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This article critically examines the significance of the relationship between past and present for understanding liberal democratic values in the European context. The article starts by reflecting on the terms used to evaluate the apparent decline in the rule of law in Europe, including 'backsliding'. It argues that these terms are indicative of a conceptual framework of analysis that includes a temporal dimension but is only partly historical, demonstrating a presentist focus and a perception of the past as a separate period. The article links this perception with the conceptual construction of the rule of law itself, as well as national and transnational narratives about it, which evoke Europe's non-democratic past as a definitional point of reference that is distinct from the present. Using examples of the legacies of Europe's dark legal past, the article highlights the artificial nature of this distinction for a range of systems with differing historical experiences. The article argues that interpreting the past in terms of segmented and sequential temporal periods is conceptually contestable and it draws on the philosophy of history to show how the past can instead be understood to have 'sedimentary' layers and to endure over time. Ultimately, the article argues that the relationship between law's past and law's present needs to be reconceptualised in terms of metaphorical 'fault lines' in the rule of law, to acknowledge the potentially disruptive effects of history and to facilitate a critical reimagining of the rule of law's theoretical and factual foundations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay coins a term "Judeopessimism," engaging questions of some of the contemporary writing on antisemitism and its claim to be historical in nature through the lens of critical race theory, specifically Afropessimism and its offshoots, which make claims of anti-Blackness as political ontology. Is some of this writing on antisemitism really making theological or political ontological claims of "eternal antisemitism" refracted in a less volatile historical narrative? How can critical race theory and its understanding of anti-Blackness help refine, clarify, and push the discussion on antisemitism to be more forthright about its underlying claims? I explore some examples of ontological antisemitism in the writings of Meir Kahane and Naftali Zvi Berlin who each in different ways offer ahistorical and even ontological views on antisemitism that are mostly shunned by contemporary writing on the subject and suggest that Afropessimism offers a helpful way to see beyond the historical veil of how antisemitism is understood today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countering the focus on crisis and irregularity that frames dominant representations of African migration to Europe, this article explores Gambian migrant women's journeys of return. It is argued that Gambian women returnees' financial resources, levels of education, kinship relations and social networks have positioned them in such a way that they can benefit from the opportunities and possibilities in The Gambia, thereby influencing their decisions to return. Significantly, their positions have helped them to negotiate and, in some instances, challenge gendered expectations and relations in their experiences on return. Further, the exchange of knowledge and their transnational networks and connections place the global South and the global North as co-constitutive elements in the development of their work and their gendered subjectivities. As such, I focus on the analytical purchase that the concept of return affords, as well as its political possibilities. The article contributes to existing scholarship on migration by highlighting the importance of returnees' multiple subjectivities in both their decisions to return and their experiences on return. In addition, I foreground the contributions that returnees make to the places to which they have migrated, thereby challenging representations of African migrants as deficient and of Africa as a place of absence. En replique a l'attention portee sur la crise et a l'irregularite qui definit le cadre des representations dominantes de la migration africaine vers l'Europe, cet article explore le voyage de retour effectue par des migrantes gambiennes. Il soutient que les ressources financieres, le niveau d'education, les relations de parente et les reseaux sociaux des migrantes gambiennes de retour les ont mises en position de pouvoir beneficier des opportunites et des possibilites presentes en Gambie, et ont par la-meme influence leur decision de rentrer au pays. De facon significative, leur position les a aidees a negocier et, dans certains cas, a remettre en cause les attentes et les relations genrees dans leurs experiences du retour. De plus, l'echange de connaissances, ainsi que les reseaux et les liens transnationaux, font du Sud global et du Nord global des elements co-constitutifs du developpement de leur travail et de leur subjectivite et de genre. De ce fait, l'auteur s'interesse a la prise analytique qu'offre le concept du retour, ainsi qu'a ses possibilites politiques. Cet article contribue a la recherche existante sur la migration en soulignant l'importance des multiples subjectivites des migrantes de retour, tant dans leur decision de retourner que dans leurs experiences du retour. De plus, l'auteur met en avant les contributions des migrantes de retour aux lieux vers lesquels elles ont emigre, remettant en cause par la-meme les representations des migrants africains comme deficients et de l'Afrique comme lieu d'absence. Contrariando o enfoque na crise e na irregularidade que enquadra as representacoes dominantes da migracao africana para a Europa, este artigo explora os percursos de regresso das mulheres migrantes da Gambia. Argumenta-se que os recursos financeiros, niveis de educacao, as relacoes de parentesco e redes sociais das mulheres gambianas retornadas as posicionaram de forma a poderem beneficiar das oportunidades e possibilidades na Gambia, influenciando assim as suas decisoes de regresso. Significativamente, as suas posicoes ajudaram-nas a negociar e, em alguns casos, a desafiar as expectativas e relacoes de genero nas suas experiencias de regresso. Alem disso, a troca de conhecimentos e as suas redes e ligacoes transnacionais colocam o Sul global e o Norte global como elementos coconstitutivos no desenvolvimento do seu trabalho e das suas subjetividades de genero. Como tal, concentro-me na aquisicao analitica que o conceito de retorno proporciona, bem como nas suas possibilidades politicas. O artigo contribui para os estudos existentes sobre migracao ao realcar a importancia das multiplas subjectividades dos retornados, tanto nas suas decisoes de regressar como nas suas experiencias de regresso. Alem disso, coloco em primeiro plano as contribuicoes que os retornados dao aos locais para onde migraram, desafiando assim as representacoes dos migrantes africanos como sendo incapazes e da Africa como um lugar de ausencia., The unending reverse migrations between multiple geographic locations is a fascinating Atlantic Diaspora story, but it has been obscured by the existing single-dimensional paradigm and literature that places these multiple [...]

