In the United States of America (U.S.), institutional marginalization and racial discrimination remains an arguably difficult subject to understand, both conceptually and pragmatically. Regarding governmental sectors, U.S. Armed Forces are institutions where discrimination must be critically explored in an attempt to provide an understanding of the reality faced by those who actually serve. This study involved the examination into racism within a specific elite governmental sector that emphasizes a philosophy of a unified oneness of all its members. Using a phenomenological approach, the study delved into the actual impact of racism within the Marine Corps, on the lives of individual members of a historically marginalized populace, African American/Black. The research explored and analyzed the life stories of three male members of the aforementioned population group, hence seeking to answer the research question: How has Integrated Racial Diversity in the Armed Forces Impacted Experiences of Discrimination Antagonistic to Male African American/Black Marine Corps Officers as Members of a Population Historically Marginalized and Discriminated against in the United States of America? Theories incorporated in the research offered meaning to the experiences of the individual participants. Discoveries illustrated the necessity of adaptation by the individual in coping with the impact of racially charged hostilities in an environment supposedly operating with an objective of oneness of its members. Through the findings, a theory of socio-psycho-bio dissonance was developed by the researcher. This research provides recommendations on practical ways to transformatively address and seek probable resolution in conflict – institutionally.

Burn injuries are a significant global health concern, causing high mortality and morbidity rates. Clinical assessment is the current standard for diagnosing burn injuries, but it suffers from interobserver variability and is not suitable for intermediate burn depths. To address these challenges, machine learning-based techniques were proposed to evaluate burn wounds in a thesis. The study utilized image-based networks to analyze two medical image databases of burn injuries from Caucasian and Black-African cohorts. The deep learning-based model, called BurnsNet, was developed and used for real-time processing, achieving high accuracy rates in discriminating between different burn depths and pressure ulcer wounds. The multiracial data representation approach was also used to address data representation bias in burn analysis, resulting in promising performance. The ML approach proved its objectivity and cost-effectiveness in assessing burn depths, providing an effective adjunct for clinical assessment. The study's findings suggest that the use of machine learning-based techniques can reduce the workflow burden for burn surgeons and significantly reduce errors in burn diagnosis. It also highlights the potential of automation to improve burn care and enhance patients' quality of life. / Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF); Gombe State University study fellowship

