African Background Research Articles

Distinguishing African American English from developmental errors in the language production of toddlers

This study examined the use of nonstandard forms in the language production of typically developing toddlers. Forty-four African American and White children, ages 2.5 and 3.5 years, were assigned to one of four groups based on their chronological age and linguistic background. Language sample analysis and a listener judgment task were used to evaluate nonstandard speech. Results indicated that 2.5- and 3.5-year-old toddlers from African American English backgrounds produced similar amounts of nonstandard speech. However, 2.5-year-old toddlers from standard American English backgrounds produced greater amounts of nonstandard speech than their 3.5-year-old peers.

Early ethnic difference in insulin-like growth factor-1 is associated with African genetic admixture.

IGF-1 is a growth-promoting hormone. Numerous studies have reported higher systemic concentrations of IGF-1 among African Americans (AA) compared with European Americans (EA) before puberty. We conducted this cross-sectional analysis to determine whether African ancestral genetic background, dietary factors, energy expenditure, adiposity, and socioeconomic status contribute to this difference. Children were prepubertal, AA and EA males and females. Genetic admixture was assessed from approximately 20 ancestry informative genetic markers. Body composition was determined by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry; intake of energy, carbohydrate, protein, and fat by 24-h dietary recall; activity-related energy expenditure by doubly labeled water and indirect calorimetry; and socioeconomic status (SES) according to the Hollingshead scale. IGF-1 and IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3) were measured using immunoradiometric assays. AA children had significantly greater IGF-1 compared with EA children (p < 0.01). In addition, AA children had lower SES and greater protein intake relative to EAs (p < 0.05 for both). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the only significant independent predictors of IGF-1 were IGFBP-3 and African admixture (p < 0.01 for both). Thus, our data suggest that the greater IGF-1 of AA relative to EA children could have a genetic basis.

A study of identity in post-apartheid South African English literature: &lt;i&gt;The Pickup&lt;/i&gt; by Nadine Gordimer

In examining aspects of identity in “The Pickup” (2001), Nadine Gordimer’s latest novel, this article indicates new trends in postapartheid South African English literature as well. In the article it is indicated that identity has always been an important theme in Gordimer’s novels. Her earlier novels tend to focus on her characters’ struggle to attain political or racial rather than personal freedom, while her later novels increasingly tend to examine the construction of individual identities. “The Pickup” has continued this search for identity, but against a new and interesting perspective, a perspective that is in line with the political transformation of post-apartheid South Africa after 1994. Moreover, this theme is extremely relevant in the twenty-first century with its increased emphasis on place and globalisation. This article thus examines the theme of identity in “The Pickup”, first against a South African background and then against the backdrop of an unknown town somewhere in the desert – most probably in Northern Africa.

Preliminary Evidence for Ethnic Differences in Primary Hyperoxaluria Type 1 Genotype

Background: Primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1) is caused by a deficiency of peroxisomal alanine:glyoxylate aminotransferase (AGT). In about one third of patients, enzymatically active AGT is synthesized but is mistargeted to mitochondria. There are more than 50 mutations identified in the gene for AGT. Four mutations, G170R, 33_34insC, F152I and I244T account for more than 50% of PH1 alleles. The question arose whether there are ethnic differences in PH1 genotype. Methods: The published data on mutations in the AGT gene were examined with respect to recurrences and geographic or ethnic association. The mutations that have been found in at least 2 unrelated individuals were considered. Results: Two common mutations, G170R and 33_34insC showed no obvious ethnic associations and have been found in a variety of populations. A third common PH1 mutation, I244T, has a strong association with people from a Spanish or North African background. A particularly high frequency among Canary Islands PH1 patients suggests a probable founder effect. Between these two extremes are a number of mutations that recur at low frequency within certain ethnic groups. Conclusions: Ethnic associations of PH1 genotypes span a spectrum ranging from limited recurrences confined to a population group, to a probable founder effect.