Extensively ignored by the literature on the subject, recent interest in the fate of academic freedom in Africa is linked with shared concerns about the exploding nature of its societal crises. The collapse of political integration and social cohesion; the decline of the civil society and the implosion of conflicts; the rise of authoritarian, non-developmental populist regimes amid extreme poverty; and the worsening material conditions of the populations are major indications of such crises. Nowhere are these crises worse illustrated than in the universities where constrained funding, infrastructural collapse, massive brain drains and strained relations with the state inhibit the production of knowledge. This article reflects on the trajectory of the universities in postcolonial Africa. It draws on the national public universities in Nigeria and accounts for the changes and continuities underlying their performance against the backdrop of hostile material conditions and uncongenial political control, which not only remain disruptive but continue to undermine institutional autonomy and the integrity of scholarship in the universities across Africa. Largement ignore par la litterature sur ce sujet, l'interet recent porte au sort de la liberte academique en Afrique est lie aux inquietudes partagees concernant la nature explosive des crises societales. L'effondrement de l'integration politique et de la cohesion sociale, le declin de la societe civile et l'implosion des conflits, la montee des regimes populistes non developpementaux autoritaires sur fond d'extreme pauvrete, et la deterioration des conditions materielles sont tous des indicateurs majeurs de ces crises. Ces dernieres sont le plus clairement illustrees dans les universites oU les contraintes financieres, l'effondrement de l'infrastructure, la fuite massive des cerveaux et les relations tendues avec l'Etat sont autant de freins a la production des savoirs. Cet article s'interesse a la trajectoire des universites en Afrique postcoloniale. Centre sur les universites publiques nationales du Nigeria, il explique les changements et les continuites qui soulignent leur efficacite dans un contexte de conditions materielles defavorables et de controle politique hostile, qui non seulement demeurent destabilisants, mais aussi continuent a fragiliser l'autonomie institutionnelle et l'integrite de la recherche dans les universites africaines. Extensivamente ignorado pela literatura sobre o assunto, o recente interesse no destino da liberdade academica em Africa esta ligado a preocupacoes comuns sobre a natureza explosiva das crises sociais. O colapso da integracao politica e da coesao social; o declinio da sociedade civil e a implosao dos conflitos; a ascensao de regimes populistas autoritarios e naodesenvolvimentistas em meios de pobreza extrema; e o agravamento das condicoes materiais das populacoes--tudo isto sao indicios importantes dessas crises. Em nenhum outro lugar estas crises sao mais claramente ilustradas do que nas universidades, onde o financiamento limitado, o colapso das infraestruturas, a fuga macica de cerebros e as relacoes tensas com o Estado inibem a producao de conhecimento. Este artigo reflete sobre a trajetoria das universidades na Africa pos-colonial. Baseia-se nas universidades publicas nacionais da Nigeria e explica as mudancas e as continuidades subjacentes ao seu desempenho num contexto de condicoes materiais hostis e de um controlo politico desconfortavel, que nao so continuam a ser destabilizadores como continuam a minar a autonomia institucional e a integridade dos estudos nas universidades de toda a Africa., The problem This article discusses the failed role of the state in Africa in the ongoing collapse and crisis of higher education and the public universities across the continent. Its [...]