The function of patterns of faith experience and theology in religion and society forms part of the whole complex system of God, life and world views which operate amongst Zambian Presbyterians Christians. The dissertation endeavors to make an assessment of the place of faith and theology within the ambit of a Black Zambian and Presbyterian God-life-world view. This home grown African God-life-world view of Zambian Reformed Presbyterian making, is similar in some respects and differs in others with European and Western God, life and world views of the Reformed and Presbyterian brand. In the first chapter the stage for this dissertation is set. I do not claim to be exhaustive or definitive in discussing the mixture of faith patterns and theories of faith (theologies) from different parts of the Reformed/Presbyterian world. What plays an important operational role in this analysis and synthesis are what can be called a God, life and world pattern or view which is more or less the same as a sense making system, an ideology or a belief system. Therefore quite a number of pages are allotted to this phenomenon in the first chapter. Furthermore a broad outline of the basic points of departure of a contextual-historical approach which operate with a radical, integral and differential view of God, human life, and the physical world is spelled out. The last part of the chapter is devoted to provisional comments on a view of the experience of everyday faith and a theory of faith. The latter is the designation for what is usually called theology. In here I have tackled the problem of theology and human experience of faith from the angle of the traditional double sided or dualistic view of faith as a extraordinary supernatural and ordinary natural support structure for a discipline like theology. Theology is not intrinsically involved in people's faith experience and thus is not a real reflection of their everyday faith experience. When one is however emphasising that a faith (belief) pattern includes belief towards God, belief of the self (self-confidence) and belief towards the many neighbours as well as belief towards the physical-organic environment then one is closer in the neighbourhood of a radical and integral black African faith pattern and what we call a theory of faith. In chapter two the Reformed/Presbyterian legacy is discussed and reflected upon in terms of nine features of a Reformed/Presbyterian sense making system, ethos or God, life and world view which emerged in Reformed history since the days of John Calvin (1509-1564). Reformed-Presbyterian theologies, theories of faith and philosophies are examined as well as the major impact of Calvin on the characteristic features of Reformed God, life and world views or sense making systems. Some of the main features of these Reformed/Presbyterian sense making systems repetitively recur in the majority of Reformed experiential settings, communities and churches. The nine features or characteristics of a Reformed-Presbyterian ethos are the following: the well known soft duality of special and general; the social attitude of accepting every phenomenon and immediately start to criticize it; the tendency of pilgrimage through life; the idea of the extra-calvinisticum; the dual idea of special and general determination, that is the doctrine of election and the doctrine of providence and its strong encapsulation by a very strong theology of covenantal duality; the idea that a Reformed community or church is always in the process of reformation (ecclesia reformanda semper reformata); the doctrine of the dispensation of the gifts of the Spirit; the idea of a presbyter system and the democratic legacy that flows from it; and the regulative principle of the Church or the Kingdom of God? In chapter three the black-African-Zambian-Reformed-Presbyterian heritage is discussed in terms of the nine features discussed in chapter two. The idea in this chapter is to acknowledge the fact that an interchange, exchange and mixed appropriation between Reformed/Presbyterian contextual settings has taken and is taking place and that a Reformed/Presbyterian ethos is already incorporated and accommodated within the African milieu and experience. Our task in this chapter is to deal with the African reflections on faith and theology looking for black African similarities with the nine main features that we have detected as determinative of a Reformed/Presbyterian ethos. The predicament of non-African (European Western, Eastern and others) and Bantu-speaking black African experience manifests their differences in the realness and concreteness of their God-life-world views. Generally speaking, one of the main differences in the experience of faith and theology in the European Western and Black African Southern hemisphere contexts amount to the difference between reflective thinking experience as typically European Western and action directed reflective experience as the main emphasis of Black African experience. This entails that we must identify the foremost traits of European Western Reformed-Presbyterian theology and compare and contrast these with Black African, specifically Zambian Reformed-Presbyterian experience. The comparison and contrasting of these two broad contexts, that is European Western Reformed and Zambian Reformed are caught up in the complexities of a to and fro networking of Reformed ideas, clues and cues all over the world. There is more than one view of faith and theology and more than one God-life-world view in both the European cum Western and African ways of life. The existence of various views of faith, theology and God, life and the world explains the co-existence of these views of faith and theology and God, life and world views amongst African Christians. Africans and African Christians are not only Bantuspeaking and black because even if we take our white African counterparts out of the equation about who and what an African is, the Moroccans, the Egyptians, Algerians, Felani Hausas, Wollofs and others would surely disclaim such a statement. In chapter four theology as a theory of faith is discussed as aware reflection of everyday experiences of faith and belief that is far more important than doctrinal ideas that hover abstractly in the minds of ministers, pastors and theologians and is thus not intrinsically part of people's day to day experiences of faith and belief. A few markers on the way to a theory of faith as a functional paradigm is discussed. In order to do this four things have been touched upon: Firstly themes are compared in the Christian theological and philosophical world from both Eurocentric as well as the Afrocentric worlds. Secondly, theology as theory of faith is discussed as a concrete enterprise of aware reflection in the midst of the experience of a faith community or a church. Thirdly, some issues are highlighted which are analysed and synthesised in an attempt to expand a Reformed ethos and agenda by using clues, cues and hues from both Eurocentric and Afrocentric experiences of faith, belief and trust as well as the written and oral theological and faith theoretical reflections of these experiences. Finally, an attempt is made to interweave theories of faith from both contextual worlds as a functional paradigm. The desire to know God, oneself and other human beings as well as the physical-organic environment in this life in tandem and coterminously has a great bearing as a black African contribution to the ongoing building of a holistic Reformed/Presbyterian ethos or sense making system. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / M.Th. (Systematic Theology)

Summaries in French and English / Text in French / Les romans analyses - Une si longue lettre et Un chant ecarlate de Mariama Ba, O pays, mon beau peuple! by d'Ousmane Sembene et Agar d' Albert Memmi - proposent tous une histoire se deroulant en Afrique et ayant pour theme le mariage mixte et/ou polygame, theme particulierement riche comme foyer d'observation socioculturelle et interculturelle des milieux evoques. Le chapitre 1 cerne le theme du mariage et ses diverses configurations mixtes et polygames dans les quatre roamns. Sont examines dans les chapitres suivants: les rapports familiaux et sociaux tels qu'ils sont vecus par les couples protagonistes; la polygamie, centrale aux deux romans de Ba et omnipresente dans celui de Sembene; les religions des societes concernees, telles qu' ell es affectent les couples en jeu; les images de la femme - et surtout de la femme africaine - qui ressortent des situations conjugates developpees par les auteurs; l'eventuelle influence du sexe de l'auteur sur la representation de la femme. / The novels analysed - Une si longue lettre and Un chant ecarlate by Mariama Ba, O pays, mon beau peuple! by Ousmane Sembene and Agar by Albert Memmi - all tell stories set in Africa and share the theme of mixed and/or polygamous marriage, a particularly fertile theme through which to focus a socio-cultural and intercultural examination of the social environments portrayed. Chapter 1 identifies the theme of marriage and the various mixed/polygamous configurations it assumes in the four novels. The succeeding chapters examine: family and social relationships as experienced by the protagonists; polygamy, central to both novels by Ba and omnipresent in Sembene's novel; the religions of the societies portrayed, insofar as they affect the couples concerned; the images of woman - and particularly the Afiican woman - emerging from the marital situations developed by the authors and, finally, the possible influence of authorial gender on the presentation of woman. / Classics and Modern Euorpean Languages / M.A. (French)