Metabolic Syndrome and Insulin Resistance in Normal Glucose Tolerant Brazilian Adolescents With Family History of Type 2 Diabetes

Metabolic syndrome increases risk for cardiovascular disease (1,2). The diagnosis of metabolic syndrome in patients might hold promise for enhanced prevention of cardiovascular disease. Currently, there is no consensus on the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents, with variable prevalence of metabolic syndrome from 4.2 to 32% in several populations (3–5). The highest rates of metabolic syndrome were found in adolescents with Latino or African backgrounds (3,6). However, this racial/ethnic predisposition to metabolic syndrome is not well defined. The Brazilian population has a high degree of mis-cegenation that includes a mix of indigenous people, Afro- and Euro-Brazilians, and a widespread Latin ancestry. We do not know if this genetic and environmental diversity can modify the prevalence of metabolic syndrome or its relationship to obesity. In this study, we determine the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in a group of Brazilian adolescents with a family history of type 2 diabetes. Inclusion criteria were age between 10 and 19 years, good health, and family history of type 2 diabetes. The Sao Paulo Federal University Ethics Committee reviewed and approved the study. Informed consent and assent were obtained from all participants or relatives. BMI cut points for overweight and obesity by sex and age in children were defined as 25 and 30 kg/m2, respectively, at age 18 years. These criteria were chosen because of the inclusion of Brazilian children and adolescents …

We Learn From Others: An Adult Educator's Experience with International Education Practice

Before beginning discussion on international education, it is important to understand what it means. According to Cookson (1989), international education is systematic study of the process whereby men and women (in individual, groups, or institutional settings) participate in or implement organized activities that have been designed to increase their knowledge, skill, or sensitiveness, and that take place across international borders (p. 71). The idea of joint education practice by educators from nations throughout the is not new because it has evolved over time. During the pre-industrial revolution, forms of education, such as self-directed learning, apprenticeships, early mass literacy campaigns, military training, and newspapers were developed and widely diffused throughout Europe and subsequently to its colonies, such as those in Africa and Latin America. For example, innovations that have been spread from North America and Europe to other parts of the World include correspondence instruction, agricultural extension, and experiential learning. Similarly, influences of Western models of learning, such as the Brazilian Paulo Freire's (1970) ideas concerning conscientization (i.e. the heightening of one's critical awareness) was disseminated through what was called world Recent forms of international cooperation and exchange include UNESCO's (1985) effort to promote cooperation to combat worldwide illiteracy more effectively. In fact, the concept of adult learning as articulated by the United Nations' conferences, including the fifth International Conference (CONFINTEA V) in 1997, is broad one embracing formal, nonformal and informal processes in all areas of people's lives (UNESCO, 1997, p. 43). Through UNESCO's international conferences, educators have an opportunity for global forum where they may exchange information on problems, pool experiences and expertise, disseminate research findings, and address issues of international cooperation in the provision of aid and assistance to one another. As an educator who is both product of international education institutions and one with passion for international education practice, I share my personal experience and lessons learned from participation in international education. International Adult Education: Why Personal Interest? After 25 years of experience in the field of education, three major aspects stand out as key to my passion for international education. They include my African cultural educational background that upholds collective and living (Avoseh, 2001); interest in issues of difference and education; and the need to satisfy an interest in how human beings live and learn. This section briefly discusses these three factors: My African cultural educational background: In my oral traditions, cultural proverbs and common understandings are used to reinforce collective methods of and teaching. For example, the following proverbs attest to the existence of alternative ways of to the dominant paradigms of knowledge acquisition and learning. Setswana Proverb h Dilo makwati di tsewa mo go ba bangwe, meaning learn from one another, and Setwana Proverb 2: Kgetsiya tsie e kgonwa ke go tsbwaraganelwa, meaning a bag of locust can only be lifted if we all lift it. Based on these two proverbs from my culture and the reality of the impact of globalization on education practice, I truly believe that educators have to share information, ideas, and experiences. This, in my view, is critical for improving their practice. As Waiters (2001) puts it, global--act and global--think (p.23). This is true because the reality for educators is that today, the global and the local are interconnected, thus people have to be encouraged to think globally and act locally regardless of their context. …

African Cultural Hermeneutics: Interpreting the New Testament in a Cultural Context

