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Sub-Saharan Africa harbours the majority of the burden of Lassa fever. Clinical diseases, as well as high seroprevalence, have been documented in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Upper Volta, Gambia, and Mali. Deaths from Lassa fever occur all year round but naturally peak during the dry season. Annually, the number of people infected is estimated at 100,000 to 300,000, with approximately 5,000 deaths. There have been some work done on the dynamics of Lassa fever disease transmission, but to the best of our knowledge, none has been able to capture the seasonal variation of Mastomys rodent population and its impact on the transmission dynamics. In this work, a periodically forced seasonal nonautonomous system of a nonlinear ordinary differential equation is developed that captures the dynamics of Lassa fever transmission and seasonal variation in the birth of Mastomys rodents where time was measured in days to capture seasonality. It was shown that the model is epidemiologically meaningful and mathematically well posed by using the results from the qualitative properties of the solution of the model. A time-dependent basic reproduction number RLt is obtained such that its yearly average is written as R˜L<1, when the disease does not invade the population (means that the number of infected humans always decreases in the seasons of transmission), and R˜L>1, when the disease remains constantly and is invading the population, and it was detected that R˜L≠RL. We also performed some evaluation of the Lassa fever disease intervention strategies using the elasticity of the equilibrial prevalence in order to predict the optimal intervention strategies that can be useful in guiding the local national control program on Lassa fever disease to make a proper decision on the intervention packages. Numerical simulations were carried out to illustrate the analytical results, and we found that the numerical simulations of the model showed that possible combined intervention strategies would reduce the spread of the disease. It was established that, to eliminate Lassa fever disease, treatments with ribavirin must be provided early to reduce mortality and other preventive measures like an educational campaign, community hygiene, isolation of infected humans, and culling/destruction of rodents must be applied to also reduce the morbidity of the disease. Finally, the obtained results gave a primary framework for planning and designing cost-effective strategies for good interventions in eliminating Lassa fever.

At independence, African governments faced a challenge of building administrative and coercive capacities to extend their control over the state territory and the population. Colonial state institu...

Demographic data indicate that urban areas are growing more rapidly than rural areas in the whole of West Africa. While this tendency is especially pronounced in some of the coastal countries, the same phenomenon can be observed in the interior. This urban growth is the result of two factors: the natural increase in the present and expanding urban population, and in-migration to the cities from rural areas. The second factor accounts for most of the difference between rates of urban population growth and rates of rural population growth. The chapter presents a brief discussion of urbanization and development in Upper Volta provides some support for these assertions. These data are incomplete and are being supplemented by research under way in Upper Volta and Niger. The developmental strategy in Upper Volta is in the process of being redefined by a new plan, which is due to take effect in 1972.

This chapter focuses on the socio-economic background of the landlocked West African country Burkina Faso, formerly called Republic of Upper Volta. It is geographically situated in the Sahel--the agricultural region between the Sahara Desert and the coastal rain forests--and has a size of 274000 km2 (75% the size of Germany). With 17,8 million inhabitants (CIA – The World Fact Book, Population: 2013a), of whom 43.9 % live below the poverty line, Burkina Faso is classified both as a least developed country and a low-income, food-deficit country (Auswartiges Amt, 2013: 1st break).

A major agricultural development project was commissioned to celebrate Ghana's independence in 1957. In the Upper Region along the border with Upper Volta now named Burkina Faso, a total of 185 clay-core dams were constructed in 15 years to enhance village water supplies during the 6-month dry season. In a concentrated area of N.E. Ghana (now the Upper East Region) no fewer than 104 dams were erected in only 3 years. The beneficial impacts of the dams are indisputable, and life today would be unthinkable without them, despite severe problems of neglect of maintenance. Equally undeniable has been a negative disease impact whereby the regional rate of schistosomiasis tripled in 1 or 2 years from 17% to 51% prevalence. Thus, an agriculturally induced hyperendemicity of "red water" or "bloody urine" disease was established. To test the longevity of community disease impact, a survey of hematuria (bloody urine) was conducted in the same areas in 1997. It showed a 40-year ecological entrenchment of elevated levels of schistosomiasis, that is, seemingly permanent alteration of regional disease ecology. The consequences of planning negligence have left a generational impact in that hematuria has become a "rite of passage" for young boys and girls. Unprepared and overburdened rural health care systems are ill-equipped in the face of competing demands to respond to the presence of schistosomiasis. Yet excellent medication is available to break the transmission cycle provided that there is a sufficiency of political will, accompanied by effective, inter-sectoral campaign coordination.

