La investigació sobre la cobertura informativa de tres conflictes africans (Somàlia, Rwanda i República Democràtica del Congo) en els quatre diaris espanyols de més difusió (El País, El Mundo, ABC i La Vanguardia) demostra que en el discurs d'aquestes publicaciones es repeteixen estereotips sobre l'Àfrica presents en l'imaginari occidental, entre els que destaquen la violència innata, la desorganització social i la passivitat de la seva gent. En les peces analitzades, les informacions minimitzen les implicacions occidentals en els conflictes africans i tracten d'una forma pejorativa alguns dels actors locals. / The research about news coverage of three African conflicts (Somalia, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo) in the four Spanish newspaper of more diffusion (El País, El Mundo, ABC and La Vanguardia) demonstrates that in the speech of theses media they repeat stereotypes on Africa present in the imaginary Westerner, among those that highlight the innate violence, the social disorganization and the passivity of their people. In the analyzed pieces, the information minimize the occidental implications in the African conflicts and treat some of the local actors in a pejorative way.

En aquesta tesi analitzem les relacions entre l'estat modern i el govern local a Moçambic des de 1895 fins a l'actualitat. Tot i que les constitucions i lleis que van entrar en vigor a Portugal des de la revolució liberal de 1820 afectaven també l'Àfrica Oriental portuguesa, la seva incidència en el gruix de la població africana va ser molt minsa. L'inici de la implantació real de l'estat modern a Moçambic no va arribar fins la conquesta militar del territori que va iniciar-se en la darrera dècada del segle XIX, i que té com a data de referència obligada l'any 1895, amb la derrota de l'imperi de Gaza per les tropes portugueses. D'altra banda, cal dir que tot i que el concepte de govern local pot fer referència, en segons quins contextos, a l'administració municipal, en aquesta tesi la farem servir només per referir-nos al govern de les comunitats rurals disperses per l'ampli territori de Moçambic, doncs és en aquest context que, arrel de la conquesta, va començar a produir-se una superposició de dos tipus de govern diferents. D'una banda, la població africana rural estava, abans de ser conquerida pels portuguesos, enquadrada en unitats polítiques pròpies, més o menys centralitzades segons els casos. D'altra banda, després de la conquesta, aquesta mateixa població rural africana va veure's també integrada en l'administració estatal desplegada pel colonialisme portuguès. Així doncs, l'objecte d'aquest estudi és les relacions entre l'estat modern a Moçambic i les societats africanes primer conquerides i després administrades per ell, tenint en compte la duplicitat de govern i la consegüent competència per la legitimitat que va produir-se a nivell local.Tanmateix, tota la gamma de noves respostes donades a aquesta nova situació -la superposició de dues formes de govern diferents- tenien un punt en comú: es basaven en una contradicció de partida entre el discurs de legitimació política i les pràctiques econòmiques. D'una banda l'estat colonial reconeixia a determinades persones la seva legitimitat com a autoritats africanes, de l'altra, però, els negava tota autonomia política i els encarregava de funcions administratives (ajut en la confecció de censos, en el cobrament d'impostos, i en el reclutament de mà d'obra) destinades totes elles a complir l'objectiu d'augmentar els rendiments econòmics de l'estat. És a dir, la situació en què es van trobar els régulos suposava que mentre guanyaven legitimitat en front a l'estat, corrien el risc de perdre-la en front a sectors importants de les poblacions a les que, segons l'estat, representaven. La nostra hipòtesi de treball és que aquesta contradicció entre discurs polític i pràctiques econòmiques caracteritza l'administració local de l'estat modern a Moçambic des de la Reforma Administrativa de 1907 fins a la recent legislació sobre administració local, el Decret 15/2000 i la Llei 8/2003. El que provarem de demostrar és si els tres models d'estat modern que han existit a Moçambic des de llavors fins avui-colonialisme portuguès (1895-1974), socialisme (1974-1992) i democràcia liberal- reprodueixen aquesta mateixa contradicció embolcallant-la sota discursos polítics diferents. / This doctoral thesis aims to describe the relationship between local African authorities elected on lineage criteria and the formal estate institutions established in Mozambique since the Portuguese conquest began in 1895. During the conquest this two different institutions recognised each other, either as an allied or an enemy depending on the local authority, in order to reach their own objectives. After the war, the process of constructing a new type of relationships based on peace and civil administration, it became clear that, due to the different cultural background, their objectives were not compatibles at all. Therefore, on the eve of the colonial order began a relationship based on a blurred perception of the other, and based on a big misunderstanding on what was it all about. This relationship went on during the socialist type of state that appeared after the independence, and is also present in nowadays Mozambique, as we can check on the debates about the place that traditional authorities must have on a democratic state in Mozambique.Our hypothesis is that we can find strong continuities on the relationship established between modern state institutions and local ways of authority and power practised by rural Africans. And that this continuities persist nowadays although the big transformations that supposed the transition from one type of state to another (from colonial state to socialist, and from socialist to liberal democratic).These continuities are related to the misunderstanding on the way economics play on creating welfare and social order. For this reason, in order to set the precedents which conditioned the way Portuguese and Africans understood the new era which was to begin after the conquest, we will have to go back to the evolution of the contacts between Portuguese and Africans before the conquest, and before liberal thesis about society and economy became hegemonic in Europe. This analysis will give us the clues to understand the blurring images and also the different misunderstandings, which has been characterising rural policy and administration in Mozambique.

