Witchcraft and "exorcisms" have dominated African cultures and posed problems for African people. This thesis is a study of the current exorcistic ministry within a Pentecostal church in Ghana with reference to the Akan culture. The general opinion gathered from current anthropological studies on witchcraft is that the ultimate goal of exorcism is to become modernised. However, using interdisciplinary studies with a theological focus, the thesis departs from this, and contends that it is divinatory-consultation or an inquiry into the sacred and the search for meaning that underlies the current "deliverance" ministry, where the focus is to identify and break down the so-called demonic forces by the power of God in order to "deliver" people from their torment. It represents a further attempt to contextualise the gospel to African people. However, its preoccupation with demonisation and its exorcistic practices are found to bring Christianity into tension with the Akan culture, family ties and other religions. Therefore, to develop a properly safeguarded ministry of exorcism in an African context, the thesis examines contextualisation and suggests that it includes the integration of divinatory-consultation, which the thesis claims underlies the biblical concept of prayer, into African Christianity.

This thesis seeks to examine the interrelationships between gender, migration and rural livelihoods in Ghana. The central argument of the study is that policy making on migration and livelihood, tends to ignore gender as a critical issue in development planning. The study suggests that effective development policy interventions should take into consideration the dynamics of gender relations because men and women experience migration differently. Employing primary and secondary data, the study demonstrates that when men and/or women migrate, there are consequences for households. For those migrating, this can result in either empowerment or increased vulnerability. And for the agricultural households in the sending areas, the departure of men and/or women affects their livelihood and division of labour. Our investigation shows that migrants are predominantly males, with a relatively smaller but increasing number of women. Drawing on earlier studies, the thesis argues for a more systematic examination of the consequences of migration on rural households, particularly on the economic livelihood and household responsibilities of women. By understanding the conditions of rural households, development practitioners are in a better position to design gender appropriate policies and projects. This approach will significantly improve the economic situation of rural communities and maximize their development dividends. The study has practical significance as it sheds light on the options faced by rural women, and the adjustments they make, when confronted with male out-migration.

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of self-assessment on the writing of inexperienced EFL Libyan university students’ writing. Data was collected from one hundred fourth year students majoring in English. The essays were each 300 words in length. The students were divided into experimental and control groups and 40 essays (20 from each group) were selected for analysis. The study uses a pre-self-assessment/post-self-assessment comparison of two groups of writers. The key research instrument was a self-assessment sheet which asked students to assess the content, organisation and language of their essays. Students were asked to revise their writing after using the self-assessment sheet. In addition to the self-assessment sheet, a post- study feedback form was given to elicit the students’ attitudes towards the use of self-assessment to guide their revision of writing. Further, a questionnaire completed by Libyans in the UK was also used in this study to elicit key contextual information about the writing context of the study. The results of the study showed that the writers in the experimental group who used self-assessment to guide their revision made more revisions than those in the control group. The result also demonstrated that the majority of students in the experimental group had a positive attitude towards the self-assessment technique. While there are limitations mainly due to the political and social climate at the time the research was conducted, this thesis demonstrates to some extent the important role of using self-assessment in developing inexperienced students’ writing.

This thesis uses evidence from British and international archives to examine the events leading up to Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) on 11 November 1965 from the perspectives of Britain, the Old Commonwealth (Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), and the United States. Two underlying themes run throughout the thesis. First, it argues that although the problem of Rhodesian independence was highly complex, a UDI was by no means inevitable. There were courses of action that were dismissed or remained under explored (especially in Britain, but also in the Old Commonwealth, and the United States), which could have been pursued further and may have prevented a UDI. Second, the thesis argues there were structural weaknesses in the machinery of government of each of the major actors, but particularly in Britain. This made the management of the Rhodesian Crisis more difficult, contributed to the likelihood of a UDI, and exacerbated tension in relations between Britain and its international partners. In stressing these themes the thesis builds upon some of the earlier literature that was critical of the Labour Government’s foreign and Commonwealth policies. Although this thesis is primarily an international history, it also makes use of theories from political science and international relations to frame certain aspects of the empirical research.

