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According to Domowitz (1992), the Agni women of Cote d'Ivoire assign proverbs and aphorisms as names to wax-dyed cloth. Women then use the imagery and associated proverbs behind cloth names to send non-verbal messages they would otherwise be unable to express publicly. The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to investigate wax-dyed cloth names including their underlying meanings and uses given by women in Cote d'Ivoire and Togo; and second, to investigate how these names are acquired in French by women who have no formal education. Qualitative results revealed that women in these two countries are very motivated to learn cloth names. New undocumented names and their underlying meanings were also found. Some of these meanings were found to be educational; others are used to maintain status or to clarify power relationships. At the same time, quantitative results indicated that knowledge and use of cloth names in both communities studied is in decline.

This thesis analyses conflict dynamics in West Africa and assesses the role of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a security organisation in its response to armed conflict. In so doing, it argues that conventional approaches misinterpret key feature of the civil wars in the “Greater Mano River Area” which includes Liberia, Sierra Leone and C??te d’Ivoire. It demonstrates that the progression and spread of conflict is engendered primarily by transversal political structures. The thesis utilises a critical international society approach to consider patterns of security and insecurity across the sub-region of West Africa. However, rather than accepting that West African politics operates within a single, comprehensive international society, it argues instead that it should be understood at two levels. One level is state-centric international society, where West African inter-state relations can largely be explained according to existing constructivist paradigms. At the second level is “transversal” society that cuts across state borders, generating a regional, normative structure that prescribes and constrains behaviour within and between communities outside of the international society framework. The thesis proceeds in two parts. In the first section it works towards an understanding of the transversal politics of regional conflict in the Greater Mano River Area. Conflict is nominally internal, and centralised state authority is the object of both attack and transformation. However, a close examination of civil violence in Liberia, Sierra Leone and C??te d’Ivoire reveals that it cannot be completely understood without recognising the non-state structures of authority and domination that disrupt the traditional domestic/international divide. The transversal communities generated by conflict create a regional cycle of violence that is resistant to efforts made to resolve it. The second section of the thesis is concerned with the ability of ECOWAS to foster durable peace. As West Africa’s key regional organisation, ECOWAS would seem well-placed to respond to regional conflict. It is well-integrated, has significant normative legitimacy and has developed sophisticated security mechanisms. Critically however, as it was created within inter-state international society, ECOWAS is limited by its assumption that states are and should remain unitary actors. Its failure ultimately lies in its inability to respond to the alternative political contours of transversal communities.

Thesis (M.A.)--California State University, Long Beach, 2007. / Adviser: Linda N. Maram. Includes bibliographical references.

Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam. / Met samenvatting in het Nederlands.

Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam. / Met lit. opg. - Met samenvatting in het Nederlands en Semai.