African Space Research Articles

The African Leadership Conference on Space Science and Technology for Sustainable Development

The African Leadership Conference on Space Science and Technology (known as “the ALC”) is a regional conference to promote intra-African cooperation in the uses of space science and technology to support Africa’s development. The first such conference was held in 2005 in Abuja, Nigeria, followed by South Africa (2007), Algeria (2009) and Kenya (2011). The ALC has come to be regarded as a representative African forum in the global space community. This paper provides an overview of the structure and activities of the ALC and presents the highlights and outcomes of the first four conferences and their contribution to shaping the development of the African space arena. The paper concludes with an analysis of the challenges facing the ALC and some proposed measures to enhance its effectiveness.

The meaning of South African media's expansion into the rest of African space

Focusing on South African media in Africa as a case study, this article argues that national media regionalisation of those economically dominant countries located geo-politically in the southern hemisphere is paradoxical. On the one hand, it follows the same liberal economic expansionist logic as their Western media counterparts and can pose a serious threat to the development of the national/local media of the recipient countries. On the other, it can foster new forms of cooperation among developing countries in the areas such as programme exchange and local media content production. Despite some advantages, the paper argues, these expansions and particularly the South African ones can function as intermediaries for extension of various forms of Western media and cultural imperialism(s).

Language management in Africa: The dialectics of theory and practice

From an Africanist standpoint, the paper maps the frontiers of the emerging language management paradigm in the study and practice of politics of language from the perspectives of theory, method, discipline, and practice. The discussion advances two core arguments. First, an Africanist interpretation of the discourse of the politics of language that underpins language management brings to the fore the peculiarities of language management within the African space. Second, it is imperative to develop the theoretical and practical advances in language management concurrently, especially in a continent that is known to rely on intellectual advances from other continents.

Constructing African American Urban Space in Atlanta, Georgia*

Recognizing the connections between the construction of urban space and racial identity, this article explores an urban redevelopment scheme launched in 2004 by Big Bethel ame Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Known as the “Renaissance Walk,” Big Bethel's project is a $45 million dollar redevelopment plan to turn an adjacent city block into a mixed‐use development. By looking at the racialization of place from the perspective of those who live, work, and organize along Auburn Avenue, one of the most historically significant African American business corridors in the United States, I contend that Big Bethel's redevelopment project is emblematic of contemporary black counterpublic spaces and links the redevelopment project undertaken by Big Bethel with African American identity positions.

Kulula.com, South Africa – a case study

Subject area Human resource management; primarily employment law impacting on employment relations. Study level/applicability Second year (or 200 level) students up to post graduate programmes in Business Management, Human Resources Management and Law. Case overview The world is still fascinated by South Africas transition to democracy; what with stories of massacre (Sharpeville, etc.) of those who dared challenge white supremacy and the battle for prominence between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party. Since gaining independence, South Africa has attracted investors from far and wide. Now and again, one hears news stories that report about forms of disgruntlement from whites and blacks, respectively. In some quarters, you may hear stories suggesting the white community has not completely gotten over their resentment of black leadership. In some other quarters, you are likely to hear the blacks insist that the South African land space belongs to them and as a result they should be in charge of the distribution of wealth, one must understand that much of the wealth of the South African land still resides with the Whites. In what is considered as a fair attempt to integrate all the citizens of the republic, the new government of Nelson Mandela came up with a constitution that is hailed as perhaps the best in the world. Carved out of the United Nations Human Rights Charter, it proposes a free society that recognizes all its inhabitants regardless of colour. Within the world of work, the constitution identifies seven very important statutes that not only give effect to and sustain the republics membership of the International Labour Organisation, but also help to realize and regulate the fundamental rights of workers and employers. Main learning objective Test students understanding of the legal statutes that pertain to employment relations and human resource management in South Africa. Expected learning outcomes Understand the legislation affecting management and staff. Understand and apply the principles of recruitment and selection of staff. Identify and apply the options open to managers in staff training and development. Identify and apply the appropriate performance management systems. Understand and apply the strategic human resource planning process. Supplementary materials Teaching note.

Administrative knowledge in a colonial context: Angola in the eighteenth century

AbstractThis essay analyses the circulation of political models and administrative practices drawn from the Enlightenment statecraft of metropolitan Portugal and their inscription in specific colonial contexts of Angola in the mid-eighteenth century. The purpose here is to show how these models had to be ‘unpacked’ when confronted with foreign contexts, reconfigured and even reinvented for local circumstances. During the 1750s, the Lisbon government conceived a new imperial project to territorialize the colony through the intellectual and physical appropriation of this Central African space. In order to do so, three levels of this administrative knowledge are distinguished: the quantification and systematization of information, cartography, and the archive. For each, this essay demonstrates how they were made available to, appropriated by or transformed by both the colonial and the African societies in the colonial context.

