This thesis brings together two important developments in contemporary geography; firstly, the recognition of the need to write critical histories of geographical thought and, particularly, the relationship between modern geography and European imperialism, and secondly, the attempt by feminist geographers to countervail the absence of women in these histories. Drawing on recent innovative attempts by geographers to construct alternative, contextual perspectives in (re)writing histories of geographical thought, the thesis analyzes the travel narratives of British women travellers in West Africa between 1840 and 1915. Recent attempts by feminists to include women in histories of geography and imperialism have, all too often, failed to analyze critically the role of women in imperial culture, or have reproduced gender dichotomies in their analysis. This thesis seeks to overcome these problems in three ways. Firstly, it explores the contributions of women travellers to imperial culture, primarily through their production of popular geographies. Secondly, it analyzes the ways in which these women were empowered in the imperial context by virtue of both race and class. Thirdly, it frames the accounts of each woman within the specific spatial and temporal context of their journeys in order to explore the complexities in the popular geographies they produced. The thesis illustrates that while gender was an important factor in the construction of images in the travel narratives of Victorian women travellers, this cannot be divorced from the wider context of their journey, nor from other elements in power relations based on difference such as race and class. Using this framework, the study explores in detail the production of popular geographies of the landscapes and peoples of West Africa by British women travellers, and formulates an argument on how women and their experiences can be included in histories of geographical thought.

This multi-case study examined the experiences of five former students who attended madrasas in Mali between 1980 and 2009. These students were university graduates and worked in Bamako, Mali, at the time of data collection. With these five participants, I explored the religious, personal, social, educational, and professional effects of madrasa education on students, and I explored their perspectives about the curriculum, teaching, role, and future of madrasas in Mali, a Muslim majority country in West Africa. I collected research data through 15 semi-structured interviews and document review. The findings revealed that the participants perceived madrasas as needed in Mali for educating future Muslim religious leaders and scholars who understand the contemporary world and master Arabic, an essential language for Islamic scholarship and religious rituals. The participants argued that madrasa education connects Mali to its intellectual heritage, all of which was written in Arabic prior to French colonization. They equally stated that madrasa education enabled them to observe Islamic teachings in all aspects of their life and to know these teachings better than the average Malian Muslim. They were thus able to guide their family members, their coworkers, and their neighbours in religious matters. The findings also showed that the participants had strong foundations in Islamic subjects and Arabic. However, for lack of fluency in French or competencies in modern subjects, some participants faced difficulties in terms of higher education and career. Hence, the participants appreciated that the Malian government designed a new curriculum in 2003 to improve madrasa students’ fluency in French and competencies in modern subjects. This new curriculum gave students the opportunity to study at Malian public universities and enter the job market easier than before. However, the participants lamented that the new curriculum neglected Islamic subjects and Arabic. Neglecting these subjects, in participants’ views, threatens the religious mission of madrasas. To sustain madrasas in Mali for future generations, the participants thought that state officials and madrasas union need to cooperate to design a curriculum that balances Islamic subjects and Arabic with modern subjects and French; madrasa owners must pay teachers a good salary; teachers must teach with devotion; parents must supervise children’s education; and students must be advised about the importance of madrasas, university education, and careers. Based on these findings, I recommended that Malian state officials support madrasas because the role madrasas play in the Malian education sector cannot be substituted with other types of schools. I also proposed that curriculum designers structure the madrasa curriculum to balance Islamic subjects and Arabic with modern subjects and French. Structuring the curriculum as such makes madrasas respond well to the educational needs of students including religious needs and career aspirations. Hence, the madrasa continues to play its roles in Malian society. / Graduate

No / The primary objective of this book is to provide an analytical understanding of the nature, dynamics and complexity of the politics of economic regionalism through the prism of Sierra Leone in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The book also discusses the following issues: the evolution of economic regionalism in West Africa and the conceptual framework for analysis; the expansion of the economic regionalism; developments within the West Africa sub-region with that of the transformation of the global economy and international political system; political, economic and security developments within ECOWAS; and the civil war in Sierra Leone.

In this thesis, I study the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' (FAO) depiction of West African forests in its Forestry Outlook Study for Africa: Subregional Report, West Africa, which attempts to describe all of West Africa's forests simultaneously. The FAO is a large international development agency that produces agricultural and environmental information for individual states and other international agencies, such as the World Bank. The FAO's forestry studies pander to Western fears of environmental degradation, assumptions of African backwardness, and the assumed "rational" behavior of private investors in a free market by depicting West African forests as rapidly, uniformly, and irreparably degrading due to "irrational" resource management. The FAO presents privatization as a natural goal of international development, and requisite for "rational" land use. Unless private investors are given control of forests, the FAO implies, "irrational" deforestation will destroy West African forests. The FAO has thus incorporated Western fears about the environment into their neoliberal economic agenda. Academics have challenged the FAO's description of West African forests and have found that, in many cases, the FAO's attempts to provide generalizations and recommendations over large regions do not adequately reflect the economic and geographical diversity of the region. Current academic literature challenges the representation of West Africa, and the environmental discourse of international development. I find that even critics of environmental discourse do not adequately challenge the underlying neoliberal assumptions that motivate the FAO. I propose that critics must further distance themselves from the assumptions inherent to international development by incorporating economic philosophy into their critique. / Master of Arts

No description available.

