This dissertation deals with a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to the socio-economic relations between the Ancient Near East and East Africa during the Old Testament period. In my opinion this multidisciplinary approach by using inter alia Biblical Archaeology, History and Economics has the potential to offer various comprehensive opportunities for the analysis and discussion of such socio-economic relationships. For example, the relationship between the United Monarchy of Israel and Phoenicia involves the geopolitical, economic and other situations. In the last chapter attempts are made to integrate all the relevant dimensions in a wellfounded conclusion. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M.A. (Biblical Archaeology)

Today, librarians are confronted with new roles during the execution of their work. The emerging roles require practical and technical skills, professional competencies and ability to perform and to constantly be in touch with those emerging technologies to stay afloat. The purpose of this research was to investigate the changing roles of academic librarians at the University of Nairobi (UoN) and its constituent college libraries in the current information age so that challenges can be established and measures put in place to overcome them. The current study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study was descriptive in nature and a survey research method was adopted. Purposive sampling was used to select respondents from each of the 13 libraries. Data was collected using a questionnaire and an interview schedule. A population of 70 respondents was to be surveyed but only 54 of them responded to the questionnaire. Quantitative data was descriptively analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) while qualitative data was analysed using content analysis. The study revealed that the role of librarians at the UoN has not necessarily changed in terms of duties, responsibilities, functions and processes, but what has changed is the intensity and manner of conducting the role. The main challenge remains that of re-training of staff in the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). Therefore the study recommended training of staff in the use of ICTs, acquiring powerful servers to increase bandwidth connectivity and allocating more funds towards various activities. The study recommends that a similar research be replicated using different groups of librarians, for example those who started working when the services were already automated to find out whether they are also as challenged as their counterparts. A further research should also be carried out to investigate current jobs that exist elsewhere in the profession, such as knowledge management, ICT management in libraries, research data management and data curation. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

Les réformes des systèmes d’enseignement supérieur semblent, au Nord comme au Sud, présenter des trajectoires similaires. Alors que la littérature appréhende généralement ces transformations sous l’angle de l’imposition des prescriptions des organisations internationales et des transferts performants de politiques publiques, a fortiori dans des Etats sous régime d’aide, cette thèse en propose une lecture originale. A partir d’une étude de cas de quatre universités publiques d’Afrique de l’Est, les observations empiriques démontrent que, malgré l’existence d’une matrice commune de bonnes pratiques à adopter, les réformes dans les établissements disposent de configurations singulières, ne serait-ce que dans le processus de prise de décision ou dans la mise en œuvre de la politique dite de partage des coûts. Ce travail défend la thèse que ces résultats s’expliquent par l’indissociabilité des politiques publiques et de la trajectoire historique de la formation de l’Etat. Que ce soit la transnationalisation des politiques publiques, leurs configurations ou les mutations sociologiques dans les transferts, l’ensemble ne peut se lire qu’au regard d’une articulation entre la sociologie de l’action publique et la sociologie historique de l’Etat. / Higher education reforms in northern and southern countries seem to be characterised by similar policy processes. The transformations of higher education institutions are usually presented as an outcome of the increasing pressure of international organisations and the success of global policy transfers, especially in countries depending on foreign aid. However this dissertation aims to critically analyse these reform processes through an original and comparative framework. Basing on the case study of four public universities in East Africa, our empirical evidence demonstrates that these higher education institutions are constantly shaped by singular policy configurations, for instance in the decision-making process or during the implementation of the cost-sharing policy. We argue that this original result can be explained by a two-way relationship between public policy analysis and the state-building framework. Therefore we argue that policy processes like the success and failure of global policy transfers or the network of involved stakeholders can only be studied through the theoretical articulation of public policy analysis and the historical sociology of state formation.

