Faculty Reports Randall Cantrell – Housing and Community Development in Niamey and Niger ...... 12 Susan Cooksey – UF Faculty and Alumni at ACASA in Ghana...... 13 Elizabeth DeVos – Emergency Medicine Education in Africa ...... 14 Sebastian Elischer – Reflections on the Africa Yearbook ...... 15 James Essegbey – Documenting Animere ...... 16 Nancy Rose Hunt – History, Theory and the Congo...... 17 Abdoulaye Kane – Hometown Associations and Development in the Senegal River Valley ...... 18 Sarah McKune – Improving Nutrition in Children in Burkina Faso ...... 19 Michael Morris – Empowering Entrepreneurs in South Africa ...... 20 Marit ØstebØ – A Model for Gender Equality and Sustainable Development ...... 21 Terje ØstebØ – Religion, Ethnicity, and Conflict in the Horn of Africa ...... 22 Daniel Reboussin – Mountain Gorilla Exhibit Highlights Wildlife Conservation Manuscripts ...... 23 Benjamin Soares – Islam and Muslim Societies in Africa ...... 24 Leonardo VillalÓn – Student Activism and Religious Movements in Sahelian Universities ...... 25 Olivier Walther – Mapping Borders and Cities in West Africa ...... 26

Student Reports Benjamin Burgen – The Economics of Migration in Small Town Senegal ...... 28 Jessica Casmir – Chronic Disease among Informal Caregivers in KwaZulu-Natal ...... 29 Awa Doucoure – The New Public Policy of Higher Education Reform in Senegal ...... 30 Daniel Eizenga – Electoral Authoritarianism in the Francophone Sahel ...... 31 MAX Gelber – Plenty of Fish in the Sea? Shark Fishing and the Fin Trade in Ghana...... 32 Victoria Gorham – State, Society, and Nation-Building in Tanzania ...... 33 Joshua Karg – The Development of Women’s Football in Nigeria ...... 34 Benjamin Lowe – Influences on Fisher Adaptations to Climate Change on Lake Tanganyika ...... 35 Sheila Maingi – Combating Gender-based Violence through Economic Empowerment ...... 36 Fezile Mtsetfwa – Savanna Conservation in the Face of Climate and Land Use Changes ...... 37 Martin Nwodo – Sustainable Development of the Built Environment in Africa ...... 38 Moses Nyago – Ugandan Private Sector Firms, REDD+ and Corporate Social Responsibility ...... 39 Felicity Tackey-Otoo – A Historical Case Study of Tema, Ghana ...... 40 Denzel Williams – Choreography and Dance in Conakry, Guinea ...... 41

Select 2017 Barazas ...... 42 African studies quarterlY ...... 43 Yoruba Studies Review ...... 44 african business update ...... 45 Flas Fellowships ...... 46 Thanks to Our Donors ...... 47 Support Graduate Student Research on Africa ...... 48

2 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 ABOUT THE CENTER

One of the nation’s premier institutions for teaching and research about Africa

Founded in 1964, the Center for African Studies at UF has been continuously designated a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center for Africa for over 30 years. It is currently one of only 10 such centers nationally, and the only Africa NRC located in a sub-tropical zone. Title VI funding to CAS supports research, teaching, outreach, and the development of international linkages in Africa.

The Center has over 100 affiliated teaching and research faculty in all of the core disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, as well as in agriculture, business, engineering, education, fine arts, natural resources and environment, journalism and mass communications, law, tourism, and natural sciences. Graduate study on African issues may be pursued in any of these fields. Center faculty maintain ties with universities across the African continent, including institutions in Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The Center’s innovative and influential on-line journal, theAfrican Studies Quarterly, is the first fully peer-reviewed electronic journal devoted to the field. ASQ plays an important and largely unique role in facilitating the publication of research on and from Africa, and offers invaluable professional training for UF graduate students who serve on its editorial board.

Graduate study of Africa at UF

Graduate study with a focus on Africa can be carried out in virtually every graduate or professional program across the university. Prospective students are encouraged to consult the websites of the individual programs for admissions procedures and criteria. Students in any graduate program at UF have the option of pursuing a Graduate Certificate in African Studies. We also encourage them to consult the Center’s website and to contact us when they submit their applications.

Complementing formal coursework, a regular and dynamic series of lectures, conferences and other activities open to all interested graduate students provide rich opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange and discussion about Africa. Most significantly, a number of dynamic CAS-sponsored interdisciplinary working groups organize speakers and events that bring together faculty and graduate students with shared interests, providing students with unique opportunities for research and professional development.

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 3 FROM THE DIRECTOR brenda chalfin these activities, are the wide-ranging research address numerous topics across the continent It’s been another exciting year at engagements of Center for African Studies and spanning numerous disciplines and research the University of Florida’s Center faculty and affiliated graduate and undergraduate methods: nationalism and political reform in for African Studies. Our calendar is full students. Demonstrating sustained investment Tanzania, electoral politics in Chad, migration of events, visits from African scholars, new in knowledge-building and dissemination, CAS and development in Senegal, climate change and partnerships, and on-going discussions and faculty contribute to scholarly and policy- land-use in Swaziland, combating gender-based exchanges about African issues across the debates and on-the-ground interventions. in South Africa, the built environment in Ghana, continent and the wider world. This report highlights a selection of the many and corporate social responsibility in Uganda. CAS is based UF’s College of Liberal Arts and UF faculty involved in the study of Africa. Graduate students associated with CAS benefit Sciences. Our ties and commitments extend Numbering over 100, UF faculty affiliated with from the generous Jeanne & Hunt Davis and across the UF campus and include the College CAS regularly garner national and international Madelyn Lockhart Endowments supporting pre- of Education, College of Design, Construction recognition for their research efforts. They dissertation field research. Our PhD students and Planning, College of the Arts, College of publish in top-ranked journals, share findings at earn prestigious national grants and awards Journalism, College of Agriculture and Life major conferences, brief policy-makers, work and fellowships such as Fulbright, Fulbright Sciences, College of Public Health and Health closely with African institutions and colleagues, Hays, National Science Foundation, National Professions, Veterinary Medicine, and UF Health. all while actively bringing their research and Geographic, and Boren fellowships. The Center’s weekly Baraza, annual conferences, collaborations into classrooms and coursework UF undergraduates also participate in working groups, and student workshops attest to on campus. The interests and expertise of hands-on research in Africa, often working our many cross-cutting concerns. Spanning from CAS faculty is marked by both breadth and side-by-side faculty and graduate students. Design to Infectious Disease, Soil Science to interdisciplinary synergies. The Sahel, Horn of These opportunities are made possible by Political Science, Architecture to Environmental Africa, South Africa, West Africa, and Central Research Tutorial Abroad program, which Health, Literature to Literacy, Climate Change Africa/Great Lakes Region are recurring supports faculty-led research experiences in to Comic Art, CAS programming thrives on areas of research engagement. As the projects Africa dedicated to experiential learning for UF’s collaboration across the university and the input showcased in this report demonstrate, thematic talented undergraduate population. CAS also of Africa-based researchers and institutional emphases include Religion, Politics and State- receives dedicated support for undergraduate networks. Marking our long-standing place at UF, Processes, Food Security and Health, Migration research from the College of Liberal Arts and a historical marker commemorating over 50 years and Development, Environment and Ecology, Science and UF’s International Center. In the of African Studies at UF was installed on the Languages and Humanities. Indicative of UF’s past year, undergraduate students accompanied Grinter lawn in January 2018. recognition of CAS faculty contributions, as UF Linguistics professor James Essegbey to Among this year’s programming highlights the university goes through a major expansion Ghana to document the endangered language was the weeklong visit of Ghanaian performance of faculty ranks, the recruitment of Africanists of Animere in the Ghana-Togo Mountain area. artist, Elisabeth Efua Sutherland. CAS also helped continues apace. We are welcoming new Africa- Students in the School of Theatre and Dance sponsor a symposium organized by UF Library specialists in Political Science, Anthropology, accompanied senior lecturer Mohamed DaCosta on the latest trends in primate research and Global Health, and Criminology and look to Conakry, Guinea. University Scholar and habitat conservation in Central Africa featuring forward to their participation in the life of the history major Josh Karg traveled to Nigeria with the library’s Campbell collection and the Dian Center. UF History professor Susan O’Brien to study Fossey Gorilla Fund. The Center hosted the Like our faculty, the many students – both sports and politics. Their research findings and Southeast Africanist Network (SEAN-SERSAS) graduate and undergraduate - affiliated with the life-changing personal experiences that came annual conference bringing scholars and students CAS are also actively engaged in Africa- along with them are recounted in the reports from colleges and universities across the region to focused research. Some students work with the that follow. our campus. The active schedule of CAS’s Text- impressive collections of African materials on Building on past success, undergraduate Image working group included the 2018 Carter the UF campus, such as the substantial Africana research programs are in the works for Summer Conference focusing on the Papa Mfumu’eto library and holdings at the Harn and Florida 2018 with plans for research tutorials in Senegal, Congo comics collection. Covering a wide-array Museum of Natural History. Others make the Morocco, Rwanda and Kenya. In the meantime, of themes and involving speakers from the US most of opportunities for research and study with CAS support, UF undergraduates studying and abroad, the Center’s numerous Baraza talks on the African continent, whether for short- abroad in Ethiopia with Anthropology associate stimulated discussion and raised new questions term study abroad or longer term in the pursuit professor Steven Brandt are capping off their from both seasoned scholars and a diverse of knowledge and skills toward masters and Archeological Field School with laboratory audience of students and community members. doctoral degrees. This year’s report showcases analysis at the National Museum in Addis Bringing depth and significance to all of an array of student research experiences. They Ababa. This is all in addition to the many