This article argues that, despite techno-utopian narratives of digital self-directed learning (through content freely available on the internet) and its proposed opportunities for upward social mobility, digital learning is and remains a highly contextual practice, rooted in local realities and aspirational trajectories. Through learning with a community-based organization (CBO) that offers tech training to youth from low-income neighbourhoods in Kibera, Nairobi, I argue that digital learning does not replace formal education but rather is strategically incorporated into already existing learning practices. Although Nairobi has been extensively studied as a frontrunner in technology uptake and development in Africa, it is crucial to also look at technology practices and uptake away from elite design and use, to extend and deepen our knowledge of how the digital realm plays out in the lives of the majority of urban residents. Cet article soutient qu'en depit des discours techno-utopiques d'apprentissage autodirige facilite par le numerique (avec un contenu disponible gratuitement sur Internet) et des opportunites d'ascension sociale qu'il propose, l'apprentissage numerique est et reste une pratique hautement contextuelle ancree dans les realites locales et les trajectoires aspirationnelles. En apprenant avec un organisme communautaire qui offre des formations techniques aux jeunes des quartiers defavorises de Kibera, a Nairobi, l'auteur soutient que l'apprentissage numerique ne remplace pas l'education formelle, mais plutot qu'il s'integre de maniere strategique dans des pratiques d'apprentissage deja existantes. Nairobi a ete largement etudiee comme ville championne de l'utilisation et du developpement de la technologie en Afrique, mais il est crucial d'examiner egalement les pratiques technologiques et l'utilisation de la technologie au-dela de sa pertinence et utilisation par les elites, pour mieux comprendre comment la sphere numerique s'inscrit dans la vie de la majorite des residents urbains. Este artigo argumenta que, apesar das narrativas tecno-utopicas da aprendizagem digital autodirigida (atraves de conteudos disponiveis gratuitamente na Internet) e das oportunidades propostas para uma mobilidade social ascendente, a aprendizagem digital e e continua a ser uma pratica altamente contextual, enraizada nas realidades locais e em trajectorias aspiracionais. Atraves da aprendizagem com uma organizacao de base comunitaria (OBC) que oferece formacao tecnologica a jovens de bairros de baixo rendimento em Kibera, Nairobi, defendo que a aprendizagem digital nao substitui a educacao formal, mas e antes estrategicamente incorporada em praticas de aprendizagem ja existentes. Embora Nairobi tenha sido amplamente estudada como pioneira na adocao e desenvolvimento de tecnologias em Africa, e crucial analisar tambem as praticas e a adocao de tecnologias fora do ambito da concecao e utilizacao de elite, para alargar e aprofundar o nosso conhecimento sobre a forma como o dominio digital se desenrola na vida da maioria dos residentes urbanos., Introduction (1) 'Haven't we all been in that spot,' Naima pitched, with a trembling voice that had lost some of its initial confidence, 'where we were punished for not doing [...]

Following a severe drought in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the invasive shrub Prosopis, a kind of mesquite native to South America, was introduced by international organizations to locations across Kenya's drylands, including the Turkana region in the far north. Prosopis, known as etirae in Turkana, was envisaged as a solution to a range of problems, including deforestation, fuelwood shortages and general environmental deterioration. While exacerbated by drought, these problems were perceived to reflect a much more fundamental crisis, with prevalent views at the time envisaging pastoralism as unsustainable, destructive and in need of overhaul--a narrative dating to colonial times that has since been discredited. Since its introduction, etirae has spread relentlessly, invading riparian land, encroaching on cultivation plots and growing to new heights and thicknesses. Investigating its entanglements with Turkana livelihoods and economic relationships is also a process of understanding how it has braided its way through contested processes of social change, and how it has come to be intertwined with conceptions of cascading crisis quite distinct from the narratives that led to its initial introduction. Implications emerge regarding both the complicated biological residues of past development interventions and the totalizing crisis-oriented narratives that shape drylands development in the current era of climate change. Apres une periode de grave secheresse a la fin des annees 1970 et au debut des annees 1980, des organisations internationales ont introduit le Prosopis, un arbuste envahissant de type mesquite, natif d'Amerique du Sud, dans des regions arides du Kenya comme le Turkana, dans l'extreme nord du pays. Le Prosopis, connu sous le nom d'etirae au Turkana, se voulait comme une solution a de nombreux problemes comme la deforestation, le manque de bois de feu et la degradation generale de l'environnement. Bien qu'exacerbes par la secheresse, ces problemes etaient percus comme le reflet d'une crise bien plus fondamentale, les opinions repandues a l'epoque jugeant le pastoralisme non viable, destructeur et a reformer, un discours datant de la periode coloniale et desormais discredite. Depuis son introduction, l'etirae n'a cesse de se propager, envahissant les terres riveraines, empietant sur les terrains cultives et gagnant en hauteur et en epaisseur. L'etude de ses imbrications avec les moyens de subsistance et les relations economiques dans le Turkana permet egalement de comprendre comment il s'est tresse dans des processus contestes de changement social, et comment il en est venu a s'entremeler avec des conceptions de crise en cascade nettement distinctes des discours qui ont mene a son introduction initiale. Des implications emergent concernant les residus biologiques compliques d'anciennes interventions de developpement et les discours totalisants orientes sur la crise qui faconnent le developpement des regions arides a l'ere du changement climatique. Apos uma grave seca no final da decada de 1970 e inicio da decada de 1980, o arbusto invasor Prosopis, uma especie de mesquite nativa da America do Sul, foi introduzido por organizacoes internacionais em locais das terras secas do Quenia, incluindo a regiao de Turkana, no extremo norte. A Prosopis, conhecida como etirae em Turkana, foi encarada como uma solucao para uma serie de problemas, incluindo a desflorestacao, a escassez de lenha e a deterioracao geral do ambiente. Embora exacerbados pela seca, estes problemas eram vistos como reflexo de uma crise muito mais fundamental, com as opinioes prevalecentes na altura a considerarem a pastoricia como insustentavel, destrutiva e a necessitar de uma revisao--uma narrativa que remonta aos tempos coloniais e que, desde entao, tem sido desacreditada. Desde a sua introducao, a etirae espalhou-se implacavelmente, invadindo terras ribeirinhas, invadindo parcelas de cultivo e crescendo a novas alturas e espessuras. Investigar os seus envolvimentos com os meios de subsistencia e as relacoes economicas da Turkana e tambem um processo de compreensao da forma como a etirae se entrelacou com processos contestados de mudanca social e como se entrelacou com concepcoes de crise em cascata bastante distintas das narrativas que levaram a sua introducao inicial. Surgem implicacoes relativas tanto aos complicados residuos biologicos de intervencoes de desenvolvimento passadas como as narrativas totalizantes orientadas para a crise que moldam o desenvolvimento das terras secas na atual era das alteracoes climaticas., Introduction: tangled crises In the late 1970s and early 1980s, drylands across Africa, from the Sahel to the Horn, experienced an acute environmental crisis. Severe and protracted drought provoked large-scale [...]