L'Egypte, territoire aride, dépend essentiellement du Nil pour l'irrigation de ses terres agricoles. La variabilité temporelle de la crue du fleuve a donc pu affecter directement la dynamique de la population égyptienne. Ici, cette hypothèse est testée en étudiant la variation du climat pendant l'Egypte ancienne parallèlement à des indicateurs du mode de vie des égyptiens. La variation dans le temps du δ18Ow de l'eau du Nil est reconstituée à partir des valeurs de δ18Op du phosphate de l'apatite de momies égyptiennes. L'augmentation de +3 ‰ du δ18Ow de l'eau du Nil entre la période Prédynastique (5500BP) et la période Gréco-Romaine (2000BP) est causée par une modification des conditions de précipitation au-dessus des sources du Nil. Elle traduit soit une hausse de température proche de 2°C soit une baisse des précipitations mensuelles d'environ 140 mm. Ici, l'hypothèse d'une aridification est privilégiée : en effet des mesures de δ18Op sur des poissons du Nil permettent de calculer une température du Nil à la période Gréco-Romaine comparable à l'actuelle. Le changement climatique constaté semble avoir peu d'impact sur la civilisation égyptienne. En effet la population égyptienne s'accroît nettement pendant la période considérée et le régime alimentaire est resté fondé sur les plantes en C3, peu adaptées aux milieux arides, avec une consommation rare de poissons et de protéines animales. La réduction de la crue a sans doute été compensée par les progrès technologiques de la civilisation égyptienne (chadouf, drainage) qui ont rendu possible la mise en culture de nouvelles terres / Egypt is an arid territory, which essentially depends on the Nile river for the irrigation of its agricultural lands. The temporal variability of the river flood thus may have affected directly the dynamics of the Egyptian population. Here, this hypothesis is tested by studying the variation of the climate during Ancient Egypt concurrently to indicators of the life habits of the Egyptians. The variation with time of the δ18Ow of the Nile water is reconstructed from the δ18Op of the apatite phosphate of Egyptian mummies. The increase of +3 ‰ in the Nile water δ18Ow between the predynastic period (5500BP) and the Greco-Roman Period (2000BP) is caused by a change in the conditions of precipitation above the Nile sources. This increase can be the result of an increase in temperature of about +2 °C or of a decrease in the monthly amount of precipitation of about 140 mm. Here, the hypothesis of aridification is preferred: in effect, δ18Op measures on Nile fishes permit to infer a Nile water temperature at the Greco-Roman Period similar to the present-day one. The climatic change seems to have had little impact on the Egyptian civilization. In effect the Egyptian population increases considerably during the selected period and its diet remains funded on C3- plants, feebly adapted to arid environments, with a rare consumption of fishes or other animal protein. The decrease of the flood was admittedly compensated by the technological advances of the Egyptian civilization (shaduf, drainage) which allowed the cultivation of newly reclaimed lands

Despite an increase of biotechnical studies in third world countries, the bioinformatical side is largely lacking. In this paper we attempt to further the bioinformatical capabilities of east Af-rica. The project consisted of two teaching segments for east African doctorates, one as part of an academic workshop at ILRI, Kenya, and one in a small class at SLU, Sweden. The project also included the generation of two simple to use bioinformatical pipelines with the explicit aim to be reused by novice bioinformaticians from the very same region. The viability of the piplines were verified by generating transcriptional expression level differences for Paeni-bacillus polymyxa strain A26 and whole genome annotations for Setaria digitata. Both pipe-lines may have some merit for the collaborative effort between ILRI and SLU to annotate Eleusine coracana, a draught resilient crop, the annotation of which may save lives. The teaching material, source code for the pipelines and overall teaching impression have been included in this paper.

No description available.

L'Afrique de l'est représente un site idéal pour étudier les mécanismes à l'origine de la mise en place et du maintien d'une région en extension. Le rift est africain marque la séparation intra-continentale entre les plaques Nubie et Somalie, dans un contexte principalement tectonique dominé par l'activité de failles normales, alors qu'au niveau des rides de la Mer Rouge et d'Aden l'Arabie se détache du couple de plaques Somalie/Nubie dans un contexte principalement magmatique avec accrétion océanique. Ces trois frontières de plaques se rejoignent au niveau de la dépression Afar. Elles forment une jonction triple qui correspond à une zone de transition entre une lithosphère continentale étirée et des axes d'accrétion océaniques où la présence du point chaud sous la lithosphère a fortement influencé l'extension. À partir de mesures et de traitements géodésiques (GPS, InSAR), l'objectif de ce travail de thèse est de décrire les mouvements actuels de la surface dans cette région de l'Afrique de l'est, où trois plaques s'éloignent les unes des autres, et où les différentes frontières de plaques sont à des stades différents de rifting. L'analyse de la déformation actuelle permet de préciser la dynamique des zones d'extension à court terme, en tenant compte de leur stade d'évolution et notamment des variations de l'activité magmatique et de l'activité sismique. Ainsi trois études ont été menées à des échelles spatiales différentes. La première porte sur l'ensemble du REA (3000 km), la seconde sur la partie centrale de la dépression Afar où se localise la jonction triple (quelques centaines de km), et la troisième sur le rift d'Asal Ghoubbet à Djibouti (quelques dizaines de km). / Eastern Africa is a natural laboratory for investigating rifting and break-up. Along the East African Rift, the divergence between Nubia and Somalia plates is accommodated within a mainly tectonic framework dominated by active normal faulting. While Arabia plate moves apart from the African plate couple at the Red Sea and Aden Ridges within a mainly magmatic framework with seafloor spreading. These three plate boundaries meet in Afar Depression forming a triple junction, which correspond to a transition zone between stretched continental lithosphere and oceanic spreading axes, where the role of the mantle plume impacts is determinant. In this thesis, current deformation of the Earth's surface is monitored using geodetics data (GPS, InSAR), in the East African zone where three plates are splitting apart and where the different boundaries encompass areas in all stages of rifting. The current deformation analysis allows clarify extension zone dynamics at short term, taking into account their stage of rifting evolution and especially the variations of magmatic and/or seismic activity. Three studies were carried out at three different spatial scales. The first one considers the whole East African Rift (3000 km), the second one is about the central part of the Afar Depression where the triple junction is situated (a few hundreds of km) and the third focuses on the Asal-Ghoubbet rift in Djibouti (a few tens of km).