4 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 undergraduate study abroad opportunities in et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales Office of the Provost. Numerous individual donors Africa offered by UF, including semester, summer et le Développement Local) in Niger. Based support our activities and help us prepare scholars and multi-week programs in Ethiopia, Kenya, on many ties and collaboration across UF and researchers who have deep understanding of Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, faculty and departments, this year we launched and commitment to African cultures, societies, and Swaziland, Tanzania, and Uganda. CAS associate a formal partnership with the University of environments. CAS maintains a broad network of director Todd Leedy takes students on a 3-week Ghana. Bridging the gap between academe and alumni who extend the impact of our educational trip to South Africa on alternate summers. policy, CAS is involved in collaborations with endeavors and remain a central source of support. Drawing on associate professor Brian Child’s long Organization for Economic Cooperation and experience working in parks across the region, the Development (OECD) Sahel and West Africa Please contact us if you have any questions about Geography Department is launching a new set of Club through the research endeavors of visiting the Center for Africa Studies at UF or would like to summer courses based at South Africa’s Kruger faculty member, Olivier Walther. Likewise, share news or updates. I invite you to subscribe to National Park. All of these programs attest to the Center regularly invites speakers from our weekly news bulletins and social media accounts: the value of field-based learning for UF students numerous governmental and non-governmental [email protected] whatever their major. agencies, from the International Crisis Group to Twitter: @africa_uf Contributing to CAS research strengths and AFRICOM. Website: africa.ufl.edu deepening our student and faculty engagement The success of these partnerships and Facebook: www.facebook.com/UFAfricanStudies with African issues, African language study is activities rely on the involvement of the many African Business Update: [email protected] a core element of the CAS program. This year Working Groups based at CAS. Bringing together we celebrated 50 years of African Languages at faculty, students, and experts from beyond UF, Brenda Chalfin UF. We have a dedicated faculty with expertise thematic clusters include Social Change and Director of UF Center for African Studies in African languages, linguistics, and literatures Development, Natural Resource Management, Professor of Anthropology cutting across multiple academic departments and Architecture in Africa, Text/Image Studies, disciplines. During the academic year we regularly Migration and Mobility, the Sahel Research offer Akan, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, Wolof, Group, Africa and China, and Islam in Africa. Yoruba, and Zulu through UF’s Department of Generating academic publications, research Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (LLC). UF’s collaborations, and invaluable professional strength in African languages contribute to its networks, each Working Group regularly standing as the host institution for the federally- hosts conferences, workshops, and research- funded African Flagship Languages Initiative sharing sessions open to the entirety of the UF (AFLI). Based at CAS, this 8-week intensive community. summer language program serves students Adding to our impacts well beyond our from academic institutions across the country, campus, this year we launched a digital format providing immersive instruction in six African monthly electronic African Business Update languages in addition to French and Portuguese. focusing on commerce, technology and CAS research commitments extend to its innovation in Africa’s ten largest economies. support for Masters in Development Practice Electronically distributed to an extensive (MDP) program, jointly sponsored with the subscriber base, it makes the latest news about Center for Latin American Studies. MDP business conditions and opportunities across the admitted its eighth class in 2017. Rising numbers continent widely available. As feature elsewhere of students are involved in development efforts in this report, we are pleased to also celebrate 20 in Africa and/or come from the continent. As years of publishing the first open-access journal part of their degree, MDP students are complete in its field, theAfrican Studies Quarterly. summer practicums involving research and hands- To help accomplish all of this, we are pleased on engagement with development organizations to acknowledge the support we receive from and issues. This report showcases the experiences various sources. Most notably, one of only ten of two MDP students who are actively involved in the country, CAS was again recognized as a in the life of the center. Title VI National Resource Center for African All of these endeavors build on partnerships Studies for 2014-2018. The grant funding that with African and Africa-focused institutions and comes with his award sustains many of our colleagues. We sustain a long-standing exchange programs and student learning through Foreign program with Tanzania’s University of Dar es Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships Salaam and host UDSM scholars for extended dedicated to African language study. We are also stays each year while UF students study at Dar. extremely grateful for the on-going support for Photo: Prof. Kodzo Gavua, Dean of Faculty of Arts, University of Ghana and CAS Director Brenda Chalfin, Plaza of the Americas. Other African partners are Uganda’s Makerere CAS from the University of Florida’s College of University of Florida. November 2017. Photo courtesy of Mustapha University, West Africa Research Center (WARC) Liberal Arts and Sciences, Office of Research, Mohamed. in Senegal, LASDEL (Laboratoire d’Etudes International Center, Graduate School, and

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 5 Historical MArker Dedication

On Friday January 12, the Center for African Studies celebrated the unveiling of the Historical Marker located on Grinter Lawn. Despite the rain, the event drew a large crowd that gathered around the historical marker to watch it be unveiled by Brenda Chalfin, Todd Leedy, and Hunt Davis. The marker was made in collaboration, with Nina Stoyan- Rosensweig to thank for the idea, Hunt Davis and Todd Leedy to thank for the text, and Joe Kays of research communications responsible for overseeing the production and installation.

6 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Program in african Language (PAL) at Fifty

Charles Bwenge

The effort to establish African the US participated in a 8-week advanced PAL has cooperated and collaborated language programs began with language and cultural immersion summer well with other programs to advance the very inception of the Center program in Nigeria. The same strength has the teaching and researching in African for African Studies (CAS) in 1964. enabled UF each year since 2011 to host languages, literature, cultures as well as It solidified further with the elevation the African Flagship Languages Initiative language pedagogy. It is one the founding of the Center to a full-fledged Title VI (AFLI) domestic intensive summer members of the Southeastern African federally funded graduate level program in program that prepares Boren fellows and Languages & Literature Forum (SEALLF). 1976. It reached a further elevation with scholars for their overseas program. In ad- PAL has continued to be an active partner the establishment of the Department of dition to Boren fellows and scholars, AFLI of African Language Teachers Association African & Asian Languages and Literatures also serves FLAS Fellows. As of summer (ALTA). (AALL) in 1982 in which African languages 2017, some 265 students from various US Celebrating 50 years would not happen were taught until 2008 when the University universities studied African languages at without our great students (past and cur- restructured its regionally-based language AFLI. rent) who have brought in the program departments to create the Department of Through the CAS Outreach program, their enormous interest, curiosity, and Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (LLC). PAL also introduced African language hardworking; our great CAS Directors over The Program in African Languages and culture – Swahili - to area high school these years as well as AALL/LLC Chairs (PAL) grew from one-language (Swahili) in students through the JAMBO summer for their unquestionable tremendous sup- 1967 to a three-languages (Swahili, Arabic, program (2005-2015). A total of 170 port, and the great team of instructional & Yoruba) in 1982, and fourth added students from various high schools in staff both faculty and graduate student (Akan) by the late 1980s. UF then offered Alachua County participated in the pro- teaching assistants who have brought in the Shona throughout the 1990s, with Amharic gram. Beginning in 2017, with support program unwavering commitment and pro- and Xhosa subsequently added then fol- from the Center for African Studies, fessionalism. An anniversary like this one lowed by Wolof in 2003. PAL extended beginning Swahili (SWA is a moment for meditation and reflection. Today as we celebrate 50 years of its 1130/1131) courses to nearby Santa Fe The PAL 50th anniversary, therefore, pro- existence, PAL is one of the most com- College. Additionally, partnering with SFC’s vides us an opportunity to envision a bright prehensive and dynamic programs in the College for Kids program, we initiated a future, a future of sustainable growth. US with a total of seven languages (Akan, new summer program for middle school Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, Wolof, Yoruba, students in Alachua County – Around Africa Charles Bwenge is coordinator of the Program in and Zulu). Each is offered at three levels of in Eight Days - introducing them to the African Languages and senior lecturer in the Department proficiency (i.e., beginning, intermediate, basics of Africa’s cultural, natural, and lin- of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. and advanced), coordinated by an African guistic landscapes. 15 students participated language specialist, and taught by profes- in the first summer. sionally trained, experienced and dedicated staff that include tenured and non-tenured faculty as well as graduate teaching assistants. Some of our GTAs have gone on to university teaching positions and depart- mental/program leadership in the US as well as in Africa. PAL’s strength has been crucial element part of UF’s designation as both a National Resource Center (NRC) and recipient of Foreign Language & Area Study (FLAS) Fellowships. The program’s strength also saw UF awarded a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) for Yoruba over three consecutive cycles (2005-2007; 2008- 2011; and 2013-2016) during which over 100 students from various universities in

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 7 asq at twenty

Todd Leedy

In 2017 the African Studies have submissions? And could we get everything it was about the technology. We wanted it to be Quarterly celebrated 20 years done on time to make a quarterly deadline?” low bandwidth for accessibility. Even in the U.S. of publication. Founded as the first One strategy to more quickly raise the profile of internet was still through dial up…our African open access journal in African Studies, ASQ the young journal would be through production colleagues generally only had dial up access paying remains committed to the timely publication of targeted special issues. The first (Vol. 1:3) - by the minute.” Today, abstracts remain available of peer-reviewed research on Africa. Attuned “Crisis in the Great Lakes” - featured pieces by in HTML to avoid excess data consumption for to the possibilities that an explosive growth in Rene Lemarchand, Thomas Turner, Will Reno, those using cellular modems. After twenty years, web-based applications might bring to academic and Tony Waters. ASQ is still available free of charge to anyone publishing in the mid-nineties, several graduate A multi-disciplinary focus probably com- with a web connection. We maintain this “gold students approached CAS Director Michael pounded the early growing pains faced by any standard” of open access on the front end as well Chege with an idea that many thought unrealistic new journal. Perhaps less anticipated however, - authors are never charged to publish in ASQ. at the time: publishing a fully online multi- many scholars remained reluctant to publish in Over the first 20 years, ASQ published with a disciplinary journal that could be accessed for an online-only medium despite ASQ’s standing wide range of scholars, many well-known to the free by anyone with a web connection. as a fully peer-reviewed and indexed journal. African Studies community, such as Korwa Adar, Chege took this idea forward to the Dean What seems ubiquitous as we approach 2020 Florence Bernault, Mbye Cham, Gracia Clark, of UF College of Liberal Arts & Sciences who really did challenge the academic publishing Joost Fontein, Karen Hansen, Goran Hyden, agreed to provide office space, computing status quo in the last years of the 20th century. Abiola Irele, Sean Jacobs, John Janzen, support and a half-time graduate assistantship. Relatively small numbers of unsolicited submis- Lauren MacLean, D.A. Masolo, Ali Mazrui, Twenty years later, we remain immensely grateful sions created an editorial culture of working very Moses Ochonu, Elliot Skinner, Scott Taylor, for continuing support from the College of closely, and at times patiently, with some authors Aili Tripp, and Kwasi Wiredu. Today, scholars Liberal Arts & Sciences. The founding editorial to bring their work to a publishable standard. based at institutions in Africa comprise some 60 staff consisted of Chege as editor, supported by This culture flourished under subsequent edi- (yes, sixty!) percent of ASQ’s published authors fellow political science prof Errol Henderson tors Leonardo Villalón, then Hunt Davis, and each year. and CAS office manager Carol Lauriault who continues still despite dramatic increases in rates As ASQ moves into its third decade with a supplied her red-ink expertise at the copyedit of submission. new editorial board structure, one of the con- stage. Christopher Johnson and Richard Marcus For more than a decade, ASQ appeared in tinued benefits of housing a journal at a Center became the first managing editors, supported HTML format only. The transition to an increas- with such a long history of producing a broad by other graduate students (Kristin Jacobson, ingly popular PDF-based format would wait range of graduate expertise is that our entire Andrew Lyons, Victoria Michener, and Janet until staff felt that bandwidth availability for senior editorial staff and advisory board hold Puhalla) who provided both internal review of scholars and students at most African tertiary PhDs from the University of Florida. Go Gators! submissions as well as technical support. Issues institutions had improved enough to have a neg- for the first several volumes remained small, ligible impact on access. Richard Marcus remem- Todd H. Leedy is associate director of the Center for typically 2-3 articles with 5-10 book reviews. bers: “We spent a lot of time early on discussing African Studies and editor of the African Studies Janet Puhalla remembers: “During the first few format. It wasn’t just about trying to produce a Quarterly. He has worked with ASQ in various roles issues it seemed like feast or famine. Would we high quality, peer-reviewed publication online, since 1999.