From 1984 to 1989, five populations of the Nile grass rat, Arvicanthis niloticus solatus, living in five different habitats of the Sahelian region were studied in northern Burkina Faso (Oursi, 14°N). The following were investigated: (i) seasonal variations in the percentages of sexually active males and females and the percentage of the population less than 6 weeks old, and (ii) seasonal variations in testis and seminal vesicle masses and plasma testosterone levels in adults. Both the large form of A. niloticus occupying habitats with stable trophic resources and the small form of the species occupying habitats with fluctuating resources showed seasonal breeding, mainly in the dry season, in contrast with what we have observed elsewhere in other species in this region. In dry years with normal rainfall (rains between June and September), breeding occurred from mid-October to mid-July in habitats with constant trophic resources and from mid-October to mid-April in habitats with fluctuating resources. In 1986, a year with exceptional rainfall (additional rains in January), breeding was continuous in habitats where this climatic disturbance caused a reappearance of primary production and there was a population outbreak of A. n. solatus. Relationships between (i) breeding cycles, (ii) long-day periods, which have a gonadoinhibitory effect, (iii) seasonal variations in relative humidity and temperature, and (iv) dietary characteristics of A. n. solatus suggest that this subspecies is capable of breeding throughout the year. This is due to its adaptable dietary habits, which allow it to take advantage of resources that are either constant (insects, harvest wastes, and the water-rich bark of certain woody plants) or seasonal (rain-dependent herbaceous plants and farm vegetables). The end of breeding appears to be related to the relative timing of the stimulatory effect of certain foods and the inhibitory effects of photoperiod, temperature, and humidity. Under this hypothesis, the gonadoinhibitory effect of long days was masked in 1986 by an earlier stimulatory effect related to the reappearance of vegetation following the exceptionally heavy rainfall in January.

The mobilization of the population, and therefore, of the labor force was central to the ideology and the working of the colonial administration. The history of the emergence of a « demographic accountancy » in the administrative experience in French West Africa, with examples from Upper Volta, illustrates the will of administrators of all ranks in trying to better decipher population numbers. Sadly this ambition was not without its contradictions. Opposite to this ambition one finds the omissions that rendered it inoperative : lack personnel, lack of proper training for European and African civil servants, lack of funds, lack of institutions (local statistical offices), etc. A general evaluation is presented. The administration appears full contradictions, open, obviously, to the advantages of complete population enumerations but incapable in generating them in a methodologically satisfying manner. This concern was challenged by the rise of limits fo former modes of exploitation of populations., La mobilisation de la population et, en conséquence, de la force de travail était une préoccupation au cœur même de l'idéologie et de la pratique coloniales. L'histoire de l'émergence d'une "comptabilité démographique" dans la pratique administrative en AOF, à partir d'exemples de la Haute-Volta, illustre la volonté des administrateurs de tous les échelons de mieux cerner les chiffres de population. Malheureusement cette volonté ne fut pas dépourvue de contradictions. Aux antipodes de cette volonté, se situent les absences la rendant inopérantes : absence du personnel, absence de formation adéquate de fonctionnaires européens et africains, absence de crédit, absence de structures (services locaux de statistiques et de démographie) etc. Un rapide bilan est ici dressé. Une administration fissurée de contradictions, sensible, certes, aux avantages des dénombrements de population mais impuissante à les générer de manière méthodologiquement satisfaisante. Cette sensibilité fut exacerbée par l'apparition de limites aux modes antérieurs d'exploitation des populations., Gervais Raymond. Recensements en AOF : genèse et signification. Des exemples de la Haute-Volta coloniale. In: Annales de démographie historique, 1994. pp. 339-354.