The African continent is infamous for its lawlessness, violence, poverty, corruption, underdevelopment, and militancy. These factors, such as corruption and underdevelopment, have been a direct result of mismanagement and inept leadership since independence. Through these factors, opposition groups formed to contest such actions. While such opposition was seen through peaceful measures, some groups have been led to the use of violence and militancy as a means of opposing the status quo. While there are opposition groups in every nation, the primary focus of this thesis is upon the reason for the development of opposition groups that have led to the active use of violence, force, and other extreme to measures to achieve their goals. This thesis seeks to demonstrate how peaceful opposition failed to be effective because of governmental policies and action taken against these differing groups. The first chapter develops the use of violence by militant groups in Nigeria such as MEND in the oil-producing region of Niger Delta, where oil profits and corruption have Jed to armed conflict between militants and government forces. Chapter two analyzes the development of the Tuareg militancy in the African Sahel and Maghreb, where a nomadic pastoralist minority have sought autonomy for over a century. The last chapter analyzes the breakdown of order and the emergence of civil war in the Cote d'Ivoire. With all three case studies, the paper emphasizes and analyzes how government policies and actions taken against the opposition has resulted in an extreme alienation of each group, which would lead to the use of violence to rectify past transgressions.

This study is about peace building in Sierra Leone, during and after the civil war (1991-2002). The initial hypothesis was that the impact of externally driven peace building activities was reduced because of insufficient attention to local culture and priorities. This hypothesis was underpinned by a number of assumptions based on the author’s personal experience and the views of Sierra Leoneans met in the early post-war period.

Over the past century, Pentecostalism has risen from obscurity to ascendancy in global Christianity. This ascendancy appears prominently in West Africa where Neo-Pentecostalism has transformed the religious landscape. Very few studies have examined the effects of the movement in the Francophone countries of Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Benin, and Togo. Over the past two decades, Baptists in these countries have undergone a transformation. This transformation differs fundamentally from the charismatization of other mainline churches. Many denominations created space within the churches for Neo-Pentecostalism while maintaining their historical mission and foundations. In contrast, Baptists did not create space for Neo-Pentecostalism, but embraced and adopted the Neo-Pentecostal ethos; Baptists pentecostalized. This qualitative study examines this pentecostalization phenomenon among Baptists with particular attention on Togo. Most of the interviews were conducted in 2011. In addition, I draw on twenty-five years of experience with a Baptist missions agency in Francophone West Africa. Following an explanation of the research methodology and the historical context, I survey Pentecostal identity in Africa and identify five distinctive emphases of West African Pentecostalism--ethos, doctrine, worship, charismatic manifestations, and organization. The first core section treats the nature of pentecostalization. I identify five typical responses by churches; the characteristic practices of pentecostalized Baptists; three privileged traits--experience, charismatic manifestations, and warfare prayer; the influences on pentecostalization; and five effects of pentecostalization in terms of emphases, message, identity, polity, and church planting model. The second core section treats the contextual factors during three eras. In the first era, Baptists were exposed to Neo-Pentecostalism because of social and religious changes. In the second era, Neo-Pentecostalism gained a foothold because Baptists were ill-prepared for the movement. In the third era, Baptists pentecostalized because of shifting priorities during a critical transition. The third core section treats the appeal of Neo-Pentecostalism for Baptists. Neo-Pentecostalism secured deep roots among Baptists because it engages the African worldview, contemporizes well-being, reframes problem-solving, and promotes religious fervency. The final section of the dissertation summarizes the findings, suggests six implications of the analysis, proposes a response to the phenomenon, and offers avenues for future research.

<p>The pictorial language of the Swedish children is characterized by the idea that a “good” drawing should be in the right perspective and as photographically realistic as possible. This is a study about the pictorial language of the children in the Gambia and Senegal. Is the pictorial language different with the children living in a culture that has a stronger tradition of spoken word and visual communication than the children living in the western civilisation?</p><p>With the help of different theories concerning children’s creating of art, this study is trying to sort out the differences. It is also explaining about different theories when it comes to development stages in the children’s drawings and how the culture, tradition and conventions influence both the pictorial grammar and the ideal image.</p><p>The study is based on drawings collected in schools in The Gambia and Senegal and the drawings are analysed with the help of theories in Karin Aronssons “Barns världar – barns bilder”.</p><p>The study is also based on observations and interviews with children and teachers in a school in the Gambia.</p>

This dissertation critically examines how U.S. print media sought to represent the realities of decolonizing and newly independent countries in West Africa by focusing on pivotal events and charismatic leaders from the “non” vote in Guinea in 1958 to the radical appeal of Amilcar Cabral in Guinea-Bissau in 1973. The framing and agenda setting of mainstream media coverage turned leaders and events into metonyms not only for peoples and nations but also for Africa and Africans as a whole. However, the complexities of West Africa, such as political rivalry in the Congo or civil war in Nigeria, troubled such representations. Thus this dissertation tracks the widening of coverage and opening up of representations in African American and New Left print media in a time of global unrest as well as Cold War.