African cultural hermeneutics demonstrates how the gospel can be interpreted and made relevant for African social situations. The aim of this study is to show the influence of African culture on the gospel message. The study began with a discussion of the different names used for Africa in the ancient time and the influence of Egyptian wisdom on Jesus. Since Jesus sojourned in Egypt, he might have appropriated African wisdom and mode of discourse. Similarly, the African concept of the Messiah was known as Messu, Krst, or Karast in Egyptian pantheon. Osiris and Horus are shown as archetypes of Jesus. Thus, the Godking, redeemer, saviour-creator of the New Testament Christology—existed in Africa long before the coming of Jesus. Moreover, monotheism, which has an African background, was introduced by Pharaoh Akhenaton of the nineteenth dynasty in Egypt. The conclusion shows that important themes found in the gospel narratives have their versions in African religion and culture. This reveals that Jesus not only fulfilled Old Testament themes, but also realized African theological aspirations of the distant past.

Domestic violence and minoritisation: Legal and policy barriers facing minoritized women leaving violent relationships

This article on service responses to women of African, African-Caribbean, Irish, Jewish and South Asian backgrounds facing domestic violence draws on our recently completed study based in Manchester, UK ( Batsleer et al., 2002) [Batsteeler, J., Burman, E., Chantler, K., McIntosh, S.H., Pantling, K., Smailes, S., Warner, S., et al. 2002. Domestic violence minoritisation: Supporting women to indepence. Women's Studies Centre: The Manchester Metropolitan University]. We frame our analysis of domestic violence and minoritisation around the question that is frequently posed in relation to women living with domestic violence: ‘why doesn’t she leave?’ In response, we highlight the complex and intersecting connections between domestic violence, law, mental health provision, entitlement to welfare services, which function alongside constructions of ‘culture’ and cultural identifications, structures of racism, class and gendered oppression. All these contribute to maintain women, particularly minoritized women, in violent relationships. Further, we illustrate how leaving violent relationships does not necessarily guarantee the safety of women and children escaping domestic violence. Despite many recent legal and social policy initiatives in the UK that have usefully brought domestic violence into the public domain, there have also been counter-measures which have made leaving violent relationships correspondingly more difficult, in particular for women from minoritized communities. We offer an analysis of how state practices, particularly facets of immigration law in the UK (although Bhattacharjee, 1997, provides an equivalent U.S. analysis), interact with domestic violence. These not only equip perpetrators with a powerful tool to oppress minoritized women further, but it also indicates how state structures thereby come to impact directly on women’s distress (Chantler et al, 2001). In addition, we highlight how other aspects of state policy and practice which enter into the material well-being of survivors of domestic violence, for example, housing, levels of state benefits, and child-care also pose significant obstacles to minoritized women leaving violent relationships. Whilst women from majority/dominant groups also face many of these barriers, we illustrate how the racialized dimensions of such policies heightens their exclusionary effects. It is argued that legal and psychological strategies need to address the complexity of how public, state and institutional practices intersect with racism, class and gender oppression in order to develop more sensitive and accessible ways of supporting minoritized women and children living with domestic violence.

As cores do som: estruturas sonoras e concepção estética na música afro-brasileira

Com este ensaio propõe-se uma sistematização de estruturas musicais afro-brasileiras com base em estudos feitos no campo da musicologia africana e brasileira. As musicalidades afro-brasileiras são percebidas de forma específica nesta abordagem, pois mesmo não se tratando de música africana, são orientadas por princípios musicais africanos, ao mesmo tempo que também enveredam por caminhos próprios, principalmente com relação às suas concepções estéticas.