The neglected and disadvantaged position of rural girls and women has frequently been noted by scholars. The situation in Upper Volta is similar to that in the rest of subSaharan Africa. In 1974 only 10 percent of the eligible age group attended school at the primary level, 7.0 percent of the girls and 11.2 percent of the boys. A great disparity existed between rural and urban areas, with 70 percent of the children in urban areas attending school in contrast to 9 percent of those in rural areas.

I N order to depict adequately the significance of political and economic interaction in tropical Africa, it is necessary to sketch the background of recent changes in that area lying south of the Sahara and north of Angola, Rhodesia, and Mozambique. Here are some 30 states ranging in size from over 2-5 million sq.km. in the Sudan to less than oo I million sq.km. in the Gambia; in population from almost 80 million in Nigeria to about 400,000 in the Gambia; in density from over 120 per sq.km. in Burundi to less than one per sq.km. in Mauritania; in income per capita from over $400 in Gabon to less than $50 in Burundi, Somalia, and Upper Volta; and in G.N.P. from over $4'5 billion in Nigeria to less than $30 million in Gambia. Despite such wide differences, the process of political transition experienced in tropical Africa has followed a pattern which provides a basis for some degree of generalisation. Specifically, there has been a shift from a tribal political structure, through a period of colonial rule, eventually to an independent status. The argument presented in this article is based largely upon inequality, and the perception of inequality, as influenced by changes in political power, economic discontinuity, and spatial organisation. Traditional political structure in tropical Africa was based on dominance sometimes benevolent by a king or chief, supported by a group of associates who were mainly members of his immediate family and/or his kinship group. The territorial extent of political power was dependent largely upon the ruler's ability to command allegiance and respect, and upon the strength and loyalty of his military forces. Economic activity consisted mainly of subsistence agriculture or nomadic herding with minimal organised exchange. Traditional societies owed any surplus production to their ruler, in 'exchange' for which they obtained protection and security. Wealth was thus largely

As in most developing countries, Upper Volta is experiencing a very high rate of urban growth. Most of the results of this process may be described as 'uncontrolled' . Almost 50% of the population of Upper Volta's capital, Ouagadougou, lives in so-called 'spontaneous' housing areas, and this percentage is increasing . Legislative measures cannot cope with a phenomenon of this magnitude . Successful intervention can be achieved only by socio-economic actions. With its limited financial resources, how can the Government of Upper Volta define and engage in a policy with regard to urbanization which would allow the improvement of living conditions?

During the 1977/78 dry season an experiment was conducted in the Volta Noire source tributaries area of Upper Volta, to assess the feasibility of controlling human trypanosomiasis by reducing the vector, Glossina palpalis gambiensis, by a combination of techniques. The objective was to suppress the target tsetse population by chemical means and then to achieve a further reduction or eradication by the release of sterile males. Sixteen kilometres of the fringing forest of the upper River Guenako were treated with the synthetic pyrethroid decamethrin (OMS-1998) applied from a helicopter as an aerosol at a dosage of 0.2 g/ha. Two applications at 14 days interval reduced the target G.p. gambiensis population by over 95% and caused important changes in the qualitative composition of both G.p. gambiensis and G. tachinoides populations. Subsequent over-flooding of the residual G.p. gambiensis population by sterile males was easily achieved.