The function of patterns of faith experience and theology in religion and society forms part of the whole complex system of God, life and world views which operate amongst Zambian Presbyterians Christians. The dissertation endeavors to make an assessment of the place of faith and theology within the ambit of a Black Zambian and Presbyterian God-life-world view. This home grown African God-life-world view of Zambian Reformed Presbyterian making, is similar in some respects and differs in others with European and Western God, life and world views of the Reformed and Presbyterian brand. In the first chapter the stage for this dissertation is set. I do not claim to be exhaustive or definitive in discussing the mixture of faith patterns and theories of faith (theologies) from different parts of the Reformed/Presbyterian world. What plays an important operational role in this analysis and synthesis are what can be called a God, life and world pattern or view which is more or less the same as a sense making system, an ideology or a belief system. Therefore quite a number of pages are allotted to this phenomenon in the first chapter. Furthermore a broad outline of the basic points of departure of a contextual-historical approach which operate with a radical, integral and differential view of God, human life, and the physical world is spelled out. The last part of the chapter is devoted to provisional comments on a view of the experience of everyday faith and a theory of faith. The latter is the designation for what is usually called theology. In here I have tackled the problem of theology and human experience of faith from the angle of the traditional double sided or dualistic view of faith as a extraordinary supernatural and ordinary natural support structure for a discipline like theology. Theology is not intrinsically involved in people's faith experience and thus is not a real reflection of their everyday faith experience. When one is however emphasising that a faith (belief) pattern includes belief towards God, belief of the self (self-confidence) and belief towards the many neighbours as well as belief towards the physical-organic environment then one is closer in the neighbourhood of a radical and integral black African faith pattern and what we call a theory of faith. In chapter two the Reformed/Presbyterian legacy is discussed and reflected upon in terms of nine features of a Reformed/Presbyterian sense making system, ethos or God, life and world view which emerged in Reformed history since the days of John Calvin (1509-1564). Reformed-Presbyterian theologies, theories of faith and philosophies are examined as well as the major impact of Calvin on the characteristic features of Reformed God, life and world views or sense making systems. Some of the main features of these Reformed/Presbyterian sense making systems repetitively recur in the majority of Reformed experiential settings, communities and churches. The nine features or characteristics of a Reformed-Presbyterian ethos are the following: the well known soft duality of special and general; the social attitude of accepting every phenomenon and immediately start to criticize it; the tendency of pilgrimage through life; the idea of the extra-calvinisticum; the dual idea of special and general determination, that is the doctrine of election and the doctrine of providence and its strong encapsulation by a very strong theology of covenantal duality; the idea that a Reformed community or church is always in the process of reformation (ecclesia reformanda semper reformata); the doctrine of the dispensation of the gifts of the Spirit; the idea of a presbyter system and the democratic legacy that flows from it; and the regulative principle of the Church or the Kingdom of God? In chapter three the black-African-Zambian-Reformed-Presbyterian heritage is discussed in terms of the nine features discussed in chapter two. The idea in this chapter is to acknowledge the fact that an interchange, exchange and mixed appropriation between Reformed/Presbyterian contextual settings has taken and is taking place and that a Reformed/Presbyterian ethos is already incorporated and accommodated within the African milieu and experience. Our task in this chapter is to deal with the African reflections on faith and theology looking for black African similarities with the nine main features that we have detected as determinative of a Reformed/Presbyterian ethos. The predicament of non-African (European Western, Eastern and others) and Bantu-speaking black African experience manifests their differences in the realness and concreteness of their God-life-world views. Generally speaking, one of the main differences in the experience of faith and theology in the European Western and Black African Southern hemisphere contexts amount to the difference between reflective thinking experience as typically European Western and action directed reflective experience as the main emphasis of Black African experience. This entails that we must identify the foremost traits of European Western Reformed-Presbyterian theology and compare and contrast these with Black African, specifically Zambian Reformed-Presbyterian experience. The comparison and contrasting of these two broad contexts, that is European Western Reformed and Zambian Reformed are caught up in the complexities of a to and fro networking of Reformed ideas, clues and cues all over the world. There is more than one view of faith and theology and more than one God-life-world view in both the European cum Western and African ways of life. The existence of various views of faith, theology and God, life and the world explains the co-existence of these views of faith and theology and God, life and world views amongst African Christians. Africans and African Christians are not only Bantuspeaking and black because even if we take our white African counterparts out of the equation about who and what an African is, the Moroccans, the Egyptians, Algerians, Felani Hausas, Wollofs and others would surely disclaim such a statement. In chapter four theology as a theory of faith is discussed as aware reflection of everyday experiences of faith and belief that is far more important than doctrinal ideas that hover abstractly in the minds of ministers, pastors and theologians and is thus not intrinsically part of people's day to day experiences of faith and belief. A few markers on the way to a theory of faith as a functional paradigm is discussed. In order to do this four things have been touched upon: Firstly themes are compared in the Christian theological and philosophical world from both Eurocentric as well as the Afrocentric worlds. Secondly, theology as theory of faith is discussed as a concrete enterprise of aware reflection in the midst of the experience of a faith community or a church. Thirdly, some issues are highlighted which are analysed and synthesised in an attempt to expand a Reformed ethos and agenda by using clues, cues and hues from both Eurocentric and Afrocentric experiences of faith, belief and trust as well as the written and oral theological and faith theoretical reflections of these experiences. Finally, an attempt is made to interweave theories of faith from both contextual worlds as a functional paradigm. The desire to know God, oneself and other human beings as well as the physical-organic environment in this life in tandem and coterminously has a great bearing as a black African contribution to the ongoing building of a holistic Reformed/Presbyterian ethos or sense making system. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / M.Th. (Systematic Theology)

