African Village Research Articles

How Institutions Shape Preferences: Experimental Evidence from a Large-Scale Property Rights Reform Implemented as Randomized Control-Trial

textabstractI investigate how a major institutional reform of property rights over land affects cooperation and trust preferences in a society where agricultural land is the main households' asset. The reform took place in hundreds of West African villages in Benin and consists in registering customary tenure rights over agricultural land that are traditionally characterized by collective property and informal possession. With the reform, registered plots acquire a new legal status akin to private ownership, making it possible to claim property in court and sell or use them as collateral. Identification capitalizes on the randomized control-trial implementation of the reform that used a public lottery to select villages who had the reform implemented. Those villages not selected as of today maintain the customary land tenure. As of today, this is the only example of large scale land rights reform implemented as a randomized control-trial. Seven years after the reform implementation, I performed two studies conducting lab-in-the-field experiments to collect data on cooperation and trust choices from a total of 546 participants in 32 villages. The results of the first study, conducted in a densely populated province where villagers are richer, more educated and live closer to markets and paved roads compared to other country's rural areas, show that the formalization of land rights significantly increases participants' contribution in a public good game (40%) and trustor's transfer in a trust game (35%). The second study replicates the first one but it is conducted in a different rural area that experienced the same reform and shares the same set of formal institutions as the province in the first study, but that is characterized by markedly different socio-economic characteristics -- the lowest population density, income, education levels and highest distance from paved roads in the country. In contrast with the first study, for participants belonging to the least market integrated and socio-economic developed villages, the reform determines a reduction of cooperation and it has no effects on trust levels.

Practicing Anthropology Under a Legal Umbrella

Surprised to be asked to apply to exotic dance the sociolinguistic/semiotic theory and ethnographic methods I used to study the relationship between dance and society in African villages and cities, American theaters, and elementary school playgrounds and classrooms, I have been an expert court witness since 1995. I worked with 63 different attorneys on 132 cases in 29 states, the District of Columbia, and 39 cities and counties related to the First, Fifth, and Fourteen Amendments, labor law, taxes, and even murder. I explain how exotic dance is a form of dance, art, and communication.

The use of sequential mark-release-recapture experiments to estimate population size, survival and dispersal of male\xa0mosquitoes of the\xa0 Anopheles gambiae complex in Bana, a west African humid savannah village

BackgroundVector control is a major component of the malaria control strategy. The increasing spread of insecticide resistance has encouraged the development of new tools such as genetic control which use releases of modified male mosquitoes. The use of male mosquitoes as part of a control strategy requires an improved understanding of male mosquito biology, including the factors influencing their survival and dispersal, as well as the ability to accurately estimate the size of a target mosquito population. This study was designed to determine the seasonal variation in population size via repeated mark-release-recapture experiments and to estimate the survival and dispersal of male mosquitoes of the Anopheles gambiae complex in a small west African village.MethodsMark-release-recapture experiments were carried out in Bana Village over two consecutive years, during the wet and the dry seasons. For each experiment, around 5000 (3407–5273) adult male Anopheles coluzzii mosquitoes were marked using three different colour dye powders (red, blue and green) and released in three different locations in the village (centre, edge and outside). Mosquitoes were recaptured at sites spread over the village for seven consecutive days following the releases. Three different capture methods were used: clay pots, pyrethroid spray catches and swarm sampling.ResultsSwarm sampling was the most productive method for recapturing male mosquitoes in the field. Population size and survival were estimated by Bayesian analyses of the Fisher-Ford model, revealing an about 10-fold increase in population size estimates between the end of dry season (10,000–50,000) to the wet season (100,000–500,000). There were no detectable seasonal effects on mosquito survival, suggesting that factors other than weather may play an important role. Mosquito dispersal ranged from 40 to 549 m over the seven days of each study and was not influenced by the season, but mainly by the release location, which explained more than 44% of the variance in net dispersal distance.ConclusionThis study clearly shows that male-based MRR experiments can be used to estimate some parameters of wild male populations such as population size, survival, and dispersal and to estimate the spatial patterns of movement in a given locality.

