Amor Matris 1: Language and Loss in J. M. Coetzee's Age of Iron

This article examines the South African novelist Sarah Gertrude Millin’s writings on economics. Though Millin has most commonly been treated as a theorist of race and miscegenation, her novels and nonfiction writings demonstrate an equally strong interest in how global economic institutions affect South African life. Eatough proposes that Millin’s fascination with such diverse economic practices as currency speculation, actuarial accounting, and stock broking stems from the way in which these practices dramatize a seemingly insuperable tension between Anglo professionalism and South African nationalism. As the article shows, Millin’s efforts to overcome Anglo-Afrikaner rivalry and fashion a unified white nationalism entailed a radical rethinking of what global professional networks were in their innermost essence. Central to this nationalist project, Eatough argues, was Millin’s tendency to regard such networks less as rooted national institutions than as distant speculative devices capable of inflating the value of South African nationality. Over the course of the article, Eatough investigates how Millin uses this definition to finesse complaints by (primarily Afrikaner) nationalists against British control of the professions by suggesting that such articulations of envy drive speculative enterprise—and, thus, provide a means for transforming national abjection into national value.     

Towards a military doctrine for humanistic intervention in African conflicts

Abstract

The article is presented against the background of the need for African military forces to deal with the complexities that come with leading and participating in multinational military operations in Africa. The research problem that guided this research is: What should the doctrine of military forces in Africa be to enable them to work together as part of the multinational forces while serving African interests? The aim is to investigate the possibility of a military doctrine that would serve African interests in the context of the reality of a multinational approach to military intervention. This aim has been achieved by offering theoretical assumptions on military doctrine, multinational military intervention and humanistic values in Africa to form a theoretical framework for deploying the argument. An in-depth discussion of African military practice prior to colonialism, the multinational and humanistic nature of military operations since the end of the previous century, as well critical reflections on the quest for a military doctrine that reflect the humanistic values of Africa resulted in some important findings. The main finding is that the people of Africa have accumulated a wealth of military knowledge over many centuries that is sufficient to develop an endogenous (home grown) military doctrine that can serve the African people. An endogenous military doctrine would be based on the principles of people-centredness; flexibility; collectiveness; affordability and institutionalisation to place African humanistic values and continental policies at the forefront in strategic decision-making and implementation. Taking into consideration the above-mentioned principles some practical measures are recommended.     

Conflicting leadership paradigms in Africa: A need for an African Renaissance perspective1

ABSTRACT

This article looks at key elements of leadership paradigms in Africa. A timeline is drawn and Africa's contemporary leadership in the past 50 years is situated within three periods, each of which is anchored by an event(s) that shifted the continent's political and/or intellectual and theoretical landscape. Juxtaposed against these periods is traditional leadership and its cross-cutting role in governance in Africa. Current manifestations of crisis in the leadership paradigm are looked at, which draws the author to critique what he terms the matrix that produces the contemporary generation of leaders, and advocates for the incorporation of Africa's historical and cultural legacy as a cornerstone in new leadership paradigms, and places it within the context of an African Renaissance.     

Immigration to Egypt

Abstract

With more than three million Egyptians abroad, Egypt is always regarded in the migration literature as a labor-sending country. Hundreds of articles and books were written on Egypt as a sending country, while few articles regarded Egypt as a receiving country. This paper is an attempt to shed light on the role of Egypt as a country of immigration, rather than emigration. Since most of the immigrant populations in Egypt are refugees, the main focus of this paper is the exploration of refugee communities in Egypt and their socioeconomic, juridical, and political situation. Key gaps in the literature are also identified.     

Seeing/being double: how African immigrants in Canada balance their ethno-racial and national identities

With increased transnational ties to their homelands, immigrants' ontology now verges on being double – and, consequently, on seeing double – most of the time. This double consciousness, and the attendant dearth of fixity in identity among immigrants, has led some to wonder where the allegiance of minority immigrants, in particular, lies. Can these immigrants be loyal to both their ethno-racial identity and their host national identity? Is the identification with one's ethno-racial background and national identity a zero-sum game in which one side of the loyalty equation gains only at the expense of the other? This study examines these issues, using African immigrants (specifically, Ghanaians and Somalis) in Canada as a case study. In particular, we use multinomial logistic regression to predict the factors that prompt these immigrants to identify as: ‘just Canadians’, ‘just Ghanaians/Somalis’, or as ‘Ghanaian-/Somali-Canadians’. The study is significant not only because of the lack of research on African immigrants' identity formation in Canada, but also because immigrants' identity has significant bearing on their settlement and integration in host societies.     

Exercise Interventions for Older Adults with High Blood Pressure

This paper reviews studies on the effects of aerobic exercise upon blood pressure in older hypertensives. Controlled evaluations indicate average decreases in systolic and diastolic resting blood pressure of 8.8 rnm Hg systolic and 7.8 mm Hg, respectively, indicating a moderate, yet clinically important reduction. However, few studies have independently focused on the older adult hypertensive, an increasingly important source of cardiovascular morbidity, mortality, and costly health care utilization. Still fewer studies address the critically' related problem of adherence, including the demonstration of eficacious methods of enhancing adherence to exercise with this population. Some factors associated with higher exercise adherence rates in the older adult include participation in low-intensity exercise that is perceived as reinforcing and safe. Research also indicates the potential value of home-based exercise programs in promoting compliance to the regimen. Several suggestions for further research are offered including the necessity for larger scale studies to establish the short and long-term efficacy of exercise on reducing blood pressure and overall cardiovascular risk reduction, especially in those most likely to experience costly cardiovascular endpoints, such as hypertensives over 60, as well as middle-aged to older individuals of African heritage.     

Development and Validation of the Adolescent Racial and Ethnic Socialization Scale (ARESS) in African American Families

Racial and ethnic socialization are an integral part of African American parenting strategies. Varied conceptualizations and operationalizations of racial and ethnic socialization exist within the literature with limited evidence of the validity of existing measures. The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive definition of racial and ethnic socialization and to validate a new measure termed the Adolescent Racial and Ethnic Socialization Scale (ARESS). Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), findings from 218 African American adolescents (grades 9–12) support the multidimensional nature of racial and ethnic socialization. Results also indicate that racial and ethnic socialization are distinct constructs reflecting the utility of this instrument for African American youth.

Studies of the chronological course of wisdom tooth eruption in a Black African population

The importance of forensic age estimation in living subjects has grown over the last few years. In dental age estimation, tooth eruption is a parameter of developmental morphology that can be analyzed by either clinical examination or by evaluation of dental X-rays. In the present study, we determined the stage of wisdom tooth eruption in 410 male and 106 female Black South African subjects of known age (12-26 years) based on radiological evidence from 516 conventional orthopantomograms. Four eruption stages were determined (no emergence, alveolar emergence, gingival emergence, complete emergence). Statistical scores were determined for the individual stages separately for both sexes. The data presented here can be utilized for forensic estimation of the minimum and most probable ages of investigated persons.