Historical Antecedents Research Articles

The Foreign and the Local in Architectural Education in Late Colonial and Post-Independence East Africa

This paper delves into the development of architectural education in East Africa—current-day Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda—and the underlying socio-cultural, economic, and political factors that contributed to this during the latter half of the twentieth century. The establishment of architectural training in the region after the Second World War responded to a need for technical expertise to work on the increasing number of projects across the region. While political independence was attained in the 1960s, architecture as a profession with ideas deeply rooted in historical antecedents, the education of architects continued largely unchanged, transcended this milestone. This apparent contradiction in contemporary architectural education is the point of departure for this paper which examines the origins of architectural education in East Africa, continuing to discuss the key factors that influences the developments in education and practice. The paper concludes with a discussion of the emergence of winds of change emerging from practice, a shift in the role of architecture in addressing the “African condition” and in so doing influencing the direction of architectural education. The paper is developed as a broad historical investigation, acknowledging the lack of readily accessible documentation across the region, making use of creative ways of gathering material, constructing evidence from often fragmented knowledge sources.

A Quest for Knowledge Democratization: Implications for Averting Africa’s Knowledge Dependency

The purpose of this study was to implicate Africa’s knowledge (in)dependency by assessing African universities’ knowledge production and dissemination gaps vis-à-vis indigenous knowledge, and constraints to- and opportunities for- knowledge democratization. A qualitative approach was employed to generate information by reviewing extant literatures and conducting interviews. The results have shown that there were constraints emanating from historical antecedents; ideology; Eurocentric and global North/West epistemic dominance; re-westernization designs, African resource, technology, and science limitations; and language barriers to participate in knowledge co- creation. As a result, African universities and intellectuals were not sensitive to the interests and needs of their research communities and subjects. Whereas there were opportunities to democratize knowledge, failure to expedite them catapulted the constraints/hurdles to reinforce power imbalance, to exacerbate the gaps/conflicts, and to sustain African Knowledge dependency. This, therefore, calls for revitalizing and reinvigorating concerted energies and talents to connect knowledge production to practical concerns of everyday life of the knowledge users and/or participants; and to engage in production and utilization of relevant, responsive, and competent knowledge responsive to methodological, epistemological, ontological, and socio-political realities.

THE BRITISH COLONIZERS’ SYSTEMATIC OPPRESSION IN AFRICA: AN EXPLORATION OF YAA GYASI’S HOMEGOING

The enduring legacy of British colonization and the Atlantic slave trade shaped and influenced the physical and psychological experiences of people of African. This paper examines the British colonizers’ systematic oppression in Africa. It purports to show how Yaa Gyasi, a Ghanaian novelist portrays shenanigans of slave masters in Africa and particularly in Cape Coast as contextualized in her first novel, Homegoing. It draws its theoretical underpinnings from the New Historicism and the psychological approach. The findings from the exploration of this narrative highlight aspects of the African’s victimization such as their inferiority complex towards the white man’s race, the shenanigans of the British Slave Masters in Africa and the subsequent psychological trauma this systematic oppression on Africans. As a final assessment, this study positions Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing as an historical novel which bringing the reader back to Africans’ experience of rejection and victimization due to the colour of their skin and their origins in their own land by the British colonizers. A way the authoress to promote healing for Africans, unveiling the historical and psychological antecedents of a harsh oppression they had been victims of, the aftermaths of which ineradicably shaped their psyche, and they are still struggling to get rig off.

Historical experience of environmental cooperation in the Carpatho-Danubian area

The area of the Carpathians and the Middle Danube today is a place of highly intensive environmental cooperation. Given the importance of the questions of governance path-dependence and critical reconsideration of past experiences, this article examines the historical antecedents of the present-day mechanisms in the region with the objective of putting together an area-wide outlook and evincing practical implications. The study is based on document review and desk research. The article presents synthetically the key developments in the cooperation history, offering a handy four-tiered periodization. It demonstrates that at each stage new aspects of the collaboration potential were worked upon. Finally, it argues that the much variegated joint undertakings over the past century have been significantly beneficial for the contemporary environmental governance resources.