Developing an ionospheric map for South Africa

Abstract. The development of a map of the ionosphere over South Africa is presented in this paper. The International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model, South African Bottomside Ionospheric Model (SABIM), and measurements from ionosondes in the South African Ionosonde Network, were combined within their own limitations to develop an accurate representation of the South African ionosphere. The map is essentially in the form of a computer program that shows spatial and temporal representations of the South African ionosphere for a given set of geophysical parameters. A validation of the map is attempted using a comparison of Total Electron Content (TEC) values derived from the map, from the IRI model, and from Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements. It is foreseen that the final South African ionospheric map will be implemented as a Space Weather product of the African Space Weather Regional Warning Centre.

Civil taxis and wild trucks: the dialectics of social space and subjectivity inDimanche à Bamako

AbstractThis article presents a close reading (or listening) of Amadou & Mariam's 2004 album,Dimanche à Bamako, meaning ‘Sunday in Bamako’, produced ‘by and with’ world music maverick Manu Chao. I consider howDimanche à Bamakomusically renders, through sound and lyrical expression, the tensions of ‘global modernity’ in postcolonial Africa and its diaspora. ‘Global modernity’ refers to the fraught encounter between local actors and the globalised socio-economic conditions in which modern subjects are increasingly embedded. By framing these local and global tensions in the context of a modern African city,Dimanche à Bamakooffers a theoretically sophisticated representation of urban African social space that, while rooted in a particular place (Bamako, Mali) attends to the wider world in which a local sense of place gives way to the wanderlust and anxieties of living and labouring in a globalised world. Through critical application of Lefebvrian and Mande socio-spatial theory and focused analysis of several of the album's tracks, I argue thatDimanche à Bamakoelucidates a dialectic of ‘civility’ and ‘wildness’ that shapes the way social space and subjectivity are conceived, lived, and perceived in urban African communities in an era of global modernity.

Day Labourers, Unemployment and Socio-economic Development in South Africa

One of the most visible forms of unemployment is the men who stand at the side of the road or on corners daily, waiting for any job that may come their way. It is estimated that there are nearly 1,000 places in South Africa where a minimum of about 45,000, mostly black African men, stand, waiting to be picked up. The South African space economy is characterised by an uneven distribution of economic activities. International empirical studies have shown that there is a geographical or spatial coincidence between levels of unemployment and levels of gross domestic product per capita. The first objective of this article is to highlight some of the basic demographic dynamics of day labourers. The second is to investigate the spatial distribution of and the relationship between day labourers, unemployment and the general level of socio-economic development in South Africa. Day labourers share a number of common characteristics, but there were also obvious differences in their morale and spirit. The analyses showed that there is also a general spatial coincidence between levels of socio-economic development and the numbers of day labourers in South Africa, with a relatively high correlation coefficient between the two.

African American Leisure Space in Santa Monica: The Beach Sometimes Known As the "Inkwell," 1900s-1960s

A section of the Ocean Park beach in Santa Monica, Califoirnia, served as an African American leisure space during the era of segregation. This article identifies the discrimination that African Americans endured, but also celebrates both the local black community formation and the sociable relaxation that Los Angeles African Americans enjoyed at this site.

The reflexive adaptations of school principals in a ‘local’ South African space

This paper is an analysis of the work of three principals in an impoverished black township in post‐apartheid South Africa. Based on qualitative approaches, it discusses the principals’ entry into the township, and their navigation of their schools’ surrounding social dynamics. It combines the lenses of ‘space’ and ‘performance’ to analyse the reflexive basis on which they establish their principal roles. The paper suggests that their identities as principals were established in light of a range of engaged pedagogical performances. It is argued that these were enacted based on nuanced readings of their discursive environment and the enactment of strategic practices that provided them an authoritative platform for their principal roles.

Advances in Spatial Analysis to Support a more Nuanced Reading of the South African Space Economy

This paper illustrates how advances in spatial analysis contribute not only to an enhanced understanding of the complex dynamics of social and economic spatial patterns, but also to exploring the implications thereof for development policies. The paper reflects on a set of incremental advances in spatial analysis achieved recently in South Africa, illustrating the value to a project undertaken to inform national urban policy development. The unique challenge of the project was to conduct a more nuanced, national level spatial analysis, moving beyond administrative boundaries, to enable the identifying, describing, and comparing of a range of settlement types in South Africa in terms of key characteristics and functional roles. The paper illustrates how recent advances in spatial analysis have enabled identifying and defining the wide range of densely settled clusters, local towns and service centers, regional service centers, cities, and bigger city-region areas, all forming part of a polycentric network (or backbone) of towns and cities. In conclusion, it is argued that advances in spatially nuanced and relational analysis are not only invaluable in generating a more nuanced understanding of the space economy, but also in enabling commensurate and context-specific investment and policy responses, contributing to development and urban management discourses.

