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Editorial Note DOI: https://doi.org/10.31920/2516-5305/2019/v16n1a0
Victor Ojakorotu9
African Renaissance continues to pursue its ideals of contributing to drive towards the development of the African continent through the publishing of high quality intellectual and academic research. In line with its vision and mission, the Issue of the journal deals with a broad range of issues such as trade war, human security, language development, elections, academic performance, entrepreneurship, health advocacy, migration, human rights, tourism among others. These issues were extensively dealt with by individual authors, some with far-reaching and practicable policy recommendations. The multidisciplinary nature of the contributions are also worthy of note as issues were considered from diverse perspectives and intellectual traditions.
In line with the tradition of excellence and academic integrity established by African Renaissance, each article underwent rigorous process of review. This is to ensure that necessary gaps were closed in selected articles. We are sure that criticisms and recommendations of the reviewers added significant value to the quality of submissions. In this wise, efforts of our reviews are recognised and commended for the quality contribution towards the publication of this Issue. Authors of articles are also commended for turning in improved versions of their works in good time. Our sincere appreciation also goes to all those who contributed in one or the other to the publication of this Issue of African Renaissance.
It is our hope that articles in this Issue of the journal have contributed to knowledge on African politics and development. We also hope to see that recommendations and suggestions by contributors will form part of practical policy process on African development in the years to come.
The rise of Donald Trump in American politics has opened a new vista of protectionism in the history of the country. While protectionism has dominated the political economy of the country throughout the 19th century, globalisation saw a relaxation of protectionist policies by the United States. The start of the Trump Presidency has rekindled American protectionism such that the world is under a threat of trade war. America wants to place protective tariffs on foreign goods. This paper notes that the United States has through globalisation harnessed African resources have now resorted to protectionism to ensure that African states and other underdeveloped states do not have access to its market. It notes further that protectionism by America can lead to retaliatory actions by another developed country with the possibility of a trade war. Trade war does not change the status of African countries, rather it will only seek to perpetuate and deepen the existing system of economic relations between the centre and the periphery. The paper posits that American protectionism has a new dimension of human security for African countries. The paper suggests that Africa needs to readdress its relations with the West including America and act in unison in the face of new American protectionism to ensure that the effects of such action are not grave on the continent.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between texting language and language development amongst Intermediate Phase learners. The study, which used the quantitative approach, sought to ascertain if texting affects spelling. The target population were learners in the Intermediate Phase, which is learners from Grades 4 to 6. There were 213 learners who took part in the study. All learners were from five African schools and learnt English as a second language. SPSS version 24 was used to analyse the results collected from the study. The findings of the study reveal that there is a positive relationship between texting language and Standard English. It also showed that texting language cannot come into existence without one first learning and knowing the Standard English language. Based on these findings, the study recommends that teachers should recognise the importance of the English language and should organise extra-curricular and co-curricular activities to enhance language development in learners. The Department of Education should promote and support activities to help learners improve their language skills.
The election period is a period where the newspaper is to show professionalism, social responsibility and act ethically in the dissemination of news to its readers. To enforce this, the Nigerian media code of election coverage was established. This study therefore was carried out to examine the newspaper coverage of the 2015 presidential election and its compliance with the section 2 of the Nigerian media code of election coverage using the two major newspapers in Nigeria, The Punch and The Guardian. This study was anchored on the Social responsibility theory, an ethical theory which stipulates that an individual/Institution/organization is accountable for fulfilling civic duty and that the actions of this individual/institution/organization must benefit the whole society. This includes ensuring that news published to the public during the election process is done with accuracy, balance and fairness. This study adopted the quantitative content analysis as the research method and the instruments of data collection was the coding sheet. The results gotten indicated that there was 80% level of compliance with the code of election coverage in the area of accuracy and fairness, but work still need to be done in the area of balance and citizen’s participation in the election using the newspaper as a medium. The study therefore recommends among others that the newspaper should work on being balance when publishing news stories concerning political parties/candidates and also ensure that the columns that feature the views of the citizens are always available in every issue during the election period so as to increase the level of citizen participation.
