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There is a corpus of knowledge on the challenges of regional integration (RI) in Africa, and Southern Africa in particular. What emerges from this body of knowledge is that the key issues pertaining to RI are not uniformly addressed, and they are largely framed from state-centric thinking, which is mostly rooted within a Westernised worldview. This paper argues that civil society has a significant role to play in the realisation of the full potential of RI in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The authors concede that there are numerous challenges to the envisaged role of civil society. As such, they use the findings of the research for this paper to propose solutions for consideration by policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The politics of knowledge remains a contentious issue among academics, students, politicians and society at large. While a fair amount of the literature on this subject has been generated, what emerges is that there is no uniform understanding in terms of what is responsible for the retarded state of knowledge in Africa. Accordingly, Africa contributes very little to scientific publications compared to other continents. The partial understanding generated in this regard largely focused on the soft impediments. Against this backdrop, this paper drew from qualitative materials to identify and critically analyse some of the often downplayed key issues avoided by critics in grappling with the question of the retarded state of knowledge in South Africa compared to that of its peers in the Global South and elsewhere. While the list elaborated below is not exhaustive, the research for this paper points to a cauldron of controlled circulation of literature, academic bullying and sabotage, administrative inefficiencies, and the nature of the employment contract as the hard issues responsible for the failure of universities to correct the sad state of knowledge in South Africa. Yet, these issues have not received adequate scholarly attention in prevailing discourses about this academic and policy conundrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Clutch size is a key life‐history trait. In lizards, it ranges over two orders of magnitude. The global drivers of spatial and phylogenetic variation in clutch have been extensively studied in birds, but such tests in other organisms are lacking. To test the generality of latitudinal gradients in clutch size, and their putative drivers, we present the first global‐scale analysis of clutch sizes across lizard taxa. Location: Global. Time period: Recent. Major taxa studied: Lizards (Reptilia, Squamata, Sauria). Methods: We analysed clutch‐size data for over 3,900 lizard species, using phylogenetic generalized least‐square regression to study the relationships between clutch sizes and environmental (temperature, precipitation, seasonality, primary productivity, insularity) and ecological factors (body mass, insularity, activity times, and microhabitat use). Results: Larger clutches are laid at higher latitudes and in more productive and seasonal environments. Insular taxa lay smaller clutches on average. Temperature and precipitation per se are unrelated to clutch sizes. In Africa, patterns differ from those on other continents. Lineages laying small fixed clutches are restricted to low latitudes. Main conclusions: We suggest that the constraint imposed by a short activity season, coupled with abundant resources, is the main driver of large‐clutch evolution at high latitudes and in highly seasonal regions. We hypothesize that such conditions – which are unsuitable for species constrained to laying multiple small clutches – may limit the distribution of fixed‐clutch taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's entrance in Africa in the early 2000s through the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation has apparently signalled several mutual beneficial agreements. However, there is a view that the Asian tiger's (China) arrival on the African soil was driven by its national interests. Such interests were particularly in the continent's rich mineral resources complex, which are deemed significant for its own economic boom. This observation reflects that scholars and practitioners alike have not uniformly understood China's engagement with Africa. Therefore, this paper problematizes what is often cited as the second "scramble for Africa" within the context of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It argues that Chinese mining companies' operations in DRC are no different to the early colonial masters who only came to Africa for nothing else but mineral resources in order to develop their own nations at the peril of Africa's own development. Based on Afrocentricity as the alternative theoretical lens, this paper seeks to critique the involvement of Chinese Multinational Corporations in the mineral resources complex of DRC. Methodically, this paper relies on document review and analysis in its broadest sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends a preliminary anti-thesis to Mokoko Piet Sebola's thesis titled 'Peer review, scholarship and editors of scientific publications: The death of scientific knowledge in Africa'. Based on his piece, it is clear that the subject of the politics of scholarship is complex and not uniformly understood. In this paper, which is largely based on the triangulation of document review and interdisciplinary critical discourse analysis, I aim to critique Sebola's piece from an alternative Afrocentric perspective; a voice that has been marginalised in this academic discourse and beyond. In particular, I consistently and systematically refute his outlandish claim that scholarly editors and their peer review processes and mechanisms are responsible for the death of scientific knowledge in Africa. The importance of this interdisciplinary debate and the need for it to be expanded and/or sustained cannot be over-emphasised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the Afrocentric perspective, this article uses South Africa as a test case to critique Mokoko Piet Sebola's piece titled "Peer review, scholarship and editors of scientific publications: the death of scientific knowledge