Onchocerciasis is one of the most serious blinding diseases in the world, affecting between 20 and 25 million people, of whom 200-500 thousand are blind. In Africa more than half of the countries on the continent are affected, the basin of the Volta river containing one of the largest endemic areas. In this area the unique Onchocerciasis Control Program (OCP) is being undertaken, involving Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Togo and Upper Volta. In this region, surveys have shown that 14.78% of the population have microfilariae in their skin biopsies, while in hyperendemic villages the figure rises to 75.2%. In such a village the prevalence of blindness rises steeply with age, from 0% under age 20, to over 40% in the over 50 age group. Various environmental factors relevant to the prevalence and incidence of systemic and ocular onchocerciasis are discussed, and pharmacologic treatment modalities are described. Prevention activities, centred around vector control by insecticides, have been dramatically effective.

It was six men of IndostanTo learning much inclinedWho went to see the Elephant(Though all of them were blind),That each by observationMight satisfy his mind.Over a thousand miles separate the Fulbe emirate of Liptako in Upper Volta from the region of the lower Gambia River, where several Mandinka states long held political authority. Fundamental differences between the areas are easy to notice. Besides speaking its own language and following its own set of social customs, Liptako's Fulbe population practiced a mixed pastoral and agrarian mode of subsistence on land where rainfall was only marginally sufficient. The Mandinka were more strictly farmers in an area that receives on average about twice as much rainfall as Liptako. Liptako existed as a unified Fulbe state only since the first decade of the nineteenth century, whereas many of the Mandinka states of the lower Gambia date to at least three centuries earlier. Commerce was important to both regions, but Liptako's commercial focus was toward the Sahara and the desert-side trade, whereas the lower Gambia was a point of contact between savanna merchants and Atlantic shippers. But, despite these obvious differences, there is a remarkable degree of similarity in the way individuals living in the two areas remember their past, and historians find a host of like problems they must confront when attempting to reconstruct the precolonial histories of either region.I had become increasingly aware of some of the difficulties in working with Mandinka oral tradition during fieldwork in the lower Gambia. But only recently have I become familiar with problems another historian encountered as he studied traditions from Liptako, so many miles from my own area of interest. A Fulbe emirate, Liptako rose in the wake of Usuman dan Fodio's jihad early in the nineteenth century.

This paper presents the experiences had in delivering health services to pastoral Tuareg and Maure nomads living in the West African sahel. Because of the rudimentary nature of the existing general health services structure and existing attitudes towards health services among nomads, the mass campaign technique was employed. Between 1968 and 1971 campaigns were directed at Tuareg and Maure groups living in Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Upper Volta. Such campaigns consisted of preparatory, planning and execution phases. During the first two, nomadic movements were studied and program logistics planned in detail. Because nomads have historically resisted the payment of taxes on themselves and their livestock, special efforts were made to completely dissociate health temas from administrative authorities associated with tax collection. The low population density of the sahel, the dispersion of nomads over a wide geographic area and the long distances between individual nomad camps necessitated the investment of man hours and gasoline far in excess of those invested in campaigns for sedentary farmers living in the same areas. In one program for both nomads and sedentaries living in the same topographic zone, a comparison of costs and resources necessary was made between the two sets of medical teams established. The operational costs for the program for nomads was eleven-fold more than that for the sedentary agricultural population. The short term goals of the program were: (1) the delivery of specific immunizations; (2) health education; and (3) a demonstration of the complete separation of health service delivery and tax collection. The long term goals were: (1) the extension of general health services to the nomadic population; and (2) the use of fixed curative medical facilities by the nomadic population. Crucial to the program's success was the delivery of a service such as measles immunization which had an immediate and striking effect on the health of the community.

