt attract a much wider readership than the limited audience of legal and constitutional law specialists which the author in his preface appoints for the work. Law, Order and Liberty in South Africa (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972) will excite the interest of many people both in and outside South Africa who have come to associate law and order in that country not with liberty and freedom but with the very processes and mechanisms of its denial. The reader's hope will be for insight into how law and order in South Africa—up to now an implement of repression and an aid to the securing of privilege for a racial minority—might be employed for the reversal of present conditions. Those less optimistic would be content with an analysis of the place and role of law in a society characterized by racial discrimination. The expectations of most readers will remain unfulfilled.
American Policy Toward Southern Africa Under a New Administration
Authors: Clark Senator Dick
Published: May 2006

It is both a pleasure and an honor for me to address you tonight, just a few hours after one of our nation’s most important elections and at a time when we are at the threshold of fundamental new choices of policies for the African continent.

I must tell you quite honestly that I’m very pleased that the voters have mandated a change in the administration in America and a new direction for our country. My pleasure goes beyond the fact that I am a Democrat and that a Democrat was elected to the presidency. In fact, it has nothing to do with partisan politics.
The International Politics of Southern Africa: Change or Continue?
Authors: Shaw Timothy M.
Published: May 2006

Soweto, Rhodesia, and Umtata in 1976 are poignant and pointed symbols of change and continuity in Southern Africa. Regional politics here as in other international subsystems are characterized by the tension between order and continuity on the one hand and opposition and change on the other. This trinity of symbols consists, in part, of a revival of the violence of Sharpeville, earlier diplomacy over Zimbabwe and Afrikanerdom’s continued ambivalence towards the demands of African nationalism. But clearly it also embodies new features, especially the apparent inexhaustibility of black anger, the greater imperative of a settlement, and the unacceptability of “separate freedoms” respectively. Moreover, both the regional and global environments have evolved significantly in the last decade so that apparently similar events in Southern Africa may now have new meanings, implications, and results.
The Future of the Carter Policy Toward Southern Africa
Authors: Lockwood Edgar
Published: May 2006

Judging by public tone, style, and ideological emphasis alone, the casual observer of U.S. foreign policy is impressed by the novelty of the Carter Administration’s approach toward Southern Africa. Kissinger had stressed America’s tangible interests, sought alliances with ideological “enemies” to advance or at least to protect those interests, and operated a clever, manipulative and secretive diplomacy with calculated ambiguity. The Carter Administration now seems to espouse once more American ideals and principles, open diplomacy for announced clearly-stated objectives, and decision-making by consent. But what is really involved is a reversion to the active use of ideology and salesmanship to manage its political and economic interests. It is of a piece with “helping our little brown brothers” in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, making the world “safe for democracy” and saving Vietnam from Communism.
Why We Said no to A.I.D.
Authors: Gervasi Sean , Seidman Ann , Wallerstein Immanuel , Wiley David
Published: May 2006

In 1977, Congress authorized the expenditure of one million dollars for “the preparation of a comprehensive analysis of development needs of southern Africa to enable the Congress to determine what contribution United States foreign assistance can make.” AID was instructed to present specific proposals on how to spend this one million dollars. AID seems to have approached several groups of scholars heretofore critical of U.S. policy in southern Africa on the possibility of serving as “consultants” to draft this analysis. AID in late November approached the four of us as scholars in contact with persons knowledgeable about the region (and not ostensibly because of our links to the Association of Concerned African Scholars) to meet with them to discuss what kind of work ought to be done, could be done, and might be done by us. We agreed to meet with them in December in Washington.
Swapo Images of a Future Society: Women in Namibia
Authors: Collins Carole
Published: May 2006

In recent months, international attention has focused on southern Africa in response to the accelerated guerrilla wars in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and Namibia and the intensity of the South African government’s attempts to repress popular unrest by massive bannings of virtually all African political and community organizations. These developments are but a continuation of the long process of decolonization in Africa which began over twenty years ago and which in recent years saw the independence of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau. Because of the intransigence of Portuguese colonial rule, the struggles for self-determination in the latter three countries took the form of protracted popular guerrilla struggles against colonial rule. The growing success of these struggles over the period of the 1960s and early 1970s brought about significant political changes within Portugal itself and led to the April 1974 coup.
The USSR and Africa
Authors: Desfosses Helen
Published: May 2006