The Doctor of Nursing Practice: A Narrative Review of the History and Current Status

Objective: The objective of this narrative review of Doctor of Nursing Practice implementation is to present the background leading to the 2004 American Association of Colleges of Nursing recommendation that the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree be required for advanced practice, discuss the implementation of programs, identify challenges, and provide recommendations for the future. Method: Both publications and organizational documents, such as white papers and position statements, were reviewed to identify the historical antecedents to the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree recommendation. A review of the status of the degree acceptance by professional organizations was conducted to identify current trends and challenges. Summary: In 2004, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing voted to require the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree for advanced practice providers by 2015. This occurred within a broad initiative within health science disciplines to move to a practice doctorate. The need for the degree was supported by the Institute of Medicine 2002 recommendation for additional competencies in health professions education and the National Research Council 2005 recommendation that nursing create a clinical doctorate. The goal of the Doctor of Nursing Practice by 2015 has not been met, although programs are growing across the country with varying models of education. Currently nurse anesthesia requires the Doctor of Nursing Practice, clinical nurse specialists have a target date for the requirement of the Doctor of Nursing Practice, nurse practitioner recommendations are to move from the master’s level to the Doctor of Nursing Practice, but certification bodies have not required it, and nurse midwives will accept but have not endorsed a requirement for the Doctor of Nursing Practice. Nurse executives have recommended the Doctor of Nursing Practice for advanced leadership, but many health systems do not require it. There are multiple challenges to developing a pathway to the Doctor of Nursing Practice, including the multiple organizations influencing educational programs, the certification and licensure of graduates, and the employment practices by health systems. These challenges will have to be addressed to achieve the original goal of doctoral education for advanced practice in nursing.

Tasneem Ahmad Siddiqui. Towards Good Governance. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2000. 235 pages Hardback. Rs 495.00.

Tasneem Ahmad Siddiqui is a former civil servant who has written a book that is in tune with the governance issues being faced by Pakistan on a variety of fronts. The author has had much experience of the grassroots level and provides the reader a view of the changes at that level for a dynamic societal change. There is clear evidence of the faith that he seems to have in the resourcefulness of the people of Pakistan. The hallmark of the book is its concise and easy reading with not just criticisms but workable solutions that are offered by the author. At the outset, the crisis being faced by Pakistan is highlighted. The author delves into the historical antecedents of this crisis, apportioning blame to the Harvard Advisory Group, as it was their flawed development strategy with a pro-industry bias that ignored agriculture. They believed in jump-start modernisation without giving serious consideration to the fact that Pakistan has a strong agricultural base. The stated wisdom of such a policy at that time was that surplus labour from agriculture would be shifted to industry and this would tackle poverty and income inequalities as espoused by the ‘trickle-down theory’. This thinking was not an exclusive one, as such a strategy was pursued by policy-makers of many newly independent states in the post-Second World War era. However, the ensuing importance granted to profits as opposed to wages in the ‘development decade’ resulted in greater inequalities of income, and a greater concentration of economic resources, whereby twenty-two families came to own 80 percent of the banks and 95 percent of the insurance companies. According to the author, what the policy-makers failed to realise, through the import of such a Western model, was that in the long run low wages would generate low profits.

Climate Change and Environmental Conflict in The Lake Chad Region

Environmental conflicts manifest in different ways, with context-specific impacts on the affected regions. Emerging as a crucial point of national and international security, issues of climate change have taken the fore. In the Lake Chad Region, more people have become more susceptible to the climate change, given the poverty level, unemployment and inadequate governance in these regions. Christened as the world’s most complicated humanitarian disaster, the receding lake which has served as a major source of livelihood in time past is now a haven for violent conflict and extremist groups. Assuming top on the agenda of African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council and the UN Peacebuilding Commission meetings held in 2022, its importance cannot be underestimated. To this end, this paper strengthens the evidence on climate-related conflict in the Lake Chad Basin and its simultaneous effect on human security. Using qualitative method, data was gathered through secondary sources, such as journal articles, reports from the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), books and online sources on the subject matter. Data gathered were analyzed using content analysis. Findings reveals that the vulnerability of the area based on poverty, historical antecedents to conflict and crime, as well as the growing population makes the response to the receding lake naturally violent. It is recommended therefore, that the Lake should be revived and nourished by joint collaboration from states within the region and international actors as a long term plan. Also, resilient measures through employment opportunities and skilled training should be available for the youths and most vulnerable people.