Dintre del corpus de la narrativa oral dels ndowe (zona costanera del sud del Camerun, de la Guinea Equatorial continental i del nord del Gabon) existeix un grup de rondalles que presenten un tret distintiu original: el fet de compartir un cert nombre de personatges, que hi són perfectament tipificats: i que figuren una família, el cap de la qual s'anomena "Ndjambu" (nom de l'avantpassat mític).L'estudi d'aquestes rondalles pretén copsar-ne el funcionament i el significat. El punt de partida per a això són els estudis de Vladimir Propp i d'altres investigadors: i, a més a més d'aplicar-hi el mètode formalista del teòric rus, vol ampliar la recerca envers determinats punts en què Propp va incidir poc:* el concepte teòric de rondalla, en oposició al concepte de llegenda.* el criteri de classificació.* la importància estructural dels personatges.Dintre del cicle, els començaments de les rondalles esdevenen determinants: la dissort que un personatge concret introdueix en una situació inicial sostinguda per personatges concrets, dóna lloc a una trama narrativa que es desenvolupa a partir d'oposicions simples; i permet la seva adscripció a un sistema de grups i subgrups, dintre del qual es poden arribar a precisar:- Rondalles que funcionen com a nucli del cicle i rondalles que en són complementàries.- Rondalles on personatges determinats assumeixen una funció estructural i rondalles on els mateixos personatges acompleixen una funció biogràfica.Enfront de la divisió clàssica dels gèneres narratius orals (rondalla = inversemblant; llegenda = vertadera), es consideren els gèneres a partir de l'oposició dels tipus d'heroi que es poden trobar en el conjunt de la literatura oral ndowe: i la introducció del concepte normatiu de versemblança fa descubrir la lògica interna del cicle: la defensa de l'ordre tradicional, basat en la familia i el culte als avantpassats.Finalment, els paral·lelismes que hom pot establir entre aquestes rondalles i algunes societats iniciàtiques, sobretot femenines, assenyalen l'origen probable del cicle i el situen en el context de tota una colla de manifestacions socials, religioses i culturals, que tenen l'objectiu comú de defensar la societat tradicional enfront del nou ordre occidental. / In the corpus of the oral narrative art of the Ndowe (coastal zone of Southern Cameroons, of continental Equatorial Guinea and of Northern Gabon) there is a group of folk-tales which have an original distinctive feature: the fact of sharing a certain quantity of characters, who are there perfectly typified: and who represent a family, whose head is called "Ndjambu" (name of the mythical ancestor).The study of these tales seeks to capture their operation and meaning. Starting point for this are Vladimir Propp's and other researchers' studies; and, besides applying the formalistic method of the Russian theoretician, it wishes to enlarge the research towards specific items which Propp fall into scarcely:* the theoretical concept of folk-tale, in opposition to the concept of legend.* classification criterion.* characters' structural importance.Inside the cycle, beginnings of the tales become determining: the disgrace that a specific character brings in an initial situation kept by specific characters, causes a narrative plot which develops from simple oppositions: and it allows their attachment to a system of groups and subgroups, inside which can be determined:- tales which work as nucleus of the cycle and tales which are their complementary ones.- tales where specific characters assume a structural function and tales where the same characters assumes a biographic function.Facing the classical division of the oral narrative genres (folk-tale = unlikely: legend = true), genres are considered from the opposition of the hero patterns which can be found in the whole of the Ndowe oral literature: and the introduction of the normative concept of verisimilitude gets to discover the cycle inside logic: the defence of the traditional order, based on family and homage to ancestors.Finally, the parallelisms which can be established between these folk-tales and some initiation societies, especially feminine ones, indicate the likely origin of the cycle; and it places it in the context of a whole group of social, religious and cultural manifestations, which have the common aim of defending traditional society facing the new occidental order.