This paper highlights the difficulties and complexities of development assistance projects through an analysis of 2 Urban Functions in Rural Development projects conducted by the US Agency for International Development (AID) in Upper Volta and northern Cameroon in 1977-82. The general objectives of the Upper Volta project were to carry out urban function studies, develop a plan for strengthening the contributions of urban centers to rural development, develop a list of investment priorities for facilities and services, and increase the capacities of the Ministry in planning processes and methods. The 2-year project was hindered by a 1-year delay in initiating assistance due to difficulties in locating a contractor. In addition, the contractor and other team members felt there was little justification for studies of spatial organization in a country with so much evident need; rather, they focused on a small rural works program and establishment of effective local government, producing an inconsistency between team activities and the original project agreement. A request by the team to extend the project 1 year beyond its official completion date to compensate for early delays was rejected by USAID. Nonetheless, there was agreement that the project had a small positive impact in Upper Volta. Key lessons from Upper Volta were transferred to the Cameroon project. Although this project was judged to have achieved its objective of preparing a regional plan and of identifying programs for facilities, services, and small-scale enterprises, it was beset by problems of inexperience and technical underqualification of team members, poor communication, inconsistency of USAID guidelines, and methodological confusion. It is suggested that a central challenge for such programs is to create a body of qualified Americans who can work with their local counterparts in meeting the challenges of development. A measure of the success or failure of these projects should be the degree to which learning contributes to improved performance.

This study is offered as a contribution to the literature on African protest movements during the era of colonial rule. Existing studies of migration emphasize the socio-economic aspects of motivation and have tended to gloss over or even omit migrations in which the dominant factor was disapproval of colonial policy. Existing studies of African protest movements focus on armed confrontations, perhaps because of their greater dramatic appeal.The case of the Ivory Coast and Upper Volta illustrates a phenomenon found in various parts of French West Africa and, indeed, in other colonies, particularly the Belgian and Portuguese territories. The causes of protest migrations were usually related to the same resentments which provoked revolt in localities where armed confrontation was the only option. These compelling factors included forced labour, burdensome taxation, conscription, requisitions and an attack on indigenous political institutions, notably chieftaincy. The use of repressive police measures, as manifested in the Native Penal and Indigénat Codes, exacerbated African discontent. Judging from the French reaction to the exodus from the Ivory Coast and Upper Volta, it is clear that migrations, as protests, proved far less costly to Africans and had much the same effect on the colonial authorities as did other more militant forms of protest and rebellion.

A critical analysis is made of some views on modern migration in West Africa which have been developed on the basis of dualistic theories of development. The effect of labor migration on development among immigration zones is examined using models of regional economic growth. The paper is based on empirical studies of selected West African countries including Ghana the Ivory Coast Senegal and Upper Volta (EXCERPT)

IntroductionThe purpose of this study is to draw attention to the large volume of monetary transactions and profits within the traditional sector of a farming community in West Africa. More specifically it deals with the production, distribution and pricing of local brews, points to the effect of beer making on farming, and relates this trade to contemporary developments in other spheres of social and economic life.

This article describes the kinship structure of some Lebanese communities in West Africa and the resemblances they bear to the communities from which they originated in Lebanon. It also shows the extent to which kinship ties promote emigration and the kind of trade partnership normally practised by kinsmen. Two communities are considered: the Greek Orthodox community in Ouagadougou (Upper Volta) and the Shiite Muslim community in Magburaka (Sierra Leone). Those who fail their future in Lebanon search for it in Africa stated a Lebanese emigrant to West Africa. It must be added here that it is chiefly those who maintain kinship ties with emigrants who are able to search for a future there for it is only such people who can enjoy sponsorship and protection. Few emigrants are sponsored by friends. (excerpt)

The most obvious effect of sleeping sickness is depopulation, which can be occasioned directly, through mortality from the disease, and indirectly, through a lowering of the reproductive rate of a community because of induced sterility and increased infant mortality.The problem was studied in the north of the Gold Coast and the neighbouring French Upper Volta Territory, where severe epidemics have occurred, in localised form since at least the middle of last century, and in widespread form during the past 30 years. The vectors have been the riverine tsetse Glossina palpalis and G.tachinoides.A close correlation was found to exist between the incidence of sleeping sickness and the population trend with a marked depopulating effect coming in at infection rates above 3 per cent. It was also found that both the rates of trypanosomiasis infection and the extent of depopulation showed closely similar relationships to the proximity of affected villages to the nearest flybelt.