This thesis explores how Kenyan Christians perceive Islam and Muslims. The thesis approaches the problem by examining various Christian writings. Substantial and representative Christian literature was found in the form of scholarly writing, produced by Kenyan mainline Christians, and in the form of popular literature, produced by Kenyan Neo-Pentecostals. The historiography of Islam entering into Kenya; and a historical look at Christian-Muslim relations in Kenya, with particularly an examination of the recent debate over the inclusion of kadhi courts in the constitution, were also examined. The combination of the historical and the literary approach provides breadth into the examination of how Christians in Kenya perceive Islam and Muslims. After an analysis of the history and the texts, several themes that emerge from this analysis are examined from two perspectives. One, politically oriented themes are examined to understand how Kenyan Christians symbolically contest with Muslims over public space. It is seen that the symbolic contestation concerns the legitimacy to occupy roles in the nation-building project. Two, emerging theologies of religion are teased out of the writings to gain insight into the deeper theological structures from which Kenyan Christians operate as they seek to understand and interact with the religious Other (Islam). The thesis claims that the Kenyan cultural/religious context contributes significantly, more so than traditional Christian-Muslim dynamics from outside of Africa.

This thesis argues that a nuanced understanding of Egyptological writing across the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can only be achieved through the consideration of the broader literary and artistic culture in which these texts were produced, and that an understanding of contemporary cultural artefacts requires a complementary awareness of Egyptology. It demonstrates the wealth of generic and material exchange between Egyptological and literary texts, and reveals cultures of mythmaking in which Egyptologists embellished their accounts, while those who collected Egyptian objects invented supernaturally-charged fictions in a bid to establish their own authority. It establishes the inflation in Egyptian iconography not merely in textual form, but across material culture, claiming that the growing availability of texts addressing ancient Egypt encouraged linguistic experiment among writers of fiction, and the domestication of hieroglyphs. It argues that interests in Egyptology and psychology often went hand-in-hand, shifting the understanding of hieroglyphs as something ‘other’ to a product of the ‘self’. Finally, it charts the commercialisation of Egyptian iconography, increasingly connected to products that drew upon Egypt’s glamour (and the glamour of theatre and cinema), but also obverses a counterculture that harnessed ancient Egypt’s fascination and connected it to more meaningful spiritual experiences.

In this contextual study I investigate why and how the traditional approach to mission, engaged by Anglican missionaries, gave rise to a dual observance of ritual among Shona Anglican Christians. I begin by establishing the significance and essence of Shona views of death and the dead, then investigate the missionaries' historical background. I highlight that Christian arrogance, in the guise of racial superiority, underlies the confrontational and condemnatory approach. Traditional views were considered evil, in their place, Shona converts were forced to adopt western Christian views as the only acceptable and valid way of coping with this eschatological reality. These views did not usually fit the Shona worldviews and religious outlook, hence the adoption of dual observance. For some, life continues to be classified as either Christian or traditional and never both. However, some present Shona Anglican practices reflect a desire to integrate the two. Unless there is this integration, the Church remains other and irrelevant to the Shona people. The ultimate aim of this thesis is to advocate for a theological synthesis of Christian and Shona traditional views. I argue that such a synthesis, patterned on the interactive dialogical model, could lead to the cessation of confrontation and condemnation and its attendant dual observance, and enhance the development of a Shona Christian theology of death and the dead which provides for relevant and sensitive pastoral care.