Most existing literature on the causes of party switching both in Africa and around the world is built on tenuous empirical foundations. The question of why members of parliament (MPs) switch parties has hardly been asked directly either to the MPs themselves or to everyday voters. While MPs could lie or give more favourable accounts that suit their interests, putting this question to them could uncover other crucial factors that have fallen through the cracks in previous theorizations. This article takes a triangulation approach by drawing from the viewpoints of researchers, voters and MPs themselves to give a more holistic picture of the drivers of party defection. Through a combination of a nationwide representative survey and elite and key informant interviews, I situate the trend of party switching in Nigeria within broader comparative literature on the subject, showing how Nigeria conforms and deviates from existing conceptualizations of party switching around the world. I find evidence of interactions between formal and personal drivers of party switching in Nigeria. I also discover that while a majority of Nigerian voters are suspicious of defectors, defectors point accusing fingers at the lack of internal democracy within political parties, thereby exposing an issue not adequately addressed in existing literature. L'essentiel de la litterature existante sur les causes du transfuge politique en Afrique et dans le reste du monde repose sur des fondements empiriques tenus. La question de pourquoi des membres de parlement (MP) changent de parti a rarement ete posee directement aux MP eux-memes ou aux electeurs ordinaires. Les MP pourraient certes mentir ou invoquer des motifs favorables a leurs interets, mais le fait de leur poser cette question pourrait reveler d'autres facteurs determinants qui ont jusqu'a present echappe a la theorisation. Cet article presente une approche de triangulation en s'appuyant sur les points de vue de chercheurs, d'electeurs et de MP eux-memes pour dresser un tableau plus holistique des determinants du transfuge politique. A partir d'une enquete representative a l'echelle nationale et d'entretiens aupres d'elites et d'informateurs cles, l'auteur situe la tendance de transfuge politique au Nigeria dans la litterature comparative plus large sur ce sujet, en montrant en quoi le Nigeria se conforme aux conceptualisations existantes du transfuge politique a travers le monde, et en quoi il s'en eloigne. L'auteur met en evidence des interactions entre les determinants formels et personnels du transfuge politique au Nigeria. Il decouvre egalement que, tandis qu'une majorite des electeurs nigerians se mefient des transfuges, ces derniers pointent un doigt accusateur vers le manque de democratie interne au sein des partis politiques, exposant ainsi une question que la litterature existante n'aborde pas suffisamment. A maior parte da literatura existente sobre as causas da mudanca de partido, tanto em Africa como em todo o mundo, assenta em bases empiricas tenues. A questao de saber o porque de deputados mudarem de partido e raramente colocada diretamente aos proprios deputados ou aos eleitores comuns. Apesar dos deputados poderem mentir ou dar relatos mais favoraveis que sirvam os seus interesses, colocar-lhes esta questao poderia revelar outros factores cruciais que passaram despercebidos na teorizacao anterior. Este artigo adopta uma abordagem de triangulacao, recorrendo aos pontos de vista de investigadores, eleitores e dos proprios deputados para dar uma imagem mais holistica dos factores de desercao partidaria. Atraves de uma combinacao de um inquerito representativo a nivel nacional e de entrevistas a elites e a informadores-chave, situo a tendencia de mudanca de partido na Nigeria no ambito de uma literatura comparativa mais vasta sobre o assunto, mostrando como a Nigeria se conforma e se desvia das conceptualizacoes existentes sobre a mudanca de partido em todo o mundo. Encontro indicios de interaccoes entre factores formais e pessoais da mudanca de partido na Nigeria. Tambem descubro que, embora a maioria dos eleitores nigerianos desconfie dos desertores, estes apontam o dedo acusador a falta de democracia interna nos partidos politicos, expondo assim uma questao que nao e adequadamente abordada na literatura existente., The expression 'waka waka' in Nigerian Pidgin English coincidentally has similar meanings in New Zealand. In the former, it is used to describe a restless person who perambulates from one [...]

