African easterly waves (AEWs) are known precursors to tropical cyclone (TC) formation, although it is not always clear which AEWs will develop and which AEWs will not. To investigate AEW evolution, this study examines novel observations from the geostationary Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) during July-September 2019. Case studies are conducted for two AEWs: one that became Hurricane Dorian, the strongest and most devastating hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, and a long-lived September AEW that did not become a TC. Lower-level moisture and flow, and the strength and spatial distribution of convective activity, differed between these two waves. By then exploring these characteristics for additional developing and non-developing AEWs, ABI observations show that developing AEWs are associated with low-level moist air ahead of the wave combined with enhanced convective activity, while non-developing AEWs tend to encounter drier air and exhibit a persistently broader structure with less-organized convection.

Recent scholarship on the renewed Sonderweg theory does not approach the debate with a comparative analysis. This thesis therefore presents a new argument looking at the influence of British and Afrikaner tensions in South Africa, culminating in the South African War of 1899-1902, and how their treatment of the various African peoples in their own colony influenced German South-West African colonial native policy and the larger social hierarchy within the settler colony. In analyzing the language of scholarly journals, magazine articles, and other publications of the period, one can see the direct influence of the Afrikaners, including South African Boers, on German South-West African settlers, and their eugenically infused discussion of Herero, Nama, and Bastards, within their new home. Furthermore, the relations between the German settlers and the British settlers and colonial officials in the neighboring colony serve as a case-study of the larger rivalry between Berlin and London that would later culminate in World War I. In looking at how this British colony influenced German South-West Africa in socially, politically, economically, and scientifically, one can place this new research within the context of the renewed Sonderweg debated amongst scholars like Isabel Hull and George Steinmetz, extending the critique that Steinmetz argued in The Devil’s Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German State in Qingdao, Samoa, and South-West Africa

France is currently being faced with an increasing fury and insurrection in its former African colonies. This took many commentators by surprise. Afterall, French influence has been waning for at least two decades in the face of an increasing array of “new” players entering – what used to be considered – France’s “backyard”. Furthermore, French leaders have long expressed remorse and condemned France’s shady activities of the past. This is particularly the case for Macron who, in the name of being part of an entirely “new generation” of leaders, presents himself as an ally of African progress. How then, can we possibly understand the “anti-French sentiment” that has shaken-up the continent in recent years? This paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of France’s contested status by providing a regional case study of francophone West-Africa. Drawing on Holsti’s role theory approach and Bull’s “Great Power” and “Recognition” concepts, this study analyzes the perception of French and West-African officials to investigate how and to what extent France is being challenged by decision-makers. It finds that albeit defiance towards France appears to be less prevalent among West-African decision-makers than the general-public, it is a phenomenon of regional scale that displays a high degree of convergence and has practical ramifications on Franco-African relations. It concludes that France’s historically based claims to a privileged relation with its former colonies is increasingly being challenged by West-African decision-makers due to its difficulty to justify itself in an increasingly multipolar world.