Is outdoor vector control needed for malaria elimination? An individual-based modelling study

BackgroundResidual malaria transmission has been reported in many areas even with adequate indoor vector control coverage, such as long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs). The increased insecticide resistance in Anopheles mosquitoes has resulted in reduced efficacy of the widely used indoor tools and has been linked with an increase in outdoor malaria transmission. There are considerations of incorporating outdoor interventions into integrated vector management (IVM) to achieve malaria elimination; however, more information on the combination of tools for effective control is needed to determine their utilization.MethodsA spatial individual-based model was modified to simulate the environment and malaria transmission activities in a hypothetical, isolated African village setting. LLINs and outdoor attractive toxic sugar bait (ATSB) stations were used as examples of indoor and outdoor interventions, respectively. Different interventions and lengths of efficacy periods were tested. Simulations continued for 420 days, and each simulation scenario was repeated 50 times. Mosquito populations, entomologic inoculation rates (EIRs), probabilities of local mosquito extinction, and proportion of time when the annual EIR was reduced below one were compared between different intervention types and efficacy periods.ResultsIn the village setting with clustered houses, the combinational intervention of 50% LLINs plus outdoor ATSBs significantly reduced mosquito population and EIR in short term, increased the probability of local mosquito extinction, and increased the time when annual EIR is less than one per person compared to 50% LLINs alone; outdoor ATSBs alone significantly reduced mosquito population in short term, increased the probability of mosquito extinction, and increased the time when annual EIR is less than one compared to 50% LLINs alone, but there was no significant difference in EIR in short term between 50% LLINs and outdoor ATSBs. In the village setting with dispersed houses, the combinational intervention of 50% LLINs plus outdoor ATSBs significantly reduced mosquito population in short term, increased the probability of mosquito extinction, and increased the time when annual EIR is less than one per person compared to 50% LLINs alone; outdoor ATSBs alone significantly reduced mosquito population in short term, but there were no significant difference in the probability of mosquito extinction and the time when annual EIR is less than one between 50% LLIN and outdoor ATSBs; and there was no significant difference in EIR between all three interventions. A minimum of 2 months of efficacy period is needed to bring out the best possible effect of the vector control tools, and to achieve long-term mosquito reduction, a minimum of 3 months of efficacy period is needed.ConclusionsThe results highlight the value of incorporating outdoor vector control into IVM as a supplement to traditional indoor practices for malaria elimination in Africa, especially in village settings of clustered houses where LLINs alone is far from sufficient.

Vulnerability Assessment in African Villages under Conditions of Land Use and Climate Change: Case Studies from Mkomazi and Keiskamma

While most climate change vulnerability assessments focus on regional or city-levels, this paper studies villages and their different forms of vulnerability vis-

Origins of house mice in ecological niches created by settled hunter-gatherers in the Levant 15,000 y ago

Reductions in hunter-gatherer mobility during the Late Pleistocene influenced settlement ecologies, altered human relations with animal communities, and played a pivotal role in domestication. The influence of variability in human mobility on selection dynamics and ecological interactions in human settlements has not been extensively explored, however. This study of mice in modern African villages and changing mice molar shapes in a 200,000-y-long sequence from the Levant demonstrates competitive advantages for commensal mice in long-term settlements. Mice from African pastoral households provide a referential model for habitat partitioning among mice taxa in settlements of varying durations. The data reveal the earliest known commensal niche for house mice in long-term forager settlements 15,000 y ago. Competitive dynamics and the presence and abundance of mice continued to fluctuate with human mobility through the terminal Pleistocene. At the Natufian site of Ain Mallaha, house mice displaced less commensal wild mice during periods of heavy occupational pressure but were outcompeted when mobility increased. Changing food webs and ecological dynamics in long-term settlements allowed house mice to establish durable commensal populations that expanded with human societies. This study demonstrates the changing magnitude of cultural niche construction with varying human mobility and the extent of environmental influence before the advent of farming.