Las etapas iniciales de la infección por VIH se caracterizan por elevados niveles de ARN viral, que pueden estar contribuyendo significativamente a la transmisión del virus y al mantenimiento de la epidemia. Existe poca información sobre estas etapas precoces de la infección en zonas de África donde predomina el subtipo C del VIH. Este trabajo ha caracterizado la epidemiología y los parámetros inmuno-virológicos de las fases iniciales de la infección por VIH en una zona del sur de Mozambique La primera parte de este trabajo se enfocó en la identificación de infecciones agudas (AHI) en pacientes ambulatorios de una zona semi-rural del sur de Mozambique. En esta zona endémica de malaria, la población está habituada a acudir al hospital tras sentir síntomas febriles característicos de la malaria, pero también del síndrome retroviral agudo del VIH. Esta situación, presente en muchos países del sur de África, presenta una oportunidad de dirigir una búsqueda de casos de AHI hacia pacientes con síndrome febril. Usando esta estrategia, se describió una elevada prevalencia de AHI (3.3%) en los pacientes ambulatorios con síndrome febril. Estos pacientes mostraron elevados niveles de carga viral (CV) y de activación de las células T-CD8. En la segunda parte de este trabajo, se caracterizó la infección reciente por VIH, definida como los primeros 12 meses desde la infección. Se encontró una baja prevalencia de infecciones recientes por VIH (11.58%) en personas que acuden voluntariamente al centro de asesoramiento para VIH del hospital. Un grupo de pacientes identificados con infección reciente por VIH mostraron, como en el caso de los AHI, elevados niveles de carga viral por encima de 105 copias/ml de plasma que fueron mantenidos durante los 10 meses de seguimiento. Estos pacientes con elevados niveles de CV representarían un mayor riesgo de transmisión del VIH, señalando la importancia en la identificación de infecciones agudas y recientes para las estrategias de prevención del VIH. Los resultados de esta tesis reúnen información sobre la epidemiología de las fases iniciales de la infección por VIH en una zona de elevada prevalencia donde no había datos previos. Estos resultados contribuyen a la caracterización de las fases tempranas de la infección por VIH con la perspectiva de llevar a cabo intervenciones en las fases iniciales para mejorar el pronóstico del paciente y disminuir el riesgo de transmisión. Además apoyan la necesidad de más desarrollo de pruebas de diagnóstico rápido para la detección de las fases tempranas en condiciones locales.

