Northern Village Research Articles

Rearranging Care, Reconfiguring Gender: Family and Household Business in Post-Đổi Mới Vietnam

This paper locates changes in care practices and gender roles within the broader context of marketisation. The context is a northern Vietnamese village that has experienced an immense expansion in its wholesale clothing market since the beginning of the 2000s. The paper discusses how the current situation encourages women and men to assume new tasks at home and in the trade business, and how this process of changing gender roles across generations is driven by and again reinforces shifting notions of femininity and masculinity. Furthermore, the paper inquires how gendered expectations of care play into national level struggles over development and reinforce social hierarchies. The findings are based on twelve months of anthropological fieldwork, including in-depth and life-story interviews, informal conversations and participant observation.

Rural Credit and Community Relationships in a Northern Vietnamese Village

The purpose of this paper is to examine the conditions of success in rural credit in developing countries, based on the investigation of a Vietnamese case. The rural credit institutions in Vietnam have achieved splendid results, compared with those in other Asian countries. Some studies of rural credit in Vietnam have paid attention to the group lending scheme based on the Grameen Bank model or to social ties among borrowers. However, these studies did not show howgroup lending and social ties function in the rural credit system, so the author interview ed people in a northern Vietnamese village. The author found that joint liability groups formed by borrowers are just nominal and have no provision for borrowers’ default. Nevertheless, the bank loans have rapidly penetrated many villagers, and have never been defaulted. This is because the entire hamlet participates in monitoring. Almost all social activities here take place in hamlets. If someone causes trouble in a hamlet, it may result in economic and social sanctions from others, including non-borrowers. However, young villagers with non-agriculture income are under less economic pressure to follow the rules of behavior that have traditionally governed interactions in their hamlets. The author concludes that Vietnamese rural credit has succeeded by depending on rural communities characteristic of Vietnam, but an effective monitoring system must be created.

Россия в контексте пространственного развития: взгляд с периферии Ближнего Севера


 Анатолий Васильевич Дмитриев – член-корреспондент РАН, доктор философских наук, профессор, главный научный сотрудник, руководитель группы конфликтогенности миграции Отдела этнической социологии, Институт социологии РАН. Адрес: 117218, Москва, ул. Кржижановского, 24/35, к. 5, офис 107. Е-mail: mig@isras.ru
 Виктор Васильевич Воронов – доктор социологических наук, профессор, ведущий научный сотрудник Центра региональной социологии и конфликтологии, Институт социологии РАН. Адрес: 117218, Москва, ул. Кржижановского, 24/35, к. 5, офис 509; ведущий исследователь Центра социальных исследований Института гуманитарных и социальных наук, Даугавпилсский университет. Е-mail: viktor.voronov@du.lv
 Цитирование: Дмитриев А.В., Воронов В.В. (2017) Россия в контексте пространственного развития: взгляд с периферии Ближнего Севера // Мир России. Т. 26. № 4. С. 169–181. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2017-26-4-169-181
 
 Более 15 лет в Мантуровском районе Костромской области развивается Угорский проект – объединение на основе Сообщества профессиональных социологов под руководством профессора Н.Е. Покровского и ведущих специалистов совместно с научной молодежью, представляющих разные отрасли социальных наук: демографию, социологию, социальную биологию, социальную географию, экономику и другие. В ходе полевых исследований, апробации их результатов на научно-практических конференциях, в преподавательской практике и публикациях участники проекта сформулировали обобщенную теоретическую модель («клеточная» глобализация) и эмпирическую методологию. Это позволило проводить комплексные междисциплинарные исследования разнородных процессов и явлений, характерных для российского социума Ближнего Севера, дать им научное объяснение и наметить возможные сценарии развития региона.В рецензии анализируются представленные в трех коллективных монографиях результаты комплексного междисциплинарного исследования большого коллектива ученых об особенностях пространственного развития периферийных территорий Ближнего Севера в европейской части России в различных аспектах: социально-экономическом, социально-географическом, экологическом, социокультурном и демографическом. Рассматриваются вопросы деградации («социальное опустынивание») сельских сообществ Нечерноземья вследствие резкого сжатия сельскохозяйственного производства и разрушения социально-экономической, социокультурной и административной инфраструктуры сельских поселений, которые порождают кризис идентичности и социальный пессимизм у местных жителей.Анализируются предложенные авторами для преодоления деградации сельских сообществ новые экономические паттерны, обладающие определенными инновационными характеристиками (очаговая сельскохозяйственная экономика, современное отходничество), новые социальные явления и формы взаимодействий (фрилансеры, удаленная работа, мобильная медицина и другое), а также возможности их развития в современных условиях.