8 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 sahel research group

Leonardo Villalón, Sebastian Elischer, Abdoulaye Kane, Sarah McKune, Fiona McLaughlin, Renata Serra, Benjamin Soares, Alioune Sow & Olivier Walther

rankings. The fragile ecology of the region a number of visiting scholars and frequent The Sahel Research Group at the is particularly vulnerable to climate variation, guests from the region. University of Florida represents a with serious consequences for human liveli- Our regular “Sahel Seminar” series provide collaborative effort to understand hoods and wellbeing. Global religious trends an ongoing opportunity to invite guests and the political, social, economic and and geopolitical events have placed significant to share perspectives and analyses on devel- cultural dynamics of the countries additional pressures and posed new chal- opments in the region. In February 2017 we of the West African Sahel. The group lenges to governments in the region in recent organized the annual CAS Carter Conference, brings together a highly interdisciplinary years. Indeed, the Malian crisis since 2012 and “On the Edge: What Future for the African set of faculty members with expertise in its regional consequences, including the pro- Sahel?” from which a major publication on a wide array of topics: politics, religion, liferation of violent extremist organizations, the region is forthcoming. We were especially migration and diaspora, social dynamics, have brought new and complicating attention pleased in 2017 to sign a memorandum of health, agriculture, climate change, economics, to the region by outside actors. understanding with the Sahel and West Africa geography, language, culture, and intellectual Yet there are also other dynamics in the Club (SWAC) of the OECD in Paris. The production in the region. A number of face of this difficult context: vibrant civil initial phase of our collaboration involves a PhD students from various disciplines and societies continue to struggle to build and project to examine urbanization in border with research focus on the Sahel are also strengthen democratic institutions, social areas and women’s trade networks at the local key contributors to the group’s efforts and structures maintain often striking resilience and regional scale. The two-year program activities. while adapting to new contexts, and there are involves research activities and policy initia- Our core interest is in the six Francophone strong and trans-regional intellectual debates tives aiming at facilitating exchange among countries of the region—Senegal, Mauritania, on religion, human rights, culture and social researchers, policy-makers and civil society. Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. We are change. Our goal is to build on the diversity also interested in developments in neighboring of training, expertise and backgrounds among More information on these activities, and countries, to the north and south, whose Sahel Research Group members to better descriptions of the range of specific research dynamics frequently intersect with those of understand the full complexity of both the projects by group members can be found on the Sahel. Collectively the Sahelian coun- difficulties and the possibilities of the region. our website at: sahelresearch.africa.ufl.edu tries represent some of the least developed We have a strong commitment to engaging countries on earth—the four landlocked states and working with colleagues and partner are regularly among the very bottom in the institutions in the countries of the Sahel, and UNDP’s annual Human Development Index to this end we have been fortunate to host

Leonardo Villalón is professor of political science and dean of the UF International Center. Sebastian Elischer is assistant professor of political science. Abdoulaye Kane is associate professor of anthropology and African studies. Sarah McKune is assistant professor of Global Health and African studies. Fiona McLaughlin is professor of linguistics. Renata Serra is senior lecturer in African studies. Benjamin Soares is professor of religion and director of the Center for Global Islamic Studies. Alioune Sow is associate professor of French and African studies. Olivier Walther is visiting associate professor of geography.

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 9 UF in Ethiopia: Undergraduate Perspectives

Olivia N. Allen, Amelia I. Blanton, Kristieanna L. Clasen, Jhatai D. Daynual, Kaitlyn N. Farnell, Ayelen L. Garcia-Rudnick, Peter M. Gianelli, Mackenzie Goode, Melody E. Mullaly & Taylor Smith features, while others volunteered to go with the From January through mid-March exhibition building. The next few days were spent at a Museum lab where we used the archaeo-botanists to collect tree limbs so they 2017 we participated in the 2017 knowledge we had gained in January to wash, could be cut into thin sections and used to create UF in Ethiopia study abroad sort, and identify thousands of stone artifacts a wood identification database from which to program sponsored by UF’s excavated in 2015 from a quarry site in the Rift identify the types of wood being used to make International Center, Department Valley. However, analyzing these artifacts proved fires. of Anthropology and the Center to be much more challenging as they were much On March 15 the field season came to an end for African Studies. The main goal of the smaller and more difficult to classify. But it did and we flew back to Addis Ababa to spend a few program was to give undergraduate students the give us a good idea of what we would be finding more days at the Museum before the program opportunity to earn college credit for learning at Mochena Borago. completely ended and we all went our separate archaeological field methods while participating On February 9th the students flew to ways - some returning home, others traveling in excavations at Mochena Borago, a large rock Arba Minch in SW Ethiopia where we met around Ethiopia, and some traveling to other shelter in the SW Ethiopian highlands containing government representative Ato Abraham, and a Eastern African countries. deposits spanning more than 50,000 years. mini-bus and driver that drove us 2 hours north Ethiopia was the first taste of Africa for all Now in its ninth year, the UF in Ethiopia to the Nega International Hotel in the city of except one of the students, and for most if not all program has been an integral part of the Sodo, the regional capital of Wolaita and our it was a life-changing experience. There were many long-term Southwest Ethiopia Archaeological base of operations. Except for weekends, we life lessons, but a few of the most memorable Project (SWEAP) which is focused upon would have breakfast, pack up our equipment were: 1) how important patience is for maintaining obtaining archaeological, chronological, and and personal belongings, and drive 30-40 minutes one’s wellbeing, whether you are dealing with paleoenvironmental data that can be used to test up the western side of Damota Volcano until stifling bureaucracies or having to reach new levels a theory that the highlands of SW Ethiopia were we reached our destination of Mochena Borago of tolerance for your fellow program students; 2) a cultural and environmental refugium for hunter- rockshelter, a Late Pleistocene rock shelter ~8 the realization of how essential it is to find true gatherers prior to their dispersal through and km northwest of Sodo. friendship. There is something about being thrust out of Africa some 60,000 years ago. Directed The focus of the 2017 field season was to into a new and very different culture that creates by Dr. Steven Brandt of UF’s Department continue excavations in the MB5 area where camaraderie and an understanding of one’s place of Anthropology, other field participants previous research had revealed deposits more in the community; 3) how beautiful the earth is and included Dr. Augusto Oyuelo-Caycedo, and than 50,000 years old. We were initially divided how critical it is to maintain that beauty. The many graduate student Benjamin Smith. Professional up by Dr. Brandt into 5 teams of 2 students each hikes we went on made us realize the fragile nature archaeologists, botanists and students from Addis where usually one student would dig a 1m² unit of the world we live in; 4) the need to venture Ababa University, Stony Brook University and while the other filled out forms on computer outside one’s comfort zone. Even though some the University of Frankfurt as well as Ethiopian tablets. Most of the teams dug in and around of the activities we engaged in made us physically government representatives also contributed their the N41 trench where previous field seasons had and mentally exhausted to the point that we were expertise and training to the project. revealed a large carapace-shaped stone slab that ready to quit, our incredibly hard working and Prior to traveling to Ethiopia, we spent part appeared to have finger-like markings on it. Our resilient Ethiopian colleagues also forced us to of the last three weeks of January at UF learning excavations were to later reveal this stone to be push ourselves even harder and to discover inner about Ethiopian culture, history and archaeology much bigger than expected - about 1m x .75m. strengths we never knew we had; and 5) It also through readings and lectures. The majority of Toward the end of the field season excavations in taught us how to create opportunities for ourselves, those three weeks however involved lectures and this area also uncovered what looked like a stone as opposed to waiting for them to arise. hands-on training in lithic technology and analysis mortar. Both of these were left in situ – in the In the end, the UF in Ethiopia program helped in preparation for the thousands of obsidian ground - so they could be taken out next season us better understand what we were, and what we artifacts we would be digging up at Mochena when there would be more time to dig them out could be… Borago. The last few days of January were spent more carefully. Excavations also took place at buying equipment, getting vaccinations and the southern end of Area MB5 in an attempt to making other preparations for the trip. trace the location of a major geological event that We finally arrived in Addis Ababa, then cut through the shelters sediments tens if not spent the next 5 days at the Ethiopian National hundreds of thousands of years ago. Museum. On the first day we were taken on a In addition to excavating, some of the tour of the archaeological and paleontological students learned how to use the electronic Total collections followed by a visit to the Museum Station for accurate mapping of all artifacts and

10 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 FACULTY REPORTS

Randall Cantrell Housing and Community Development in Niamey and Niger

Susan Cooksey UF Faculty and Alumni at ACASA in Ghana

Elizabeth DeVos Emergency Medicine Education in Africa

Sebastian Elischer Reflections on the Africa Yearbook

James Essegbey Documenting Animere

Nancy Rose Hunt History, Theory and the Congo

Abdoulaye Kane Hometown Associations and Development in the Senegal River Valley

Sarah McKune Improving Nutrition in Children in Burkina Faso

Michael Morris Empowering Entrepreneurs in South Africa

Marit Ostebo A Model for Gender Equality and Sustainable Development

Terje Ostebo Religion, Ethnicity, and Conflict in the Horn of Africa

Daniel Reboussin Mountain Gorilla Exhibit Highlights Wildlife Conservation Manuscripts

Benjamin Soares Islam and Muslim Societies in Africa

Leonardo Villalón Student Activism and Religious Movements in Sahelian Universities

Olivier Walther Mapping Borders and Cities in West Africa

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 11 Housing and Community Development in Niamey and Niger: Young People’s Hope for their Present and FuturE

Randall Cantrell

Niger has unprecedented twenties and asked if they would participate would seem to behoove the government demographics: the average in our study. We conducted a total of 22 in- to seriously implement an advisory com- citizen’s age is 14.8 years; the terviews during a 15 day period. The ques- mission comprising young people from all fertility rate is 7.8 children per tions were from a semi-structured interview sectors of Niger, especially from the poorer woman; and though the infant guide where all respondents were provided working class. This sector does not seem to the same prompts. feel empowered enough to effect mean- mortality rate is decreasing, 1 in 4 The average age of respondents was ingful positive change in its future, and that children die before the age of 5. 25, and they had lived in Niamey for about is not only demoralizing but also poses a One strategy for families in the villages is 6 years with either friends or family they potential risk to Niger’s future. to choose a male to migrate to the capital met (or on the street next to their vending If young people could be incorporated (or elsewhere) in hopes of earning a living stand). They relocated about once a year. into the political voice of the government to save toward a dowry while also sending They typically were selling some sort of such that they feel empowered, they might money back to the family in the village. The inexpensive item alongside the road (tea, become more of a productive component reality is these young men arrive in Niamey coffee, flip flops, etc.). They were earning of society. Sometimes the mere feeling of with nowhere to live, no job, and little just enough to make ends meet and sending knowing you are “part of the team” is suffi- money to survive on. It takes time, hard a small amount back to their family in the cient to cause you to “come to practice and work, and a little good fortune for them to village. If they were frugal, there actually work hard” until your opportunity arises. begin to make progress toward their goals. was a small amount left toward saving for a Otherwise, it is easy to become disillusioned Therefore, our objective was to explore the dowry ($25/yr). They thought about their with a sense of abandonment and drift new life encountered by young Nigerien future regarding marriage, family, and their apart from the goals of the team. males who migrate from their village to the country, but they could not imagine one day capital city of Niamey. being a person who impacts the develop- Randall Cantrell is assistant professor in the We chose five of the poorer neighbor- ment of their community or country. Department of Family, Youth and Community hoods in Niamey where young people are The government has an underrepre- Sciences. This project was made possible through a known to live and work. We randomly ap- sented (voiceless) majority on its hands, University of Florida International Center Global proached males who appeared to be in their and that majority demands to be heard. It Fellows Award.