Social Stratification As A Catalyst For Xenophobia In Kenneth Maswabi's Poems

This research aims to analyse selected poems from the anthology, Collection of Poems by Kenneth Maswabi (2020), that deal with social stratification as a source of xenophobia. Postcolonial theory is selected and adopted for the purpose of analysis of the texts under study. The purpose of applying postcolonial theory is to appropriately contextualize the text while analyzing it from a postcolonial standpoint. To address the impact of xenophobia and its link to social stratification, three poems were chosen, studied, and analysed. The study took into account South Africa's historical context and linked it to contemporary developments in the country. David Mário Matsinhe's concept of citizenship is adopted from postcolonial theory. Matsinhe's concept of citizenship has been chosen because he contends that the struggle for citizenship and survival in South Africa, as well as anti-immigrant sentiments, has revitalized group interactions in postcolonial Africa, often with fatal repercussions. Hence, the historical antecedents have sparked xenophobic assaults in South Africa since they refer to the country's colonial past. This demonstrates that during colonialism's repression, people learned to build resistance to any type of foreign incursion, particularly from African immigrants. As a result of these attitudes, a schism developed between citizens and immigrants. Based on the findings of the study, xenophobia caused social stratification, as proven by the analysis of the chosen poems. Keywords: Xenophobia; Maswabi; Catalyst; African Poetry; South Africa; social stratification

Introduction

I am thrilled that this current issue features six papers that were delivered as part of an international academic conference that I organized in New York City in Fall 2019. Sponsored by Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies and held at the Yeshiva University Museum, the conference’s title “Philistines! Rehabilitating a Biblical Foe” challenged the speakers to present not only new material on the ancient Philistines but also to orient this material toward fresh paradigms. The geographic diversity of the scholars (Australia, Israel, and United States) was matched by the diversity of their primary areas of expertise (archaeological, anthropological, biblical, and botanical).Consequently, the papers exhibit a great range of approaches. The broadest can be found in Aren Maeir’s article, which tackles both the history of archaeological research on the Philistines and how this research ultimately demanded that earlier theoretical paradigms be disbanded in favor of new ones that better reflect the growing complexity of the material finds. The articles by David Ben-Shlomo and Suembikya (Sue) Frumin provide in-depth details in two areas respectively, iconography and botany. Ben-Shlomo’s article illustrates that the growing corpus of iconographic and figurative finds has as much as anything else necessitated the shift from a paradigm of singular Philistine origins to a more nuanced picture reflecting a multiplicity of historical antecedents and concomitant implications for Philistine identity.Frumin’s article provides fresh data and interpretation through the lens of staple cereals and fruits. Here, it is the paradigm of Philistine decline and assimilation that is upended, in favor of one that views Philistia as maintaining self-sufficiency and agency as it integrated into the regional economy. The recognition of Philistine independence up until the end of the Iron Age finds further support in Shalom Holtz’s article in which he argues that Jeremiah’s prophesy to the Philistines (Jer 47) is particularly terrifying, not because the Philistines are weak compared to Judah but because they are in fact similar in strength.The final two articles focus specifically on Tell es-Safi/Gath. Shining a light on a single Philistine building, Louise Hitchcock uses refractions to illustrate not only the building’s history but also its potential meaning to generations of its inhabitants. Finally, Jeffrey Chadwick’s article redirects away from Gath of the Philistines to a brief episode when Gath was Judahite.Reading these papers has brought back wonderful memories of a pre-pandemic conference. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

ADAPTIVE MODERNISM AND BEYOND: TOWARDS A POETICS OF A NEW SCOTLAND

The idea of a ‘New Scotland’, and the role of ‘New Scots’ in it, is being debated critically. This essay contextualises this debate with reference to historical antecedents contemporary protagonists draw on, sometimes extensively. It introduces the Scottish Renaissance, which can be regarded as an expression of ‘adaptive’ modernism. The Scottish Folk Revival after the Second World War, as a form of ‘adaptive’ modernism, shares the key concerns of that Renaissance, connecting with it through the Carrying Stream (Hamish Henderson). The two movements share more than their ethnological foundations, a focus on language and identity, and a generalist interest in civic improvement. Reflecting on the significance of heritages, authenticity, resources, and sustainability in this context, the discussion concludes with an appraisal of the (anti-)modern/post-modern ethnopoesis at work in contemporary Scotland.