The subject of spirituality is descriptive, comprehensive, transformative, and interdisciplinary. This study is about the spirituality of Kikuyu PCEA (Presbyterian Church of East Africa) pastors in Nairobi. This research seeks to find expressions and meanings of Christian spirituality of the research context. Thus, the concrete aims of this research are: (1) to understand the complex spiritual/religious/cultural world of Kikuyu pastors of the Presbyterian Church in Nairobi; (2) to study biblical and historical spirituality in order to find biblical and Western-historical spiritual perspectives; (3) to have critical hermeneutical dialogue between narratives, different cultural/religious traditions, biblical/Western-historical spiritual perspectives, and African theological perspectives with a view to finding strategies for transformation of the research participants, churches in Africa, and African society at large. To achieve the aforementioned aims of this research, a research paradigm was employed which is comprised of postfoundationalism, practical theology, narrative, and social constructionism. Postfoundationalism provided theological positioning; practical theological process laid a framework of the research as the main research methodology; narratives generated essential experiences for the research; social constructionism provided a method with which to form the realities socially which would have a relevance to the context. Thick questions were formulated from the following studies: the narratives of the research participants, African (Kikuyu) cultural/religious traditions, Christianity’s influences on the research context, and the socio-economic-political phenomena of the Kenyan society. The questions were: (1) Would mission Christianity including the Presbyterian Church of East Africa continue to be an effective form of Christianity in Kenya and among the Kikuyu?; (2) What is the relationship between charismatic spirituality and the contextual spirituality of East Africa?; (3) How can spirituality shape and influence the socio-economic-political context more than it being influenced by the context?; (4) What would the biblical and historical spirituality suggest to the spiritualities of the research participants? In regards to biblical/historical spiritualities, the spiritualities of both Old and New Testament and each historical period were unique, and the spirituality of each period was developed distinctively by the needs of the time. Then the fusion of horizons between the research context and biblical/historical spiritualities turned out to be a valuable process for the making of the final strategies for transformation. The strategies for transformation reflect the essential elements of African Christian spirituality, which can be applied to the African socio-religious context beyond the scope of the current research arena. Christian spirituality in the 21st century Africa demands African expression and identity whether it means contextualisation, liberation, or reconstruction. Structures, governance, forms, and expressions of the Christianity of the past century need to be re-evaluated for the formation of authentic African Christian spirituality. African society faces tremendous challenges and pressures providing Christianity with both an unprecedented privilege and obligation to impact African society with the message of love and hope. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Several studies suggest that the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in developing countries (DCs) can help such countries achieve national development goals - especially if accompanied by appropriate government policies designed to regulate and promote the use and the diffusion of ICTs in the national context. Over the past few years 'ICT policy' has thus become something worthy of academic attention, in particular in the ambit of ICT-for-development (ICT4D) literature. Scholarly studies on the subject have so far focused however primarily on policy content, and have often been prescriptive and/or evaluative in nature. Relatively less attention has been paid instead to the processes by which ICT policy is made in DCs - a lacuna reflected also in the relative scarcity, in the realm of ICT4D literature, of detailed theoretical frameworks with which to study ICT policymaking practice in DCs. This study intends to help fill this lacuna, by proposing an innovative framework for the analysis of ICT policy processes in DCs, and subjecting such a framework to a first 'proof of concept', through its application to a particular case (ICT policymaking in Uganda). In recognition of the importance of the cognitive aspects of policy practice, the framework proposed is interpretive in nature, and is organised around three 'movements', or steps: an analysis of the linguistic and non-linguistic constructs employed by policy actors to articulate discourse on ICT policymaking; an analysis of the key discourses around ICT policy constructed by policy actors in specific settings; and an analysis of the composition and the strength of the 'alliances', or coalitions, of actors that construct and propagate specific discourses in such settings. The ultimate purpose of this type of analysis is to understand how specific discourses on, or 'versions' of the ICT policy process gain particular purchase and acceptance in given national settings, thereby providing ICT policy actors with elements for reflection on the practices they are involved in. The framework proposed is particularly innovative in that integrates elements derived from mainstream political science and policy analysis literature - thus going some way in solidifying theorization in the ambit of ICT4D research. The study draws conclusions at two levels: at case level, findings indicate that Ugandan discourse around ICT policymaking appears to be constrained by the existence of a powerful, overall political discourse that defines ICT policy as necessarily 'participative'; at the level of theory and method, findings suggest that the framework proposed appears to be a viable and useful one for research on ICT policymaking practice in DCs.

No description available.