Archie Mafeje, The Theory and Ethnography of African Social Formations: The Case of the Interlacustrine Kingdoms. London: CODESRIA (pb US$13--978 1 8707 8408 5). 1991, v + 149 pp. Olufemi [...]

Abstract Africa's regional archives offer crucial records to explore the continent's postcolonial past. Although these archives are often difficult to locate and access and are exposed to several challenges that [...]

Abstract Savings groups are an important feature of life in rural Uganda and elsewhere. They have been celebrated as an 'alternative', community-based approach to economic development with a particular focus [...]

Abstract This article traces bricolage in the city of Lome, Togo, as it is given meaning, practised and resisted by the 'makers' involved in the city's makerspaces. While the Levi-Straussian [...]

Anthony Butler, Cyril Ramaphosa: the road to presidential power. Woodbridge: James Currey (hb 45 [pound sterling]-978 1 84701 229 6). 2019, xvi + 496 pp. Steven Friedman, Prisoners of the [...]

Abstract Exploring the 'hollow' character of middle-class status in contemporary Kenya, this article shows how upwardly mobile young Kenyans struggle to cope with the expectations for distribution that their displays [...]

Abstract In this article I explore changing state-citizen relationships in Mauritius. To do so, 1 outline and provide analysis of the system through which this Indian Ocean island has historically [...]

Since its organization in the mid-twentieth century, Colonial Williamsburg (CW) has been an important site for the consolidation of powerful narratives of American exceptionalism, patriotism, and the so-called consensus history of the American Revolution. This article looks at the role that music and performance has played in this historiography, taking as its primary texts two films produced by CW: The Story of a Patriot (1957) and The Music of Williamsburg (1960). With musical contributions by Bernard Herrmann and Alan Lomax, respectively, these films offer an opportunity to analyze the relationship between history and politics in the early Cold War era. Although The Story of a Patriot reflects a static and essentially conservative portrayal of American exceptionalism, the more liberal inclusiveness of The Music of Williamsburg showcases the fraught power dynamics of attempting to showcase historical Black music making in a patriotic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Against the background of post-Cold War trade and media liberalization, this article examines how young women living in Yaounde, Cameroon, share digital images of their crafted styles via WhatsApp. [...]

Abstract The history of the human-technology relation points to binary (positive and negative) evaluations of technology's role. One reason for this binary is the limited view of technology in terms [...]

Abstract In central Uganda, even a casual observer would notice the widespread presentation of often identical commercial services and goods fruit vendors, street food or motorcycle taxis, for instance in [...]

Abstract This article studies how anti-Christian, 'traditionally African' organizations, locally known as Eglises des Noirs, navigate religious competition in the Congolese capital through sonic and linguistic strategies. It focuses on [...]

Abstract This article draws from funeral rituals and performative festivals to reflect on how and why burials, reburials and performances of Eyo and Nzem Berom festivals provide excellent examples of [...]