Wintertime pollution level, size distribution and personal daily exposure to particulate matters in the northern and southern rural Chinese homes and variation in different household fuels

This study investigated and compared wintertime air pollution and personal exposure in the rural northern and southern Chinese homes. Daily indoor and outdoor particle samples were simultaneously collected by using stationary samplers, and personal exposure was directly measured using portable carried samplers. The daily average concentrations of indoor and outdoor PM2.5 were 521 ± 234 and 365 ± 185 μg/m3 in the northern village, that were about 2.3–2.7 times of 188 ± 104 and 150 ± 29 μg/m3 in indoor and outdoor air in the southern villages. Particle size distribution was similar between indoor and outdoor air, and had relatively smaller difference between the two sites, relative to the particle mass concentration difference. PM2.5 contributed to ∼80% of the TSP mass, and in PM2.5, near 90% were PM1.0. In homes using electricity in the southern villages, outdoor air pollution could explain 70–80% of the variation in indoor air pollution. The daily exposure to PM2.5 measured using personal carried samplers were 451 ± 301 μg/m3 in the northern villages with traditional solid fuels used for daily cooking and heating, and in the southern villages without heating, the exposure to PM2.5 were 184 ± 83 and 166 ± 45 μg/m3, respectively, for the population using wood and electricity for daily cooking. Time-weighted daily average exposure estimated from area concentration and time spent indoor and outdoor was generally correlated the directly measured exposure.

Does socioeconomic status matter? The fertility transition in a northern Italian village (marriage cohorts 1900‒1940)

Background: The paper explores the mechanisms of the European fertility transition in northern Italy by social group.

Changing Understandings of Gender and Parenthood in a North-Central Namibian Village

Gender and sexual behaviour have been in the spotlight when discussing reasons for the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa and means of preventing further infections. Although many manifestations of these problems, in terms of gendered power balance, bedroom negotiation power, or multiple concurrent partnerships have been listed in various studies, the interaction between construction of gendered identity and gender aspects of AIDS awareness work needs more analysis. This article takes one northern Namibian village as a case study and looks more closely at how gendered identity construction is changing, and how AIDS educational campaigns interact with the discussion of gender at the local level. I argue that the status of parenthood is changing, in that supporting structures, such as marriage, the home and the joint responsibility of both parents for their children, are fading, although this does not yet show in the definitions of meme and tate – words used to describe women/mothers and men/fathers. This should be explored in educational material instead of concentrating on what are considered to be the negative sides of sexual behaviour.

Île-à-la-Crosse Northern Village, Saskatchewan: A New Approach to Understanding Northern Communities

The Northern Review 42 (2016): 131–175The Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) has been developing socio-economic indicators (SEI) for the Arctic for over a decade, with an emphasis on finding and applying indicators that speak to the people and cultures of the Arctic. The SDWG’s work is encapsulated in three studies: the Arctic Human Development Report 2004 (AHDR), the Arctic Social Indicators 2010, and case studies that were captured in Arctic Social Indicators 2013. In this study, we apply the ASI 2010 indicators to the northern Saskatchewan Métis community of Ile a la Crosse, using the available Canadian and Saskatchewan socio-economic indicators, in order to test the applicability of the ASI 2010 methodology to a northern provincial community. In this exercise, we were hampered by the failure of the National Household Survey of 2011 and the dearth of published provincial socio-economic indicators. For instance, the 2013 case studies indicate that territorial governments in the far north provide a greater wealth of applicable ASI 2010 data for remote indigenous communities than does the province of Saskatchewan. Finally, the federal government of Canada continues to demand fees for services in order to access data from sources as essential as the Aboriginal People’s Survey (APS) 2012 limiting access to data that is critical for the analysis of resiliency and inequality in indigenous communities. Overall, we found that the Arctic social indicators provided a clear and concise picture of the social inequalities that exist between northern and southern Saskatchewan, while also demonstrating the strength and resiliency of this Métis community.

Ultrasound screening for cholangiocarcinoma could detect premalignant lesions and early-stage diseases with survival benefits: a population-based prospective study of 4,225 subjects in an endemic area.