The purposes of this study were to discover the current status of church administration of the Evangelical Churches of West Africa (ECWA) and to offer recommendations. In order to achieve these purposes, an extensive review of the professional literature dealing with church administration and management was conducted, and a questionnaire was constructed and categorized into the following broad areas of church administration: (1) church government, (2) educational leadership (3) evangelism and missions, (4) financial management, and (5) general administration. The following conclusions were drawn: 1. Management of church affaris under the four administrative church councils appears to be less than effective. 2. Professional local church leadership appears to be weak. 3. Strategies regarding recruitment of missionaries and mission finances appear weak. 4. The ECWA appears to lack both an acceptable criteria and specified groups for evaluation of theological programs. 5. Better financial management is one of ECWA's major areas of need. 6. Written personel guidelines and job descriptions are a critical need in ECWA church administration. 7. The need for effective communication may be one of the major problems facing ECWA.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / To describe the structural strains and cultural conflicts that take place when two social systems confront each other, the concept of Transitional Role was used to analyze the sociological adaptation in the social system, and the concept of Perceptual Distortion of Transitional Roles by different groups was usee to analyze the strain and conflict that continued. In order to locate, describe and analyze Transitional Roles in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the social science reserach in five categories of Husbands and Wives, Buyers and Sellers, Priests and Pastors, Administrators and Agitators and Servants and Masters was examined. In order to evaluate the Perceptual Distortion of the Transitional Roles described, the available social science reserach was compared with two samples of novels (those by West Africans and those by Europeans) about West Africa. The following were the findings: (1) Social strain and culture conflict affect both groups, West African and European. (2) Social strains exist in all the above aspects of colonial life. (3) Despite severe dual systemic strain, the colonial social system operated as one viable social system. (4) Not all social strains are resolved immediately by the creation of Transitional Roles and therefore, the historical development of Transitional Roles indicates that they continue to change. (5) Social circles formed around transitional roles and as these social circles proliferated, the basis of a new society was established. Thus a positive resolution of social strain has been located and described in the development of Transitional Roles. The findings of this study resulting from the application of Levels of Transition to culture conflict indicate that: (1) the European novelists see culture conflict as maladjustment existing with the individual African either in the form of reversion to an earlier evolutionary stage or in the form of poor imitation of British culture; and they do not see their own involvement in culture conflict; (2) the African novelists, in contrast, locate culture conflict between the various Levels of Transition or within social relationships between the numerous West African social circles, and secondarily between British and West African Transitional Roles. The findings of this study resulting from the evaluation of Perceptual Distortion suggest that (1) Transitional Role incumbents are more accurate observers than are stabilized role incumbents. (2) Perceivers observe members of their own social system of origin more accurately than they perceive a foreign social system. (3) Segregation, "Time Lag" and ideology distort perception. This analysis substantiates the proposition that novels are of limited value as sources of sociological insights unless they are compared with social science research and unless the orientation in terms of social membership of the novelist is known. The reading public in the est, to the extent that it has depended upon European novels as its source of information about West Africa, is inadequately informed. Americans who rely on this fictional material have looked at West Africa primarily through European eyes. / 2031-01-01

A study was undertaken to obtain information on farmers' knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding pesticide usage and to determine the amount of pesticide in soil and water samples collected at four cotton producing areas of Mali. The results from a survey of 24 farmers identified various concerns regarding personal and environmental safety. Despite their training, sometimes growers did not use pesticides in an appropriate manner. Highly toxic pesticides are used by farmers with insufficient personal protective equipment. Sixty soil samples and eight water samples from four cotton growing areas in Mali were scanned for detectable levels of fifty pesticides in total. Pesticides were detected in 77% of the soil samples and the main pesticides were p,p-DDT and its breakdown products, endosulfan I endosulfan II, endosulfan sulfate and profenofos. Among the pesticides detected, p,p-DDT use in the study area had not been reported during the past ten years. The most common pesticide detected in the soil samples from cotton growing areas studied was endosulfan II constituting 65% of the detections with a maximum amount of 37 ng/g. Residues detected in soil samples were below the quantification limit for the newer cotton production region of Kita and for the intermediate region of San. Eight pesticides were detected in water samples: γ-BHC (lindane), endosulfan I, endosulfan II, endosulfan sulfate, dieldrin, p,p-DDD, p,p-DDE and atrazine. All detected pesticides in water had concentrations below the quantification limit except for atrazine. Even though pesticides were found at low concentrations in ground water samples, the fact that water from these wells is used for human and animal consumption is of concern. Also, soil pesticides may be taken up by plants and passed on to other organisms feeding on those plants. Further residues studies in the cotton growing areas of Mali are in order to monitor pesticides residues in Malian soils, water and living organisms. / Master of Science