Pre‐vocational education: the making of Israel's ethno‐working class

This article deals with pre‐vocational education that was first implemented in Israel's educational system in 1955 in 7th and 8th grades of elementary school. The purpose of the article is to examine the role that this education played in making Israel's ethno‐working class. This role emerged, we argue, through conflicting dynamics involving two opposite rationales: universalistic and particularistic. On the one hand, pre‐vocational education was perceived as an integral component of both a pedagogic conception and a national worldview that viewed vocational training, respectively, as crucial for the development of every child and for ‘economic equilibrium’ in the country. Yet, on the other hand, from the beginning of the program's implementation the universalistic rationales were abandoned or collapsed as growing importance was attributed to particularistic rationales. In other words, pre‐vocational education came to be seen primarily as a means by which to ensure the ‘integration’ of Mizrahi children (i.e., children of Asian and African background) into Israel's social and economic life, thus contributing significantly to creating Israel's ethno‐working class. Presenting the dynamics leading to this result, we proceed to offer the reasons that led the particularistic rationales to gain the ascendancy over the universalistic rationales. We argue that these reasons owe to the dynamics characterizing of the nation‐building processes in general. That is, the particularistic rationales are implicitly embedded within the universal and homogenizing logic of these processes, processes that tend to suppress this logic from within. Whereas the inherent internal logic of the modern nation‐state appears to necessitate equality of opportunities, it was that same logic, we argue, that constructed certain groups that are ‘incapable’ of benefiting from that equality, because they are ostensibly unable or unwilling to adopt the basic values of modernity.

‘Culture’ as a Barrier to Service Provision and Delivery: Domestic Violence Services for Minoritized Women

This paper addresses how domestic violence services to women of African, African-Caribbean, South Asian, Jewish and Irish backgrounds are structured by assumptions about ‘culture’ which produce barriers to the delivery of domestic violence services. Phoenix’s (1987, ‘Theories of Gender and Black Families’, pp. 50-61 in G. Weiner and M. Arnot (eds) Gender Under Scrutiny. London: Hutchinson) discussion of the representation of black women is applied more generally to analyse how discourses of gender and racialization function within accounts of domestic violence service provision. Discourses of both cultural specificity and generality/commonality are shown to intersect to effectively exclude minority ethnic women from such services. Domestic violence emerges as something that can be overlooked or even excused for ‘cultural reasons’, as a homogenized absence; or alternatively as a pathologized presence, producing heightened visibility of minoritized women both within and outside their communities - since domestic violence brings them and their communities under particular scrutiny. Such configurations also inform discourses of service provision to minoritized women. Finally key implications are identified for service design, delivery and development, including the need for both culturally specific and mainstream provision around domestic violence, and the need to challenge notions of ‘cultural privacy’ and ‘race anxiety’ in work with minoritized communities.

Preparing Diverse Adolescents for the Transition to Adulthood

SUMMARY Whether adolescents from immigrant and ethnic minority families will make a successful transition to adulthood hinges on their educational achievement, their acquisition of employable skills and abilities, and their physical and mental health. This article focuses on the extent to which diverse adolescents are prepared for adulthood according to these three critical developmental outcomes. It finds that, in general, adolescents from Latino and African American backgrounds appear to be less prepared to become healthy, productive, and successful adults than their peers. Specifically: * Current data show that youth from Latino and African American families, particularly foreign-born Latino youth, have more difficulty than other adolescents completing school at each stage of the educational pipeline. * African American and Latino youth aged 18 and over who do not attend college have more difficulty finding employment than white youth with similar levels of education. * In general, minority youth are more likely to be in poor physical health and to engage in high-risk behaviors compared with white youth, while immigrant youth appear to be healthier across a broad range of indicators. A key reason for these differences is that minority and immigrant youth have less access to and use of high-quality institutions and programs, including high schools, colleges, after-school programs, and health care resources. To better prepare these youth for adulthood, the authors call for improving school quality, providing financial support and health insurance, addressing information and language gaps, and building upon cultural traditions. ********** As with adolescents in any society, youth in the contemporary United States must develop a set of skills and acquire certain characteristics in order to become successful and productive adults. Although a comprehensive list of such qualities can be broad in scope and should be specific to youth's unique life circumstances, there are three developmental outcomes in particular that are known to have great significance for the adult success of all American adolescents: (1) receipt of high school and postsecondary degrees; (2) the acquisition of employable skills and abilities; and (3) the development of physical and mental health. A host of studies have indicated that the attainment of these outcomes by the end of the teenage years bodes well for the future social and economic integration of youth into American society. The answer to the question of whether adolescents from immigrant and ethnic minority families will make a successful transition to adulthood, therefore, hinges on youth's achievement of these three critical outcomes. This article focuses on the extent to which diverse adolescents are prepared for adulthood by achieving educational attainment, occupational success, and physical and mental health. A description of current trends in these developmental outcomes sets the stage. Next, the article discusses the extent to which adolescents from immigrant and ethnic minority families have access to and make use of institutions and programs that promote successful development during the teenage years. The final section of the article highlights the particular characteristics of adolescents from immigrant and ethnic minority families that need to be taken into account in order to improve access to and use of such programs. Discussion focuses upon youth from both immigrant and ethnic minority families because immigrant status is highly confounded with ethnic background. Most immigrant families originate in Asian and Latin American societies and the majority of all Asian and Latino youth in the United States have at least one foreign-born parent. (1) Information regarding the development of ethnic minority youth, therefore, provides a context for the specific situations facing adolescents from immigrant families. …

Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition (review)

Reviewed by: Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition Alejandro de la Fuente Stephan Palmié . Wizards and Scientists: Explorations in Afro-Cuban Modernity and Tradition. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. 399 pp. This erudite and daring book proposes to study Afro-Cuban cultural expressions from a novel and theoretically sophisticated point of view. Palmié seeks to destroy the divide that juxtaposes "Western modernity" and "Afro-Cuban tradition" as two typological opposites, claiming instead that they "represent mere facets or perspectival refractions of a single encompassing historical formation of transcontinental scope" (15). The author explains that both Western modernity and Afro-Cuban traditions arose and "became thinkable as such" in a "complex historical matrix" (17) he defines as "Atlantic modernity" (15). Thus Afro-Cuban traditions, including what we think of as Afro-Cuban religions, are as "modern" as Western modernity itself. They have to be, for it is only within the framework of modernity that they can be thought of and understood as "traditions." They are both part and parcel of the same process. Wizards and Scientists thus attempts to "reintegrate a set of seemingly heterogeneous narratives about the making of our present world into their common historical context of origin" (17). Palmié proposes to do this through three case studies, not chronologically linked, that allow him to analyze in detail the historical circumstances under which what we now see as Afro-Cuban traditions were produced. The first case study (chapter 1) deals with the controversial and enigmatic figure of José Antonio Aponte, a free black man who lived in Havana in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and who is thought to have led an anticolonial and abolitionist conspiracy on the island. The second case study (chapter 2) looks historically at the relationships between two distinct African-based religions in the island: regla de ocha (or Santería) and palo monte. Regla de ocha is typically seen as a Yoruba-based religious form, whereas palo monte is identified with the Bantu-speaking slaves known as "Congo" in nineteenth-century Cuba. Chapter 3 also deals with Afro-Cuban religion, but in the context of self-conscious efforts by the Cuban state to build a modern and progressive nation in the early 1900s. Palmié argues that the construction of modernity and the suppression of Afro-Cuban traditions must be studied together. An introductory chapter theorizes about the need to rethink the process of modernization in the Caribbean—"a place squarely in the West, but not of it" (52). The author engages throughout the [End Page 139] book in an exhaustive dialogue with various bodies of scholarship, including a large number of cultural theorists. Palmié's approach has important methodological implications and results in interesting, sometimes unpredictable, findings. As for methodology, he proposes that in order to recover the voices and experiences of individuals who "may once have been" and whose existence remains "beyond historiographic recovery" (8), it is necessary to make use of "forms of expression—dreams, rumors, and 'beliefs'—not generally considered admissible as evidence documenting historical reality" (20). For instance, Palmié takes issue with the depiction of Aponte by Cuba's nationalist historiography. This historiography has presented the Afro-Cuban artisan as a radical activist in whom an enlightened revolutionary thought combined with his African background to create a "counter hegemonic project" (91). Aponte's conversion into a martyr of colonialism and slavery, Palmié notes, elides "the question of subaltern consciousness" (85) and traps him in a discourse that obscures and "trivializes the complexities of [Aponte's] consciousness" (95). Palmié marvels that the most important documentary record about the possible conspiracy, a book of pictures created by Aponte and confiscated by authorities, has been neglected by historians studying this case. This remarkable book has not been located, but Aponte was extensively interrogated about the meaning of the pinturas in the book and thus we have his own interpretation about them. "Why then not talk about precisely that?" asks Palmié. "If uncovering the subaltern voice is the historian's business, why have Aponte's latter-day interrogators exhibited such reticence to face precisely that part of the record where we do, indeed, seem to hear his voice...

