Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2007

Zugl.: Dresden, Techn. University, Diss., 2008.

Zugl.: Diss. phil.-naturwiss. Fak. Univ. Bern, 1996. / siehe auch: GIS-gestützte Generierung synthetischer Bodenkarten und landschaftsökologische Bewertung der Risiken von Bodenwasser- und Bodenverlusten. Literaturverz.

Zugl.: Diss. phil. nat. Bern, 1991. / 2 dépliants. Bibliogr. : p. 137-138.

Children's literature affects the child's socialisation process, including the shaping the gender roles. But despite this, up to now children have featured less in gender scholarship. Against this backround, this paper seeks to critically interrogate the physical, social, economic and political manifestations of masculinities in selected Kiswahili children\'s books from Kenya. By analysing these works, we hope to demonstrate that power and ideological aspects of masculinites are rooted at childhood. Since special attention will be paid to the ideological and power basis of the masculinities, the analysis of the selected works is done in the encompassing prism of Critical Discourse Analysis revealing hegemonic masculinities.

This paper examines issues that emerge in the attempts that have been made to develop the national language terminology in kenya by committees, Kiswahili enthusiasts and Kiswahili scholars. Attention is drawn to the fact that the problematic national language policy that emerges from the national language`s social history is an important backround to the issues that are discussed. The issues emerging in these attempts are examined in the prism of an encompassing terminology development framework that is synthesised from terminology development literature from different areas of the world. This framework views terminology development as a process that entails: formation of a language institute, setting up of goals, the actual engineering of the terms, the mode of dissemination and evaluation. The case of Kenya demonstrates that the attempts have so far consisted of isolated steps of terminology development rather than the whole set of required action.

Mass communication through the print and the electronic media has not been spared by the post-Cold-War wind of change that is sweeping across Africa and the rest of the world. According to Wilcox (1974: 37), in 1974 over 70 percent of all the newspapers that were printed in Africa were government-owned; in the same year, almost all radio and T.V. stations were owned by government. In the changing socio-eonomic climate, however, a state monopoly of the mass media in many Sub- Saharan African countries is now a thing of the past (see for instance, Bourgault 1995). Where, for example, there used to be only one or two newspapers owned by the government or the ruling party, there now exists a plethora of privately owned competing newspapers and other publications; and where there used to be only one sycophantic radio and T. V. station owned by the government, there now exist several radio and T. V. stations, many of them privately-owned commercial broadcasters. The general philosophy behind the liberalization of the mass media is what has come to be called `the freedom of speech`. Citing the liberalization of the electronic media in Kenya, this paper argues that the liberalization of the media in many Sub-Saharan countries has not been matched by policies that encourage the entrenchment, spread and full utilization of African indigenous languages. It is further argued that the lack of media policy that favours African indigenous languages is likely to lead to negative consequences for the languages of Africa.

It is a fact that modern science and technology from the west has reached Africa through European languages. Historically, these languages have also served as the vehicles of formal education in Africa to the exclusion of Swahili and other local languages. The deficiency of African languages such as Swahili in scientific and technical registers is both artificial and historically understandable. Secondly, it is easily remediable given that the basic core of the said vocabulary is shared and international in nature (Alexandrie, 1961 ). Therefore such a deficiency should present no barrier to Swahili serving as a medium of instruction in higher education. Whereas English, German and French can boast of self-sufficiency in literature in all fields of study, Swahili is a relatively much younger language of education and lacks literature even in the most basic aspects of the language itself. This situation often forces lecturers in the universities teaching Swahili to undertake `translation´ of concepts or even loan words in order to communicate with their students. Therefore, quite often, lecturing in the Swahili medium entails being able to translate from English into Swahili because most of the material to be taught is sourced from English original publications. As far as the use of Swahili in teaching natural sciences and other technical subjects at the tertiary level is concerned, Chimera (1998) suggests that this should be done gradually as the language grows and develops in its technical domains. If Swahili is to develop and modernise, it has to be more liberal in expanding its technical and scientific domains. The two registers should more or less be of comparable size as is the case with English (Chimera 1998: 37). However, the question that naturally arises here is, how is this ideal to be achieved? Perhaps, by deciding to teach linguistics and literature in Swahili, East African universities want to face the terminological challenge and solve the problems as they occurred. After decades of experimenting, the time has come for all stakeholders to come to terms with the problem.

This paper discusses the conflicts between some cultural practices of the Midzichenda (i. e. divination, healing and witchcraft) and the Kenyan Law. For decades, diviners and healers have been misconceived and condemned wholesale as `witchdoctors´, `wizards´ or `witches´. This misconception has seen many innocent diviners and healers mercilessly arrested, hurriedly arraigned in court, heavily fined and (or) eventually imprisoned, and their paraphernalia confiscated and finally destroyed by the state. The paper calls for proper understanding of the intricate belief in and practise of divination and healing vis-a-vis witchcraft and proposes ways which could help solve the conflicts.

Lugha inaweza kutumiwa kwa njia ya ubunifu wenye ufasaha ufaao ili kuwasiliana au pia ikatumiwa visivyo na kwa njia potovu. Ni nini hasa maana ya kutumia lugha kwa njia potovu? Pengine ni rahisi kueleza kinyume chake. Mtumiaji wa lugha mwenye ubunifu huzingatia rasimali zote za lugha. Mwandishi maarufu wa fasihi barani Afrika, Chinua Achebe, huitumia lugha kama kituo kilicho hai na pia kuendelea. Katika juhudi za kuifanya lugha kumwezesha kutoa maoni, maelekezo, habari na hisia, mtumiaji kama huyu hutambua kuwa lugha ikitumiwa ipasavyo huleta uhai katika taaluma ya mawasiliano. (Luvai, 1991: 60) Hata hivyo, katika Kenya, kiwango che ubora wa uandishi kwa jumla kimeshuka sana katika miaka ishirini iliyopita. Makala hii itachunguza kwa muhtasari ushahidi wa matumizi yasiyofaa ya lugha ya Kiswahili katika vyombo vya habari km. redio, televisheni na magazeti.