An adaptive household sampling method for rural African communities

Investigators working in rural communities and small towns in Africa face many obstacles to obtaining a random and representative sample of households for their research. The civic infrastructure used as the building blocks of survey sampling in developed countries are mostly absent in rural Africa. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to pilot an innovative and cost-effective approach to household sampling designed to generate probability samples representative of the socio-economic diversity of the small town of Berekuso, in the Eastern Region of Ghana, without relying on existing census data, household registers, or a regular layout of roads and dwellings. Utilizing Google Earth images and a Graphical Information System (GIS) map of Berekuso, sampling units were defined as 15-degree wedge-shaped sectors radiating from the center of the original township. All households within randomly selected sectors were surveyed, and based on a household classification scheme, each household type was identified. Additional sectors were randomly selected and surveyed in sequence until no new household types were identified – a notion recognized by laboratory scientists as an ‘end point’. The adaptive sampling strategy was cost and time effective: freely available versions of Google Earth and QGIS software were employed along with inexpensive handheld Global Positioning System (GPS) devices; a total of 57 households were surveyed by teams of two enumerators over three consecutive Sundays. The survey method yielded a probability sample that is representative of the socioeconomic diversity of Berekuso, and produced generalizable results for median household size, median age of residents, sources of potable water and toilet types, among others. For example, based on the results of the survey, a 95% confidence interval estimate of the proportion of residents of Berekuso under the age of 20 years is between 0.49 and 0.58. These figures are consistent with results of Ghana’s 2010 census which pegged the proportion of the population of the Eastern Region under the age of the 20 years at 0.49. The authors believe that the methodology described in this paper may be applicable to household research in many rural African villages and small towns where little civic infrastructure exists to create more traditional sampling frames. Key words : Google Earth, area sampling, household survey, impact evaluation, wealth ranking

Assessment of individual and household malaria risk factors among women in a South African village

There is need to understand how various malaria risk factors interact at the individual, household and community levels, as well as wider contexts, in order to guide the design and implementation of effective and more comprehensive control strategies. Using a cross-sectional approach, this study investigated various malaria risk factors among residents of Mgedula Village, a malaria-endemic community located in Jozini Local Municipality, UMkhanyakude District, South Africa from May to August 2014. Data from 121 randomly sampled women were collected using close-ended questionnaires. The women were aged between 18 and 40 years; and had been residents in the study area for five years or more. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to measure the association between a history of malaria infection in the previous 12 months and various potential risk factors. The results showed that practicing animal husbandry (OR 20), residing in household structures that had not been sprayed (OR 16.7) and cross-border movement (OR 14.3) were greatly associated with malaria infection. Other factors that were significantly associated with this infection included illiteracy (OR 9.1), having a largely populated household (OR 6.1) and low income (OR 1.65). Individuals with a history of malaria infection were less likely to lack basic malaria-related knowledge (OR 0.58), to have negative attitude towards malaria (OR 0.29) and also to have poor malaria practices (OR 0.3). There was no association between a malaria episode and residing at a long distance from the health facility. Indoor residual spraying indicated a notable reduction of malaria risk at the community level. However, other socio-economic, geographical and socio-demographic factors interacted at different levels to increase this risk among different individuals and households. To achieve malaria elimination by the year 2018, these aspects should be considered when developing and implementing elimination strategies at the individual, household and community levels, among high-risk populations.

Environmental determinants of malaria transmission in African villages.

BackgroundMalaria transmission is complex, involving a range of hydroclimatological, biological, and environmental processes. The high degree of non-linearity in these processes makes it difficult to predict and intervene against malaria. This study seeks both to define a minimal number of malaria transmission determinants, and to provide a theoretical basis for sustainable environmental manipulation to prevent malaria transmission.MethodsUsing a field-tested mechanistic malaria model, HYDREMATS, a theoretical study was conducted under hypothetical conditions. Simulations were conducted with a range of hydroclimatological and environmental conditions: temperature (t), length of wet season (Twet), storm inter-arrival time (Tint), persistence of vector breeding pools (Ton), and distribution of houses from breeding pools and from each other (Xdist and Ydist, respectively). Based on the theoretical study, a malaria time scale, To, and a predictive theory of malaria transmission were introduced. The performance of the predictive theory was compared against the observational malaria transmission data in West Africa. Population density was used to estimate the scale that describes the spatial distribution of houses.ResultsThe predictive theory shows a universality in malaria endemic conditions when plotted using two newly-introduced dimension-less parameters. The projected malaria transmission potential compared well with the observation data, and the apparent differences were discussed. The results illustrate the importance of spatial aspects in malaria transmission.ConclusionsThe predictive theory is useful in measuring malaria transmission potential, and it can also provide guidelines on how to plan the layout of human habitats in order to prevent endemic malaria. Malaria-resistant villages can be designed by locating houses further than critical distances away from breeding pools or by removing pools within a critical distance from houses; the critical distance is described in the context of local climatology and hydrology.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-016-1633-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Scoping exercise to determine load profile archetype reference shapes for solar co-generation models in isolated off-grid rural African villages