The Assessment Of Intellectual Capital (Ic) In The South African Context – A Qualitative Approach

The aim of the article is to report on an investigation into IC as portrayed by thought leaders and research groups, against a South African background. An attempt was made to clarify relevant terminology, develop a model and methodology for South African application, and assess the status of IC within the South Africa context through a qualitative methodology using Focus Groups. Results indicated that IC in South Africa is still in the infancy stage. However, models and methodologies developed in other continents could with changes be applied in the South African context.&#x0D; &#x0D; OpsommingDie doel van hierdie artikel is om verslag te doen oor die ondersoek na Intellektuele Kapitaal (IK) soos voorgestel deur vakkundiges en navorsingsgroepe, teen die agtergrond van die Suid Afrikaanse situasie. ’n Poging is aangewend om tersaaklike terminologie te verklaar, ’n model en metodologie vir Suid Afrikaanse aanwending te ontwikkel, en dit sowel as die status van IK in die Suid Afrikaanse omgewing te ondersoek deur middel van ’n kwalitatiewe metodologie, naamlik fokusgroepe. IK in Suid Afrika is steeds in die kinderskoene. Modelle en metodologieë ontwikkel in ander lande kan egter met aanpassings aangewend word vir aanwending in die Suid Afrikaanse omgewing.

Genetic predisposition to alcoholic chronic pancreatitis.

The mechanisms leading to alcoholic chronic pancreatitis in humans have remained elusive. Numerous questions surround the apparent random nature of the disease in which 1 person is hit with alcoholic chronic pancreatitis while the next is spared. Why do fewer than 10% of chronic, heavy alcohol users ever develop pancreatitis, while others develop alcoholic liver disease, neuropathy, or other alcohol-associated problems? Why do laboratory animals, fed large amounts of alcohol for prolonged periods of time, fail to develop typical chronic pancreatitis? Why are heavy alcohol users from a black African background more likely to develop pancreatic diseases than Caucasians, whereas the opposite is true for the development of liver disease? The answers underlying these questions appear to reflect the differences in underlying genetic susceptibility, environmental exposure, and the interaction between these factors. Thus, even cases of "typical" alcoholic chronic pancreatitis or other forms of pancreatitis appear to be complex diseases. Recently, several genetic mutations have been identified that increase the susceptibility to pancreatitis. However, the major common gene mutations in CFTR, PRSS1, and SPINK1 only slightly increase the risk of alcoholic chronic pancreatitis. New genetic, environmental, and triggering factors must be considered to gain further insight into the mechanisms leading to alcoholic chronic pancreatitis so that strategies for treatment and prevention can be developed.

Deaf persons of asian american, Hispanic american, and african american backgrounds: a study of intraindividual diversity and identity.

This article explores the ways in which deaf college students who are members of minority racial groups think about and describe their identities. In-depth, semistructured interviews with 33 deaf students of Asian American, Hispanic American, and African American background were analyzed for themes regarding the self-reported identities of respondents. Results suggest that each person is a constellation of many parts, some of which are stronger than others but any of which can be drawn out in response to a particular set of circumstances, resulting in a contextual and interactive model of identity. Four factors are described as central to this "intraindividual" model: individual characteristics, situational conditions, social conditions, and societal conditions. Additionally, the model includes a biographical component reflected in changes in identity that occur over time. Findings are discussed as they relate to identity theory. The article is concluded with recommendations for further research, as well as considerations for educators and counselors of deaf minority students.

Cultural politics and clinical competence in Australian health services

Medical competence is demonstrated in multiple ways in clinical settings, and includes technical competence, both in terms of diagnosis and management, and cultural competence, as demonstrated in communication between providers and clients. In cross-cultural contexts, such communication is complicated by interpersonal communication and the social and cultural context. To illustrate this, we present four case studies that illustrate the themes from interviews with immigrant women and refugees from Middle Eastern and Sahel African backgrounds, conducted as part of a study of their reproductive health. In our analysis, we highlight the limitations of conventional models of communication. We illustrate the need for health providers to appreciate the possible barriers of education, ethnicity, religion and gender that can impede communication, and the need to be mindful of broader structural, institutional and inter-cultural factors that affect the quality of the clinical encounter.

