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Understanding the process and the dynamics involved in news translation, as well as the challenges news translators face in my country of origin - The Gambia- has been a long-held goal, considering my background and experience as a former bilingual editor for Kuwait Oil Company and a senior news translator for Al-Watan Daily in Kuwait. The quest to unravel the enigmas surrounding news translation practices has always been a subject of great interest to me. With the intent of proffering pragmatic solutions to the attendant challenges of news translation in the Gambia, my focus is on providing well-researched recommendations. The study specifically seeks to answer questions regarding news translation processes and practices and how they have evolved over time in the Gambia. Furthermore, this study sheds light on the manifold professional and technical obstacles that confront news translators in the Gambia as they endeavour to render news content originally produced in English into Mandinka, which is one of the prominent Indigenous languages. It also delves into the broader linguistic landscape in the Gambia and other colonized territories from an indigenous perspective. Colonialism looms large over my study, considering the fact that news is translated from English, a minority colonial language imposed on the majority speakers of indigenous languages. The legacy of colonialism still lingers, with the news still being read in English first before it gets rendered in indigenous languages. Using qualitative methodology, my research explores the evolution and importance of news translation in the Gambia and the underlying factors behind the professional and technical challenges that Gambia’s news translators continue to wrestle with. Dowling, Lloyd, and Suchet-Pearson (2016) posit that this methodology is employed to comprehend the spatialities, interpretations, and experiences of social life. The undertaken field study has availed me of the opportunity to have a deeper understanding of some of those challenges and come up with recommendations that might hopefully address them, including language planning, the development of a monolingual Mandinka dictionary, translator training, the development of unique Mandinka writing systems, among others. My research participants were enthused to participate in the study, affirming that it was the first time ever a researcher approached them to have an idea about the dynamics of their work and include their findings in a thesis—an assertion that sustained the momentum throughout the journey.

This study explores the problems facing the African continent in general and Gambia in particular. Specifically, it examines The Gambia\'s dependence on foreign aid, as a result of the Bretton Woods Institutions and the neoliberalization of Africa, and it juxtaposes the aforementioned with microfinance, as an alternative method for fighting poverty. Empirically, this work examines the potential effectiveness of Reliance Financial Services in Gambia\'s microfinance institution who are engaged in this burgeoning enterprise and that of the VISACAS, a grassroots microfinance organization in The Gambia. / Master of Public and International Affairs

This dissertation explores, both theoretically and empirically, the role of strange farmers in the Gambia's mono-cash crop economy and analyzes the structure of strange farmer contracts within the context of rural production relations; ie. the relations of economic agents to resources of production in terms of their use and ownership rights and the relations between economic agents as principals (ie. landlords) and agents (ie. workers; strange farmers). Strange farmers, the migrant laborers who come from the West African hinterland to farm in the coastal areas of the Senegambia region due to certain transaction cost advantages, constitute a dynamic population adjustment to West Africa's spatial, unequal spread of resources. It is argued in this study that the reason "strange farming" has continued to persist is because it is flexible and adaptable to the prevailing agroclimatic conditions and endowments of the West Africa region, and to the economic changes induced by the interplay of internal (the government; technology) and external (e.g., world primary commodity markets) institutional and market forces. Detailed analysis of the strange farmer contract (a contract of "input sharing"), as contrasted with wage, fixed-rent, and sharecropping, is presented; and emphasis is placed on the "strangeness" of the strange farmers (the fact that they are non-residents of their farming areas) as the distinguishing feature of the contract. Our analysis considers how environmental and idiosyncratic factors such as information, risk, and incentive constraints impinge on agents in this environment and how alternative models of the strange farmer system explain how such problems are circumvented. The study concludes by examining the efficiency and (briefly) the equity implications of strange farming, and argues that strange farming performs the vital economic role of providing otherwise labor deficient landlords with a steady and timely supply of labor throughout the farming season and indeed circumvents the contract enforcement and shirking problems posed by a second-best environment. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

