There is a crisis of asylum in Africa. In response to large and protracted refugee populations, declining donor assistance and a range of related security concerns, a significant number of African states have limited the asylum they offer to refugees. Some states have closed their borders to new arrivals and pursued early repatriations. Many other states have contained refugees in isolated and insecure camps. Given the scale of this crisis, the global pressures on asylum, and the disproportionate share of the global refugee burden borne by Africa, understanding the responses of African states poses an important challenge. A critical examination of the factors influencing the refugee policies of African states is, however, strikingly absent from the scholarly literature. The objective of this thesis is to address this gap by examining the responses of Kenya, Tanzania and Guinea to the arrival and prolonged presence of significant refugee populations. Drawing on field research, this thesis argues that the asylum policies of the three cases are the result of factors both related to the presence of refugees, such as burden sharing and security concerns, and unrelated to the presence of refugees, such as foreign policy priorities, democratization, economic liberalization and the sense of vulnerability experienced by many regimes in Africa. Drawing on a political history of the post-colonial African state, this thesis argues for an approach that recognizes the politics of asylum in Africa. Such an approach highlights the importance of incorporating the host state into any examination of asylum in Africa and the predominant role that broader political factors play in the formulation of asylum policies. This is not to suggest that factors such as the protracted nature of refugee populations, levels of burden sharing and security concerns are irrelevant to the study of asylum in Africa. Instead, the thesis argues that such factors are very relevant, but need to be understood in a more critical way, mindful of the political context within which asylum policies are formulated. This approach leads to important lessons not only for the study of asylum in Africa, but also for the future of the refugee protection regime in Africa.

This thesis addresses the presence and role of critical aesthetic practices by cultural practitioners and creative technologists in addressing cultures of technology in contemporary African societies. Nairobi and Johannesburg are used as primary case studies through which a closer understanding of these unique cultures of technology are unpacked. The learning established from the findings of the cases is applied to understanding the concerns of cultures of technology within these and other African contexts. In this, attention is placed on latent neo-colonialism found in the relationship between African cultures and the networked global information economy being led by technology practices. This research starts by responding to a paucity of prior investigation in the field, and thereby aims to identify an ontological framework for Africa’s cultural engagement with technology. The primary research is preceded by an introductory chapter that draws on African knowledge theory and a critique of historical scholarship that exists on African experiences with technology. The primary research is predicated on this critical framework and uses it as a foundation from which to address concerns around contemporary digital and communications technologies and an African cultural encounter with a networked and globalised system. Due to the paucity around scholarship on Africa within this field, the methodological approach evolved as an iterative development between theoretical and empirical research. This methodological development was informed by the theory of decolonising methodologies and was led by culturally responsive methods. Through thematic content analysis of the fieldwork, the identification of key themes impacted the theoretical framing of the research. Not only were new concerns identified, but particular aesthetic mechanisms became apparent in the practices of those interviewed. These brought to light the importance of decolonising methodologies within a cultural practice. This importance led to the development of a responsive exhibition, also titled Post African Futures. The exhibition was held at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg in May 2015. Post African Futures as both a framework and an exhibition is central to this thesis’s contribution of new knowledge. This exhibition develops the propositions of the primary research and is therefore instrumental in strengthening a context-sensitive critical position that affords Africans the privilege of contributing to and providing insight into a globalised technology culture and its futures in relation to regions in Africa.