The Rhetoric of University Lecturing and its Evolution in the Western Academic Community

The article deals with the evolution of the rhetoric of academic communication in the genre of university lecturing. The main emphasis is laid on its socio-cultural, historical, psychological and phonetic antecedents beginning with the times of antiquity to these days. It is the speaking image of the lecturer and those rhetorical means that facilitate one’s interaction with the university audience that come into focus. The task is to show how knowledge is shared via university lecturing with respect to traditions of public speaking and the linguoculturological realia of this or that epoch. In other words, what comes to the fore in this paper is continuity and optimization of intellective communication in the present-day Global English space. The main conclusion the authors arrive at is that to introduce any changes in the non-native speakers’ rhetoric of academic discourse a really comprehensive cognitive processing of the genre of lecturing is required. Different aesthetic and ethical aspects of academic English are to be taken into account and weighed up from different angles, including its innovative phonostylistic design in the West and the traditions of intellective communication in other parts of the globe.

Umerziehung durch rote Bibliotheken: SED-Bibliothekspolitik 1945/46 bis zum Ende der 1960er Jahre

Umerziehung durch rote Bibliotheken: SED-Bibliothekspolitik 1945/46 bis zum Ende der 1960er Jahre

Issues and Challenges of Power Sector Reforms in Nigeria: The Political Economy Approach

The post-colonial status and the formation of the Nigerian state have no doubt, redefined it as a neo-patrimonial, pseudo-capitalist and dependent entity. Its forceful integration into the global capitalist ideological orbit could be predicated on the historical antecedents of its colonial heritage. The rentier nature of its political economy had further broadened the basis of capital accumulation through the enlistment of the Nigerian political class interest. The Nigerian economic crises that persist in varying degrees have equally precipitated a number of reform policies by the successive governments in finding the alternative to the economic crises. One of such is the power sector reform with the critical infrastructural gaps despite the continued interventions over the years. There are quite emerging robust literature to support the engaging debates on the nature and character of the Nigerian pervasive economic crises. This paper, interrogates and historicizes the power sector reform policy and undertakes a careful examination of the implications of the privatization exercise as purportedly implemented under the current reforms and its far-reaching effects amidst the exacerbating social crisis of pervasive poverty and the near-absence of effective regulatory mechanism to curtail the exploitative tendencies against the Nigerian mass of electricity consumers. It is also in the contention of this paper that, the post-privatization era in the power sector is still riddled with a plethora of challenges as mostly crystallized by the poor service delivery and the exploitation of electricity consumers.

Can we learn from the past? Towards better analogies and historical inference in society-environmental change research

In light of the challenges posed by contemporary environmental changes, interest in past environmental impacts and societies’ responses to them is burgeoning. The main strength of such research lies in its ability to analyze completed society-environment interactions. Scholars have argued that such analyses can improve our understanding of present challenges and offer useful lessons to guide adaptation responses. Yet despite considerable differences between past and present societies, our inherently limited knowledge of the past and our changing understanding of it, much of this research uses historical antecedents uncritically, assuming that past societal impacts and responses are directly analogous to contemporary ones. We argue that this approach is unsound both methodologically and theoretically, thus drawing insights that might offer an erroneous course of action.To illustrate the challenges in drawing historical analogies, we outline several fundamental differences between past and present societies as well as broader limitations of historical research. Based on these points, we argue that scholars who apply historical inference in their work should do so critically, while reflecting on the objectives of learning from the past and the limitations of this process. We suggest a number of ways to improve past-present analogies, such as defining more explicitly what we can learn from the past, clarifying the rationale for using the analogy, and reducing the number of variables compared between past and present.

