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The article recommends the addition of new ethics standards to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), an international certification scheme that regulates trade in the natural jewelry-quality diamond industry. Topics discussed include the origins of the international diamond trade, the efficacy of the KPCS, and synthetic diamonds and the jewelry market. Also mentioned are the De Beers monopoly, the West African civil wars, and ethical sourcing of diamonds.

The article offers information on the economic, political and intellectual history of Western Africa. Topics discussed include African studies conducted in Brazil, investment of Brazilian higher education, public funding for young researchers and cooperation agreements signed between Brazilian universities. It further discusses seminars organized by researchers, relationship between Brazilian and foreign researchers, literary works on intellectual history, cultural heritage of West Africa and Brazilian historiography.

In a noteworthy essay entitled "The Operation Called Vergleichen (Comparison)" Joachim Matthes has drawn attention to the fact that studies which claim to compare particular phenomena from one's own culture (such as law or administration, for example) with those of an alien culture do not, strictly speaking, perform a real comparison. Instead, what takes place is (in his words) a "nostrification", that is, "an appropriation of the other in one's own terms" or conceptual assimilation. Even the ideal-type constructions of Max Weber seem largely to confirm this proposition. In principle, then, it ought to be quite hard to find studies which are not exposed to the charge of nostrification. In what follows works by Gerd Spittler are examined in some detail from this particular perspective. In the first instance Spittler investigated the specific problems encountered by the colonial administration in West African peasant states (1919-39), before examining if this problematic could be applied to the peasant state of Prussia in the 18th century. So, for example, he asked himself how a bureaucratic administration reliant on written documents resolved the problem of raising taxes on a body of untruly peasants who to a large extent communicated orally amongst themselves. Since in both cases Spittler relates the typical structures of an agrarian society to typical administrative structures, he attains a level of reflection where the '"One" can be translated into the "Other" and vice versa' (Matthes), and in this way he escapes the particular danger of nostrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on prostitution in West Africa during British colonization. Topics mentioned include the sexual attraction men had for Nigerian women, the fact that no legislation prohibited prostitution in that region, and the social status of prostitutes. The author adds that the increasing venereal disease infections and crimes at that time and the international critics of the British Empire led the British authorities to halt prostitution in the region.

This article explains why the Guinean state remained resilient to armed conflicts following military intervention in politics. The military establishment has been heavily involved in Guinean politics for nearly three decades during which time it has exhibited varied political behavior. This protracted military involvement in Guinean political affairs presented a threat to Guinea’s stability in a region where large-scale armed conflicts are often associated with military intervention in politics. This article explores the linkages between military behavior in politics and political stability by using a model derived from ethnic and identity literature. It concludes that by adopting an ethnic group-like behavior, the Guinean military played a vital role in maintaining political stability during the period between 1984 and 2010. This is in contrast to findings in recent studies where military intervention in West African politics is strongly linked with the onset of large-scale civil conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay explores the production of industrially sponsored, West African educational films, focusing on the years that witnessed piecemeal decolonization in the region. It argues that the links between the cultural Cold War and Cold War culture are especially vivid in this context: West Africa was the site of discrepant forms of colonization that still managed to share the general governmental mandate of teaching with nonfiction film, and it was increasingly the subject of corporate-sponsored cinematic experiments in Cold War cultural diplomacy. By emphasizing the region's rich natural resources as well as its human diversity, these experiments helped to strengthen the Negritude movement, paving the way for a particular type of postindependence indigenous media-making that prized the geographical and cultural characteristics of individual West African countries while simultaneously establishing some of the conditions for a lasting and "unofficial" imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a conference on storytelling in West Africa, held in Accra, Ghana, from October 18-20, 2012. Topics of discussion included the relationship of storytelling, oral tradition, and history, the social influence of stories from such African ethnic groups as the Esan, Laimbwe, and Ewe, and Ghanaian music style known as Hiplife.

The article presents information on a conference entitled "German Colonialism in West Africa: Implications for German-West African Partnership in Development, held at the University of Education (UEW) between September 29, 2011, and October 1, 2011. The article states that speakers included German embassy counsellor Maria Tekuelve, and scholars Bea Lundt, and Kofi Darvlo.