This dissertation examines border security practices in West Africa, with emphasis on the effects of practices of international intervention. The dissertation advances an understanding of borders as institutional spaces, eschewing a view of borders as geographical features alone. It leverages this view of borders to examine the everyday practices of border control, focusing in particular on the security professionals who cooperate and compete over the meaning and enactment of border security. The dissertation draws from ethnographic fieldwork in Senegal and Mauritania to advance three case studies. First, it examines Spanish police cooperation with Senegal and Mauritania on the prevention of irregular migration by sea and land routes. Second, it analyzes Mauritania’s construction of new border posts in response to migration and terrorism. Third, it looks into the adoption of biometric identification at airports and in official documents in Senegal and Mauritania. In each of these cases, the dissertation argues, everyday border security practices are framed in terms of capacity, with border control taking on the practical characteristics of statebuilding. This dissertation makes three key contributions to knowledge. First, by focusing on the quotidian social and technical aspects of borders, it provides a view into the concrete knowledge practices and organizational politics that drive border control, even if they are of complex causality. Second, this dissertation contributes to security studies a theorization of the movement of security practices and understandings between global contexts. Third, by relying on fieldwork in closed and rarely accessible contexts, it provides a view into the functioning and social relations of West African fields of security. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation examines efforts to boost border security in Senegal and Mauritania—two states on the Atlantic coast of West Africa—with emphasis on the international cooperation and knowledge transmission that emerges as part of these efforts. The dissertation argues that borders are not only lines on a map, but institutions in which security professionals compete and cooperate over questions such as who should carry out border control and how. It also argues that with security framed as a question of development and state capacity, securing borders becomes a question of statebuilding. To show this, the dissertation draws on data from interviews in law enforcement and national security agencies, embassies, and international organizations to provide a mapping of actors in the field of border security and their relations. Its empirical cases focus on joint migration patrols, border post construction, and the use of biometric identification

This thesis draws on a political economy of fertility framework and the concept of biocitizenship to analyze changing family size and family planning among women and men in northern Ghana. I draw on a variety of ethnographic sources from eight months of fieldwork conducted under the umbrella of the Navrongo Health Research Centre in 2013 and 2014 in two rural communities in Kassena-Nanakana (K-N) West District in the Upper East region. The primary questions behind this thesis are: 1. How has the desire for smaller families emerged and to what is this transformation linked? 2. What role have family planning programs played in the reduction in family size? Have they been the most important driver of the transition to smaller families? 3. What are the current ideas about family planning and contraceptives in K-N West? Are they gendered? How have they changed over time? 4. Are local views about family planning and contraceptives in K-N West in keeping with those of public health practitioners? These questions are addressed in this sandwich thesis in three papers, which have been submitted or accepted for publication. A major contribution of this thesis is its call for health programmes to pay greater attention to the social context of both women’s and men’s lives where family planning takes place. Contrary to existing public health studies, I argue that while health programming has affected fertility decline, larger social and economic shifts have been some of the most important drivers of women’s and men’s changing practices of family formation and views of contraceptives. In Kassena-Nakana West, the desire for smaller families is linked to processes such as decreasing levels of child mortality and agricultural productivity, as well as parents’ increasing focus on educating their children. In addition, the emerging concepts of responsible manhood and companionate marriage, combined with the decline of polygamy, have helped improve communication between husbands and wives about family planning. Narratives of changing family formation from Kassena-Nankana West expand understandings of biocitizenship by illustrating the important role intergenerational relationships play in the construction of “political economies of hope”. When young people adopt family planning, they not only consider the well-being of their own children and the larger community, but make the decision in the context of their aspirations for a more successful life than their parents experienced. Due to larger political-economic shifts, the majority of Kassena women and men today think family planning is beneficial; however, worries about the side effects of contraceptives remain. Women’s ongoing concerns about infertility and the stability of their marriages and men’s conditional acceptance of family planning also reveal that gender inequality persists. I argue that typical policy recommendations, which focus primarily on educating and sensitizing communities to increase the use of contraceptives are problematic in that they often focus on decreasing fertility and are not articulated within a broader, multi-sectoral agenda. Greater attention to local biologies and expanding reproductive rights and freedoms would improve existing family planning programs. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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