Attendances at well established treatment centres give a reliable index of the incidence of sleeping sickness within the area served, and have been used for planning control experiments in an epidemic in the Lawra and Wa districts in the north-west corner of the Gold Coast and for studying the effects of the measures employed. Glossina palpalis and G. tachinoides are the main vectors of the T. gambiense form of sleeping sickness present and also of animal trypanosomiasis. G. morsitans occurs only in thinly populated regions and is chiefly concerned with cattle trypanosomiasis. Sleeping sickness, present along the Black Volta river prior to the beginning of the century, had by 1938 developed into a serious pandemic covering over 30,000 square miles of the Upper Volta territory. Depopulation followed in the most heavily infected localities and, by concentrating the population on the uplands between infected river valleys, was giving rise to serious secondary evils arising from water shortage and soil erosion. The extension of G. morsitans into depopulated areas was also taking place. A striking feature of the distribution of the disease in Lawra district in 1938 was the relatively small amount of infection along the Black Volta, where fly-belt is heavy and continuous, and the concentration of infection on the tributaries and especially their headwaters, where fly-belt is lighter and less continuous or even reduced to isolated groves. Inferences from this distribution led to planning a concentration of attack, by tsetse eradication, on the main epidemic area (the Volta tributaries) while the Volta fly-belt was to be left untouched. Eradication of G. palpalis and G. tachinoides was effected by selective clearing, a method involving the removal over each complete river system of only certain species of trees and shrubs which are essential constituents of the dry-season habitat of these tsetse. Between 1940 and 1945 1,100 square miles of Lawra district were freed from fly at a total cost of £4,500. A population of 90,000 is affected. The permanent tsetse communities disappeared on each stretch of river as soon as clearing was completed. The high degree of control obtained has been shown by continuous observation on three of the cleared rivers, where 0 to 9 flies have been caught per year in places where the pre-clearing catches were 2,000 to 7,500 flies per year. The catch at a control point on the uncleared Volta was 20,127 flies in 1947. An intrusion of G. morsitans was brought under complete control by game reduction backed by settlement. In the area of tsetse eradication a 97 per cent. reduction in the incidence of sleeping sickness took place between 1938 and 1947. In Wa district systems of protective clearing were applied over two blocks of country and effected reductions of 80 and 50 per cent. of pre-clearing incidence of trypanosomiasis, the reduction being proportionate to the number and length of clearings. In south-west Wa, where no control measures had been applied, an increase of over 100 per cent. in the number of cases was observed between 1940 and 1947. Tsetse eradication is considered essential for the complete control of epidemic sleeping sickness and has the added advantage of controlling animal trypanosomiasis. A modification of selective clearing leading to the eradication of the fly-belt vegetation has been applied throughout the Lawra area of reclamation and has given such a degree of stability that maintenance can be taken over by the local natives even at such low population densities as 20 per square mile. This is important because sleeping sickness does not appear as a serious problem below this density. Full advantage of the reclamation of the river valleys is being taken by the people, about 1,500 having settled voluntarily along the Kamba and over 4,000 acres of new farms having been broken since clearing was finished. Conclusions on the epidemiology of sleeping sickness show that a very exacting combination of factors, bringing the tsetse into close and continuous contact with man, is required for epidemics to arise. Without the full set of factors the disease is absent or present at low infection rates only. The factors are analysed and discussed. The discussion leads to the conclusion that the most rapid and complete control of sleeping sickness can be obtained by concentrating attack on the true epidemic centres which lie commonly on tributaries of the main Volta rivers. Eradication of the tsetse and fly-belt vegetation throughout these natural land units, followed by their fuller development, affords a permanent solution to both human and animal trypanosomiasis and can, at the same time, be of economic benefit to the community as a whole.