Soviet African Policy is currently in a consolidation phase. It is true that the 1970's brought the Soviet Union great military and political successes in Angola and Ethiopia — successes which signaled not only a new stage in Soviet strategic capabilities but also a new ability and willingness to influence events far from its borders. However, these triumphs should not blind us to the constraints under which the USSR has labored, the resulting limits on its influence, and the ensuing move away from interventionist activism.
Evolution of South Africa's Racist Constitutions and the 1983 Constitution
Authors: Jisheng Xia
Published: May 2006

Since the enforcement of 1983 constitution, several years have passed. The 1983 constitution is the third constitution since the founding of the Union of South Africa in 1910. By observing the history of the constitutional development in more than seventy years in South Africa and the content of the current South African constitution, it is not difficult to find out that the constitution, as a fundamental state law, is an important weapon of racism. South Africa's white regime consistandy upholds and consolidates its racist rule by adopting and implementing constitutions. The aim of this article is to analyze and expose the essence of the South African racist system in mis aspect.
Cooperation For Survival: Western Interests v. SADCC
Authors: Thompson Carol B.
Published: May 2006

Every year statistics seem to demonstrate another decline in the quality of life in Southern Africa. The annual growth rate per capita of agricultural production in the region deteriorated to -1.04 percent from 1978-85. In March 1987, UNICEF reported that every four minutes a child under 5 years dies in Angola and Mozambique, the highest death rate among children in the world. International agencies like UNICEF now cite the major cause of this devastation: war waged by South Africa against its neighbors.
Recent Observations on the Developing Southern Strategy of Brazil, Portugal, and Africa
Authors: Glasgow Roy A.
Published: May 2006

During the 1950s, and particularly after the 1964 military takeover, industrialization produced a transformation of Brazil — a nation of continental proportions occupying half of South America. Modernization affected every facet of Brazilian society, altering the economy and influencing the development of political and educational institutions. Such internal change had considerable impact on Brazil's foreign policy. Brazilians no longer viewed their national interest in traditional and restrictive terms but in a revisionist, expansive and expansionist manner. Populist politicians and writers of the late 1950s, riding on a wave of nationalism, argued that Brazil should become an active participant, a new and aggressive force in world affairs.
Harvard’s Answer to the Gulf Oil Question
Authors: Schoenau Charles C.
Published: May 2006

On April 20, 1972, thirty-five black students at Harvard University — members of the Pan African Liberation Committee (PALC) and of the Harvard-Radcliffe Association of African and Afro-American Students (AFRO) — moved into Massachusetts Hall and announced that they had taken over the administration building in protest over the decision of the Harvard Corporation to retain its stock in the Gulf Oil Corporattion. The occupation lasted seven days and was supported by a large segment of the Harvard student body, many Boston community and church organizations, some of the most prominent black leaders in the United States, as well as spokesmen for the major nationalist groups in Angola.
China in Africa
Authors: Hull Richard W.
Published: May 2006

The Chinese presence in Black Africa has grown enormously in the last five years and is triggering a dangerous new Great Power scramble for strategic positions.

In the long run, its effect may be to repartition the continent into new ideological and economic spheres of influence. It is forcing the Great Powers to focus aid on areas of strategic value rather than on regions of greatest human need. It is also compelling communist and capitalist powers to overlook racial and social injustice in order to preserve their strategic stakes.
Black Studies Programs: Problems and Prospects
Authors: Davis William G. , Satterwhite Frank J.
Published: May 2006

In its present form and function, the socio-political institution of American education does not properly serve citizens of African descent. What is now recognized as higher education geared towards meeting the special needs of black students is commonly labeled Black Studies. It is submitted here that Black Studies programs, in the main, are nothing more than reactions to the oppression that obtains within the institutional system of higher education. Unquestionably, the majority of these programs differ little in concept or approach from academic programs in the Euro-American tradition.
Good News and Bad News: African Studies in American Schools, 1955–1975
Authors: Rich Evelyn Jones
Published: May 2006

The letter above capsules the problems and opportunities of African studies in the mid-1970s. It suggests that American education about Africa is pitifully inadequate, and that it has a long way to go to achieve the objective of a citizenry informed about Africa and one which accepts and appreciates Africa as well as the range of cultures which comprise our modern global society.
From a Closed Filing Cabinet: The Life and Times of the Africa Research Group
Authors: Schechter Daniel
Published: May 2006

I blame it all on the CIA.

