Reclaiming and Reinvigorating African Culture: How Appropriate?

Babalola Ademola,
Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife,
Nigeria

babloademola@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Suffering from a sense of lost past, Africans since the subjugation of the continent from the nineteenth century till the present day are clamouring for Africa for Africans and a reclamation and re-invigoration of the culture(s) of Africans. However, within the broad frame of what is considered human culture, its evolution and growth, in this paper, we seek to know or find out which really is the African culture(s)? Moreover, within the context of a globalized world, how appropriate is it to demand for a reclamation and reinvigoration of what is considered the African culture.

Bangura Abdul Karim

Fractal Complexity in Mwalimu Toyin Falola’s A Mouth Sweeter than Salt: A Pluridisciplinary Exploration of Cultural Power,

Howard University, 7532 Eighth Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20012,
USA.,

E-mail Addresses: (preferred) theai@earthlink.net,

(Preferred) theafricaninstitution@verizon.net, akbangura@howard.edu,

Telephone Numbers:   (Preferred) Home: 202.882.8228, (Preferred) The African Institution:  202.829.6554, Howard University Office:  202.806.6720 or 9388 or 6850

Fractal Complexity in Mwalimu Toyin Falola’s A Mouth Sweeter than Salt: A Pluridisciplinary Exploration of Cultural Power

Abstract

While my elaborate search yielded 48 scholarly citations and more than half a dozen scholarly book reviews on Mwalimu Toyin Falola’s A Mouth Sweeter than Salt: An African Memoir (2005), no systematic analysis has been done on the text, even though such potential exists. This study is an attempt to fill this gap. Specifically, I employ the mathematical concept of Fractal Dimension and Complexity Theory to explore the idea of spectrum progressing from more orderly to less orderly or to pure disorder in terms of cultural power in the text. This called for the utilization of the Pluridisciplianry approach that helped me to mix linguistics and mathematical approaches—more precisely, Linguistic Presupposition and Fractal Methodology. The results generated after the MATLAB computer runs suggest that the combination of negative and positive feedback loops, which form the basis of several African knowledge systems, also form a key mechanism of general self-organizing systems of cultural power discussed in A Mouth Sweeter than Salt: An African Memoir.

CULTURE, ISLAM AND WOMEN IN NORTHERN NIGERIA: SOME HISTORICAL INVESTIGATION

BY

BAWA, AISHA BALARABE
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
USMANU DANFODIYO UNIVERSITY, SOKOTO
NIGERIA
email: ayshabawa@gmail.com

Abstract 

                                                                                                                             
Cultures all over the world have always given the verdict that women were less than men. Culture has dealt such blows on women that to affirm their plight as pathetic is an understatement. In Northern Nigeria especially among the Hausa people there still exist a syncretistic blend of Islam and the Hausa culture. The dominant perception or understanding of Muslim women in this region is their subordination by men arising from the intersection of a patriarchal Islam and Hausa cultural values. This paper argues that the complete fusion of these identities has contributed in reinforcing traditional, religious and cultural prejudices against women. It has further placed women in a more politically disadvantage position, resulting in their unequal access to education and health, as such exposes them to vulnerability of poverty,prostitution,human trafficking, HIV/AIDS etc.