Sexturismär ett brett begrepp som mestadels förknippas med västerländska äldre män som reser till utvecklingsländer för att köpa sex. Detta har uppmärksammats sedan början av 1970-talet men på senare år har den kvinnliga sexturismen uppmärksammats allt mer i den svenska media. Studien redogör för den svenska kvinnliga sexturismen utomlands, med Gambia som fallstudie. När svensk media talar om fenomenet används förskönande beskrivningar, där kvinnornas beteender omantiseras i jämförelse med männens sexturism. Problematiseringen med detta är att två lika handlingar med samma syfte, beskrivs på två olika vis, beroende på kön. Studien redogör för hur svensk media väljer att framställa den kvinnliga sexturismen, de underliggande motiven till framställningen och slutligen hur den ensidiga framställningen påverkar Gambia socialt, kulturell och ekonomiskt. För att studien skulle bli genomförbar har ett antal intervjuer gjorts med två journalister och en skribent som skrivit om liknande ämnen. Dessutom har fyra intervjuer gjorts med respondenter som någon gång rest eller reser till Gambia. Tidigare forskning, teoretisk referensram och empirisk material har analyserats för att ge svar på studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Resultatet av hela studien visar att svensk media framställer den kvinnliga sexturismen som något romantiskt och oskyldigt, dels för att kvinnorna själva väljer att kalla deras handlingar för romanser, dels för att samhället ser kvinnornas handlingar som mindre skadliga. Konsekvensernamed detta är att landets image påverkas negativt, vilket resulterar till att Gambia stämplas som ett oattraktivt resemål. Den kvinnliga sexturismen är inte hållba ri längden vilket leder till att Gambia stannar i en stagnationsfas.

The aim of this study is to visualize the pre-school pedagogy in The Gambia and to discuss the Gambian pre-schools ideal view on pedagogy compared to the Swedish tradition. Through an ethnographically inspired study conducted at a Gambian preschool called SBEC bilingual international school, where I used Interviews and observations as a method to gather my empirical data, I sought answers to my overall questions which was: Which are the pre-schools main visions and values? What is the Gambian society´s view on pre-school education? And what is emphasized in the classroom work? In my results I found that the vision of the pre-school was designed to give something back to the Gambian society and have an impact on the country´s future. I also found that the schools vison had a large impact on the kind of work that went on in the classrooms. The view on the pre-schools in the society varied a bit depending on which perspective that was used. Those who were active in the world of education had a different view on the importance of pre-school education than for example the government in the country. In my discussion I compare my results in relation to the Swedish pre-school tradition and among other things I found that the two countries traditions regarding pre-schools had a common factor in the focus on nurturing the children but differed quite a bit when it came to their view on the pedagogic activities and how they were implemented. / Syftet med den här studien är att visualisera förskolepedagogiken I en gambisk förskola och diskutera den förskolans ideala syn på pedagogik jämfört med med traditionen i svenska förskolor. Genom en etnografiskt inspirerad studie, genomförd på en gambisk förskola som heter SBEC bilingual school, sökte jag svar på mina övergipande frågor genom att använda intervjuer och observationer för att samla in mitt empiriska material. De övergripande frågorna var: Vilka är förskolans huvudsakliga mål och visioner? Vad har det gambiska samhället för syn på förskolleutbildning? Och vad fokuserar arbetet i klassrummet på? I mitt resultat framkom det att förskolans vision var utformad för att kunna ge något tillbaka till det gambiska samhället och kunna påverka landets framtid. Jag fann också att skolans vision hade stor inverkan på vilken sorts arbete som pågick i klassrummen. Samhällets syn på förskolan varierade beroende på vilket perspektiv som användes. De som var aktiva inom utbildningsväsendet hade en annorlunda syn på vikten av förskoleutbildning än till exempel staten i Gambia. I dikussionen jämför jag mitt resultat i relation till den svenska förskolans tradition. Jag fann bland annat att förskolans traditioner i båda länderna hade en gemensam faktor när det gäller uppfostran av barnen men en annorlunda syn på den pedagogiska verksamhet och hur den implementeras.

This case study examines the role of music and music-making for the youth in Brikama, the Gambia in terms of freedom of expression, sustainable development and social change. The study is situated within a project where young musicians with different backgrounds wrote and recorded their own songs during workshops with established musicians. The data was collected via interviews with the participants and instructors, observations and song analysis. The study uses Small’s (1998) theory of musicking to analyze the meaning of the musical events in the social context. Furthermore, it uses theories on the relationship between music and sustainability to analyze the role of music for the youth on an individual-, group- and societal level, but also on an organizational level. The study finds that on all four levels music and music-making holds many of the characteristics required for sustainable development and that it can foster resilience through creativity. However, it also shows that this requires the creation of inclusive spaces with an awareness of the cultural narrative and forces (such as limiting traditional values and gender issues) that might limit the capabilities of individuals, and the society, to reap these benefits. The study also shows how music, with its artistic characteristics, can offer pockets of freedom of expression to a certain but limited extent. Finally, the study shows how music can and should be incorporated more extensively by organizations working for sustainable development and social change, both as a tool to achieve other sustainability agendas, but also for the inherent characteristics of resilience and creativity that is found in music-making itself. / Denna fallstudie undersöker musik och musikskapandets roll för ungdomar i Brikama, Gambia, och dess relation till yttrandefrihet, hållbar utveckling och social förändring. Studien är genomförd inom ramen för ett projekt där unga musiker med olika bakgrund komponerade och spelade in sina egna låtar under workshops tillsammans med etablerade musiker. Materialet samlades in genom intervjuer med deltagarna och instruktörer, observationer och textanalys av låtarna. Studien använder sig av Smalls (1998) koncept musicking för att analysera den musikaliska situationens mening i sin sociala kontext. Dessutom används teorier om relationen mellan musik och hållbarhet för att analysera musikens roll för ungdomarna på en individuell-, grupp- och samhällsnivå, men även på en organisationsnivå. Studien visar på alla fyra nivåer att musik och musikskapande innehar många av de karaktärsdrag som krävs för hållbar utveckling och att det kan främja resiliens genom kreativitet. Dock visar studien att inkluderande sammanhang behöver skapas med medvetenhet om den kulturella kontexten. Detta för att kunna navigera de krafter (såsom negativa traditionella värderingar kring genus) som kan begränsa individers deltagande och i slutändan samhällets möjlighet att ta del av fördelarna. Studien visar också hur musik, med sina konstärliga karaktärsdrag, kan erbjuda ett visst utrymme för yttrandefrihet. Slutligen visar studien hur musik kan och bör inkorporeras till större grad av organisationer som arbetar för hållbar utveckling och social förändring, både som ett verktyg för att uppnå hållbarhetsagendor, men även för de inneboende karaktärsdragen resiliens och kreativitet som finns att hitta i själva musikskapandet.