The Africa Research Group was formed as an outgrowth of an investigation which I, as a Ramparts magazine reporter, had undertaken to flush out some tentacles of covert US intervention south of the Sahara. It turned out that identifying CIA involvement was simpler than evaluating its underlying political thrust or gauging its impact. That sort of assessment required a fairly sophisticated understanding of African political economy as well as US foreign policy. It was clear that a group effort could be a more productive way of studying this phenomenon than any individual enterprise.
Editor’s Introduction: Surviving the Job Crunch
Authors: Reefe Thomas Q.
Published: May 2006

Employment prospects in academia are the bleakest for new Ph.D.’s since the early 1950s, and there is little evidence that the situation will change in the 1980s. Between now and the end of the next decade it is estimated that tens of thousands of Ph.D.’s will be produced in the humanities and social sciences, and that the nation’s colleges and universities will be able to absorb only a fraction of the total. Employment prospects for students of third world areas like Africa are particularly dim. During the 1975-6 recruitment year only five or six tenure-track positions for African history graduate majors were nationally advertised for an active candidate pool of approximately 40-50 Ph.D.’s and ABD’s (All But Dissertation). This job market has substantially reduced the morale of graduate faculty and students since the halcyon days of full employment in the mid-1960s.
For Better or for Worse: The Academic Couple
Authors: Sosne Elinor D.
Published: May 2006

Last year legislators of the Commonwealth of Virginia sent to state college and university faculty a time-study questionnaire on which appeared a question of the following sort: “On a scale of one to five, rank the personal satisfaction you derive from each of the following: 1) teaching; 2) administration; 3) research; 4) sports; 5) your family.” While many of us have decided preferences for one or more of the first three activities, or even the first four, having to rank one’s family along with one’s job may seem somewhat inappropriate. Struggling academics may, in fact, neglect their families in the hopes of churning out sufficient copy to gain them tenure, and many marriages have foundered on less rocky shoals. Even so, American social categories regard the teaching-administration-research syndrome as work, something qualitatively different from one’s spouse or children. To the academic couple, however, the above question may make all too much sense.
Jobs in Britain and the Commonwealth
Authors: Spear Thomas T.
Published: May 2006

Foreign universities are not the cure to the glut on the American job market, for the glut is a world-wide phenomenon, particularly in African studies. Americans already constitute a sizable proportion of academics in Canada, Australia, Britain, and Africa and the backlash against them is already developing in some. But some systems are still expanding, such as those in Nigeria and Australia, and they offer perhaps the best chances for jobs in the immediate future.
Teaching in the Nigerian University System
Authors: Beckett Paul A.
Published: May 2006

Fueled by oil money and the powerful belief of its people in the transforming power of education, the Nigerian university system may be expanding proportionately faster than any major system in the world. Consisting of only five universities (Ibadan, Nsukka, Ife, Lagos, and Ahmadu Bello in Zaria) during most of the first decade of independence, the 1970s have seen successive additions until the current projected number of universities is thirteen (spread among the twelve states that existed until 1976). The Nigerian government has indicated that it will try to hold the line at thirteen and not go through another round of new university creation so that each of the present nineteen states would have its own university. But even granting the leaders’ success in this resolve, the present commitments themselves mean that the university system will double in size between 1977 and the first years of the 1980s.
Employment in the Federal Government
Authors: Clendenin T. Barrier
Published: May 2006