The article focuses on the annual lantern festival called Fanal in Saint Louis, Senegal. In 2008 the author attended the 10th edition of this festival in order to research the historical continuities and discontinuities in the contemporary festival. Photographs by Judith Quax are included. The author suggests that the festival is best understood as a palimpsest heritage. Information about the history of festivals in French West Africa is provided. Article topics include the revival of Senegal's heritage of métissage and the production company Jallore Productions, which organizes the Fanal.

The article addresses variations on the Hamitic hypothesis in light of the history of the study of indigenous West African history. The author suggests that the Hamitic hypothesis, which argues that cultural aspects of sub-Saharan Africa were created by Caucasian immigrants and invaders from Egypt, is racist. The background of the theory in the Jewish tradition of the story of the Flood in the biblical book of Genesis is explored. The author suggests that the Hamitic hypothesis was employed to justify the use of black Africans as slaves. The influence of Islam and Islamic traditions on the civilization of sub-Saharan Africa is also examined.

During the colonial conquest (nineteenth century), France enforced the prohibition of the sale of firearms and ammunition in its colonies in West Africa. The French administration did this in order to prevent the supplying of firearms, ammunition, and powder to resistance fighters such as El Hadj Omar, Ahmadou, Behanzin, and Samori. It was very efficient, but the legislation of France's neighbors in West Africa (England, Germany, Portugal, and Liberia) was less severe. The resistance fighters were thus supplied with firearms and ammunition by means of smuggling guns and powder in these nations' colonies (Gambia, Gold Coast, Nigeria, Guinea, Togo): consequently the war continued until the end of the nineteenth century. The European powers and the United States decided to produce an international legal instrument to control the circulation of firearms and ammunition and signed the Brussels Conference Act in 1890. The aim of this pact was to crush the last fighters like Behanzin and Samori, but its enforcement was very difficult because of the rivalry between European nations. Nevertheless, the act gave to the European powers an instrument to regulate the circulation of firearms and ammunition in their territories in West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the recalled perceptions of a number of ex-servicemen who participated in the developments leading up to the 28 February 1948 march to Christianburg Castle and the subsequent outbreaks of violence, key events in West Africa's political history. Why oral testimonies are valuable historical resources; Additional considerations.

Studies the dynastic origin of the myths of the people of Danhome, the West African kingdom of the Fon. Examination of the historic figures associated the myths; Link between the Danhome origin myth and the royal family; Significance of the fictional construction of the leopard prince Agasu; Importance of women's stories to early Danhome history.

Promotes an economic approach to the study of the West African export trade in non-slave commodities which expanded in the nineteenth century at the expense of the Atlantic slave trade, called legitimate trade. Political implications of the legitimate trade; Terminology and conceptual framework proposed; Levels of competition prevailing in the African trade networks serving the coastal ports.

This article explores some neglected economic aspects of the partition of West Africa with special reference to the case of Lagos, and puts forward for future use some propositions which take account of the economic elements in the scramble for tropical Africa. In the case of Lagos, the main reason why Great Britain decided to move into the interior was because the officials and politicians who were responsible for shaping colonial policy gave way to commercial pressure groups and to the local administration, both of which favored expansion in order to solve the economic problems which had arisen out of the growth of legitimate commerce and which had become acute in the 1880's. What is required now is not the total abandonment of economic interpretations of imperialism but a new look at the economic history of the frontiers between Europe and the underdeveloped world in the late nineteenth century. In the last analysis, the partition of West Africa may be thought of as a political act carried out to resolve the economic conflicts which had arisen as a result of the meeting of two disparate societies, one developing, the other underdeveloped.

The authors reflect on the history of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the organization's impact on global public health leadership as of 2016. The organizational structure of the WHO is addressed in relation to the agency's response to an Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The eradication of smallpox is mentioned, along with WHO director-general Margaret Chan and the group's Health Emergencies Program. WHO elections and the historical aspects of the United Nations are also assessed.