Commodity Cropping and the Delineation of Agricultural Space in Natal, 1850–18631

ABSTRACT This article recounts the efforts of Natal's first Secretary for Native Affairs, Theophilus Shepstone, to introduce cotton as a commodity crop among the colony's Zulu population. Generally considered as a response to Britain's dwindling supply of raw cotton, I argue that this push for cotton was fuelled by motivations that were political more than agricultural; that cotton was first and foremost about delineating African and settler space and establishing a political order. When cotton failed, blame was heaped on Zulu growers who were lambasted for their inferior work ethic. The second part of this article investigates the abrupt failure of Zulu cotton cultivation in Natal, contending that environmental and economic factors explain the crop's failure more than cultural ones.

The identification of possible future provincial boundaries for South Africa based on an intramax analysis of journey-to-work data

National census data contain information on place of residence and place of work. It is possible to combine this information~and create journey-to-work flows. The process of establishing these flows are presented in this paper. The intramax method is explained and used to identify functional regions based upon these flows. Interesting applications, such as the demarcation of regions in South Africa are considered and solutions to disputed areas are put forward. The process of the creation of the current provincial boundaries are discussed. New boundaries, based on the intramax analysis of the journey-to-work data are proposed for four or five new provinces. Results compare favourably with those from a principal component and cluster analysis, which has previously been used to demarcate the South African space economy into a hierarchy of development regions.

Le Maghreb dans la construction identitaire de la Tunisie postcoloniale

in Identitarian Construction of Postcolonial Tunisia The image that Maghreban construct of North Africa is a little investigated subject. This study examines question of Maghreban imaginaire from a South-South perspective on basis of a systematic analysis of a corpus of twelve school history textbooks published in Tunisia between 1956 and 2005. This approach implicitly echoes current French debates on way colonial history is presented to younger generations. It also attends to grasp meaning of various categories which are Maghreb, North Africa, Muslim West, south of Mediterranean, etc., from an endogenous standpoint. The is presented as a political rather than a cultural concept. This makes North African space difficult to grasp, as it has multiple, sometimes even contradictory representations. One of evolutions evidenced is that since the death of Arab nationalist ideology, Mediterranean Maghreb paradigm is now far from being mobilizing myth shared by all Maghreban populations.

Plasma Plumes Over Africa?

With the ubiquitous Global Positioning System (GPS), scientists have gained unexpected insight into Earth's ionosphere, an electrically charged region of space that hovers over the planet. Among other uses, GPS receivers are routinely cataloging the population of electrons swirling around the ionosphere. This has led to the discovery of some odd structures in the ionosphere, including gigantic plumes of ionized gas rising steeply into space. The studies are more than idle curiosity. The plumes and other phenomena in the ionosphere can affect radio signals that pass through the region. Of particular concern are the GPS signals themselves, which traverse the ionosphere from a network of orbiting satellites to reach receivers on aircraft or the ground. Free electrons in the ionosphere twist the radio signals, changing their speed and direction of travel. Among other consequences, this could be disastrous for commercial and military aircraft operations that depend on GPS information, “The FAA [U.S. Federal Aviation Administration] is very concerned that some of these steep gradients due to these plumes could affect positioning of aircraft as they are coming in to land,” said Timothy Fuller-Rowell, a senior researcher with the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo. Many scientists, on a quest to learn more about disturbances in the ionosphere, are hopeful some answers may be found over Africa. Specifically, they are curious to learn how Earth's geomagnetic equator, which tracks across Africa, affects the plumes and even if they exist there at all. “It's widely understood that Africa is key to the puzzle,” said Madhulika Guhathakurta, a lead scientist with NASA's Living With a Star program in Washington, D. C. Further, as the largest landmass beneath the geomagnetic equator, Africa serves as a natural platform to study ionospheric disturbances that affect navigation and positioning, explained Fuller-Rowell. Before the discovery of the plasma plumes, the disruption of satellite signals seemed like random events. “People knew there was a space storm that must have disrupted their system, but they had no idea why,” said Tony Mannucci, who specializes in ionospheric and atmospheric remote sensing at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Through careful study, scientists have determined that disturbances in the ionosphere begin with storms on the Sun, which send off giant clouds of plasma that travel through space. If directed toward Earth, turbulent shock waves of charged gas and their accompanying magnetic fields hit the magnetosphere, which in turn strike the ionosphere, creating plumes of plasma. “Now we know it's not just chaos. There is cause and effect. We are beginning to put together the full picture, which will ultimately let us predict space storms,” Mannucci said. Regional networks of GPS receivers are common in North America, providing scientists with estimates of how many electrons radio signals encounter as they travel from space to ground-based receivers. NOAA is using the information to post real-time maps of the ionosphere on the Internet. As part of a United Nations initiative to expand scientific research programs in Africa, various agencies and organizations including the U.S. Department of State and the University of California, Los Angeles are organizing new GPS networks to provide, among other data, a more complete picture of the ionosphere (see Figure 1). “Our goal is altruistic, to support space science and education in Africa, but it's interesting on the science side as well,” said Fuller-Rowell. “A lot of space weather is related to the geomagnetic equator. Things are organized around it or relative to it. The plasma field is affected by electric fields and those in turn are related to the magnetic field.” Determining how these fields interact over Africa could lend insight into fundamental theories of ionospheric dynamics, he explained. For example, instead of originating at the equator, “One theory is that the plasma which forms in these plumes is coming from more mid- and low-latitude regions,” Fuller-Rowell said. “In Africa you have quite a different geomagnetic structure [than over North America]. We don't know if you would see the plumes as much over Africa.” The effort to seed Africa with GPS receivers for the ionosphere mapping project was discussed at the African Space Weather Science and Education Workshop, which met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 12–16 November 2007. “Five years from now we hope to be making real-time maps of the ionosphere over Africa too,” said Fuller-Rowell. For more details, visit http://kuiper.colorado.edu/IHY-Africa/. Irene Klotz is a freelance writer for the American Geophysical Union.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT REGIONS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN SPACE ECONOMY