Currently, 7 named Sarcocystis species infect cattle: Sarcocystis hirsuta, S. cruzi, S. hominis, S. bovifelis, S. heydorni, S. bovini and S. rommeli; other, unnamed species also infect cattle. Of these parasites of cattle, a complete life cycle description is known only for S. cruzi, the most pathogenic species in cattle. The life cycle of S. cruzi was completed experimentally in 1982, before related parasite species were structurally characterized, and before the advent of molecular diagnostics; to our knowledge, no archived frozen tissues from the cattle employed in the original descriptions remain for DNA characterization. Here, we isolated DNA from a paraffin-embedded kidney of a calf experimentally infected with S. cruzi in 1980; we then sequenced portions of 18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, COX1 and Acetyl CoA genes and verified that each shares 99–100% similarity to other available isolates attributed to S. cruzi from naturally infected cattle. We also reevaluated histological sections of tissues of calves experimentally infected with S. cruzi in the original description, exploiting improvements in photographic technology to render clearer morphological detail. Finally, we reviewed all available studies of the life cycle of S. cruzi, noting that S. cruzi was transmitted between bison (Bison bison) and cattle (Bos taurus) and that the strain of parasite derived from bison appeared more pathogenic than the cattle strain. Based on these newfound molecular, morphological and physiological data, we thereby redescribed S. cruzi and deposited reference material in the Smithsonian Museum for posterity.

Ohiniko M. Toffa, Christliche Moral und koloniale Herrschaft in Togo:Die Missionskonzeption Franz Michael Zahns (1862-1900). Bielefeld: transcript (pb 50[euro]--978 3 8376 6537 6). 2023, 346 pp. A lot has been [...]

Chris Brown, David Moore and Blair Rutherford (eds), New Leaders, New Dawns? South Africa and Zimbabwe under Cyril Ramaphosa and Emmerson Mnangagwa. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press (hb CA$140-978 0 22801 [...]

Bronwen Manby, Citizenship in Africa The Law of Belonging. Oxford: Hart Publishing (hb 110[pounds sterling]--978 1 509 92077 8; pb 44.99[pounds sterling]--978 1 509 94400 2). 2018/2021, v + 399 [...]

Lesley Nicole Braun, Congo's Dancers: Women and Work in Kinshasa. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press (hb US$79.95--978 0 299 34030 8). 2023, 201 pp. Braun claims a space for [...]

Victoria Bernal, Katrien Pype and Daivi Rodima-Taylor (eds), Cryptopolitics: Exposure, Concealment, and Digital Media. New York NY: Berghahn Books (hb US$135/99 [pound sterling]-978 1 80539 029 9). 2023, vii + [...]

Khalid Mustafa Medani, Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa, 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (pb 22 [pound sterling].99-978 1 009 25772 5; open [...]

Theodore Trefon, Bushmeat: Culture, Economy and Conservation in Central Africa. London: C. Hurst for the International African Institute (pb 20[pound sterling]-978 1 78738 814 7). 2023, 256 pp. This is [...]