Working and studying simultaneously is a common phenomenon around the world in which some students engage in. South Africa continues to have high tertiary fees which most students are unable to afford. The introduction of the free higher tertiary education initiative by the South African government has only benefited undergraduate students, most postgraduate students in rural universities still have to deal high tuition fees. To compensate for this, students engage in part-time jobs to pay for their fees and carter for their basic needs. The study investigated the factors contributing to postgraduate students studying and working simultaneously and also its effects on their academic performance through a qualitative approach. The findings of the study indicated that studying and working simultaneously negatively affect the students’ academic performance. Students working and studying simultaneously at the University of Venda mostly do not perform well and do not finish their degrees in record time due to fatigue, stress, absenteeism and also the inability to meet the prescribed deadlines. This calls for urgent attention of the government of South Africa and the University governing body to come together and address the financial needs of postgraduate students through providing government and institutional bursaries to fund their studies. This will make them to concentrate on their on their studies without thinking of working so that they can pay their school fees.
In a bid to promote Igbo language and save it from extinction, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), under its BBC World Service programming, has introduced the BBC Igbo Service. This is not the first time the BBC is adopting African indigenous languages into its programming as there are indigenous language-based programmes in Hausa, Somali, Swahili, Afaan Oromo, Amharic and Tigirinya dialects. These programmes were introduced long before the Igbo and Yoruba language-based programmes. However, the effectiveness of these programmes in promoting indigenous languages is not yet known. This study is aimed at achieving this. In-depth interviews were held and used to collect data from scholars who teach and research Igbo language in a federal university situated in the south-eastern part of Nigeria, which is a predominantly Igbo-speaking region. The explanation-building technique was applied in analyzing the data. Findings revealed that the BBC is still far from promoting indigenous languages through this programming technique. The study concludes that although this is a step in the right direction, the technique is not yet effective because contents are only shared online. BBC Igbo Service contents need to be inculcated into radio and television platforms just like BBC Hausa Service in order to attract appreciation, participation and engagement from the native speakers of the language.
The growing sophistication of security issues in many rural Igbo societies requires that a new approach to security provision and communication be re-introduced. Today, kidnapping, rape, robbery, theft of antiquity, attack by Fulani herdsmen, etc have become major challenges in Nigeria, and the rural communities appear to bear much of the brunt. Although, some of these communities maintain some level of integrity and peace, with respect to the security of their lives and property, the gradual change in the modus operandi of miscreants have challenged the serenity of the societies and sometimes overwhelmed the threshold of existing communication and security provisions. Consequently, there is a need to revisit the traditional forms of communication and security provisions with a view to determining how to curb this menace. This paper examines the security provisions and modes of communication in rural Igbo societies. It uses face-to-face interviews and literary sources to aver that the integration of modern and traditional modes of communication will provide a solution to the nagging security challenges that currently befall many traditional Igbo societies.
Since 1994, the Department of Education has introduced several curriculum changes and reforms as part of broad-based interventions to improve the country’s education (Chisholm 2005:80; Department of Education 2011a:5). With curriculum change, there is a need for accompanying training and support measures to update teachers on the rationale, methodologies and value-systems embedded in the new curriculum.
Currently, learners are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning, specifically urging autonomous learning and learner-centeredness in the teaching process. Educational and management processes should therefore consider the learners first, recognise and build on their knowledge and experiences, and respond to their needs (Education White Paper 1, DoE, 1995: 21). This thinking is progressive in the context of shifting understandings about learning processes. However, such practices are highly complex, and there is a need for research to explore how best to advance such practices in classroom contexts.
One of such needs is to be able to think critically, that is, use ‘higher order thinking’ skills. Higher-order thinking, also termed higher order thinking skills (HOTS), is a notion of education amendment based on learning taxonomies (such as Bloom's taxonomy). This implies that some types of learning require cognitive processing than others require, but also have more overall benefits. It is thus important for learners to develop these skills which include “critical, logical, reflective, metacognitive and creative thinking” (King, Goodson & Rehani, 1998), ensuring that these are activated when individuals come across unfamiliar problems, doubts, questions, or problems which need to be solved. These skills also provide learners with the opportunity to engage with the target language through negotiation and argumentation.