We have studied the incidence of hemoglobinopathies in 1059 individuals in Upper Volta. We have found that this population has a high frequency of HbS and HbC and alpha-thalassemia. The gene frequency of HbS was high (0.1 for the beta s gene) in the arid Sahel portion of Upper Volta accompanied by a lower frequency for HbC (0.05 for the beta c gene). The reverse was true in the humid Savanna region of this country (0.03 for the beta s gene and 0.14 for the beta c gene). There was no age dependency of the HbS gene frequency, but alpha-thalassemia, detectable in HbS heterozygotes, showed a statistically significant decrease with age. No homozygote for HbS was detected after the age of 1 year, and SC and CC genotypes were found at a lower incidence than expected. The environmental and medical conditions in Upper Volta preclude the survival of SS individuals and decrease the survival of SC and CC genotypes.

Information is presented on the distribution, ecology and trypanosome infections of a relict population of Glossina Medicorum in the Northern Guinea Savannah vegetation zone of south-western Upper Volta, during the 1976/77 late dry season. G. medicorum was readily captured in white Challier and Laveissieere (1973) tsetse traps and surveys with these traps showed the species to be distributed between 9° 42° and 10° 1′N in the lower River Komoe valley. This is the most northerly location of this species so far known. G. medicorum was widely distributed in the fringing forests of the River Komoe, although the most popular habitats were in situations where the typical fringing forests were backed by relatively extensive areas of Guibourtia copallifera forests and where wildlife was abundant. In such areas, flies were most active during the dusk-dawn period. The overall trypanosome infection rate of G. medicorum was 29·4%, which is thought to be the highest so far recorded for the species. Trypanosomes found w...

The combination of a trapping system of insecticide impregnated screens and biconical traps followed by the release of sterile males led to the complete control of Glossina palpalis gambiensis and Glossina tachinoides in the agro-pastoral zone of Sideradougou. This area, situated south of Bobo Dioulasso, Upper Volta, in the Guinea savannah, covers an area of approx. 3000 km2. Along more than 650 km of rivers, bordered by gallery forests and infested by riverine tsetse, 6500 impregnated screens were placed during 4 months of the dry season, followed by the release of sterile males in the rainy season. For release purposes, colonies of 150,000 producing females of G.p. gambiensis and 85,000 females of G. tachinoides were maintained in industrial colonies on artificial membranes. Reinvasion of the project area was prevented by two barriers consisting of biconical traps impregnated with synthetic pyrethroid in one and simple biconical capture traps in the other. The screens reduced the initial fly population by 94% and permitted the release of only 35 sterile males per km of river to attain the planned ratio of seven sterile males to one wild male. Regular surveys showed that, after 4 months of release of sterile males, the relic fly population was constantly decreasing and tending towards disappearance. p ]An economic evaluation based on the production costs of the sterile males together with the costs of field operations showed that this combination of two non-pollutant methods was competitive with other methods of tsetse control.

Data on the seroepidemiology of rubella in tropical Africa have been scarce. However, reports of serologic surveys in many countries within the last few years have changed this situation. Studies in Angola have shown an overall rate of positivity for rubella antibodies of 73% among females between the ages of 15 and 19 years. In the group between five and nine years of age, 74% had rubella antibodies. Therefore, Angolans acquired natural immunity before beginning school. In Ghana, greater than 70% of women of childbearing age had rubella antibodies, and in Nigeria 60% had antibodies. In The Gambia, by 14 years of age, 93% or more of the female population had immunity to rubella. Similar high levels were found in surveys conducted in Ethiopia, Upper Volta, and Uganda. However, a low level of 33% was recorded in Togo. The reports indicate that rubella infection is widespread and endemic on the African continent.

Haemoglobin (Hb) AC electrophoretic pattern was found in 0.7% of the population at Garki, Kano State, northern Nigeria, an area where malaria is hyperendemic. Twenty-one Hb.AC subjects at all ages did not differ from the rest of the population in their frequency or density of Plasmodium falciparum, P. malaria or P. ovale infections, nor in their IgM concentrations and titres of specific antimalarial antibodies. However, IgG levels in Hb.AC subjects were frequently above the average of the reference population (P less than 0.05), especially during a period of protection against malaria (P less than 0.01). These observations suggest that the Hb.C gene may be maintained in certain environments by an enhanced ability to produce IgG antibodies against an antigen or antigens other than malaria, and that its geographical relationship to malaria may be a coincidence. This hypothesis needs to be tested where Hb.C is seen at high frequency, in northern Ghana and Upper Volta or Gwoza (Nigeria).