O presente trabalho pretende analisar criticamente as medidas protetivas a direitos das mulheres nos campos de Dadaab (Quênia), onde boa parte da população está em situação de refúgio prolongado. O Alto Comissariado das Nações Unidas para Refugiados (ACNUR) enquadra nessa situação as populações a partir de 25 mil refugiados que vivam no exílio por cinco anos ou mais (ACNUR, 2004). Fundado em 1992, Dadaab consiste atualmente no maior complexo de campos de refugiados do mundo, com quase 260 mil pessoas registradas; na maioria, somalis com até seus 18 anos. Nesses campos como em outros, o ACNUR atua junto a órgãos, governamentais ou não, a que denomina parceiros na proteção a refugiados. As normas que embasam tal proteção nessas situações, em particular no continente africano, são descritas no Capítulo 1. As medidas protetivas às principais violações de direitos das mulheres em campos são alvos do Capítulo 2. O Capítulo 3 aborda os campos de Dadaab e as medidas de proteção a direitos humanos das mulheres nesses locais, fazendo o contraponto aos dados oficiais. Na Conclusão, inquietações com os dilemas dessa proteção são retomadas com vistas a fomentar o debate a respeito dos campos e assentamentos de refugiados no Direito contemporâneo. / This research aims to critically analyze the protective measures of the womens rights in the Dadaab camps (Kenya), where much of the population is namely bearing a protracted refugee situation. The High Commissioner of the United Nations for Refugees (UNHCR) fits in such a category any populations from 25,000 refugees or more living in exile for five years onwards (UNHCR, 2004). Established in 1992, Dadaab is nowadays the largest camp complex, with almost 260,000 registered individuals, most of whom are under 18 Somali refugees. In this, as in other camps, UNHCR partners with other entities, either governmental or not, namely to protect the refugees rights. The main norms supporting their actions particularly in such situations in the Africa region are described in Chapter 1. The protective measures for major women\'s rights violations in the camps are dealt with by Chapter 2. Then Chapters 3 addresses the field Dadaab and measures to protect human rights of women in such places, further questioning the official data. Eventually, the final Conclusions recalls issues related to protection dilemmas that might renew debates on both refugee camps and settlements in contemporary Law studies.

Promotion of cycling is important to reach the goals for climate mitigation of the Paris Agreement and Goals ofthe Agenda 2030. Sustainable transport, both rural and urban, could contribute to at least seven of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (ITDP 2015). There is relatively little research on cycling in Africa, and there is also much less research on cycling at night. Some studies show the importance of road lighting for minimising the reduction in the numbers of cyclists after-dark and suggest 'only a minimal amount of lighting can promote cycling after-dark, making it an attractive mode of transport year-round' (Uttley at el. 2020). So far, these studies have little relation to the situation in developing countries, which is why a first study in Nairobi, Kenya, is carried out here as an example. ... [From: Introduction]

The recent history of the Turkana of northern Kenya has rarely been explored in detail, a fact that corresponds with, and to a large extent facilitates, their regular portrayal in the popular press as passive, unchanging and therefore vulnerable in the face of ongoing and ensuing socio-economic transformations. Such visions of the Turkana and the region in which they live have, via their manifestation in the policies and practices of development-orientated interventions, actively inhibited (although never fully arrested) the fulfilment of various local desires and aspirations over the years. In addressing these topics, this thesis provides some hitherto largely unexplored and unrecognised historical context to the many socio-economic and political issues surrounding Turkana's ongoing development. It discusses interdisciplinary research which combined archaeological and ethnographic techniques and was undertaken amongst communities engaged in the most prominent livelihoods that have historically underlain the Turkana pastoral economy: fishing (akichem), cultivation (akitare), herding (akiyok) and raiding (aremor). In doing so, it draws attention to some of the ways in which these communities have actively and dynamically negotiated broad economic, environmental and political transformations over the last century and beyond, thereby providing a picture of social change and long-term continuity that might serve as a means for a more critical assessment of regional development over the coming years. By weaving together a series of historical narratives that emerge from a consideration of the changing production, use and exchange of material culture, the thesis builds an understanding of Turkana's history that diverges from more standard, implicitly accepted notions of recent change in such regions of the world that envisage globalisation purely as a process of convergence or homogenisation. Its central argument, which it demonstrates using various examples, is that seemingly disruptive transformations in daily practices, social institutions, livelihoods and systems of livelihood interaction can be envisaged as articulations of longer-term continuities, emerging from a set of durable yet open-ended dispositions within Turkana society and culture. Moreover, rather than being built on a stable, passive repertoire of cultural knowledge, the thesis shows that this capacity for change is established upon a dynamic generative process where value systems and institutions are reconfigured to the same extent as daily practices and skills, as knowledge is continually reconstituted and recast in relation to the shifting constraints and possibilities of daily life. It thus characterises this process as a form of resilience that is deeply rooted in and determinant of the Turkana pastoral economy.