For many off-grid rural communities, renewable energy resources may be the only viable option for household and village energy supply and electrification. This is especially true for many rural regions in Southern Africa, where the population spread is characterised by small villages. These rural villages rely heavily on firewood and biomass to meet thermal energy needs (hot water and cooking), while candles, kerosene and paraffin are mostly used for lighting. Hybrid concentrated solar micro-CHP (combined heat and power) technology systems have been proposed as viable energy solutions. This paper conducts a scoping exercise to determine realistic hourly reference profile shapes for thermal and power energy consumption in isolated rural African villages. The results offer realistic energy consumption load profiles for a typical rural African village in time-series format. These reference load profiles enable experimental comparison between computer modelled solar micro-CHP systems and control automation solutions in isolated rural village micro-grid simulations.

Hegemony Unbound: Tradition Gone Awry as the Female Body Mimics a Site of Colonization and Decolonization in Alice Walker’s “Possessing the Secret of Joy”

Alice Walker’s novel, Possessing the Secret of Joy shares some similarities with many texts written by black Americans, but it is uniquely different because its settings include an African village where the story begins. The novel is rich in intertextuality as it engages other great American authors like W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, feminist bell hooks; and Austrian psychoanalytical theorist, Carl Jung. Beside its psychoanalytical framework and story-telling pattern with multiple narrators, Possessing the Secret of Joy is also grounded in Louis Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) and Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs) theories, as well as in Antonio Gramsci’s hegemony theory.1 These theories exemplify themselves in the way the protagonist in the novel is convinced to succumb to genital mutilation and how a journey into herself to remember long-repressed memories, eventually results in her ability to liberate women of her village. Possessing the Secret of Joy is a modernist novel in which hegemony, patriarchy, and feminism converge to expose an obnoxious practice in an African village in expectations of dismantling the antiquated tradition that informs the novel.

The African Millennium Villages

We describe the concept, strategy, and initial results of the Millennium Villages Project and implications regarding sustainability and scalability. Our underlying hypothesis is that the interacting crises of agriculture, health, and infrastructure in rural Africa can be overcome through targeted public-sector investments to raise rural productivity and, thereby, to increased private-sector saving and investments. This is carried out by empowering impoverished communities with science-based interventions. Seventy-eight Millennium Villages have been initiated in 12 sites in 10 African countries, each representing a major agroecological zone. In early results, the research villages in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Malawi have reduced malaria prevalence, met caloric requirements, generated crop surpluses, enabled school feeding programs, and provided cash earnings for farm families. agriculture environment hunger Millennium Development Goals poverty

The Colonial Rebirth of British Anti-Slavery: The Liberated African Villages of Sierra Leone, 1815–1824

This article reconstructs and interprets the early history of the Liberated African villages of Sierra Leone, a group of settlements built to settle former captives rescued from the Middle Passage by British ships following the 1807 Slave Trade Act. The Act, which abolished the British slave trade, was designed to be most effective in wartime, making slave ships into prizes eligible for capture. In Sierra Leone, a colony with a longstanding association with British anti-slavery, the end of the Napoleonic Wars caused an economic shock. The colonial Governor, Charles MacCarthy, established the Liberated African villages to organize the labor of former captives and to manage and distribute colonial resources. The “village system” was organized from the colonial capital, Freetown, but was managed in the hinterland villages by missionaries, recruited by the Church Missionary Society. What began as a plan to shore up the postwar colonial economy became, in practice, a potent engine for social engineering, cultural transformation, and labor control. In the Liberated African Villages, British antislavery was remade as a new and expansive colonialism.

