Aspirations and Social Structure: a West African Example

Africa ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Peil

Opening ParagraphThe has been considerable concern in recent years with the large number of young people in various developing countries who receive a few years of primary education and then prove a drain on the economy because they cannot or will not find employment. The usual complaint has been that they all want clerical jobs for which they are marginally, if at all, qualified, and the usual remedy suggested has been a return to the farm.

Africa ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Little ◽  
Anne Price

Opening ParagraphThis article describes and attempts to analyse the nature and content of marital relationships in the ‘modern’ West African family. To an increasing extent educated young people apparently want a companionate marriage on Western lines (Marris, 1961). Evidence comes from interviewing and from studies made of the attitudes of students and of secondary school boys and girls in a number of countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Omari, for example, collected data from 293 students in a sample of eight Secondary and Teacher Training Institutions throughout Ghana. About three-quarters of these subjects said they would like to be married either in church or before a magistrate (1960, pp. 197–210). A statutory marriage of this kind, unlike traditional marriage, makes bigamy a crime, and so we may assume that the young people concerned had monogamy in mind. A group of Nigerian secondary school girls also declared, with a single exception, that monogamy was the ideal form of marriage; they insisted that they wanted to choose their own husbands (Baker, 1957).


Africa ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 362-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fortes

Opening ParagraphThe Tallensi of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast furnish data of special interest for the study of comparative social structure among the peoples of West Africa. Large as the ethnographic literature on West Africa is, it is singularly lacking in analytical data concerning social structure. Some of the most useful collections of ethnographic information on West African peoples thus lack the foundation without which a coherent picture of a society is impossible. Tables of kinship terms, enumerations of kinship usages, catalogues of marriage and inheritance customs, and such-like information are no more than the raw materials for the construction of a systematic representation of social structure. And very often the raw materials are not sufficient. There are plenty of bricks but no mortar. The reasons for such lacunae are obvibys. A sympathetic amateur ethnographer can bring together material of inestimable value; but without a good theoretical grounding in modern social anthropology the field worker will not look for, and even if he stumbles across it, will not recognise the kind of material necessary for an understanding of social structure. He must; first of all, have the concept of a total social structure clearly in his mind; and he must look for the connexions, which are very often implicit, by which ostensibly discrete processes and institutions are related to one another in a meaningful pattern.


Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude Meillassoux

Opening ParagraphAccording to a partial census taken in 1960, Bamako city has about 130,000 inhabitants. Small by Western standards, it is still by far the largest city in Mali. At the time of the French conquest Bamako had only between 800 and 1,000 inhabitants; it was the capital of a Bambara chiefdom, grouping about thirty villages on the north bank of the Niger river, with a total of about 5,000 people. The ruling dynasty was that of the Niaré, who, according to their traditions, came from the Kingi eleven generations ago (between 1640 and 1700). For defence against the neighbours and armed slave-raiders fortifications were built around the town and a permanent army of so-fa (horsemen) was raised. Soon after its foundation Bamako attracted Moslem Moors from Twat who settled as marabouts and merchants under the protection of the Niaré's warriors. Among them, the Twati (later to be called Touré) and the Dravé became, alongside and sometimes in competition with the Niaré, the leading families.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (06) ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Pablo Tascón España

El presente estudio busca comprender bajo un enfoque naturalista cómo en un periodo denominado por autores de las Ciencias Sociales ( Bajoit, 2009; Sandoval, 2010) de “cambio cultural”, emerge el movimiento Hip Hop y su particular forma de expresión en la ciudad de Punta Arenas. La investigación tiene un objetivo central y busca interpretar la relación entre la expresión contracultural y los jóvenes que son parte de tal, como así también sus significados respecto al ser actores del mismo. La investigación pretende identificar, entonces, la lógica de acción actual de los jóvenes y a su vez dilucidar si existe relación o no con la raíz histórica del movimiento Hip Hop, es decir una expresión de disidencia en razón de la estructura social establecida y las contradicciones que afloran de la misma. The following study aims to understand under the naturalist approach how in a period called for authors of the social sciences (Bajoit, 2009; Sandoval, 2010) of “cultural change”, emerges the Hip Hop movement and its particular form of expression in the city of Punta Arenas. The research has a main objective and seeks to interpret the relation between the expression counterculture and the young people that are part of it, likewise the meaning concerning to be actors of it. The research pretends to identify the logic of current action of the youngsters and at the same time elucidate if there is a relation or not with the historical root of the movement “Hip Hop”, i.e. an expression of dissent aiming with the social structure established and the contradictions that came out from itself.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daba Abdissa ◽  
Workitu Sileshi

