Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study explores how selected West African war novels employ non-realist narrative modes to portray disruptions in the child’s development into adulthood. The novels considered are Chris Abani’s Song for Night (2007), Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah is Not Obliged (2006), Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation (2005) and Delia Jarrett-Macauley’s Moses, Citizen and Me (2005). These novels strain at the conventions of realism as a consequence of the attempt to represent the disruptions in child development as a result of the upheavals of war. A core proposition of the study is to present why the authors in question are obliged to employ non-realist modes in representing disrupted childhoods that reflect the social and cultural disorder attendant upon war. The dissertation also asks pertinent questions regarding the ideological effect of these narrative strategies and the effect of the particular stylistic idiosyncrasies of each of the authors in figuring childhood in postcolonial Africa. The novels in question employ surrealism, the absurd, the grotesque and magical realism, in presenting the first person narratives of children in war situations, or the reflections of adult narrators on children affected by war. This study further analyses the ways the aesthetic modes employed by these authors underscore, in particular, children’s experiences of war. Through strategic use of specific literary techniques, these authors highlight questions of vulnerability, powerlessness and violence on children, as a group that has been victimised and co-opted into violence. The study further considers how these narrative transformations in the representations of children in novels, capture transformations in ideas about childhood in postcolonial Africa.

Master of Arts - International Relations / This study examines the convergence of events, internationally and domestically, in the last decade that led to Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali challenging U.S. cotton subsidies. It outlines the political and economic context in which West African and American cotton farmers compete. It explores how the West Africans have confronted U.S. policy, why their cause has generated sympathy and interest, whether they are likely to be successful, and the implications of their campaign. The paper draws from analyses of the financial impact of U.S. cotton subsidies, documents filed with the World Trade Organization (WTO), public statements, media coverage, materials from nongovernmental organizations, and interviews with involved parties. It identifies four actors driving this initiative: the cotton farmers, the producers’ unions, the states and the international financial institutions, and their tactics: using the WTO, having many spokespeople with common messages, having powerful allies and using the media.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-76). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-76). Also available on the Internet.

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In this thesis I consider the role of music in the construction of identity among West African Canadians, focusing on musical taste and performance. Drawing on themes from participant narratives, I look at how music can maintain connections with or reference identities from home cultures. Focusing specifically on popular music, I suggest that identification with genres such as hip hop and reggae does not directly imply an identification with the African American or Afro-Caribbean cultures from which they originated, rather I point to how the music refers back to West Africa. I also look at the place of music and religious identity, discussing how performance of religious music embodies multiple registers of individual and communal identity. Traditional music and dance ensembles provide another focus, and I explore how musicians transmit cultural practices and use their profession to foreground West African elements of their identity in Canadas multicultural society.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [212]-230).

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Karen Guttieri, Letitia Lawson. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-75). Also available online.

This thesis presents a detailed description and analysis of several topics in the grammar of Bago, a Gur language spoken in the central-eastern region of Togo. It covers areas in the phonology, syntax, and semantics of the language. The first chapter provides background information about the history and culture of the Bago people prior to giving an overview of the geographical location and classification of the language, previous literature, data collection, and the methodology used in this thesis. The second chapter describes the sound system and syllable structure of the language. It also analyzes the vowel harmony and tonal patterns in Bago nouns and verbs. Chapter three gives a brief overview of the grammar of Bago, and chapter four describes number suffixes, semantics and phonological processes observed in the five classes of nouns. The fifth chapter is concerned with personal pronouns, as well as the question of how to encode reflexivity and reciprocity. A discussion of (in)definiteness encoding is presented in chapter six, which also contains a description of the demonstrative morphemes in the language. Chapter seven deals with nominal modification expressed in the language by means of adjectival roots, predicative nominals, and intransitive verbs. In chapter eight, we investigate the distribution of the copular verbs and the distinction between dynamic and stative verbs. A preliminary description and analysis of the factative and the imperfective aspects are presented in chapter nine, while the following chapter aims to describe modality and conditionality. Chapter eleven is concerned with clausal and constituent negation. The final chapter examines lexical, morphological, and syntactic causative constructions in Bago.

Inflation and output growth relationship is of interest to policymakers and researchers. In the West African Monetary Zone, the attainment of low inflation rate is considered as one of the convergence criteria for the successful implementation of monetary union in the zone. Although there has been empirical evidence that the relationship between inflation and output growth in the WAMZ is non-linear, the question yet to be answered is, “at what level is inflation detrimental to economic growth?” This paper extends the link of analysis by investigating the optimal inflation for the WAMZ countries using the quadratic approach to threshold estimation. The findings drawing from economic theory and analysis suggests that inflation rate in the WAMZ is significantly associated with lower growth only after it reaches 12.86 percent. The result further indicates that there are significant differences in the inflation threshold levels in the WAMZ countries. The findings of this research are not surprising given the institutional features and structure of the different countries in the zone. The findings of the research suggest that monetary authorities in the WAMZ countries could accommodate inflation rate up to the threshold level, even when that is higher than what is currently being targeted in the zone, so as not to stifle growth in the area. Also, although the WAMZ countries belong to the same geographical area, which could enhance group formation; there could be other sources of heterogeneity like different political, legal, economic, and national policies that drive individual growth processes in the zone. / Central Bank of Nigeria