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-34).

This study investigates young Gambians’ social and economic aspirations. It considers how young Gambians’ aspirations are shaped and negotiated, and the strategies they employ to achieve their objectives. Whilst existing research tends to view young Gambians’ social and economic advancement through a lens of international migration, this study focuses on the aspirations and strategies of those who find themselves in a state of ‘involuntary immobility’ – that is, an aspiration to migrate but the inability to do so. The study looks at how two groups of young urban Gambians from low socio-economic backgrounds pursue local livelihoods. Known as ‘beach hustlers’ and ‘chanters’, these youths take advantage of the resources of the tourism sector and of opportunities provided by information and communication technologies (ICT) in an attempt to fulfil their aspirations. Drawing on data collected from multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2013 and 2014 in Kololi, the country’s main tourism hotspot on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, and Brikama, where internet use in cybercafés has rapidly grown over the past two decades, I use the cases of ‘beach hustlers’ and ‘chanters’ (cyber hustlers) to shed light on the life-trajectories of young Gambians. I discuss how ‘beach hustlers’ take advantage of the Gambia’s booming tourism industry by engaging in diverse informal economic activities. I then consider how ‘chanters’ accumulate wealth by employing various methods and ruses in their interactions with toubabs (white westerners) through internet-mediated encounters. This study shows that the majority of young Gambians who find it increasingly difficult to migrate to the West pursue local livelihoods to fulfil their aspirations of social and economic advancement. The aspirations and strategies of the hustlers in this study are shaped and influenced by intervening social, cultural and religious obligations and expectations. The study argues that the formation of Gambian hustlers’ aspirations is the result of an interplay between familial and societal dynamics; such as generational and gender relations and reciprocal social exchange, and personal desires of upward social mobility. The study further shows that the strategies young Gambians employ are influenced by the structural constraints and opportunities that appear in specific space–time conditions. By doing so, this study contributes to the literature on the aspirations of urban youths in developing countries and the strategies they employ to achieve them, and how young people experience and respond to conditions of ‘involuntary immobility’.

Research has identified a strong correlation between HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence, yet few studies centre the experiential knowledge of HIV sero-positive women and practitioners. This thesis, based on fieldwork conducted in the Gambia, is grounded in data on HIV positive women's experiences of violence and practices of resistance, revealing context specific complexities and challenges. Data collection methods included diaries, focus groups and in-depth individual interviews with a participant group of sixty sero-positive women in six Gambian HIV Support Societies, and twenty field practitioners working in the areas of violence and HIV/AIDS. I argue in this thesis that there are intersecting underlying factors (patriarchy, gerontocracy and structural violence) that contribute to women's experiences of violence and abuse that render them vulnerable to HIV. In addition, that alongside the more visible gendered violences which intersect with HIV/AIDS. Accounts of women living with HIV revealed that stigma is discreditable and discredited attributes. It contends that stigma should be seen as an ‘everyday' practice of normalised violence, which has very harmful emotional, psychological, economic and physical effects. The research also suggests that violence against women in the context of HIV is not limited solely to male perpetrators. In the Gambia there has been limited success in the translation of women's rights agendas into concrete and effective interventions, partly due to a lack of attention to socio-cultural context and the lived experiences of HIV positive women. The thesis concludes that culturally specific, integrated health and social justice approaches are necessary, which are grounded in women's everyday practices of agency and resistance, and which in particular address the fear of dethronement (loss of power, privileges and prestige) amongst men and older members of society.