Summaries in French and English / Text in French / Les romans analyses - Une si longue lettre et Un chant ecarlate de Mariama Ba, O pays, mon beau peuple! by d'Ousmane Sembene et Agar d' Albert Memmi - proposent tous une histoire se deroulant en Afrique et ayant pour theme le mariage mixte et/ou polygame, theme particulierement riche comme foyer d'observation socioculturelle et interculturelle des milieux evoques. Le chapitre 1 cerne le theme du mariage et ses diverses configurations mixtes et polygames dans les quatre roamns. Sont examines dans les chapitres suivants: les rapports familiaux et sociaux tels qu'ils sont vecus par les couples protagonistes; la polygamie, centrale aux deux romans de Ba et omnipresente dans celui de Sembene; les religions des societes concernees, telles qu' ell es affectent les couples en jeu; les images de la femme - et surtout de la femme africaine - qui ressortent des situations conjugates developpees par les auteurs; l'eventuelle influence du sexe de l'auteur sur la representation de la femme. / The novels analysed - Une si longue lettre and Un chant ecarlate by Mariama Ba, O pays, mon beau peuple! by Ousmane Sembene and Agar by Albert Memmi - all tell stories set in Africa and share the theme of mixed and/or polygamous marriage, a particularly fertile theme through which to focus a socio-cultural and intercultural examination of the social environments portrayed. Chapter 1 identifies the theme of marriage and the various mixed/polygamous configurations it assumes in the four novels. The succeeding chapters examine: family and social relationships as experienced by the protagonists; polygamy, central to both novels by Ba and omnipresent in Sembene's novel; the religions of the societies portrayed, insofar as they affect the couples concerned; the images of woman - and particularly the Afiican woman - emerging from the marital situations developed by the authors and, finally, the possible influence of authorial gender on the presentation of woman. / Classics and Modern Euorpean Languages / M.A. (French)

No description available.

Text in English, Appendice 9 (pages 253-264) the isiZulu version of the corresponding English version. / The discourse on youth in South Africa’s post-apartheid era attempts to explore black African youth as agents for social change in their locale. Various perspectives define methods that are utilised by the youth to overcome the social challenges in this era. A case study approach was adopted in conducting this research. The role(s) played by the youth to influence social change were also investigated. The term youth in this research, refers to black African youth between 18 and 29 years of age, living in the township of KwaMashu in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. This investigation attempted to unravel the contributions made by youth towards community development, as well as the strategies that they adopted to secure their day-to-day livelihoods. In addition, various stereotypes and attitudes connected to youth were examined and were also documented. This study also investigated the role played by social agencies such as government institutions, education sector and also non-governmental and faith-based organisations in relation to the empowerment of young people in defining their futures. This investigation enabled the exploration of the impact of contemporary cultural value system(s) in shaping youth’s identities and their perceptions. The findings revealed that there is a need for relevant stakeholders and policy makers to consider interventions that will ensure support of youth initiatives, to curb the scourge of unemployment and poverty. It also recommends that the academic sphere needs to consider the decolonisation of the curriculum towards an Afrocentric Indigenous Knowledge orientation to enhance the aspirations of the Constitution of South Africa. The study also discovered evidence that suggests that the youth have a critical role to play in the development of their locales. Finally, the findings of this research acts as the baseline that could assist future studies in identifying possible themes that can provide [a fuller] understanding of the role played by black African youth in different social settings, i.e. township life, academic and political spheres in the post-apartheid era. / Sociology / D.Litt.et Phil. (Sociology)