Welfare ministries are key institutions of modern nation-states. However, we still lack knowledge about when and why national welfare ministries were established. In this paper, we argue that both the First and Second world wars were major driving forces behind the establishment of independent welfare ministries. To test our argument, we introduce a novel dataset on the establishment of welfare-related ministries in 30 countries. Our empirical findings suggest that the establishment of independent welfare ministries was a product of wartime turbulence and the political, economic and social shockwaves set off especially by World War I, which affected many countries at the same time. Considering alternative explanations such as the Spanish Flu, the Bolshevik Revolution or the emergence of new nation-states, we argue that war triggered multiple, interrelated and chronologically staggered transnational events and transformations that had major effects on the social welfare systems of the countries involved. In this light, we conclude that World War I was ultimately the root cause behind the establishment of welfare ministries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although today there is extensive scientific literature on aural myiasis, a historical study of the subject has yet to appear. This short article reports the first description of aural myiasis in the Western medical literature. Methods: Methods involved: (1) scholarship review of ear diseases within Ancient Greek and Roman medical texts (L'Année philologique); (2) linguistic analysis for text identification through the Library of Latin Texts, the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae and the Loeb Classical Library; and (3) translation of the Latin texts that described cases of aural myiasis with commentary. Results: To our knowledge, the earliest case of aural myiasis in Latin medical literature is reported by the Roman encyclopaedist Celsus (first century CE). In his De Medicina , he describes cases of Wohlfahrtia magnifica maggot infestation of the ear and how to treat affected patients. Conclusion: Despite present advances in otology, we believe that much insight can still be gained from this ancient example of medical history in ear diseases. A more comparative analysis of the subject is to be considered in the future, which will provide more data from different cultures and times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé: Entrepris au début des années 2000, les travaux de restauration du bâtiment qui abritait les prisons de l'Inquisition de Palerme à l'époque moderne ont permis la redécouverte et l'étude historienne d'une impressionnante série de graffiti. Avec son livre, Del Santo Uffizio in Sicilia e delle sue carceri , Giovanna Fiume propose une riche synthèse de travaux individuels et collectifs qu'elle a consacrés à ces archives murales du tribunal palermitain. En faisant dialoguer l'histoire des procédures et l'histoire matérielle de la réclusion, elle parvient à identifier les auteurs possibles des inscriptions et des dessins exposés sur les parois des cellules. Elle met ainsi en lumière des trajectoires de prisonniers et des expériences de l'enfermement que les actes judiciaires taisent souvent. Ces graffiti offrent en effet une nouvelle strate documentaire pour mieux comprendre le système judiciaire, pénal et carcéral de l'Inquisition. Plus largement, cet ouvrage s'inscrit dans le sillage d'une efflorescence de recherches récentes, à la confluence des études littéraires, de l'anthropologie et de l'histoire de l'art, dédiées aux prisons et aux graffiti, qui s'intéressent tout à la fois à la dimension patrimoniale et scientifique, esthétique et ethnographique de ces empreintes graphiques. Cette note critique en propose une lecture et un état des lieux, comme autant de pistes méthodologiques et historiographiques pour documenter la vie sociale et intellectuelle à l'intérieur des prisons. In the early 2000s, restoration work on the building that housed Palermo's Inquisition prisons during the early modern period revealed an impressive series of graffiti and prompted their historical study. In Del Santo Uffizio in Sicilia e delle sue carceri , Giovanna Fiume offers a rich synthesis of the individual and collaborative work she has devoted to these "mural archives" of the Palermo court. Bringing together the procedural and material history of incarceration, she succeeds in identifying the possible authors of the inscriptions and drawings that line the cell walls. In so doing, she sheds light on the trajectories of prisoners and their experiences of imprisonment, often passed over in silence by legal sources. These graffiti thus offer a new layer of documentation that broadens our understanding of the Inquisition's judicial, penal, and carceral systems. More broadly, Fiume's work is part of a flourishing strand of recent research dedicated to prisons and graffiti, at the confluence of literary studies, anthropology, and art history, which is interested in both the patrimonial and scholarly dimensions of these graphic marks and their aesthetic and ethnographic aspects. In offering a brief overview of the field, this review article aims to suggest some methodological and historiographical avenues for documenting social and intellectual life inside prisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oral performance of history has been common to many societies from Herodotus and the histories of Beowulf, to the griots of West Africa. The lecture in Western history emerged from these histories of orality, with its name showing the close connection in its origins to reading, and to the lecturer's expertise in that domain. From this starting point, lectures grew to be associated with frameworks of academic authority, as well as markers of community and shared academic, religious and civic identity. From the late eighteenth century onwards, the role of the historical lecture widened to involve public education, and was also later incorporated into political contestations by anticolonial orators such as Maya Angelou, Amílcar Cabral and Fidel Castro. In the twenty-first century, the rise of transnational technology has seen the increasing atomisation of the lecture into a space of performative and disembodied information. As technologies change, in the future the knowledge and thematic being explored in historical lectures may change. What is embraced may prove to be demonstration of mastery of the commercial technology involved in a lecture's delivery, as much as the exposition related to the lecture or reading from which knowledge and academic communities historically have built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to an 'historical turn' in security scholarship. It addresses imbalance in security studies' attention to historical empirics, and argues against notions of temporal disjunct prevalent within the discipline. I employ a genealogical framework to clarify the interpellation of past and present; and I introduce the 'conceptual archive' as a lens for pursuing that interpellation in research. My thesis on the 'conceptual archive' represents a twofold contribution. Firstly, a conceptual contribution: I advance the 'conceptual archive' as a way of thinking about past-present interpellation (specifically, existing conceptual logics' remodelling in arguments justifying new practice). Secondly, an analytical contribution: I propose the 'conceptual archive' as a tool for doing genealogy (a research programme with historicising promise, but one suffering nebulous operationalisation at present). I use the field of terrorism studies as an entry-point to these contributions: adopting a mixed-methods research design to trace British counterterrorism practices' roots within an 'archive' of logics on Northern Ireland. I find 1970s British governments remodelled long-standing 'archival' vocabularies in their arguments for new security provisions: framing exceptional practices according to an accepted fabric of concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a devotional part of the eucharistic liturgy, the Agnus Dei also carries a missional aspect. Exegeting the verse Jn 1.29 ('Behold the Lamb of God...') two major theories of the atonement are seen to be involved and are applicable to the meaning of the Agnus Dei. These two theories of the atonement (ransom and substitutionary) in their relationship to each other are noted, and a primary emphasis on the ransom theory and its background of the Passover is argued for. The Passover Lamb focus is seen as liberative and missional. This leads to seeing the Agnus Dei in its referring to the redeeming death of Christ ('Lamb of God') as appropriately accompanied by the fraction of the bread. The history of the Agnus Dei and its Eastern Orthodox roots are brought to bear, as are our modern Anglican liturgical forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the historical policy pathways that have led to the constellation of policies that both reflect and shape the current gender order can reveal reasons for the persistence of gender inequality in paid work and unpaid family care. Bringing together existing research and policy critique with Carol Bacchi's framework of policy as 'gendering practices', this paper focuses on the role of policy as a process that constructs and upholds an unequal gender order. The discussion traces how UK social policies have since the establishment of the post-war welfare state articulated and positioned gendered possibilities for combining paid work and childrearing, shaping gendered and classed work-family life courses. The analysis illustrates that British social policy has not been consistently committed to a more equal gender regime but instead maintained a heteronormative family ideal and thus, despite various policy changes, the gendering of 'the worker' and 'the parent' as conceptualised in UK policy has persisted over the last several decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Since the 1980s, hundreds of predominantly working-class African-American Muslims have travelled or relocated to the rural yet renowned city of Medina Baye, Senegal. They were invited there by Shaykh [...]