12 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Faculty Reports Harn Museum Director, Curator, UF Faculty and Alumni at the ACASA 17th Triennial Symposium in Ghana

Susan Cooksey

In August 2017, Rebecca Nagy (director, Harn Museum of Art) and Susan Cooksey (curator of African Art) participated in the spectacularly successful 17th Triennial Symposium of the Art Council of the African Studies Association at the University of Ghana, Legon. The Center for African Studies generously supported their travel to Ghana for the week-long conference. The conference made history as ACASA’s first to be held in Africa. With a record number of African and European participants for the largely American organization, a rich offering of panels over four days beginning with Forbes organized the panel “Localizing traversing the city of Accra. As an expert on Museum Day at the National Museum the Foreign” that featured her paper based Ghanaian fashion and textiles, Christopher of Ghana, brilliant events including on research on Congolese colonial era art Richards took his colleagues to the top museum and gallery receptions, artist “Foreign Tastes, Local Styles: Situating fashion brands and introduced them to studio tours and guided tours to Cape Voania Muba within the Colonial Context.” Accra’s best batik artists. Rebecca Nagy and Coast and Elmina, all capped by the Richards presented a paper based on his Susan Cooksey facilitated visits to various gal- eclectic Chale Wote art festival in the old research on South African fashion, “Knitting leries and artists’ studios. It was an intellectu- Jamestown neighborhood of Accra. Histories: The Cultural Significance of ally rejuvenating experience and a reminder The symposium afforded a wealth of Ma Xhosa by Laduma’s Fashions.” Micots that UF’s cohort of African art historians are opportunities for engagement with artists, organized a stimulating panel “Sustainability active, engaged, and an important part of the scholars and museum professionals as it and Art in Africa” and curated a stun- international African art community. As one immersed conferees in Ghana’s dynamic ning exhibition on Ghanaian Fancy Dress eminent scholar quipped: “here comes the art scene. Nagy and Cooksey chaired masquerades for the premier contemporary UF mafia.” a roundtable organized with the help art gallery in Ghana, Gallery 1957 in Accra. Jokes aside, the ACASA conference dem- of Alissa Jordan (UF PhD, 2017) who The reception for the exhibition was one onstrated the lasting strength of UF’s African served as the discussant. Titled “Creative of the highlights of the conference’s social art history department; graduates from the Coalescing: Artists of KNUST and events. Ndubuisi Ezeloumba presented the program are recognized as innovators in the Ghana’s Contemporary Art Revolution” paper “Power behind the Throne, Images field and as important and collaborative con- it focused on the impact of KNUST’s of the Queen Mother Iyoba in Benin Art.” tributors. As the alumni continue to engage new art curriculum and innovative As ACASA’s Treasurer, Jordan Fenton in important and groundbreaking research, teaching methods on contemporary art organized the finances of the conference the legacy of UF’s African art history depart- in Ghana. Participants included several and participated in the roundtable “Futures ment will grow. It only seems appropriate to art faculty, alumni and graduate students Directions of the Field.” He also presented conclude with a Ghanaian proverb, one which of Kwame Nkrumah University of a paper, “Individual Agency in Traditional- all of UF’s graduates and current/former Science and Technology. Several other Based Arts: Masquerade as an Artistic faulty seem to inherently follow: wamma wo UF Africanist faculty and alumni attended Transformation” for the panel he chaired, yonko anntwa anko a, wonntwa nnuru (If you the conference as well, including Brenda “New Perspectives on Performance in don’t let your neighbor reach his destination, Chalfin (director, CAS), Carlee Forbes Africa.” Prita Meier’s paper was based on her you will not reach yours). (UF MA, 2013), Christopher Richards (UF research on Swahili Coast arts, “Mobilities PhD, 2014), Courtney Micots (UF PhD, of Ivory Oliphants: Shared Object Cultures Susan Cooksey is Curator of African Art at the 2010), Ndubuisi Ezeloumba (UF PhD, in Central Africa and the Swahili Coast.” Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. 2017), Jordan Fenton (UF PhD, 2012), When not presenting, curating or admin- and Prita Meier (UF BA, 1997). istrating, UF’s alumni spent time together

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 13 Emergency Medicine Education in Africa

Elizabeth DeVos

My work in the last year includes Africa. I provided two lectures for the to 1% of Emergency Department visits continuing to advocate for the course and Andrew Martin MD, a senior related to poisoning whether intentional specialty of Emergency Medicine EM resident from UF Jacksonville trav- or unintentional. Women accounted for in Africa to ensure that anyone elled to Kigali in April 2017 to participate 60% of the poisonings reviewed and young with an acute illness or injury in point-of-care ultrasound training at the people 15-24 years old accounted for 55% national teaching hospital. of these presentations. Organophosphate may find skilled treatment when Ongoing work with the African and bleaching agent poisonings comprised arriving at an emergency center. Federation of Emergency Medicine facili- most cases (35% and 25% respectively). In August 2016, I was invited to lecture on tated my participation in the African Journal While patient management is generally ap- “Models of Training in Emergency Care,” of Emergency Medicine’s Author Assist pro- propriate, clinicians lack specific treatment at the first Rwandan Emergency Care gram. Through the initiative, experienced guidelines and protocols that could improve Association (RECA) national congress. We authors are paired with authors of a manu- management. This study identified oppor- discussed the variety of models for working script submitted to the journal to develop tunities for improvement in standardized with national governments, ministries of ideas to fully published peer-reviewed management. Further, the study identifies health, universities and private hospitals works. In December 2016, I worked with that young women are at highest risk of to determine locally appropriate training a team of Ethiopian pharmacy faculty self-harm. Increasing public awareness of programs and schemes for ongoing human from Gondar University, including the PI, safe handling of chemicals and medications resource retention and remuneration once Getnet Adinew. Together, we published, as well as improving access to mental health emergency care providers are established. “Poisoning cases and their management in services were also identified as opportuni- We discussed the challenges of ensuring emergency centres of government hospi- ties to optimize outcomes by practicing that newly trained providers will find jobs tals in northwest Ethiopia” in the African primary prevention. with pay commensurate to their training Journal of Emergency Medicine in June 2017. context of the government or private It was a privilege to mentor the team of Elizabeth DeVos is the director of Global hospital ability to pay, retention of skilled Ethiopians in describing the epidemiology Health Education Programs for the UF College workers, and assessing the level of training of acute care visits for poisoning. of Medicine and associate professor of emergency that should be provided in district and This retrospective review provided in- medicine at UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville national hospitals and a variety of other sights to differences in epidemiology in the where she is medical director of International factors during the session. North Gondar Zone versus other studies Emergency Medicine Education. During the meeting, I was honored with in Ethiopia. The incidence of intentional an award for “Outstanding Support to the poisoning appears to be higher than that Development of the Rwanda Emergency of prior studies in Addis Ababa with up Care Association.” The conference, attended by physicians, nurses, and ambu- lance personnel from the region as well as Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia was a smashing success. So much so, that RECA was chosen to host the African Congress on Emergency Medicine in Kigali in November 2018. This year will be dedicated to cultivating a robust scientific program as RECA hosts over 1000 emergency care specialists from all over the globe just months after graduating the first class of Emergency Medicine specialist physicians. RECA also hosts an “Emergency Medicine in the Tropics” course for health professions students from Europe and North America to introduce them to the medical system in Rwanda and to specific medical conditions unique in presentation to East

14 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Faculty Reports

Emergency Medicine Education in Africa Reflections on the Africa Yearbook

sebastian elischer

Between 2014 and 2017 I served as recently finished their PhD. It is probably It was an honor to be part of this co-editor of the Africa Yearbook. the most diverse group of scholars I have exciting international and multidisciplinary Published by Brill the Africa Yearbook covers worked with. project. The production of the 14th all major domestic political developments, Editing the Yearbook takes a lot of time volume is well under way and I look the foreign policy and socio-economic and makes for very long evenings. Many forward to receiving my copy in October trends in sub-Sahara Africa. After three authors have been trained in education 2018. years of overseeing the West Africa section, systems outside the anglophone world and my tenure as co-editor came to an end in the editorial work can take much time. Sebastian Elischer is assistant professor of October. In the following I provide some But reading through so many country political science. insights about the publication and into my chapters significantly improved my own personal editorial experiences over the years. understanding of the political and economic Africa Yearbook serves as a scholarly complexity of the African continent. resource for scholars, policymakers and the broader public. Written by country experts, the individual chapters analyze the most important political and economic events. No other publication regularly provides country-specific and contemporary insights. Since 2015, it has also been possible to buy a compilation of the chapters, covering the whole timespan for selected countries. The visibility of the Yearbook has increased quite significantly since the publication of the first volume thirteen years ago. Almost all academic libraries in North America and Europe subscribe to it. In 2012 the Yearbook won the African Studies Association’s Conover-Porter Book Award. Scholars researching event data are the most frequent users, but it is also intended as a reference tool for diplomats, people active in development cooperation and NGOs. The Yearbook is also useful for students, or anyone wanting to learn more about contemporary developments in Africa. The production of the Yearbook is an international endeavor. In 2017 it received generous support from four academic institutions: The UF Centre for African Studies, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, the Nordic Africa Institute (Sweden), and the African Studies Centre (Netherlands). Contributing to the Yearbook offers scholars the opportunity to join a network of researchers from across the globe. Our authors came from North America, Europe, Africa. Some are very senior, others only

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 15 Documenting an Endangered Language: Animere

James Essegbey

During summer 2017, I traveled Following that, we traveled to Kecheibe, colleague Fiona McLaughlin, and Felix with four undergraduate students the hometown of the Animere people to Ameka at Leiden University, with funding to Nkwanta in the northern part record them performing their traditional from the NSF Documenting Endangered of the Volta Region of Ghana to songs and dances. This was very important Languages program. With support of because the language situation became faculty from the United States, Europe, do document Animere. The trip known to us when the elders of the com- and Africa, we brought together graduate was funded by a Research Tutorial Abroad munity approached Andrew Ring, who was students and junior faculty in West Africa (RTA) grant from the Center for African then working on bible translation in the and their counterparts in the United States Studies. Animere is one of 15 languages area, and told him that their language was to share the knowledge and skills associ- located in the hills of the Ghana-Togo disappearing; their children did not speak it ated with current methods and practices border, from which they got the name and they, the old people who could speak of language documentation. Participants Ghana-Togo Mountain (GTM) languages. it, were dying. They wanted help to revi- worked with 5 native speakers of Animere It is the most endangered of the GTM talize the language. According to Andrew to produce a basic documentation of the languages with less than 30 speakers all Ring, the elders lamented that “they did language. My eventual plan is to under- of whom are over 50 years old, and is no not have anyone to sing their songs.” The take a major effort to document Animere longer being transmitted to children. All trip provided an opportunity for the stu- before it disappears. Animere speakers also speak Adele, another dents to conduct research and experience GTM language, and Akan, the regional the daily living conditions and social life in James Essegbey is associate professor in the dominant language. Many speak several a contemporary African society. They are Department of Languages, Literatures and other languages in the region. The Animere currently working on an Animere reader, Cultures. situation is particularly interesting in that which contains illustrated folk tales and rather than shift to the dominant regional transcripts of the songs which we recorded language, as happens in most language in Kecheibe. The reader will be presented endangerment situations in Africa, they to the community with copies of their are shifting to Adele. During our time songs and dances. in Nkwanta, the students worked with 2 The trip with the students was fol- native speakers of Animere (Papa Peter and lowed by a Summer School in Language Mathias) and a language consultant (Ernest Documentation and Data Management Nniakyire) to segment, transcribe and in Winneba, which is in the southwestern translate parts of conversations and story- part of Ghana, between Accra and Cape telling sessions which were recorded in 2013 Coast. I organized the school with my by Bryan Gelles, a UF graduate student.