ABSTRACT Inequalities in levels of socio-economic development between different areas in a country occur all over the world. Various theories and models have been formulated to describe these inequalities. In the model of development regions, formulated by Friedmann in 1966, the national economy consists of core, upward-transitional, downward-transitional, resource frontier and special problem regions. In this paper, 17 socioeconomic variables were identified to characterise the five types of development regions. The socio-economic data for the variables were obtained from the 1996 population census and other reports of Statistics South Africa. Principal component, cluster and discriminant analyses were used to demarcate the South African space-economy into a hierarchy of development regions, ranging from the highly developed core region to the special problem regions in need of development assistance. The demarcation confirmed the existence of an uneven spatial pattern of socio-economic development in South Africa. The core-periphery structure is still an established pattern. The demarcation also proved that Friedmann's model of development regions can be used to describe the spatial imbalances in the South African space economy.

Development of a regional GPS-based ionospheric TEC model for South Africa

Advances in South African space physics research and related disciplines require better spatial and time resolution ionospheric information than was previously possible with the existing ionosonde network. A GPS-based, variable degree adjusted spherical harmonic (ASHA) model was developed for near real-time regional ionospheric total electron content (TEC) mapping over South Africa. Slant TEC values along oblique GPS signal paths are quantified from a network of GPS receivers and converted to vertical TEC by means of the single layer mapping function. The ASHA model coefficients and GPS differential biases are estimated from vertical TEC at the ionospheric pierce points and used to interpolate TEC at any location within the region of interest. Diurnal TEC variations with one minute time resolution and time-varying 2D regional TEC maps are constructed. In order to validate the ASHA method, simulations with an IRI ionosphere were performed, while the ASHA results from actual data were compared with two independent GPS-based methodologies and measured ionosonde data.

Opinion, Dialogue, Review

The Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera mobilizes recollections of childhood not only as an event in his adult life, but as a way of articulating a longing for new forms of social consciousness. Childhood itself is recalled both as narrative and source of narrative. As such it is a place and time of memory. It is not just a construct of writing, but a way of coming to terms with an enormous social experience. This article discusses the nature of childhood and its uses in Marechera's dystopian fiction. It demonstrates the ways in which Marechera's fiction revises sets of concepts that constitute ‘the child’ by portraying childhoods that point to the dissolution and reinvention of a symbolic order in a post-national African space.

'Treating one another like human beings': South African engendering within the semantics of current feminist discourse

As a route towards analysis of key debates in South African discussions about gender, this article explores the use of a key term within the range of terminologies currently common throughout much feminist discourse, in English, in South African space: engender. Although the article recognises the implications of the use of English in the representation of key debates concerning gender, sexuality and power within South Africa, the focus of the argument is on the semantic complexities illuminated through detailed consideration of speakers' use of the English term 'engender' in activist contexts. This consideration is prefaced by discussion of some of the difficulties of working with ideas about 'sex' and 'gender' in plurilingual activist contexts, when adult education is often driven by development training discourses. The article concludes by suggesting that semantic negotiations of English words may bear witness to a moment of particular historical debate in the way in which 'gender struggles' are currently articulated.