Madhavrao Sapre at the Advent of Writing

By placing itself strategically within the debates surrounding the first Hindi short story, its authenticity and its colonial context, this essay wants to understand the repercussions that any claim of “first-ness” has for literature in general and Hindi literary historiography in particular. The underlying assumption is that in claiming something as a “first”, one inaugurates a tension – an event – in history. Latent in such a claim is the suggestion that the event, the first short story in this case, actually inaugurates a kind of prose writing that is absolutely new and singular without any historical antecedents. Instead of making any historically definitive claims of its own, or vouching for one of the many contending Hindi short stories, this essay traces the gestures of historiography that circumscribe Madhavrao Sapre’s short story Ek Tokri Bhar Mitti, and announce its originality. The essay’s focus on the Hindi prose, especially short story, would be guided by the historiography of the form, the choice of narrative technique, thematic models, the register of Hindi used in the stories, and quite significantly, the place and motive of publication. Also relevant to the essay, as both a backdrop and a conceptual optic, is Derrida’s theorization of generic events – events that mark the beginning of a specific genre of writing and of the laws that give the genre its proper name. The proper name attributed to Sapre’s work, to the advent it marks, is kahaani or short story and, with Derrida, this essay will question the possibilities of both the advent and its attendant proper name.

Reconsidering International Compensation in Historical Context

Abstract There is growing interest in the push for individuals to seek direct remedies, notably compensation, for violations of international law. Yet, there is more for scholars to glean from the historical antecedents of compensation for individuals as a recurring idea in international law. The notion of ‘international claims’ can be traced back to the late 18th century. International claims commissions began as ad hoc arrangements that tended to follow wars. In contrast to existing historical accounts, however, the author shows there is more at work in the international law precedents for present-day mass claims than a simple rise and fall of a single idea of compensation, with the occasional isolated contemporary resurfacing. The author contends instead that the history of compensation is deeply linked to its context—meaning different things in different periods—and reflected in four models of compensation (Collateral Private Claims, Arbitration–Diplomatic Protection, Reparations and Institutional-Transition).

The Democratic Limits of Populist Politics

The Democratic Limits of Populist Politics

Pandemic Response: A Reflection on Disease and Education

Pandemic Response: A Reflection on Disease and Education

Precursors and Antecedents of the Anthropocene

There seem to be two sorts of debates about precursors and antecedents to the Anthropocene. One concerns the question whether the concept of the Anthropocene was captured by earlier terms, such as “noösphere” or “the Anthropozoic Era”. The other concerns whether the full-scale transformation of Earth systems was already, at least partially, triggered sometime prior to the 19th century Industrial Revolution. This paper takes a wider perspective, which may be seen as orthogonal to these debates, by enquiring whether there are other biological agents in Earth history who may have generated a new Epoch, and also by seeking to identify historical and prehistoric antecedents in human–nature relations that may foreshadow the Anthropocene. One conclusion is that humans are certainly not the first biotic agents becoming drivers of planetary system changes. Another conclusion, ironically, is that some cultural innovations that were adaptive under earlier conditions presently have become collectively mal-adaptive and contributory to the hazards of our new Epoch. Finally, it is suggested that while it may be unclear whether we can manage the socio-political challenges of our times, our adaptive versatility in principle ought to suffice to successfully manage the climate challenges of the Anthropocene.

Dampak Kosmopolitanisme Islam terhadap Pendidikan Islam di Dunia Global

Currently, Islamic Cosmopolitanism is quite diverse. Cosmopolitanism encompasses a wide range of topics, ideas, and practices that represent various interpretations and expressions of Islam. Among the varieties of Cosmopolitanism, there are those that are divisive and controversial. Here the author will analyze the potential consequences of Islamic immigration. In a global society, Cosmopolitanism is important for Islamic education. Islamic teachings are claimed to be quite interpretable to support various Islamic Cosmopolitanisms. Islamic education is always colored by change. The exchange of information and ideas democratizes and complicates Islamic hermeneutics and practice. In such an atmosphere, the author argues that the Cosmopolitan discourse of Islam has become a necessity, and that the results of this discourse will have a significant impact on Islamic education in the future. Given the historical antecedents, the author believes that if this discourse contributes to or increases polarization, the orthodoxy of Islamic education will triumph.