16 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Faculty Reports

History, Theory and the Congo

Nancy rose hunt

Year Two at the University of Florida, and I find myself still amazed by the wide range of marvelous scholars, congenial atmosphere, and remarkable resources in African Studies, including precious monies to co- organize a Carter Conference. I spent much of this past year organizing activities and research around the Papa Mfumu’eto Papers, now owned by Special Collections in the Smathers Library. An exhibition or two and a multi-authored catalog will result from 2020 on about this comic-based sequential art work in Lingala, produced in Kinshasa’s streets over 20 years from the mid-1980s. I also spent time spearheading a new book series with Achille Mbembe and Juan Obarrio that will feature best new work in African studies and beyond; the first books in this Duke University Press’ Theory in Forms series will appear in 2019. I also benefitted from hosting scholarly visits by Natasha Sakolsky, Rebecca Hardin, and Katrien Pype during the year. History & Theory invited me to join a team of scholars in producing essays for a special postcolonial issue. My contribution reviews the methods and concepts I have used in prior research. I will be presenting another paper at Wesleyan University, where History & Theory is based, on I organized a panel at the ASA on embedded in these investigations is just as “ideation” and historical writing. Ideation “post” aspects to Jan Vansina’s oeuvre fascinating as are Congolese terrains and is a theme inspired by my efforts to grapple and personality, and this took me to field hierarchies revealed. with the zany and puzzling sides to Papa his and the Mary Douglas papers at Highlight of the year: teaching 22 Mfumu’eto’s comic-based papers as well as Northwestern over the summer months. undergraduates in History how to assemble new research on vernacular mental health This new research became the basis of primary research papers on health, categories across Africa’s colonial empires the five endowed Leclerc Lectures that I medicine, and racial politics in Africa. Each and since. This part of my research will be gave in the Anthropology Department at wrote an original paper, and we journeyed aided by a Fulbright Expert Award received Belgium’s chief francophone university, together to the Kingsley Plantation for a to spend several weeks between Paris Louvain, in November. The result was a stunning lecture about polygamy, labor, and Niamey in summer 2018 examining very rough draft for a short book on the and emancipation practices by Professor shifting diagnostic categories. A top team history of anthropology in the Congo, Emeritus Dan Schafer of Jacksonville. I will of Paris-based medicine, health, and STS from the likes of Mary Douglas, Jan be going back, again and again, to this place researchers – Cermes3 – worked with Vansina, and Luc de Heusch, to Johannes and potential learning laboratory where me on assembling the joint Fulbright Fabian, Filip De Boeck, Katrien Pype, Africa and Florida still meet. application, and they are steering contacts and several more. The intellectual and and workshops in Paris and Niamey. methodological history of anthropology Nancy Rose Hunt is professor of history.

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 17 Senegalese Hometown Associations’ WhatsApp Groups and the Efficacy of Development Intervention in the Senegal River Valley

Abdoulaye Kane

This a new project building on associations in the Ile de France region alone. application, change the landscape of com- the Research Tutorial Award by A progressive efficiency in the hometown munications between hometown associa- CAS that allowed me to bring associations’ interventions seems to be in tions and their hometowns? 2) To what three UF undergraduate students connection to the improvement of commu- extent are any changes brought about by to Senegal to do research on nication between migrants coming from the the use of free calling mobile phone ap- same town and scattered in several destina- plications affecting hometown associations’ the use of new technologies of tions as well as their connections to the intervention in local development? 3) How communication by Senegalese people in the hometown itself (Dia 2015; are local hometown events made global hometown associations and its Kane 2013). through the posting of images and sounds impact on their development With a growing access to social media and how does this affect migrants’ trust of interventions in the Senegal River and communication platforms such as people managing community projects? Valley. I utilized the preliminary research Facebook, WhatsApp, and Skype, the land- Through ethnographic research, to be finding to write a NSF proposal to research scape of connections between these village- conducted in France (Paris region), in the these Hometown Associations’ WhatsApp based diasporas and their hometowns United States (Columbus, New York, and groups and the new forms of sociality they have changed a great deal, leading to new Memphis), in Central Africa (Libreville and allow between migrants scattered around forms of virtual sociality. Each of these Ponte Noire) as well as in the towns of the globe and their rural communities in hometowns have their WhatsApp group the Senegal River valley (Thilogne, Agnam, Senegal. connecting different and faraway places Galoya, Ouro Sogui, and Kanel), we plan African migrants, as with the many into one single social-virtual place where to follow hometown associations and their migrants from poor countries, have been village norms of social life are reintroduced transnational connections. We want to particularly interested in maintaining con- and adapted. On a daily basis, hundreds uncover the daily practices of communica- nections with their home countries. More of messages are posted instantaneously by tions and their impacts in social, political, specifically, migrants from the Senegal River participants and accessible to all at once. economic, and cultural processes in these Valley have distinguished themselves with They exchange news, share memories, different settings. the creation of dynamic hometown associa- discuss new ideas about development, and tions that intervene aggressively to improve raise funds as if in the village public square. Abdoulaye Kane is associate professor of the living conditions of sending com- The primary research questions are the anthropology and African Studies. munities. Previous studies in France have following: 1) Does the use of new tech- identified more than 400 such hometown nologies, specifically the Instant Messaging

18 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Faculty Reports Senegalese Hometown Associations’ WhatsApp Improving Nutrition in Children Groups and the Efficacy of Development under Two through Increased Egg Intervention in the Senegal River Valley Consumption in Burkina Faso

Sarah L. McKune

Burkina Faso is burdened by based knowledge. SHF production is livestock management and nutrition train- high rates of malnutrition and important in eliminating food insecuri- ings, will lead to higher ASF consumption linear growth stunting in children ties and building resilience to improve among children under two in Burkina under five years old. Undernutrition nutrition in children under five. This Faso. This community intervention trial can have significant long term physical, project targets vulnerable populations of will target families with children ages six to cognitive, and socioeconomic impacts smallholders, women and children, and twelve months of age living in rural villages on a child’s development, as well as the should lead to improvements in poultry in Burkina Faso. future economic success of the country. production, increased egg consumption Animal source food (ASF) consumption by children, improved nutrition, and Sarah McKune is assistant professor in the can improve growth, nutritional status, increased household level resilience. Department of Environmental Global Health cognitive development, and health We will examine if improved poultry and the Center for African Studies. Project funded in children. In Burkina Faso, ASF inputs through gifting chickens by a by USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for consumption is low, particularly among religious leader, coupled with integrated Livestock Systems. women and children. Livestock is typically produced for income, gifting, and socio- religious practices, rather than for direct household consumption. Barriers (i.e. cultural beliefs and stigma) prevent the consumption of chicken eggs in Burkina Faso and many other parts of Africa. This study aims to address the challenges to ASF consumption and improve small holder farm (SHF) poultry practices in rural Burkina Faso. The innovative intervention consists of gifting chickens by religious leaders to children between six and twelve months of age to increase egg consumption. Each child’s caregiver will commit to feeding their child one egg a day from the gifted chickens. Children are often the least likely to consume ASF, despite their unique need. Because food allocation inequities often exist, this study design proposes that the child be the true owner of the chickens as well as the beneficiary and recipient of the eggs for consumption. The study is designed to properly test a pilot study conducted in Ethiopia (Omer 2016) that increased the portion of children consuming three or more eggs a week egg from 5% to 70% through gifting of chickens through a religious leader to the children. It involves innovative behavioral change methodology to empower caregivers as poultry producers by improving their access to livestock production resources, providing tools for improved decision making, and enhancing nutrition

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 19 Empowering Entrepreneurs in South Africa

Michael H. Morris

The hope for the economic written that focus on past clients. future of Africa is tied to The entrepreneurs are based in the entrepreneurship and its townships of Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Blue potential for empowerment and Downs, Langa, and Philippi, located just transformation. It is with this belief in outside of Cape Town. Many have been mind that we launched the Entrepreneurship unregistered businesses, but this has changed Empowerment in South Africa (EESA) as the government, recognizing their important program twenty years ago. This past August we potential, has focused more on formalizing presented EESA as a model invention program these ventures. Most have been in business at the annual meetings of the Academy of for about a year. The businesses have included Management in Atlanta, highlighting key lessons transport companies, small construction learned over the years. firms, restaurants, printers, hair salons, glass EESA is a unique partnership involving three replacement, clothing production, funeral American universities (University of Florida, homes, tennis shoe washing, a maker of paper, Texas A&M, and University of Colorado) with and a maker of spinach-based products, among like EESA to succeed. High engagement levels the University of the Western Cape in South others. with the entrepreneurs, and getting students out Africa. Each year, twenty-eight American Most of these entrepreneurs have fallen of their comfort zones and seeing themselves and twenty South African students, with four into what we call the “commodity trap.” They as consultant not students, are critical. So too faculty members as mentors, spend seven weeks find themselves largely selling a commodity---a is the need to focus on developing not just the working in hands-on consulting engagements product of service that is undifferentiated, business but the entrepreneur. The process to help early stage ventures move towards where entry barriers are low, there are many must generate tailored solutions that move sustainability. Over the years we have worked competing providers, firms are forced to a venture through stages of development. with more than three hundred entrepreneurs. compete on a price-basis, which results in low Changing behavior requires client involvement The theme for the EESA Program is “in margins or losses. The typical entrepreneur is in the solution, as well as use of role models the spirit of Masikhule” which is a Xhosa supporting a family and a number of others, and success examples. The ability to move word meaning “to grow together.” We employ and struggles to separate personal from the these clients away from a reliance on winning a unique process consulting approach that business needs and to put money back in into government tenders is also important. In the involves the consultants as partners with the the business. They rely on casual employees, end, however, it is all about facilitating sales and entrepreneurs, working through problems jointly family members, and some permanent increasing margins. to generate creative and effective solutions. The employees. We have seen significant success with the process approach builds around helping the A review of deliverables over the years has program. About 75% of the entrepreneurs are entrepreneur to see their business as a flow of identified the thirteen most common problems, still in business five years after the engagement processes, including a record and bookkeeping and the consistency of these issues over and have seen introduction of new products/ process, a selling process, an operating process, time is striking. They include: lack of proper services, entry into new markets and growth a logistics process, a cash flow process, and so books; entrepreneur doesn’t understand what in revenue, employees, operations, and forth. It centers on the notion of ‘teaching a the numbers are telling her; poor cash flow equipment. Perhaps the biggest change is in man to fish” rather than “giving a man a fish”. management; no clear segmentation/targeting the entrepreneur’s confidence and how they see Student consultants work in teams of six, of customers; little marketing/a shotgun themselves as professionals. Our most successful which are formed to balance backgrounds, approach; pricing too low and uniformly; not client has gone from one to over forty locations skills and experiences. EESA is a rigorous well-differentiated; operations not systematic— and has launched a franchising model. Another program where each team is assigned to two reliance on tacit knowledge, habit, reaction; lack exciting outcome has been the number of South entrepreneurs and must produce a minimum of computer literacy beyond word processing; African students that have become professional of four deliverables (problems solved) per buying at retail which severely undercuts consultants based on their EESA experience. entrepreneur. They begin by applying the margins; insufficient reinvestment in business; Supporting Emerging Enterprises (SEE) model, money to fund front end of jobs/opportunities; Michael H. Morris is clinical professor of marketing in which we have designed over the years as a and, too busy working in the business to work the Warrington School of Business. comprehensive tool for first assessing each on the business. business and prioritizing needs. They also work Many other lessons have been learned along through a number of case studies we have the way in terms of what it takes for a program

20 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Faculty Reports

Awra Amba: A Model for Gender Equality and Sustainable Development?