Family discussion about organ donation among African Americans.

Relatively little is known about family discussion concerning donation among African Americans in the United States, especially discussion predating the brain death of a family member and the donor request process. To explore the inclination of African Americans to engage in family discussion about organ donation and the characteristics of those who expressed a desire to their families to donate their organs upon death. Focus groups and a cross-sectional survey. A large metropolitan complex in Houston, Tex, with a relatively sizeable African American population. A total of 18 persons of African American background participated in 2 focus groups; 375 randomly selected African American residents were surveyed by questionnaire. Prodonation family discussion. Only 100% of subjects were found to be in the "action" (having had a prodonation discussion) or "maintenance" (having had a prodonation discussion and not inclined to alter one's wishes) stages with regard to family discussion. These subjects were not found distinguished from others by age, gender, education, or frequency of religious attendance. They were, however, found differentiated from others by feelings of diffuse support for donation, knowledge of donation, having read or heard a lot about donation, and by the belief that organ donation was not against one's religion-when these variables were individually considered. Yet, when these variables were simultaneously considered in a multivariate discriminant function analysis, diffuse support for donation no longer distinguished those in the action/maintenance stage from other subjects.

Central Africans and cultural transformations in the American diaspora

Forward Jan Vansina Introduction Linda Heywood Part I. Central Africa: Society, Culture and the Slave Trade: 1. Central Africa during the era of the slave trade, c. 1490s-1850s Joseph C. Miller 2. Religious and ceremonial life in the Congo and Mbundu areas, 1500-1700 John K. Thornton 3. Portuguese into African: the eighteenth century Central African background to Atlantic Creole culture Linda Heywood Part II. Central Africans in Brazil: 4. Central Africans in Central Brazil, 1780-1835 Mary Karasch 5. Who is king of the Congo? A new look at African and Afro-Brazilian Kings in Brazil Elizabeth W. Kiddy 6. The great porpoise-skull strike: Central-African water spirits and slave identity in early nineteenth-century Rio De Janeiro Robert W. Slenes Part III. Central Africans in Haiti and Spanish America: 7. Twins, Simbi spirits and Lwas in Kongo and Haiti Wyatt MacGaffey 8. The Central African presence in Spanish Maroon communities Jane Landers 9. Central African popular Christianity and the making of Haitian Vodou religion Hein Vanhee 10. Kongolese catholic influences on Haitian popular Catholicism: a socio-historical exploration Terry Rey Part IV. Central Africans in North America and the Caribbean: 11. 'Walk in the Feenda': West-Central Africans and the forest in the South Carolina-Georgia low country Ras Michael B. Brown 12. Liberated Central Africans in nineteenth century Guyana Monic Schuler 13. Combat and the crossing of the Kalunga Thomas J. Desch-Obi.

Behind the window dressing: Ethnic minority police perspectives on cultural diversity

Bedrock assumptions about the benefits of recruiting more ethnic minority police officers and enhancing cultural diversity training for police are critically evaluated by black and Asian police officers in Britain. Neither policy finds favour among groups which articulate a previously concealed interpretation of such aims: that their value lies in presenting an outward image of action rather than furthering the public good. The research reported in this paper - the first to have gained the cooperation of British police services - involved unstructured interviews with officers from African Caribbean and South Asian backgrounds. The interviews took place in the 18 months following the publication of the Macpherson Report in February 1999 and reflected some of the policy recommendations made by the report, which was based on the inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence. Interviewees analyse the two central policy directives advanced by both the Macpherson Report and the Scarman Report, which had been published 18 years before. Both policies concern the enhancement of cultural diversity as a way of combating racism. Cynically regarded in some quarters as 'window dressing', the policies are not seen as helpful, nor even harmless, but as pernicious in that they contrive to give the appearance of progress, while actually achieving little. Interviews were subject to strict confidentiality and conducted in circumstances of the officers' choice in the effort to minimise any inhibitions about expressing views candidly. The officers' perspective is revealed by extensive use of verbatim quotations which drive the narrative of the article. They indicate how far the viewpoints of ethnic minority officers contrast with official policy.