Abstract This article analyses the racial framing of the humanitarian encounter between Turkish and African Muslims as a trope of first contact. Intensifying humanitarian relations with Africa south of the [...]

Abstract Muslim aid organizations are relatively new actors in the Western aid industry. Based on multi-sited ethnographic research with the UK-based NGO Islamic Relief, I explore the organization's engagement with [...]

This part issue aims to re-centre the African continent in debates on the intersectionality of race and religion. Africa became a colonial laboratory for racializing religious difference in the ethnological [...]

Exorcismos de esti(l)o is one of Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s least studied books. It is nevertheless of essential importance for understanding the entirety of his poetics. It is a book that condenses the pain of the ostracism and the betrayal inflicted by the revolutionary regime that Cabrera had so strongly supported. The purpose of this article is to highlight the implicit elements of the text that support this hypothesis. It considers the strategies used by the author throughout Exorcismos de esti(l)o to practice the language with which he obsessively tries to draw, in his novelas del yo, a portrait of a lost and unrecoverable Havana, the hopeful Havana preceding the Cuban Revolution. It is an impossible yet obstinate mission. This is why the texts that articulate the impossibility of representation and the anguish that this mission generates deserve special attention.

Objective: Noise-induced hearing loss is the most prevalent occupational disease worldwide and is historically associated with the Industrial Revolution. This study analyses early descriptions of this disorder during the pre-industrial period in the work of the Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini (1633–1714). Method: Primary and secondary historical literature were reviewed. Results: Ramazzini described hearing loss in corn millers and in coppersmiths and recognised that this disorder is irreversible and progressive when exposure to noise continues. He also seemed to describe tinnitus. He further suggested the use of earplugs as a preventive measure for these classes of workers. Ramazzini's anatomical and pathological knowledge appears to be based on ancient authors; he did not discuss contemporaneous medical authors' work on hearing function. Conclusion: Despite some limitations, Ramazzini's work appears pioneering for his time and represents an important milestone in the history of otolaryngology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In studies of Southern Africa, ancestors and possessing spirits have received far greater attention than ghosts. It is only in recent years that fragmentary references to ghosts have begun [...]

Absract It has become a well-rehearsed truism that the growth of sub-Saharan African cities is the result of an amassing of persons, things and knowledge that takes place in the [...]

Abstract This article considers the materiality and substance of the built environment in Nairobi in light of concerns about surface, depth and the power of the unseen. Taking Nairobi's highrise [...]

Abstract In Nakuru, a secondary city in Kenya, the city's future is explored multi-sensorially. In this article, I argue that Nakuru residents explore urban futures through the taste of different [...]

Abstract Kiamaiko in Nairobi hosts one of the largest goat markets in East Africa. The goats come from across Kenya and the region, as do many of the people there, [...]

Abstract This article deploys sand as a potential way of engaging with contemporary livelihoods in the Ghanaian city of Accra--one of many metropolitan nodes in an urbanizing region of West [...]

Abstract In West Africa, concrete is increasingly taking hold of physical landscapes, popular consciousness, and everyday conversations. Ubiquitous and pervasive, concrete is now an integral part of West African urban [...]

What kind of stuff makes cities? What sorts of relations between humans, materials, infrastructures, animals, plans, substances, climates, machines, imaginaries, labours, foodstuffs--things--are mobilized to produce the dense, vibrant, provisional assemblage [...]

Abstract Changing practices of motorized mobility in Kikwit, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have given rise to what residents call the 'accidente': a victim of a traffic accident, often involving [...]