Marit Tolo ØstebØ

In 2000, Ethiopian Television development. Awra Amba is only one actors, sites or policies gain status as (ETV) aired a documentary of several cases I explore in my current models? Are models as successful as they about Awra Amba, a small rural book project, which seeks to empirically often are portrayed? And what are the village and weaving cooperative and theoretically explore the increased underlying theoretical assumptions behind in Northern Ethiopia. Portraying it use of models in socially engineered the use of models? These are just some of as a place where women ploughed, men development schemes. the questions that I seek to explore. It is worked in the kitchen and no ‘Harmful Ethiopia is a country which is my belief that an analysis of models in the Traditional Practices’ existed, the program particularly conducive for a study of particular Ethiopian context can contribute told the story of a community that radically models. First, Ethiopia’s development in advancing our understanding of the use challenged traditional gendered norms. strategy has increasingly been praised by of models in relation to development and Awra Amba soon became a model for international organizations and donors social change, not only in Ethiopia but also gender equality not only in Ethiopia, but as a model for other African countries beyond. also beyond. At present, the community to emulate. Second, the Ethiopian attracts close to 10,000 annual visitors, government has, over the last decade, Marit Tolo Østebø is assistant professor of including tourists, representatives from embraced a rhetoric of models. Model anthropology and a faculty coordinator of the Social the government and from transnational farmers, model women, model students, Change and Development working group. and international organizations, and model villages, model districts, model experts and beneficiaries of development cooperatives – these are just a few projects. The community also features examples of models that have become in a Finnish-produced interactive an integrated part of the development educational documentary, “The Awra Amba discourse in Ethiopia. They are all central Experience,” currently marketed as a global tools in Ethiopia’s overall development learning resource. strategy. But what constitutes a model and Over the past two years, I have had what is the relationship between models the opportunity to conduct research in and reality? Is it possible to identify Awra Amba. In addition to investigating some key characteristics that cut across the history of the community and its different types of models? How does religious underpinnings, my focus has something, someone, a place, a project, a been on understanding Awra Amba as a policy idea, or a particular methodology model for gender equality and sustainable become a model? What happens when

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 21 Research on Religion, Ethnicity, and Conflict in the Horn of Africa terje ØstebØ

Spring 2017 saw the final output of a research project on Islam, politics, and the question of moderation in Ethiopia which I had worked on for some years. The output was in the form of a journal article co-authored with Wallelign Shemsedin and published in the Journal of Modern African Studies. I have since then devoted my research time to my larger book project tentatively called Islaama vs. Amhara: Religion, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia. I was awarded a sabbatical leave for the academic year 2017-18, which have enabled me to devote all my time to this project. Offering an in-depth analysis of the well-known armed insurgency in Ethiopia’s region of Bale, the book incorporates religion as a variable, and seeks to situate religion in relation to ethnicity and broader issues relevant for both the formation of identities and so-called identity-based conflicts. It also discusses local factors I have moreover continued to be con- relevant for understanding the insurgency, movement, as well as archival studies. I sulted by various government institutions, as well as relating it to similar movements moreover spent three weeks as a guest- and participated in a seminar on Countering within the broader context of the Horn. researcher at the University of Bergen in Violent Extremism in Africa and in the Demonstrating that religion (Islam vs. fall 2017. I have also been able to share the briefing of the incoming U.S. ambassador Christianity) remained an important findings of this book projects a through to Ethiopia, both organized by the U.S. dimension of the conflict, the book guest-lecture at the School of Oriental and Department of State. firmly situates this as an integrative part African Studies, London in spring 2017, of broader social realities. Interrogating at a workshop at the University of Oslo Terje Østebø is an associate professor in the epistemological underpinnings and existing in October 2017, at the African Studies Department of Religion and the Center for perspectives around religious and ethnic Association’s Annual Meeting, and at the African Studies. identities, it forward alternative suggestions American Anthropological Association – for how to better theorize around the both in November 2017. relationship between religion and ethnicity. In addition to this book project, I am A key point here is to recognize the working together with a colleague and a embodied and emplaced nature of human UF undergraduate student on a project existence, which means that religious and on mapping violent attacks connected to ethnic belonging must be seen in relation to so-called Islamic extremists in the Horn embodied human relations and continuums of Africa. The project uses the ACLED between a cultural and material world. (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data) I spent a month in Ethiopia doing dataset, and examines the period between fieldwork related to this project during 2007 and 2017. The project seeks to pro- summer 2017, and an additional two weeks vide statistical data that will give us a better in Ethiopia in December 2017. Most of understanding of the possible increase of the field-work was devoted to interviews religiously-related violent incident in the of former members of the insurgency broader Horn of Africa, and examine the nature and dimensions related to this.

22 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Faculty Reports

Mountain Gorilla Exhibit Highlights Libraries’ Wildlife Conservation Manuscripts

Daniel Reboussin

Dr. Heather Campbell donated the Mist premiered in 171 countries and 45 the Bob Campbell Papers to the languages on December 6, 2017. George A. Smathers Libraries in Also on December 6th, Smathers 2015. Campbell’s best-known images Libraries with UF co-sponsors the brought international recognition to Dian Biodiversity Institute, Wildlife Ecology Fossey and her mountain gorilla research & Conservation, Department of at Rwanda’s Karisoke Research Center in Anthropology, Florida Museum of a January, 1970 National Geographic cover Natural History, Tropical Conservation story. To commemorate Karisoke’s 50th & Development program, Land Use and anniversary in September 2017, co-curators Environmental Change Institute, Center for Dan Reboussin and Richard Freeman, with African Studies, and International Center graduate student Riley Ravary, teamed up hosted Dr. Tara Stoinski, current President, to exhibit “Bob Campbell’s Photographs of CEO and Chief Scientific Officer for the Dian Fossey’s Karisoke Research Center, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and David 1968-1972.” The exhibit is also available Watts, Professor of Anthropology at Yale online. University to present on conservation While bringing awareness to Campbell’s efforts at Karisoke since Fossey’s death in beautiful and historic photographs, the 1985. Watts was Karisoke Research Center exhibit also highlights one of the largest director 1986-1987. collections of primary resources on 20th These preeminent primatologists’ century African wildlife conservation in perspectives on mountain gorilla the US. These primary resources include conservation since the early days of gifts from Brian Child (Geography), a Sunbird from the audio, explaining “I Fossey’s research highlighted innovative Larry D. Harris (Wildlife Ecology and can find no song recordings of Nectarinia programs to benefit Rwandan communities. Conservation), and others unaffiliated with stuhlmanni graueri in the three main online Incorporating Campbell’s materials into UF such as the East African Professional catalogs of bird sound recordings (British the Libraries’ outreach program supports Hunters’ Association, Alistair Graham, and Museum, Macaulay Library at Cornell, and collection accessibility, their use for Ian Parker. They focus on applied projects xeno-canto.org).” Campbell’s recording teaching, research, and ultimately may and document the history of community now represents this bird’s song in an open support improvements in community participation in wildlife conservation access database used by field biologists, conservation efforts that are our best efforts, so they are appropriately curated at while citing the full-length recording in UF chance to secure the survival of the UF’s Libraries. Since the 1970s, UF wildlife Digital Collections. critically endangered mountain gorillas of conservation projects have integrated social Online access to such extraordinary Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains. research into their design, contributing resources has attracted unusual attention. to the now widely-understood principle Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International Daniel Reboussin is the African Studies curator that sustainable conservation depends on staff sought a recording of “The Mountain at the George A. Smathers Libraries. African local community participation in managing Gorilla,” Fossey’s 1973 lecture to the Studies material collections and digital projects natural resources. National Geographic Society. Editors at are supported by the CAS Title VI grant in Campbell’s recordings of sound National Geographic Magazine contacted collaboration with the UF Libraries. and video from the Virunga Mountains our Special and Area Studies Collections are integrated with the visual elements. Department to arrange publication of Visitors hear ambient birdsong, gorilla several Campbell photographs for their barks, and chest beats as they view the September 2017 issue. We also permitted images. Recently, Dr. Jay McEntee sought British producer Tigress to feature me out, asking “when and where was this Campbell’s images in a 3-part National audio recorded?” Luckily, Campbell was Geographic Channel special produced by meticulous in documenting such important James Marsh (Man on Wire) and narrated details. The post-doc biologist identified by Sigourney Weaver. Dian Fossey: Secrets in

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 23 Islam and Muslim Societies in Africa

Benjamin Soares

Benjamin Soares, who joined UF including Islamic associations advocating expression, modes of belonging, and social in January 2017, specializes in ethical improvement and/or Islamist imaginaries. the study of Islam and Muslim agendas, and the trajectories of various Some of his other projects focus on societies in Africa with particular charismatic figures. However, he does Muslim public intellectuals in Africa and not limit the focus to Islam. Indeed, he Muslim-Christian encounters in West emphasis on the social, political, considers waves of the re-enchantment Africa. Among his recent publications are and intellectual dimensions of of non-Islamic “tradition,” including new the co-edited volume Muslim Youth and the Islamic religious life in West Africa charismatic non-Muslim religious figures, 9/11 Generation (2016) and “Studying Islam from the late 19th century to the who have called themselves literally “pagan and Christianity in Africa: Moving beyond present. He has worked on several saints” and promise good health, wealth, a Bifurcated Field.” Africa: Journal of the interconnected projects for which he has and success to their predominantly Muslim International African Institute (2016). conducted research in Mali, Mauritania, followers and clients. A major objec- Senegal, Nigeria, and Sudan. In his research, tive of the project is to build analytical Benjamin Soares is professor of religion and he looks at changing modalities of religious tools for understanding the relations director of the Center for Global Islamic Studies. expression and modes of belonging under between changing modalities of religious colonial rule and in the postcolonial period. His approach to the study of Islam and Muslim societies is firmly grounded in an understanding of broader Islamic history and combines anthropological and historical approaches. He devotes considerable attention to Islam within the global context, including connections and exchanges African Muslims have with other regions— colonial powers, the Maghreb, Egypt, the Hijaz, and, in his latest research, Asia—and how these unfold over time. Such research has been by design and of necessity methodologically creative in the use of ethnography, oral history, and the close reading and analysis of textual sources, colonial archives, and various media. In one of his research projects, he is taking a broad look at modalities of religious expression and their transforma- tions in Mali. In this research project, he focuses on changing religious expression in a world characterized by greater mobility, marked increases in urban economic activities, formal education, and new forms of “modern” knowledge and govern- mentality since the early 20th century. Beginning with the spread of Islam among non-Muslims, the project reconstructs the careers of those with reputations as Muslim saints, who are largely credited with mass Islamization. In addition, he explores movements of Islamic “reform,” influenced by supra-local movements and intellectual currents, new forms of associational life,