Essential information is often lost when in reading a piece of work the identity of an audience or the recipients is overlooked. The first hearers of the letter to the Colossians were a diverse group of people in a colonized country under the imperial rule of Rome in the first century. The writer of the letter addressed possible concerns presented to him from the evangelist, Epaphras, a native of Colossae. In identifying the audience whether they are first recipients or future readers, ideologies and theologies are discovered which add to the existing criticism genres. The process of identifying the audience allows one to reread the work through the lens of various peoples. This process also allows one to make comparisons between the various audiences. A comparison is made in this thesis between the 1st century readers and the enslaved Africans who lived on the continent of North America who were later exposed to concepts that stemmed from the letter. In viewing the identities of both groups the most damaging find was the derogatory labels placed on them. This thesis, an African American postcolonial re-reading of the letter to the Colossians, looks beyond the labels to ascertain the meaning of the Colossians letter, giving voices to each group.

Despite the heightened focus on the effects of war on girls, they are still being inappropriately grouped under the larger rubric of ‘women’ or ‘females’. Since the distinctions in girls’ and women’s war experiences are not yet well understood (McKay, 2006), this research argues that gender analysis is crucial to effective development as it relates to young soldiers. It also advocates a distinct analytical focus on girls who exit armed forces as young women (at times as a result of having children). This thesis is about formerly abducted girls in Acholi sub region, northern Uganda. As adolescents and teenagers, they were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army and many returned to their villages with children fathered by the fighters. This thesis systematically looks at their socio-economic reintegration process, experiences and progress over the years. Through a series of 57 in-depth and 12 group interviews, this qualitative study explores long-term reintegration from the participants’ perspectives. The study identifies and analyses the central themes in their lives, including: physical and mental scars of abduction and life in captivity, stigmatisation, marriage complexities, and economic hardships. To date, the growing body of reintegration literature has focused on the first one or two years after exiting an armed group, and long-term reintegration studies are still limited. Therefore, through these themes, the thesis contributes to the conceptualisation of reintegration and understanding of the participants’ past and current life situations.

This study attempts to provide a theoretical framework for the criticism of colonial and post-colonial African cinema. Emphasis is placed on the extent to which the nature of colonial cinematic policies and practices have influenced post-colonial African cinema, especially with regards to forms of subjectivities constructed through cinematic representation. The study begins by examining some of the methodological problems in the criticism of African cinema. It relates the concept of African cinema to debates dealing with Third Cinema theories, cine-structuralism and psychoanalytic critical theories, and argues that any of these theories can be applied to the criticism of African cinema so long as it is moderated to suit the specific nature of the African condition. It also defines the nature of African cinema by relating it to the notions of national cinema, the question of African personality and identity, emergent genres and film styles, and proposes a general cinematic reading hypothesis, anchored on the concept of subjectivity, for the criticism of African cinema. With respect to the colonial period, the main argument which I pursue is that two divergent cinematic practices existed side by side in Africa. First, there was a governmental and non-governmental agencies sponsored, non-commercial cinema, which treats the medium as a vehicle for popular instruction. Throughout this study, I refer to this cinematic practice as colonial African instructional cinema, and argue that it represents Africans as knowing and knowledgeable people, able and willing to acquire modem methods of social planning and development for the benefit of their communities. Second, there was the commercial cinematic practice which chose, and still chooses, to recycle popular images of people of African descent in the European imagination, as projected through literature, history, anthropological and scientific discourses, etc., in the representation of Africans. I refer to this cinematic practice throughout this study as colonialist African cinema. The main argument which I pursue with respect to this practice is that the images of Africans projected in it have a genealogical history stretching as far back in time as the classical era. In the modem period, the contact between Europe and Africa, and the subsequent slave trade, colonialism and their popular literatures, and the nineteenth century racial theories, are some of the factors which have reinforced the canonical authority of these images. I argue that this cinematic practice represents Africans by employing various metaphors which draw associations between Africans and animals, to suggest African savagery and barbarity, and that by drawing on such associations, they devalue African humanity, legitimise the colonial enterprise and all its attendant cruelties, and absolve Europeans of any moral responsiblities over actions supposedly carried out in the name of spreading civilisation. Though post-colonial African historical texts located in the colonial period respond to the whole colonial enterprise, my argument is that they are inspired, first and foremost, by the desire to refute the images of Africans identifiable with the discursive tradition of colonialist African CInema.