An entrepreneurial university increases human capacity and efficiency and improves the global competitiveness of South Africa. The country has embraced the need to improve and exploit the outputs of innovation by supporting processes that transform the country into a ‘knowledge-economy’, where knowledge is the basic form of capital and where economic growth is driven by innovation. This is a qualitative study and 21 interviews were conducted with employees of innovation centres and incubators to assess the role of universities in the development of entrepreneurship and agglomeration economies. Findings suggest that the country requires the collaboration of businesses, educational institutions and government to be innovative and creative for entrepreneurs, to create knowledge, assist in building a knowledge economy, create spin-off companies and contribute to economic development.
Emergent statistics on the geographic distribution of sickle cell anaemia is indicative of the failure of current strategies in tackling this endemic public health issue in Africa and Nigeria in particular. As part of continued preventive education policy, Delta, one of the states in Nigeria susceptible to the ailment initiated the “operation know your genotype campaign” to educate people of marriageable age on the need to take premarital genotype test to avoid incompatible mating. Using a mixed methods involving in-depth interviews of experts and survey of 300 Asaba adults, the study sought to determine the campaign’s effectiveness in creating awareness and influencing individuals to undertake genotype compatibility test. The findings indicate low awareness and knowledge of the genotype test and compatibility campaign. Ignorance about the causes of sickle cell anaemia persists and many respondents do not know their genotype, suggesting that the campaign may have been unsuccessful in creating needed awareness of and motivation for individuals’ to go for the genotype compatibility testing. The campaign battled against religious beliefs and traditional myths that might have muted its desired impact.
The purpose of this article is to evaluate the implementation of a Singaporean-modelled developmental state approach in Rwanda in order to offer lessons and recommendations that can be used by other African countries. Rwanda’s Vision 2020 has been implemented through the Singaporean-modelled developmental state since 2000 and is now almost 19 years old. The threefold objectives of this article are to critically analyse (a) what the theory of a developmental state entails, (b) what the similarities and differences are between the implementation of the developmental state model in Rwanda and Singapore, and (c) what the successes and failures of Vision 2020 have been in the past 19 years of implementing the developmental state model in Rwanda. This study is qualitative in nature and is based on secondary data sources, such as journal articles, books, disciplinary magazines, and related websites, with the intention of achieving a more objective discussion and conclusion on the topic in this article. The results of this research show that Rwanda has successfully implemented the Singaporean-modelled developmental state and has in theory become a developmental state. It has, however, failed to achieve the same developmental objectives achieved by Singapore in the 19 years after its implementation of the Singaporean-modelled developmental state, and it is not likely to achieve middle-income status by 2020. It is recommended that other African countries seeking to achieve middle-income status base their economic development goals on realistic plans and take their particular social and economic conditions into account when doing so.
In this article, the author uses interdisciplinary critical discourse in its broadest form to analyse the state of then Jacob Zuma led African National Congress (ANC) as a liberation movement cum ruling political party in South Africa. In particular, the author employs Afrocentricity as an alternative contextual lens to identify and tease out the perceived major contradictions that characterised the Zuma led ANC. The central question grappled with in this article is: to determine whether the political and ideological contradictions as displayed by the differing views of the prominent ANC led tripartite alliance represents the emergence or continuity of the real or imagined contradictions in the governing ANC? It is argued in this article that the major contradictions espoused by the leadership of the ANC can best be understood when located within historicity and the context of the elective national conference of the party held in December 2017. Even though this article’s historical sensibility forces it to briefly reflect on some of the key historical imperatives before the year 2009, its analysis is located within the Zuma’s ANC/ South African presidency.