24 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Faculty Reports

Student Activism and Religious Movements in Sahelian Universities

Leonardo A. Villalón

University student movements region; 2) they are evolving and in rapid microcosm of the religious diversification represent a particularly flux, with the trend accelerating in recent occurring across Sahelian societies more important aspect of the religious years given regional religious tensions and broadly. dynamism that characterizes the dynamics; 3) they serve as an indicator of An additional Minerva grant for 2017-18 contemporary Sahel. Religiously- new emerging social trends and tendencies allowed us to assemble a collaborative based movements, largely but not in the region; and 4) they are potentially of research team including colleagues from exclusively Muslim, are now central features very significant long-term impact for their all six countries to follow up further of student life across the region. These influence in shaping the worldviews of a on this important issue. In addition to have overshadowed what remained of the new generation of elites. UF faculty members Leonardo Villalón older leftist student movements of the Universities in the region are historically (PI) and Benjamin Soares, the team first post-independence decades, as well as highly politicized institutions, and in recent includes: Mamadou Bodian, Université the corporatist student unions focused on years religiously-based groups on university Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegal); Abdoulaye demands for increased material benefits campuses in each of the six countries Sounaye. Université Abdou Moumouni that proliferated in the years of structural have not only increased in number, but de Niamey (Niger); Mamadou Lamine adjustment programs. The striking boom in simultaneously assumed more active and Dembélé, Université des Sciences religious organization at universities is now assertive social and political roles. There Juridiques et Politiques de Bamako (Mali); widely recognized as an important social are important variations in different Abakar Walar Modou. Université Roi phenomenon marking the Sahel, and indeed national contexts, however, with potentially Faiçal de N’Djamena (Chad); Magloire elsewhere in Africa. As one local colleague significant implications. While omnipresent Somé, Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo de bemoaned in the course of our research: in the region, university-based religious Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso); and Elemine “Our universities have come to be places of groups are also highly diverse in terms of ould Mohammed Baba, Université de prayer more than places of learning!” ideology and orientation, and indeed they Nouakchott (Mauritania). An initial This project builds on and grows out are frequently at odds with each other. workshop at the West African Research of an earlier extensive research project on Conflict and even violence between student Center (WARC) in Dakar brought the political reform, socio-religious change groups representing different religious whole team together in October 2017 to and stability in six Sahelian countries— tendencies has become one notable begin to examine the contours of this Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, feature of universities across the Sahel. phenomenon in comparative perspective. Niger, and Chad—carried out with the Importantly, while the vast majority of Following research in all six countries by support of a Minerva Initiative grant student religious groups and organizations the country specialists, the team will meet from 2012-16. Over the course of that are focused on social issues and religious again in late Spring 2018 at the University research, student movements on university activities, there are some disturbing of Florida at a conference on the topic. campuses emerged as distinctly relevant, indications that student organizations may and meriting closer examination, for several be feeding some of the most radicalized Leonardo Villalón is professor of political science key reasons: 1) they have come to largely religious groups in the Sahel. In some and dean of the UF International Center. He is a dominate university student activism in the ways, student religious groups represent a former director of the Center for African Studies.

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 25 Mapping Borders and Cities in West Africa

Olivier J. Walther

Since I joined the Sahel Research Group at the Center for African Studies in July this year, my work has primarily focused on coordinating the ‘Cities and Borders’ program of the OECD Sahel and West Africa Club. This two-year program is part of a memorandum of understanding signed between the OECD and the University of Florida in March 2017 aiming to reinforce the links between academics, institutions and policy platforms. The purpose of this work is to provide support for regional policies and international strategies in order to better understand the contribution of border cities to regional integration in West Africa. One of the most exciting parts of this new program is to launch a survey on women’s trade networks. Our first goal Within this collaboration with the Disorders highlights how the fluid alli- is to map supply chains in which women OECD, researchers from the UF Sahel ances and conflicts between rebels, violent producers, traders and consumers have a Research Group will also deliver a series extremist organizations and states shape particular interest, and highlight gender in- of policy notes to be published by the in large measure regional patterns of equalities in market activities. In collabora- OECD in its West African Papers series, violence in Africa. Some of our contribution with the University of Niamey, we will based on on-going researches on security, tors also examine the spread of Islamist interview more than 300 male and female trade and political issues. Thus far, four violence around Lake Chad through the traders between Niger, Benin and Nigeria. working papers have been published, lens of the violent Nigerian Islamist group Our second goal is to identify the institu- including one on jihadist insurgencies by Boko Haram, which has evolved from a tional actors involved in the promotion of Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, one on civil- nationally-oriented militia group, to an women’s business activities in West Africa, military relations in Niger by Sebastian internationally networked organization. A their relations and the structural obstacles Elischer, one on political stability and couple of concluding chapters explore how to their activities. With our colleagues from security in Chad by Dan Eizenga, and on violent extremist organizations concep- Chatham House, we want to understand the the future of warfare in the region that I tualize state boundaries and territory and, complexity of the institutional field linked authored. reciprocally, how do the civil society and the to the economic promotion of women and The past six months have been state respond to the rise of transnational to identify the gaps between the func- busier than ever. Not only did I move organizations. tioning of women’s networks and associated from Denmark to Florida and started a strategies. new research project but I also edited Olivier J. Walther is visiting associate professor in In both surveys, interviews will follow a book entitled African Border Disorders the Department of Geography. Funding provided a methodological approach based on social with my colleague William Miles from by the OECD and Danish Ministry of Higher network analysis, which looks at the inter- Northeastern University. The book builds Education & Science. relationships developed among a specific on a workshop organized at the Division set of policy actors engaged in women of Global Affairs at Rutgers last year. empowerment. Data will be collected using It explores the complex relationships a snowballing technique, according to which that bind states, transnational rebels and a number of key individuals are asked extremist organizations on the African to nominate with whom they have been continent. Combining network science exchanging information related to women’s with geographical analysis, African Border business activities.

26 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 STUDENT REPORTS

Benjamin Burgen The Economics of Migration in Small Town Senegal

Jessica Casimir Chronic Disease among Informal Caregivers in KwaZulu-Natal

Awa Doucoure The New Public Policy of Higher Education Reform in Senegal

Daniel Eizenga Electoral Authoritarianism in the Francophone Sahel

max Gelber Plenty of Fish in the Sea? Shark Fishing and the Fin Trade in Ghana

Victoria Gorham State, Society, and Nation-Building in Tanzania

Joshua Karg The Development of Women’s Football in Nigeria

Benjamin Lowe Influences on Fisher Adaptations to Climate Change on Lake Tanganyika

Sheila Maingi Combatting Gender-based Violence through Economic Empowerment

Fezile Mtsetfwa Savanna Conservation in the Face of Climate and Land Use Changes

Martin Nwodo Sustainable Development of the Built Environment in Africa

Moses Nyago Ugandan Private Sector Firms, REDD+ and Corporate Social Responsibility

Felicity Tackey-Otoo A Historical Case Study of Tema, Ghana

Denzel Williams Choreography and Dance in Conakry, Guinea

27Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–201827 The Economics of Migration in Small Town Senegal

Benjamin Burgen

In the small Wolof town where I The lives of Senegalese migrant men circumstances and opportunities both at did research people are proud to in European cities cannot be understood home and abroad. call themselves farmers. Centuries without first understanding the sociocul- While my research is an ethnographic ago their ancestors settled in the central tural and economic contexts from which case study of one particular town I am Senegal River Valley and they have lived they have come. My research is an attempt hopeful that in my writing the voices of off of their crops ever since. But these to foreground the context of home in these community members and the power of days no family can make ends meet men’s lives and to show the centrality of their experiences will come through and without some sort of cash infusion. Most their social and economic remittances to life enrich discussions of labor mobility from rely on men who have migrated abroad, in small town Senegal today. the peaceful regions of the Sahel to destina- working in France or Italy, to send monthly My research focuses on the economic tions abroad. More broadly I hope that my remittances. This influx of money makes and social aspects of life in the rural work can help to clarify and better contex- for lively commerce. Each day the morning Senegal River Valley. From August 2015 tualize the current state of transnational market bustles with women doing their daily through August 2016 I conducted ethno- labor migration between West Africa and shopping and just as many women sitting graphic fieldwork. I spent 10 months in a Europe. behind small tables with something to sell. small town which typifies the culture of mi- The market square is lined with workshops gration seen throughout the Senegal River Ben Burgen is a PhD candidate in the Department and small stores. The place hums with Valley. Next I spent 2 months between of Anthropology and a former FLAS fellow activity and the air is lively with jokes and France and Italy visiting the migrant men (Wolof). Portions of this research were funded greetings shouted to passersby. whom I had previously met during their by a Fulbright-Hays DDRA, the University Households have an equally lively air to trips home to Senegal. of Florida Graduate School, the Sahel Research them. Large extended families live together My research questions focused on the Group, and the Department of Anthropology. in rooms arranged around a central court- ways that people negotiate family finances yard. Women sit in the shade engaged in and social dynamics in this transnational daily tasks while keeping an eye on the small context. I studied the local economy in the children tottering about. Elders sit in the Senegal River Valley; the ways that remit- background quietly taking in the scene. But tances are spent and how this influx of cash in many cases most of the adult men are has created a new range of economic hori- missing. Their presence is fleeting, marked zons for some while other money-making by short annual visits and frequent phone possibilities have dried up. I looked at the calls. Their absences leave the households ways that migrant experiences are inter- feeling less than full, but keep the granaries preted in the small town context and the from becoming empty. ways that people are adapting to changing

28Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–201828 STUDENT REPORTS Examining the Prevalence of Chronic Disease among Informal Carers to AIDS- Affected Orphans in KwaZulu-Natal