Abstract BackgroundSexual and reproductive health (SRH) is at the base of young people's living and wellbeing. A significant number of young peoples are affected by avoidable SRH problems due to a lack of appropriate knowledge regarding SRH. Parent-young communication on SRH is critical in informing them about risk and protective behaviors which in turn decrease the likelihood of involvement in risky sexual behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the parent-young communication on SRH issues among secondary and preparatory school students at Agaro town, Southwestern Ethiopia. MethodsSchool based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 13 to April 20, 2019 using stratified random sampling technique. Data were collected using pretested interviewer-administered structured questionnaire entered into Epi data version 3.1; and analyzed using SPSS version 20. A variable having a p-value of <0.25 in the bivariable logistic regression model was subjected to multivariable logistic regression analysis to avoid the confounding variable’s effect. Adjusted odds ratios were calculated at the 95% confidence interval and considered significant with a p-value of <0.05.ResultsA total of 315 students were included to the study. The mean age of the respondents was 20.2±2.6 years. The study finding showed that 61.3% of the participants were discussed on SRH issues with their parents. Educational status of mother [primary education (AOR=3.67; 95%CI=1.93,6.97),secondary education(AOR:2.86;95%CI=1.20,6.80)],educational status of father[primary education (AOR=5.8;95%CI=2.8,12.3,secondary education (AOR=3.21; 95%CI=1.55,6.59)],having family size of <5 (AOR= 6.4; 95%CI= 3.36,12.37) and having boy/girlfriend(AOR=1.99; 95%CI=1.0,3.8) were significantly associated with parent-young people communication. ConclusionAbout two third of the participants communicate with their parents about SRH issues. Parents’ educational status, family size of <5 and having boy/girlfriend were significantly associated with the parent-young people communication. The main reasons for not communicated was cultural taboos, shame and parents lack of knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to educate and equip students and parents to address the identified problems.


Africa ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akin L. Mabogunje

Opening ParagraphDuring the sitting of the West African Lands Committee in 1912, the witnesses who were called before the Committee from Egba Division emphatically stated that sales of both farm and town lands had been going on in Egbaland for some considerable time and had become accepted as normal. Equally significant was the vigour with which witnesses from all the other Yoruba sub-tribes countered the suggestion that sale of land existed or was permitted by the traditional land law and custom. H. L. Ward Price in his report also pointed out that sales of land had been going on in Egbaland for at least sixty years before he was writing in the 1930's. From the evidence he collected, it would seem that land sales dated back to between 1860 and 1880.


Author(s):  
Joanna Sadgrove

Kampala is just one place where the AIDS pandemic has generated a plethora of contradictory codes for the sexual behaviour of young people, influenced by a range of transnational actors. Yet amidst the discursive complexities and possibilities, it remains a considerable concern for many to present as a ‘good’, ‘respectable’ person, signalling recourse to local, enduring notions of what constitutes honourable behaviour in Ganda society. Drawing on ethnographic data from a group of Pentecostal university students, this chapter explores the implications of the reification of moral character for the sexual behaviour of young born-again Christians. The critical importance of secrecy and discretion around sexual behaviour is revealed. Based on this evidence, I argue against the analytical dangers of assuming a direct relationship between what Pentecostal Christians might say about their sexual behaviour and their actual sexual behaviour. Please suggest 5–10 keywords which can be used for describing the content of the chapter. The keywords should appear in the abstract if possible. They should not be too generalised. Single words are preferred, but two- or three-word specialist phrases are acceptable. Keywords may be taken from the chapter title as long as they also appear in the abstract.


2020 ◽  
pp. 105-128
Author(s):  
Constantine Michalopoulos

The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the next millennium was characterized by an extraordinary burst of international cooperation on development. At the core of this cooperation was the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 and the related agreement to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The U4 played a role both in the run-up to the MDG agreement and in linking the achievement of the MDG objective of ending poverty to collaborative efforts between donor and recipient, with partners in the driver’s seat setting their own priorities. This chapter starts with a discussion of the agreement to establish the MDGs at the UN and its implications for development. Then it turns to the perennial question of how much aid developed countries should commit to provide to developing countries, and what donors and recipients must do to make aid more effective, two central issues of the Monterrey Conference on Finance for Development in 2002. The last part discusses the special U4 and international community efforts to achieve universal primary education and to battle HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.


Africa ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Warmington

Opening ParagraphFrom 1953 to mid-1955 a team from the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research was investigating various problems caused by the employment of a large labour force in the plantations of the Southern Cameroons. The whole survey, which it is hoped soon to publish, covered a fairly wide field of social and economic studies. The purpose of this paper is to examine only one small aspect, somewhat outside the main field of the investigations.


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