We have studied the incidence of alpha-thalassemia in normal and SS individuals from Senegal, Benin, Upper Volta, and Central Republican Africa. The alpha thal gene frequency is not significantly different in the controls from the various populations and in the SS patients from Senegal. In contrast it is compatible with increased survival of SS patients in Benin, Upper Volta. The data suggest epistatic effects of other factors in the Senegalese population.

In this paper, the authors report the results of an enquiry undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team consisting of physicians and anthropologists in nine villages of Upper Volta. Three surveys were taken: in 1971, 1976 and 1977, and respondents were offered therapy for diseases associated with infertility. Statistics on general fertility, postpartum abstinence, intra-uterine and infant mortality and intervals between births were calculated, and the information is related to social and medical characteristics of the women surveyed.

Past and future electricity demand was analyzed for seven countries of West Africa: Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Republic of Niger, Togo, Benin, and Burkina Faso (until recently Upper Volta). These countries constitute approximately 84 percent of the West African population. Primary energy resource endowments include agricultural waste, fossil fuels, hydro power, and some deposits of uranium (not uniformly distributed). Each country has some hydro power, with Nigeria having the largest resources. Deposits of crude oil have been discovered in most of the countries. Nigeria leads in known oil reserves and produces about 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. In contrast, Burkina Faso has very little available energy resources beyond a small hydro power potential. In spite of the cumulatively abundant resources of the region, electricity is an expensive commodity for most of the countries, with prices ranging from less than 10/kWh for Ghana to about 300/kWh for low- voltage residential consumers in Burkina Faso. The disparity in price between these two countries is explained partly by the fact that Ghana obtains its electricity supply from cheap hydro sources, whereas Burkina Faso relies entirely on imported oil for electricity generation. The predicament of Burkina Faso is also shared by countries like Niger, Benin, Togo, and Ivory Coast, although the last has some operating hydroelectric power sources. The excess power capacities of Nigeria and Ghana have permitted contractual exchanges with their neighbors, Niger, Benin, and Togo. The CEB (a joint Togo and Benin company) has contracted to buy a maximum of 50 megawatts power from the Volta River Project (Ghana Ministry of

J.-Y. Marchal—Premises for a Modem State? Colonial Projects in the Volta Basin (1897-1960). To which uses can one put a dense population inherited from a strong, enduring political power? Should it be either compelled into production or else driven to export its life force ? The alternative which confrontee the colonial administration of Upper Volta has apparently fashioned the destiny of Burkina Faso., Marchal Jean-Yves. Prémisses d'un État moderne ? Les projets coloniaux dans le bassin des Volta, 1897-1960.. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 26, n°103, 1986. pp. 403-420.

The interplay between experiment and theory that lead to the development of quantum mechanics illustrates important issues in the history and philosophy of chemistry and has been recognized on postage stamps in countries like New Zealand, Canada, France, Sweden, USSR, USA, East and West Germany, Australia, Nicaragua, Denmark, Vatican, Spain, Uruguay, and Upper Volta.

The colonial authorities perceived Upper Volta as the most important labour reservoir in French West Africa. Koudougou, the most populous administrative subdivision of what was Upper Volta during the colonial period, was probably also the most densely settled. Various types of colonial labour policies are examined. These include forced labour in its forms of annual ‘prestations’ and longer-term, large-scale recruiting for major public works, as well as military conscription and the use of the ‘2e portion’ in the public and private sectors. Based on archival research in West Africa, this study traces changes in the size of the labour force and the impact of the forced extraction of labour on the African populations. Finally, the wider significance of colonial labour policies is analysed.