Jessica Casimir

I had the opportunity to travel to Nairobi, Kenya in March 2017 to attend at the Africa Health Agenda International Conference, one of the largest public health gatherings on the continent, in which I presented a systematic review on renal disease and dialysis rationing in South Africa. To continue my initial project, I conducted preliminary fieldwork for my dissertation proposal in the summer of 2017. I was fortunate to receive funding from the Center of African Studies for both these research-related trips. I was situated in Durban for three months to explore the difficulties and obstacles of managing the co-morbidity of HIV/AIDS and renal disease (HIV-associated nephropathy). Additionally, I wanted to examine the role of their caregivers in patient adherence and health outcomes. Shortly following my arrival to Durban, informal interviews and conversations with medical professionals and researchers revealed that due to the prevention campaigns, activist communities, assessment survey from 2016. From the socioeconomic climate, many South and NGOs. findings, the data reported that one of the Africans with HIV-associated nephropathy Due to the vibrant public health com- greatest benefits of the program was that were often in the advanced stages of munity, I received the opportunity to vol- the participants observed the reversal of AIDS such that conducting a qualitative unteer at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, chronic disease, such as hypertension and project would be unfeasible and ethically a HIV/AIDS clinic that provides a plethora diabetes. These findings have allowed me to questionable. of services and resources to the Valley of explore a facet of informal caregiving that I My justification for selecting Durban as a Thousand Hills, a peri-urban/rural area had not originally examined. I am interested the primary research hub for this project is outside of Durban. One of their hallmark in further exploring: How does the care- due to the current state of the HIV/AIDS programs, the Granny Support Groups, giver strain and burden affect the preva- epidemic in South Africa. The KwaZulu- became of great interest to me. Presently, lence and management of chronic disease Natal province has the highest prevalence there are an estimated 3.7 million orphans among older women in KwaZulu-Natal, of HIV/AIDS in the country at nearly in South Africa, half of whom have lost South Africa? I intend to return to Durban 26% compared to the national percentage one or both parents to AIDS with thou- in the fall of 2018 for twelve months to of 18.9%. Much of the epidemic is sands of grandmothers (gogos) becoming the conduct the data collection phase for my concentrated in low-income areas such as primary carers of their grandchildren. Due dissertation project. townships, informal settlements, and rural to a plethora of social problems, they fail expanses with poor infrastructure; in these to become recognized as legal guardians, Jessica Casimir is a McKnight Doctoral Fellow vicinities of KZN, the prevalence can range hence preventing them from receiving vital in the Department of Sociology and Criminology from 40% to 60%. Due to being at the resources from the government. To alleviate where she is pursuing her PhD in medical sociology. epicenter of the disease, Durban is known many of the day-to-day struggles that many Her project is funded by the Florida Education as an international hub for global health in of these carers experience, 58 support Fund, the Center for African Studies, the Office which there are a multitude of resources groups have been installed throughout the of Research, and the Office of Graduate Diversity directed on combating HIV/AIDS such as Valley of a Thousand Hills. I was tasked to Initiatives. research institutes, academic conferences, undertake the data analysis of a programme

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 29 The New Public Policy of Higher Education Reform in Senegal

Awa Doucoure

My research analyzes the new control the growth of their population. of high school graduates (which went public policy reforms of higher In 2014 the Government of Senegal ad- from 11,207 in 2003 to 40,942 in 2013—an education in Senegal. These opted a new national strategy for economic increase of 365% in 10 years) led to an reforms were initiated by the Senegalese and social development: the Plan Sénégal unprecedented crisis in Senegalese higher government with the goal of developing Emergent (PSE). Due to the size of Senegal’s education. To face these challenges, Senegal quality human capital resources capable working-age population—estimated in 2013 has more recently undertaken a new process of having a direct influence on national by the National Agency for Demography of reforms. These reforms are the subject productivity. and Statistics at 7,728,868, representing of a sub-sector development strategy set Today, the so-called “demographic more than half (58.2%) of the resident out in two Higher Education and Research dividend” is a dominant issue in the public population in Senegal—one of the key Development programs. policies of African countries. By 2050 priorities of the PSE is the development of My dissertation aims at understanding Africa is projected to reach a threshold of human capital. This development of human how the government of Senegal concep- generational renewal, with twice as many capital, however, requires a structural and tualizes the development of human capital people as the current active population in-depth reform of the higher education as part of a strategy of economic develop- on the continent. According to a 2014 sector. ment, and to analyze the capacity of the study by the New Partnership for Africa’s Higher education was introduced in state to rethink the role of higher education Development program (NEPAD), the Senegal in the colonial period, with the es- within the productive process. It analyses number of young people in Africa will tablishment of the School of Medicine of how these new public policies are defined, double by 2045. African states are aware Dakar in 1918. From independence in 1960, the instruments for implementation, and that the demographic dividend presents the government has undertaken various the role of different actors in this process. a window of opportunity, a unique and efforts to reform and adapt the imported It also aims to constitute a theoretical and hardly ever renewed potential for eco- colonial model to the local context, so as to methodological contribution to the field of nomic development. In this context, the better respond to national needs. However, public policy analysis in Africa, not yet a implementation of public policies for the failure of various waves of reform, full-fledged subfield in Senegalese political human capital development is crucial for growing unemployment among university science. African countries, which must effectively graduates, and the increase in the number My time at the Center for African Studies provided me an opportunity to strengthen my theoretical understanding of public policy and human capital development. As a next step in my research, I plan to conduct interviews with officials from the Ministry of Higher Education who implement the new reforms, teachers and students who participated in the national consultation on the future of higher education in Senegal and the technical and financial resource partner organizations that are financing the reform project.

Awa Doucoure is a doctoral student in political science at the Université Gaston Berger in St. Louis, Senegal. From May 2017 through January 2018 she was a World Bank Robert S. McNamara Visiting Fellow at the Center for African Studies and hosted by the UF Sahel Research Group.

30 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 STUDENT REPORTS

Electoral Authoritarianism in the Francophone Sahel

Daniel Eizenga

In recent years political scientists I employ a comparative approach to compose the Sahel Research Group at the have observed that in some examine the interaction of political institu- University of Florida. sub-Saharan African countries tions, civil-military relations, traditional During the last year, I presented my democracy seems to consolidate and religious institutions, and civil society research at the annual Carter Conference despite the initial deficiencies to scrutinize how each contributes to the hosted by the Center for African Studies at different regime trajectories of Burkina the University of Florida, at the Univeristé that characterized their early Faso, Chad and Senegal, following their de Québec à Montréal and at the 60th multiparty elections while, in respective implementations of multiparty African Studies Association meeting in other countries, a restoration elections. During this research, I conducted Chicago. In the fall of 2017, the United of authoritarian politics follows fieldwork in these three countries over States Institute of Peace selected me as such an opening. Based on eighteen consecutive months (June 2014 – the principal investigator for a research extensive fieldwork in three Sahelian December 2015), with the goal of better project on the regulation of religion at African countries, my dissertation, understanding differences in their political institutes of higher education in Chad as “Surviving Democratization: Electoral trajectories, despite their relative and shared part of their larger research project on the Authoritarian Regimes in Burkina Faso, stability. The evidence I gathered from Lake Chad Basin. In 2017, I also received Chad and Senegal,” seeks to explain hundreds of interviews conducted with po- a dissertation writing fellowship from the different regime outcomes in each litical elites, civil society leaders, and other College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for case. In the dissertation, I advance an state actors, as well as extensive archival the spring semester of 2018. original theoretical framework based research, indicate that civil-military relations on different configurations of political alongside traditional and religious institu- Daniel Eizenga is a PhD candidate in political institutions, civil-military relations and tions interact with each country’s respective science and a former FLAS fellow (Arabic). religious and traditional institutions to political institutions to manage processes of Funding for his dissertation research was provided better understand how these institutions political liberalization in each case. My dis- by the UF Office of Research, College of Liberal influence the ability of elites to manage sertation and fieldwork remain indebted to Arts and Sciences, the Center for African Studies, pressures for greater liberalization from the invaluable advice and support of faculty the Sahel Research Group, the Department of civil society and the political opposition. at the Center for African Studies, contacts Political Science and the Minerva Initiative Grant The literature on democratization in in Burkina Faso, Chad and Senegal, and “Political Reform, Social Change, and Stability in political science has produced an abun- the engaging community of scholars who the African Sahel.” dance of regime types along the spectrum between democratic and authoritarian rule. Yet, this body of work has, so far, failed to understand a variety of funda- mental questions about these ‘electoral authoritarian’ regimes, particularly in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. My dissertation addresses this gap by examining several related questions including: Why are seemingly similar regimes trending in different directions of political liberalization? Why, following the implementation of multiparty elections, do some countries exhibit further institutionalization, while in others an erosion of institutions takes place? How are elections organized in these regimes, and how do politics manifest themselves in response? How do other socio-political institutions react and engage with society in electoral authoritarian contexts?

Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018 31 Plenty of Fish in the Sea? Shark Fishing and the Fin Trade in Ghana

Max Gelber

I spent summer 2017 conducting and bycatch shark fisheries provide locally- been paid to smaller exporting nations, like research in the Western Region consumed animal protein, and a source of Ghana, where a burgeoning trade in shark of Ghana as part of the Master of income for artisanal fishermen. With regards products has emerged to meet changing Sustainable Development Practice to sharks specifically, meat is harvested for market demands. Inadequate catch/landings (MDP) program. This research was the local market, while fins and other prod- and socioeconomic data, especially at the conducted with staff at Hen Mpoano (Our ucts are destined for the lucrative export artisanal level, hamper the ability of govern- Coast), a nonprofit organization in Takoradi, market. ment and other key stakeholders to craft Ghana that provides technical, policy, and Since the 1980s, following China’s and implement sustainable fishery manage- extension support to coastal communities, “reform and opening-up” period, shark fin ment policies that meets the present and civil society groups, and other stakeholders consumption has grown substantially. High future socioeconomic and environmental in fisheries and coastal ecosystem demand for shark fin in China has left global challenges presented by the trade. governance. shark populations in peril. Heightened media My research fills in some of the missing Sustainable Development Goal 14 attention and substantial lobbying from pieces to the larger, complex puzzle of the highlights the critical role our oceans play conservation organizations and celebrities global trade in shark products. Using semi- in sustaining life on Earth, and calls for has pressured governments to regulate and, structured interviews, informal interviews, leaders around the world to intensify their in some cases, ban shark fin trading and the ethnographic observation, academic litera- commitments to protecting and conserving gruesome practice of shark finning. These ture, grey literature, and international catch our oceans and marine resources. Part and efforts, along with changing tastes among data, this research provides key socioeco- parcel to ensuring the sustainability of our youth and reported health concerns, have nomic and environmental data on the shark oceans and seas is protecting its innumerable resulted in noticeable declines in shark fin fin trade, and elucidates the complex link- species. My field practicum project draws consumption in China and elsewhere. ages between actors in the shark fin supply much-needed attention to the Elasmobranch However, new markets and trade routes chain, in three fishing communities in species, which include sharks, rays, and have emerged for shark fin and other Ghana’s Western Region: Shama, Dixcove, skates. The paper focuses predominately on products. At the same time, a significant and Axim. Research findings reveal nuanced shark species, which play a critical role in the paucity in fisheries and trade data, especially information that government and other key ocean’s food chain, and are currently under in developing countries, makes it difficult stakeholders can use to design and imple- immense threat. to assess the true extent of global shark ment better management, conservation, and In Ghana, shark species are targeted populations and the prevailing trade in shark economic plans and policies with respect to and caught as bycatch. Both the targeted products. Furthermore, little attention has local, national, and international shark fisheries. One such finding is that a number of vulnerable and threatened shark species are caught off the Ghanaian coast, including the Great White, Common Thresher, Hammerhead, and Sand Tiger, and that while shark catches have generally de- creased, certain species, like Hammerhead, have almost completely disappeared from fishermen’s catches.

Max J. Gelber is completing his Master of Sustainable Development Practice (MDP) degree, and certificates in African Studies and Tropical Conservation and Development, at UF. His summer field practicum was supported by the Center for African Studies, the Center for Latin American Studies, and Hen Mpoano, a Ghana-based environmental NGO. He is currently a FLAS fellow (Akan, 2016-18).

32 Center for African Studies Research Report 2017–2018

Table of Contents