0.4.1. ORGANIZATIONIn the context of the global human/earth issues (population, poverty, imbalances, environment problematic, global warming, water scarcity, economical globalization, etc.) with the others the Carrying Capacity issue is emerging. It is a "driver" which is not always simply related with sustainable development concepts. It is therefore enormously important to give adequate answers to the majority of the global dilemmas. The definition of carrying capacity is not easy because it is controversial. So the first chapter of this study is to adopt a clearer position in reference to the meaning, the borders, the key aspects, etc., of our approach to this issue. Basically, our approach is, first, from the sustainable development point of view and, second, a local approach in a global view. Finally and concretely, we indicate what aspects, in which place, how do we study carrying capacity? The answer to these questions will be: the agricultural (land and water) reality in a very specific region of East Sub Saharan Africa.So the next step of the work is to specify and delimit our chosen region and, obviously, to study it in detail. Chapter 2, and some parts of Chapter 8, are the results of this.The kind of methodological approach to global human/earth issues is, clearly, the most characteristic point of our work. We follow a scientific approach developed by Dr. Mihajlo Mesarovic over forty years ago in the mathematical systems analysis field and "finished" in multilevel integrated assessment with reasoning support tools for policy analysis. We study in depth and analyze this methodology in Chapter 3.From a first or high level point of view of a hierarchy of models in our methodology, we study the population and, for the moment in this level, the carrying capacity reality, which is a dynamic system in reality, of our case study region. We have created the corresponding model and then, we have used a reference study from FAO/IIASA/UN [B.3.7] that, according to our bibliography searches and the role that it is continuing to play in the international studies of this issue in developing countries, is a "key reference". We find all of this in chapters 5 (population) and 6 (carrying capacity). In fact one of the goals of this work as a whole is to involve, extend, and indeed test the results of the mentioned report using our methodology.Always from the hierarchical point of view we affront, finally, the second level representation of our issue. It is the most creative part of our study. We decide, after a deep analysis of the background, that we can succeed in developing a new agricultural model involving land and water aspects.Because water is another controversial driving factor of the global human/earth issues, we focus on it in chapter 7. We add some personal special approach according to our methodology and "philosophy".Chapter 8 is the highlight and plays, at the same time, an integrated role of the whole study and, in particular, the second level approach from the point of view of the hierarchy of the models. It allows us to make many final conclusions in several directions. About the methodology itself: extremely powerful with the interrelated combination of the different models levels approach. About the key report cited: only needs to be revised in its high input/output forecasting. The success and new possibilities in order to study the carrying capacity issue, for future policy "vision" analysis, that we now have from the point of view of agricultural reality. Finally, a dramatic foresight and call to the international decision- makers about the situation in our Case Study Region (essentially, the more stressful sub-region of East Sub-Saharan Africa). 0.4.2. OBJECTIVES AND CONTRIBUTIONSAssessment of carrying capacity is essential in the search for the condition of sustainable development. While sustainability has a global dimension focus, for carrying capacity assessment has to be on geographic areas within which the needs of population have to be satisfied consistent with the physiologically determined time constraints. Specifically, food had to be secured for the population on location and in time where the need exists. Large geographic areas cannot be sustained by food imported from distant locations on the globe. In short, some degree of food self-sufficiency is a prerequisite for sustainability. The research reported here started by identifying eastern Sub-Sahara Africa as the most vulnerable geographic region in the sense of carrying capacity. The objective of the research was to approach the question of carrying capacity in a practical integrated manner ("problematique"); i.e., in the context of real constraints imposed by environmental life support resources, rather than to "reduce" the problem to the considerations of the theoretical extreme capacity that have no chance of being achieved in reality.On the first level, a model is developed focusing on the most dominant relationship between population evolution and carrying capacity as a dynamic, time varying system. Broad based data available in international sources are used. Results of FAO research, which is recognized as being the most authoritative, is used to parameterize the model for all countries in the region as well as for the region itself. The concept of an index of carrying capacity potential is developed to assess the results of the simulation using three levels of technology inputs of agricultural production, identified by the FAO.A second level model is developed in which actual physical constraints -land, yields, water and irrigation- are explicitly taken into account. Assessment of carrying capacity supported by actual data is then conducted using the same carrying capacity potential index as the first level. Consistency of the results on the two levels has been demonstrated. This conclusion -not to be expected a priori- has justified the application of the multilevel, from the hierarchical of the models point of view, approach. As such it presents a contribution to the methodology beyond the carrying capacity problem per se. So, in summary, the main contributions of the thesis are threefold:a) Contribution to the complex systems analysis methodology based on the multilevel modeling hierarchy approach, that uses the notions of a dominant relationship rather than more detailed approximation, in order to construct models on different levels of the modeling hierarchy. Consistency of the results on two levels-not expected a priori-open the ways for application of the approach to other problem domains (global warming, water scarcity, etc.).b) Development of an agricultural (land and water) model to study carrying capacity for any country, region, on the globe. The developed models and the reasoning approach in scenario analysis can be applied to other agricultural carrying capacity problems such as, i.e., for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, etc.c) Concrete results about targets and policies for the region in the East Sub-Saharan Africa in order to improve their food self-security.