Job hunting in the Federal government can be a frustrating experience to anyone unfamiliar with Federal personnel procedures—both written and unwritten. Therefore, it is particularly useful to proceed systematically when investigating this aspect of the alternative job market for Africanists. Otherwise, it is easy enough to waste time and miss specific opportunities. Upon deciding to venture into the Federal job maze, it is helpful to possess an abundance of patience, persistence, and imagination. Most successful graduate students ought to have mastered this trinity to perfection by the conclusion of their graduate careers. A fourth element might also be added—luck!
United States Foreign Policy toward Africa: An Afro-American Perspective
Authors: Foster Badi G.
Published: May 2006

The importance of Africa in contemporary world affairs and the responsibilities of the U.S. as the major power in the “free world” have contributed to a re-examination of American foreign policy towards Africa. Attempts to clearly identify U.S. interests in Africa reflect the desire of the present Administration to avoid unnecessary involvement in African affairs that might parallel America’s Southeast Asia experience. In addition, identification of vital interests ought to permit the formulation and implementation of better (if not ideal) American policies. Recognizing the linkages between domestic and foreign policies, it is proper that one include as part of the process of foreign policy formulation the perspectives and interests of significant groups within American society. Thus, the examination of Afro-American views on U.S. foreign policy towards Africa becomes an important area of concern.
South Africa 1999: The ANC and Democratic Consolidation
Authors: Southall Roger
Published: May 2006

Two days before South Africa’s national election on June 2, 1999, Business Day—the country’s “quality” national daily newspaper—pronounced that “on balance” its vote was going to the African National Congress (ANC) for the job it had done since 1994. The government’s performance could have been better, it opined, but it could also have been a lot worse:

The ruling party deserves credit for the relative social stability SA has enjoyed since 1994. Its macroeconomic management, while not flawless, has been impressive. It has resisted taking the populist route. That it has been able and willing to do so is thanks, in part, to the strong 62% majority it won at the last election. ANC leaders might have felt less able to resist populist pressures had the majority been narrower.

After an uncertain start, the ANC has begun to deliver the improvements to the quality of life of its primary constituency, the black majority. Maintaining fiscal discipline while delivering on at least some election promises in the midst of an emerging markets crisis has been a remarkable balancing act.

Nevertheless, we cannot overlook some severe flaws and failures. The school system is a mess. Crime could have been more effectively dealt with. The performance of many ANC-run provincial governments has been abysmal. Notwithstanding its anti-corruption talk, it has displayed a reluctance to act firmly against culprits seen as party loyalists. All of which emphasizes the need for an effective opposition—if one can be found.
The 1999 Election and South Africa’s Postapartheid Political Culture
Authors: Johnston Alexander
Published: May 2006

The result of South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994 had something in common with a successful children’s birthday party. It was clear from the beginning whose day it was and where the bulk of the spoils would go, but the failure of the African National Congress (ANC) to win a two-thirds majority consoled the others. And those guests who might have spoiled the occasion with tears and tantrums were rewarded too, with control of provincial parliaments in Kwa-Zulu-Natal and the Western Cape, as well as positions in a government of national unity. These factors helped to make the 1994 election an occasion for general, not just partisan, rejoicing.

Divorced from the euphoria and sense of relief that attended the 1994 poll and robbed of any uncertainty about the outcome, observers of 1999’s election have had to work much harder to read its significance.
White on Chrome: Southern Congressmen and Rhodesia 1962—1971
Authors: Arsenault Raymond
Published: May 2006

In the fall of 1971 the United States Congress startled the international community by voting to allow American corporations to resume chromium ore imports from Rhodesia. Clearing the Senate on October 6 and the House of Representatives on November 10, Section 503 of the 1971 Military Procurement Bill stipulated that the President could no longer restrict the importation of a strategic material from a non-communist country when that same material was being imported from a communist country. The official intent of Section 503 was to reduce American dependence on Soviet chrome imports. However, many outside observers, both foreign and domestic, claimed that this “national security” decision was as much pro-Rhodesian as it was anti-Soviet. In any case, Section 503, popularly known as the Byrd Amendment, committed the United States government to participate in a direct violation of the United Nations' mandatory economic sanctions against Rhodesia's illegal white minority government.