MYD88 and functionally related genes are associated with multiple infections in a model population of Kenyan village dogs.

The purpose of this study was to seek associations between immunity-related molecular markers and endemic infections in a model population of African village dogs from Northern Kenya with no veterinary care and no selective breeding. A population of village dogs from Northern Kenya composed of three sub-populations from three different areas (84, 50 and 55 dogs) was studied. Canine distemper virus (CDV), Hepatozoon canis, Microfilariae (Acantocheilonema dracunculoides, Acantocheilonema reconditum) and Neospora caninum were the pathogens studied. The presence of antibodies (CDV, Neospora), light microscopy (Hepatozoon) and diagnostic PCR (Microfilariae) were the methods used for diagnosing infection. Genes involved in innate immune mechanisms, NOS3, IL6, TLR1, TLR2, TLR4, TLR7, TLR9, LY96, MYD88, and three major histocompatibility genes class II genes were selected as candidates. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were detected by Sanger sequencing, next generation sequencing and PCR-RFLP. The Fisher´s exact test for additive and non-additive models was used for association analyses. Three SNPs within the MYD88 gene and one TLR4 SNP marker were associated with more than one infection. Combined genotypes and further markers identified by next generation sequencing confirmed associations observed for individual genes. The genes associated with infection and their combinations in specific genotypes match well our knowledge on their biological role and on the role of the relevant biological pathways, respectively. Associations with multiple infections observed between the MYD88 and TLR4 genes suggest their involvement in the mechanisms of anti-infectious defenses in dogs.

P4060 Runs of homozygosity reveal natural selection footprints of some African chicken breeds and village ecotypes

The earliest evidence of domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) introduction into Africa was in Egypt in the New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty (1307–1196 BC) through the ancient cinnamon trade. Chickens were introduced in Eastern Africa (EA) later via Egypt or direct introduction via Indian Ocean trading. With the absence of genetic improvement schemes and breeding associations, EA rural chicken populations are likely under natural selection, and most are considered as ecotypes, not breeds. A few populations, e.g., Egyptian Fayoumi have fixed criteria and are registered as a breed. The current study aims to assess probable co-ancestry among six African chicken populations, in comparison with a highly inbred US Fayoumi line, to investigate the inter-population genomic variation due to natural selective pressure and to determine functional variants associated with Runs of Homozygosity (ROH). The populations studied included three indigenous African ecotypes from Uganda (UGN), Rwanda (RWN) and Egyptian naked-neck (ENN); two Egyptian registered breeds; Fayoumi (FEG) and Dandarawi (DEG), one hybrid developed in India and sampled in Uganda, Kuroiler (KRL), and a highly inbred US Fayoumi (FUS). A total of 290 birds were randomly sampled from villagers in Egypt, Rwanda, and Uganda, representing indigenous populations, and 6 birds were sampled from the inbred FUS flock. Birds were genotyped using the Affymetrix 600K Axiom® Genome-Wide Chicken Genotyping Array. ROH were defined using PLINK v1.9, for a minimum ROH length of 500kb, with no more than one missing SNP and one heterozygous SNP genotype per window. A total number of 15,277 ROH were detected across the studied populations. ROH length ranged between 500kb to around 50Mb. ROH were classified into three length categories; short (500kb to < 1Mb, n = 9970; 65.3%); medium (1Mb to < 5Mb, n = 4960; 32.5%) and long (≥ 5Mb, n = 347; 2.3%). The average number of ROH per bird was highest for the inbred FUS (240.7), and the least for the DAN (19.9) indicating outbreeding. Intra-breed regions with a high occurrence of ROH were identified on several chromosomes indicating ROH landscaping, where several genes involved in survivability and tolerance (i.e., reproduction, metabolism, muscle formation, ion-exchange, and heat and oxidative stresses tolerance) were detected. This study illustrates the distribution of ROH and functional variants within ROH in some African breeds and ecotypes. Detecting genomic regions involved in traits under natural selection contributes to our understanding of regions of importance for selection and distribution of functional variants in the chicken genome.