in Africa," which appeared in Koers ‐ Bulletin for Christian Scholarship, Volume 83 (1): 1–13. I argue that Sebola's piece provides a partial guide to understanding the state of the knowledge industry in Africa, particularly in South Africa. Safe to say that Sebola's work deepens scholarly and public discourse on the politics of scholarship in Africa and the world at large. However, I do not intend to blatantly praise Sebola's contribution to this academic area, which remains under researched due to the reasons that are beyond the scope of this article. In particular, the current article aspires to identify scholarly weaknesses in Sebola's work with a view to correcting them by offering an alternative view. This correction deserves the attention of all scholars and practitioners especially because it is interdisciplinary in nature, and it is poised to undo the misinformation disseminated in Sebola's piece. Such misinformation has a potential to overshadow the few truths advanced in his article. Methodologically, this article is based on document review, conversations, and interdisciplinary discourse analysis in its broadest form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Traditional healing is often the preferred form of therapy especially in rural and resource-limited communities. The extracts of plants are used to treat many diseases such as arthritis and chronic pain. Four medicinal plant species, namely, Acokanthera oppositifolia, Plantago lanceolata, Conyza canadensis and Artemisia vulgaris used in Southern Africa to treat pain and inflammation-related diseases were selected for evaluation in laboratory-based experiments. Methods: The selected plant species were evaluated for phytochemical content, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, as well as cytotoxicity effects against mammalian cells in culture. Results: The results indicated that the n-hexane and chloroform extracts of P. lanceolata had the best antioxidant activities with an IC50=0.41 μg/mL. Also, the acetone extracts of P. lanceolata had 93.76% nitric oxide (NO) inhibition. However, the chloroform and n-hexane extracts of C. canadensis produced NO inhibition of 98.53% and 99.2%, respectively, at 100 μg/mL with IC50=17.69 μg/mL. Furthermore, the ethyl acetate extracts also had promising NO inhibitory activity (96.33%), but the cytotoxicity results with cell viabilities of 5.31%, 5.7% and 5.89%, respectively, suggested that the observed activity was due to a cytotoxic effect. Acetone extracts of C. canadensis were also cytotoxic at 30 μg/mL with 6.07–6.67% cell viabilities compared with the acetone extracts of P. lanceolata (99.57%). Conclusion: The results partially validate the ethnomedicinal uses of the selected plant species used for inflammation-related conditions. However, because some of the extracts had potential cytotoxic effects, caution is advised in their use, especially those consumed orally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pathogens compete for hosts through patterns of cross-protection conferred by immune responses to antigens. In Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the var multigene family encoding for the major blood-stage antigen PfEMP1 has evolved enormous genetic diversity through ectopic recombination and mutation. With 50-60 var genes per genome, it is unclear whether immune selection can act as a dominant force in structuring var repertoires of local populations. The combinatorial complexity of the var system remains beyond the reach of existing strain theory and previous evidence for non-random structure cannot demonstrate immune selection without comparison with neutral models. We develop two neutral models that encompass malaria epidemiology but exclude competitive interactions between parasites. These models, combined with networks of genetic similarity, reveal non-neutral strain structure in both simulated systems and an extensively sampled population in Ghana. The unique population structure we identify underlies the large transmission reservoir characteristic of highly endemic regions in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood traumas, in the form of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect, are globally widespread and highly prevalent, and associated with a range of subsequent poor health outcomes. This study sought to understand the relationship between physical, sexual and emotional childhood abuse and subsequent HIV-risk behaviours amongst young people (18–30) living in urban informal settlements in Durban, South Africa. Data came from self-completed questionnaires amongst 680 women and 677 men comprising the baseline of the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention trial. Men and women were analysed separately. Logistic regression models assessed the relationship between six HIV-risk behaviours and four measures of trauma: the form of trauma, the severity of each trauma, the range of traumas, and overall severity of childhood trauma. Childhood traumas were incredibly prevalent in this population. All childhood traumas were associated with a range of HIV-risk behaviours. This was for the ever/never trauma, as well as the severity of each type of trauma, the range of trauma, and overall severity of childhood trauma. Despite the wider harsh contexts of urban informal settlements, childhood traumas still play a significant role in shaping subsequent HIV-risk behaviours amongst young people. Interventions to reduce childhood traumas for populations in informal settlements need to be developed. In addition, trauma focused therapies need to be considered as part of wider HIV-prevention interventions for young adults. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plural legal system in post-conflict Liberia expresses tensions between modern and customary institutions. This article seeks to understand how Liberians navigate choices in the plural legal system to address gender-based violence cases. By asking how and why people make the choices they do, we highlight how Liberians solve tensions between institutions, by creating flexible categories that allow them to pursue a course of action that does not compromise their ability to access social networks and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]