This paper explores how Fela Anikulapo Kuti of Nigeria and Miriam Makeba of South Africa utilised their popular songs to communicate opposition against certain established political orders in their respective African societies. Popular songs have always been a formidable instruments of political expression. They play serious roles in general socio- political engineering as well as have a great place in the expression of conflicts amongst classes in the society; especially given the Marxian position that history of all human societies is the history of class struggle. Taking popular songs generally as tools of political communication - that which can be used for electoral, endorsement, review, protest and other purposes; and qualitatively drawing a comparative analysis of selected songs of Fela and Makeba, the paper particularly asserts that indigenization and de-foreignisation of popular songs are key to their effective use in communicating opposition to perceived political anomalies within a social formation, as could be seen in the cases of Fela and Makeba against colonial masters and apartheid lords during their times.
Maternal mortality remains a serious global public health problem. The paper examines the socio-demographic factors associated with maternal mortality with implications for community learning and action in developing areas. The data analyzed were obtained from a sample of 20,467 women aged 15-49 years whose recent delivery occurred in the five years preceding the survey. Stata 12 computer software was used to carry out data analyses. Data analyses were done at univariate and bivariate levels. Results from the univariate analysis indicated that the proportion of mothers who did not deliver in a healthcare facility was (67 per cent) against the thirty per cent of mothers who delivered at a healthcare facility. About sixty-four per cent of the women did not indicate interest in seeking professional assistance. This was followed by 36 per cent of those who sought assistance. All the background variables at the bivariate levels showed their influence on the cost of the facility, except the place of residence (P = 0.808). Contrariwise, all the variables relating to the distance to a healthcare facility were significant during delivery (P <0.001). This means that both availabilities of transport and healthcare facility cost are important proximate determinants through which socio-economic, demographic and cultural factors influenced maternal mortality risk.
Based on these outcomes, we conclude that policies and community learning and action programs aimed at encouraging pregnant women to seek professional assistance should help to increase the prevalence of delivery in healthcare facilities, thereby reducing the risk of maternal mortality.
Migration is not a new phenomenon in Africa as it has been witnessed here for centuries. However, post-colonialism, there has been a dramatic rise in the movement of individuals within the continent. Using a largely qualitative methodology supplemented by secondary data, this paper examines the drivers underpinning youth migration in Africa. Through the use of Lee’s Push and Pull theory as a theoretical framework, it posits that migration is predominantly intra-African and the youth make up a large percentage of these migrant either to advance their economic opportunities or fleeing conflicts. This is manifested by the fact that post-colonialism, Africa has remained an underdeveloped continent with high poverty levels, youth unemployment, and political instability. These factors have contributed as pivotal drivers of youth migration.
The paper explored human-right violation and migrant detention in Europe and from the experiences of returnees in Irob Woreda, Tigray. International migration has become the most pressing issue of the 21stc. In Ethiopia, it has become a great concern among government and local communities amid surmounting impacts. The research design is qualitative, and sample-size was determined with the purposive method. Snowball sampling was used for identifying returnee participants. Data are gathered through key-informant interview, observation, FGD and document review. Human-Rights-Based-Approach (HRBA) provided a theoretical framework. The findings reveal that migrant-returnee are forced migrants due-to livelihood challenges and inspired by dominant development discourses of developed-Europe. Regarding the Woreda’s services for the returnee, it found that reintegration services are insufficient and the officials are unaware of returnees’ status in the Woreda. Ethiopia is a party to many international human right agreements for the protection of migrants. Hence, sustainable intervention in Irob should include; capacity building of officials on HRBAs and establishing institutions that transform the training into action. More so engaging returnee in the development of thisese intervention-programme is very imperative to successful local and international intervention.
The South African government recognises the importance of community participation in conservation-tourism initiatives that can improve the livelihoods of local communities, contributing to the reduction of the poverty prevalent in natural and rural areas. This study adopted the sustainable livelihood framework to assess the potential for Botsalano Game Reserve to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of communities, using Matlhase village as a case study. Triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods was used to collect data. The results revealed a population over-reliant on government social grants for livelihood and not significantly benefitting from their proximity to Botsalano Game Reserve. The study concluded that there are possibilities for Botsalano Game Reserve to contribute towards sustainable livelihoods and poverty alleviation. Recommendations are made for policy-makers and nongovernment organisations, including the development of human capital and the buy-in of communities into tourism development.
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