Ethical Conundrums in Rural South Africa

We engage in story- retelling by recounting, reconstructing, and reflecting on our experiences as evaluators in a cross-cultural setting, a South African village. A principal focus on the serendipitous ethical and methodological issues that arose is highlighted. As most ethical dilemmas go, solutions are not clear. Therefore, the authors spend time critically considering the soundness of the decisions that were made, from the lack of diversity of the research team, to the ways we interacted with local citizens, to research design issues. We share our thoughts through a confessional tale via research poetry.

Global agenda and ICT4D in Africa: Constraints of localizing ‘universal norm’

In 1996, as part of the global ICT for development phenomenon, the Africa Information Society Initiative (AISI) was launched as the action framework for the building of ICT infrastructure in Africa. Its goals included the digital connection of every African village to the global information network by the year 2010, and the leapfrogging of Africa's development through ICTs. Over a decade after the enactment of the AISI, many villages are still without electricity, and lack access to Internet services and other core ICTs. Based on the data gathered from qualitative semi-structured interviews and secondary sources, this paper analyzes the challenges and obstacles that have confronted the AISI implementation and ICT4D agenda in Africa. It examines the implication of these challenges and potential ways of addressing them.

Immersive Practices: Dilemmas of Power and Privilege in Community Engagement with Students in a Rural South African Village

Follow this and additional works at: http://journals.stmarys-ca.edu/epiche Part of the Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Community-based Learning Commons, Community-based Research Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Higher Education Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, and the Service Learning Commons

Community-based rainwater harvesting (CB-RWH) to supply drinking water in developing countries: lessons learned from case studies in Africa and Asia

This paper uses pragmatic findings and lessons learned from three case studies to deduce that community-based rainwater harvesting (CB-RWH) is an innovative solution to develop sustainable drinking water supply systems in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia. Taking advantage of traditional community-based activities in African and Asian villages, the water supply system can be significantly improved with the introduction and implementation of CB-RWH systems. Furthermore, sustainable, safe water sources in Africa and Asia can be brought to fruition when transparent self-regulatory management systems are supported through comprehensive design and maintenance guidelines and funded from private and public sources. To this end, the potential for CB-RWH to lead toward greater resilience and sustainability was investigated. Based on case studies of three successful demonstration projects in Africa and Asia, this paper identifies 14 innovative solutions resolving technical, economic, and social problems which have been barriers preventing the wide implementation of CB-RWH in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia. It also recommends strategies to promote CB-RWH in African and Asian villages, which include the following: implementation of more pilot projects at local levels; promotion of and education in rainwater preservation and harvesting at all levels of the education system; and innovation in micro-funding systems in cooperation with corporate social responsibility activities. These strategies will promote the implementation of CB-RWH as a mainstream and high-priority technique for national, regional, and global water strategies.

Targeted high-throughput growth hormone 1 gene sequencing reveals high within-breed genetic diversity in South African goats.

This study assessed the genetic diversity in the growth hormone 1 gene (GH1) within and between South African goat breeds. Polymerase chain reaction-targeted gene amplification together with Illumina MiSeq next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to generate the full length (2.54kb) of the growth hormone 1 gene and screen for SNPs in the South African Boer (SAB) (n=17), Tankwa (n=15) and South African village (n=35) goat populations. A range of 27-58 SNPs per population were observed. Mutations resulting in amino acid changes were observed at exons 2 and 5. Higher within-breed diversity of 97.37% was observed within the population category consisting of SA village ecotypes and the Tankwa goats. Highest pairwise FST values ranging from 0.148 to 0.356 were observed between the SAB and both the South African village and Tankwa feral goat populations. Phylogenetic analysis indicated nine genetic clusters, which reflected close relationships between the South African populations and the other international breeds with the exception of the Italian Sarda breeds. Results imply greater potential for within-population selection programs, particularly with SA village goats.