Against the background of a dilemma experienced by researchers during a genomics study at an established biomedical research centre in Kenya, the broad aims of this thesis are to develop appropriate responses to important ethical questions on sharing information on a common and serious genetic condition, sickle cell disorder, and assess the responsibilities of researchers in this regard. Using an empirical approach to normative reflection across two phases of qualitative research, I explore the nature of important moral concerns related to sharing sickle cell disease information from researchers’ and community members’ points of view; and develop a bottom-up normative analysis around the questions generated. This analysis interweaves community experiences, processes of community reasoning and ex situ normative reflection; placing community views and values centrally while referencing these to wider ethical debates, commentaries and guidelines in the literature. Two main outputs of this thesis are to provide recommendations for information sharing on SCD findings in the genomics study in Kilifi; and to propose a set of key issues to consider for this type of information in other studies and geographic settings. I conclude that researchers have a strong responsibility to share SCD information on affected children with families as a form of ancillary service (validating tests, counselling and care); but less responsibility to actively share carrier information. Concurrent responsibilities are working collaboratively with the Ministry of Health/District General Hospital to plan and implement services for SCD; ensuring counselling services support family stability as far as reasonably possible; and to build forms of community engagement and informed consent that counter risks of diagnostic interpretations of research.

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn. ssp. coracana) is an important food, food security and cash crop in eastern and southern Africa where small-scale farmers grow it in low input farming systems. The crop has food security, nutritional, cultural, medicinal, and economic value with high industrial potential. Little research and hardly any breeding have been done on the crop leading to low yields and low production. A project was therefore implemented in western Kenya during 2004-2007 seasons to investigate the possible breeding contributions to enhance productivity and production of the crop. The research comprised a social survey, germplasm evaluation, appraisal of ethrel as a chemical hybridising agent (CHA), genetic analysis of yield, and resistance to blast and Striga, and breeding progress in developing new finger millet varieties. A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) was conducted in three districts during 2006 to position finger millet (FM) in the farming systems, production constraints, and variety diversity and farmer preferences. The PRA established the high rating the peasant farmers gave to finger millet among crop enterprises, using it for food, cash, brewing, ceremonies and medicinal purposes. Farmers cultivated many varieties ranging from five to nine in a district, but each district had its own popular variety. Farmers used the following criteria to select new cultivars: high yield potential; early maturity; resistance to blast disease, Striga, birds, drought, and lodging; large head size, dark grain colour, and good taste. This probably indicated the willingness of farmers to adopt new varieties. Farmers identified constraints to production as blast disease, Striga, wild FM, birds, rats, termites, lack of market, labour shortage, and low yield. The farmers’ variety selection criteria and production constraints underscored the need to improve finger millet varieties. Evaluation of 310 accessions for trait variability and association conducted during 2005 long rain (LR) season at two sites revealed wide variation among the accessions for yield and secondary traits. The best accessions grain yield was above the yield potential of 5,000- 6,000kg ha-1 reported in other environments. Accessions KNE 072 (7,833kg ha-1), GBK 028463 (7,085kg ha-1), GBK 029661 (6,666kg ha-1) and FMBT ACC#42 (6,566kg ha-1) were outstanding. The data showed the opportunity to select for yield directly because of its wide variability but indirect selection could also be used to exploit seedling vigour as shown by its high correlation to yield and direct and indirect positive effects on yield through plant height and single plant yield in path analysis. The wide genetic variability among the genotypes for several traits indicated high potential to breed new and better finger millet varieties. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.