Rain-Shrines of the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia

Africa ◽  
1948 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 272-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Colson
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Report ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
General Community

Opening ParagraphThis is a preliminary report on the social and political significance of the rainshrines as an integrating force in Tonga society. In a sense it is a misnomer to refer to them as rain-shrines, for they are also appealed to on any occasion of general community disaster, such as epidemics or cattle plagues, but to the Tonga themselves the dominant aspect of the shrines is their efficacy in ensuring the proper rainfall.

The Social Structure of Modern Bamako

Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude Meillassoux
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social ◽  
North Bank ◽  
Niger River ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Town

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.

Marital Breakdown as Bereavement: A Partial Explanation for Access Disputes

1979 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 19-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
G.W. Smiley
Keyword(s):  
Partial Explanation ◽  
Social Arrangement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Marital Breakdown ◽  
General Community

The increasing incidence of marriage breakdown in this country has resulted in greater numbers of children being involved in the social arrangement of access. Yet confusion and ambivalence are the usual responses to contact between the child and separated parent. Courts and the general community seem to hold the view that access is beneficial to children but such benefits are not clearly enunciated or understood.

Some Observations on Religious Cults in Ashanti

Africa ◽  
1956 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara E. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Preliminary Report ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Gold Coast ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Demand For Education ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphRecent happenings in the Gold Coast, and particularly in Ashanti, have tended to focus interest upon the structure of the constitution and the struggle for political power. Ten years ago two other movements were attracting at least as much attention. In a preliminary report on the work of the Ashanti Social Survey, published in 1948, Fortes described these as first, an apparently insatiable demand for schools, and, second, an almost equally if not more powerful development of what he called ‘new witch-finding cults’. That the demand for education of all kinds continues and is gradually being met is well known; it would be interesting, and perhaps, in the light of occurrences in other parts of Africa, significant to learn what has happened to the new cults.

scholarly journals Anthropology and the Development of African Studies

Africa ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daryll Forde
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
World War ◽  
Tropical Africa ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
First World ◽  
And Training

Opening ParagraphThe foundation and the broad policies of our Institute emerged from what proved a fortunate conjunction of diverse interests and opportunities that developed after the First World War. The initial phase of modern economic advance in tropical Africa, following the introduction of the telegraph, railways, all-weather roads, was by the twenties making apparent a wide range of needs and opportunities for further progress in Africa—progress in which both the interests of, and contribution by, its peoples would be closely concerned. Within African territories the demand for literacy and training in new skills both more extensive and at higher levels was becoming more and more obvious and pressing. The significance of the increasing and inevitable association of Africans and their communities with a world economy was beginning to be more widely appreciated. With this growing recognition of the need for a more positive and constructive response many questions arose concerning not only the means of fostering such developments, but also their effects on the attitudes, beliefs, and institutions that had hitherto sustained the cultures and the social life of largely autonomous tribes and chiefdoms.

Culture Contact on the Fringe of Civilization

Africa ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. T. ◽  
G. M. Culwick
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Present Situation ◽  
Culture Contact ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Coil Method ◽  
Incomplete Picture ◽  
Careful Investigation

Opening ParagraphIt is natural that the urgent need for systematic study of culture contact should first and most forcibly be felt with regard to areas where the process of ‘civilization’ or modernization is already comparatively far advanced, whether it be in the form of detribalization in urban and industrial districts or of the adaptation of the tribal system among an important and powerful people like the Baganda. In the first place, those areas present the most pressing practical problems and exhibit the most acute symptoms of social, economic, and political strain. In the second place, as a corollary of their accessibility to exotic influences, they are the areas most easily accessible to observers trained and untrained, and their troubles often force themselves on the attention of the civilized world. They have, however, certain disadvantages from the point of view of the student of culture contact, in that, as Miss Mair has shown, the opportunity to study the stages in their development has gone for ever. By careful investigation a useful and reliable, if incomplete, picture can be drawn of the working of the social order just before the torrent of modern civilization broke in upon it, and the comparison between past and present which such a reconstruction makes possible provides us with knowledge which is both necessary for the explanation of existing phenomena and also of the greatest practical value. But just as one cannot tell by looking at the finished product whether a pot has been fashioned from the lump or by the coil method, so, in the absence of proper observation at the time, we cannot reconstruct a picture of the intermediate stages in the creation of the present situation, or ever know the details of the processes whereby native society adjusted itself to some innovations and was dislocated by others.

Political Traditionalism in Nigeria: a Case-Study of Secret Societies and Dance Groups in Local Government

Africa ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvin Magid
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Secret Societies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Dance Groups

Opening ParagraphThe notion that rural political life is essentially traditional tribal in Africa and therefore scarcely relevant to modern decision-making at higher echelons of government has had a commanding influence in African studies. Associated with this viewpoint has been a tacit division of labour in the social sciences which emphasizes the pre-eminence of anthropology in the tribal domain and the pre-occupation of political science with macropolitics especially in the urban sphere. Happily, a younger generation of political scientists has emerged in recent years to challenge an essentially artificial arrangement.

Environment and access to resources in Africa

Africa ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piers Blaikie
Keyword(s):  
Future Orientation ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Access To Resources ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Agrarian Crisis

Opening ParagraphThis article has been written as a contribution to the future orientation of a research programme on the agrarian crisis in Africa, which has been set up by the Joint Committee on African Studies (JCAS) of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council. The aim of this article is to provide an agenda for research on the environment and access to resources in Africa and is one of four which both provide a review of some of the most important research issues and suggest ways in which they might be tackled.

Modern Political Movements in Somaliland. II

Africa ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 344-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. M. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Political Organization ◽  
Northern Province ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Present Position ◽  
Group Affiliation ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Organization ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Constitutional Changes

Opening ParagraphIn a preceding article I discussed the organization and aims of modern Somali political movements in the light of the traditional political structure. Three types of political organization were distinguished: clan, regional (or tribal), and nationalist. These three types reflect traditional variations in the social structure and culture of different regions of Somaliland and also varying degrees of political evolution. I drew attention to the extent to which all parties—especially those with nationalist aims—have adopted a religious ideology and pointed out that Islam, through the traditional organization and aims of the Sufi Dervish Orders (ṭariiqas), has provided a precedent for pan-Somali solidarity. I now attempt to assess the extent of nationalist feeling in the different Somali territories, and examine the degree to which recent constitutional changes in government and administration have recognized the growth of nationalist aspirations and promoted their extension. I discuss first the present position in the five Somali territories: French and British Somaliland; Harar Province of Ethiopia; Somalia; and the Northern Province of Kenya. Finally, I consider the importance of Islam in furthering nationalism and in helping to overcome the cleavages of clan and Dia-paying group affiliation which oppose the formation of a unified Somali nation.

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