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My thesis focuses on the experiences of people with albinism in higher education (HE) in Tanzania. Albinism is a genetically inherited condition and it affects people of all ethnic backgrounds worldwide. In Tanzania, the condition affects one in every 1,400 people. People with albinism in Tanzania often face social discrimination, superstition, and prejudice including murder threats due to myths and beliefs that their body parts are a source of wealth and prosperity. They also experience physical challenges including threats from the African tropical sun and visual impairment. All these factors interact with educational opportunities. Information about the oppression, killings and amputation of body parts of people with albinism in Tanzania has been widely reported in the media globally. However, albinism remains socially under-researched and under-theorized – especially in relation to how it interacts with HE opportunity structures. This research attempts to contribute to existing literature and construct new insights into albinism and HE. In so doing, I draw upon a range of theoretical approaches including Sarah Ahmed's concept of affective economies and fear of difference, Margaret Archer's notions of the internal conversation and reflexivity as well as various established feminist theorists such as Simone de Beauvoir to analyse and explain issues arising from the study including misogyny. I also draw upon Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic violence. My research is a case study of albinism in HE in Tanzania. Using qualitative methods I draw upon feminist methodological approaches, values and principles to explore albinism and explain what constrains and enables students with the condition to interact with HE opportunities. The data for this research were collected from 35 participants in Tanzania, namely: 14 students with albinism (involving current and graduate students with albinism); six teaching staff and five HE support staff members. Other participants included officials from four non-governmental organisations (NGOs), four government officials, one parent and one student reader/note-taker. I conducted 19 face-to-face semi-structured interviews with six current students with albinism, three teaching staff, four NGO officials and four government officials. Likewise, I conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews with one parent and one student reader. I also conducted one Skype interview with a current student with albinism as well as three focus groups discussions with 14 participants. The first group was of seven graduates with albinism, the second involved three teaching staff and the third was of four HE support staff. I also used desk-based research methods, conducting telephone conversations with 52 statistics officers in order to investigate where students with albinism are located within HE in Tanzania. Looking at literature and my research questions, the data were then compared across different participants and universities to establish patterns and common themes among them. The findings from this research indicated that the systems of power that work to oppress people with albinism are multifaceted with structural, cultural and socio-economic conditions. Some key findings included how people with albinism were subjected to misogyny, myths and fear of the ‘other'. However, the 14 students with albinism in this study demonstrated a high level of agency, creativity, autonomy and motivation to improve their lives and thus overcome discriminatory social structures, oppression and harassment. They also illustrated their commitments to contribute usefully to society despite the constraints and limited support that they often encountered. Access to HE was seen as a major way to transform their identity by challenging deeply ingrained social prejudices, which often label people with albinism as having limited cognitive capacity. The implications of this research are that government commitment will be required in order to allocate sufficient funds to promote awareness of, and create change about, albinism and the elimination of household poverty, particularly that of female-headed households (FHH), as well as to adequately finance HE institutions so they can put in place support services and arrangements for students with albinism.

Rural electrification has been a long-standing objective in many developing countries. For decades, the assumption and practice has been to build centralised generating capacity and transmit the electricity over national grids. More recently, interest has grown in using PV (photovoltaic) technology as a solution to the problem of rural electrification. A private household market for PV has been developing in Kenya since 1984 and now has more than 200,000 systems installed, sold through this private market. Consequently, it is widely hailed as a success story among developing countries. Until recently, Tanzania had almost no household PV market, despite interest from a number of actors, including some of those who have been involved in enabling the rapid growth of the market in Kenya. However, sales of PV began to grow quite rapidly from the early 2000s and the trend appears to be gaining pace, with an estimated 285 kWp sold in 2007, having risen by 57% in one year. At the time of the research, there were two large donor-funded PV projects underway in the country. The research attempts to explain the dynamics of the two PV niches over the past 25 years using strategic niche management as its theoretical framework. It finds that the Kenyan niche has benefited more from donor support than is usually acknowledged. The thesis also makes theoretical and methodological contributions. It offers a way to connect first and second-order learning to expectations and visions concepts; dimensions expectations and visions; and presents a tool for systematic investigation of socio-technical trajectory developments. The thesis also suggests a number of ways in which the strategic niche management framework could be enhanced. These include stronger theorising about learning, and the incorporation of power, politics and risk into the theory.

Iba Ndiaye Diadji, a Senegalese professor of aesthetics, sees water as intrinsic to African ontology. He also argues that water is the most important substance to inspire African artists. (Diadji 2003: 273–275.) Water certainly has a significant role in Swahili poetry, written traditionally by people living on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Swahili poems have used aquatic imagery in expressing different ideas and sensations, in different contexts and times. Water imagery can be found in hundreds of years old Islamic hymns as well as in political poetry written during the colonial German East Africa. This article discusses water imagery in traditional Islamic Swahili poetry.

There is a wide range of contemporary publications dealing with Maji Mai War in German East Africa (1905-1907) during which mor than 100000 people lost their lives as a consequence of brutal fighting, deliberate destruction and famine. Only three of these publications were written by Africans. The Swahili text reprinted here attests the view of Mzee bin Ramadhani, the headman (liwali) of Songea town, after colonial military had gained the upper hand in June 1906. It contains polemic statements against leaders and supporters of the Maji Maji movement and depicts aspects of mutual support of colonial officers and Swahili residents from a local perspective. His article as a whole presents the colonial regime as a non-interfering and supportive factor in regard to the Swahili Diaspora. Thus it is reasonable to assume that in his eyes succesful Swahili men were at least equal in many respects (e.g. linguistic competence, social experience, religious conviction) rather than inferior according to colonial understanding.

Iba Ndiaye Diadji, a Senegalese professor of aesthetics, sees water as intrinsic to African ontology. He also argues that water is the most important substance to inspire African artists. (Diadji 2003: 273–275.) Water certainly has a significant role in Swahili poetry, written traditionally by people living on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Swahili poems have used aquatic imagery in expressing different ideas and sensations, in different contexts and times. Water imagery can be found in hundreds of years old Islamic hymns as well as in political poetry written during the colonial German East Africa. This article discusses water imagery in traditional Islamic Swahili poetry.

There is a wide range of contemporary publications dealing with Maji Mai War in German East Africa (1905-1907) during which mor than 100000 people lost their lives as a consequence of brutal fighting, deliberate destruction and famine. Only three of these publications were written by Africans. The Swahili text reprinted here attests the view of Mzee bin Ramadhani, the headman (liwali) of Songea town, after colonial military had gained the upper hand in June 1906. It contains polemic statements against leaders and supporters of the Maji Maji movement and depicts aspects of mutual support of colonial officers and Swahili residents from a local perspective. His article as a whole presents the colonial regime as a non-interfering and supportive factor in regard to the Swahili Diaspora. Thus it is reasonable to assume that in his eyes succesful Swahili men were at least equal in many respects (e.g. linguistic competence, social experience, religious conviction) rather than inferior according to colonial understanding.