BackgroundThailand has a high incidence of cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), particularly in the north and northeastern regions. Most CCA patients come at a late, unresectable stage and presently no optimal screening test for CCA has been established. We determined the prevalence of CCA in a remote northern village and explored if screening could lead to early detection and survival benefits.MethodsA 5-year population-based study was started in October, 2011 for consented Thai individuals, aged 30–60 years. The screening program comprised blood testing, stool examination and serial ultrasonography every 6 months.ResultsDuring the first 3 years, 4,225 eligible individuals were enrolled. CCA was detected in 32 patients, with a mean age of 51.9 years (41–62 years), and 21/32 cases were at a curative resectable stage. The prevalence rate of CCA was 165.7 per 100,000 and one- and two-year incidence rate was 236.7/100,000 and 520.7/100,000, respectively. One- and 2-year overall survival rates of CCA patients were 90.9 and 61.5 %, respectively. Prognosis was better in resectable cases with 100 % 1-year and 77.8 % 2-year survival rates. Interestingly, premalignant pathological lesions (stage 0) were identified in 11 cases with 100 % 3-year survival rate. Serum biomarkers and alkaline phosphatase were not sufficient to detect early-stage disease. In 22 patients, stool samples were positive for Opistorchis viverrini, based on polymerase chain reaction.ConclusionDetection of premalignant lesions and early-stage resectable CCA by ultrasonography resulted in improved clinical outcome. Ultrasonography should be offered as a first screening tool for CCA in an endemic area until other useful biological markers become available.

Listen, Slowly by T. Lai

Lai, Thanhha. Listen, Slowly. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2015. Print.Twelve year-old Mai wants nothing more for her summer vacation than to spend her days on the beach hanging out with her best friend, getting to know her first romantic crush. Instead, her parents expect Mai to chaperone her grandmother (Bà) on a return trip to Vietnam to uncover the secrets of her grandfather’s disappearance and death in “THE WAR” over 40 years ago. Despite being raised in a home that carried on some Vietnamese traditions, Mai’s parents could not have prepared her for the heat, mosquitoes or infrequent Internet access in her grandfather’s rural northern village. In a display of her preteen angst, Mai immediately starts counting down the days until she can return to the known comforts of life back home in California.With time, however, her language skills improve and she begins to form relationships in the community, particularly with Ut, a girl her age with a serious interest in frogs, and Minh, the local teenage translator with a Texan drawl he acquired through his international studies in the United States. In Mai’s ensuing journey she travels across Vietnam, from the rural rhythms of her ancestral village to the colonial splendour of Hanoi and the humid chaos of Ho Chi Minh City. The nation’s contrasts provide her with an unforgettable summer that far surpasses anything she could have imagined with her initial Laguna Beach plans.After receiving a 2011 National Book Award and 2012 Newbery Medal Honor for Inside Out and Back Again, Thanhha Lai’s second novel continues to explore Vietnamese-American experiences. In contrast to her first book’s focus on a refugee family’s journey, Listen, Slowly examines the frustrations of a second-generation American attempting to reconcile her Vietnamese cultural deficits. Mai’s path to settle within her bicultural identity is an experience familiar to thousands of children her age, who are raised in part with traditions from their parents’ country yet never fully feel immersed in that culture. In her protagonist, Lai has created a relatable character who eventually, and maybe reluctantly, shows capacity for adaptation and resilience in the face of adversity.Lai depicts a vibrant Vietnam with verdant landscapes and mouth-watering descriptions of the nation’s notoriously fresh cuisine. The novel’s humour generally hits the mark, including a hilarious passage of cultural colonialism in which Mai convinces young Vietnamese girls to transform their comfortable underwear to thongs. While the disruption of the story’s pace during philosophical Vietnamese translations might test the patience of young readers, this challenge will be welcomed by many. Overall, this story of adventure, family history and bicultural identity is one that should have a home in all school and public libraries.Recommended: 3 out of 4 StarsReviewer: Kyle MarshallKyle Marshall is the School-Aged Services Intern Librarian for Edmonton Public Library. He graduated with his MLIS from the University of Alberta in June 2015, and is passionate about diversity in children's and youth literature.

Transformation from Rice Farming to Commercial Aquaculture in Bangladesh: Implications for Gender, Food Security, and Livelihood

This article examines the transformation from rice farming to commercial aquaculture and its implications for gender roles and relations, women’s access to and control over resources, household food security, and livelihood. Primary data collected from 400 sample households located across 10 villages in northern and southern Bangladesh were used for this study. Data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods, namely, wealth-ranking technique, self-assessment technique, Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, and descriptive statistics. Commercial aquaculture increased both farm income and income inequality, brought in new sources of employment, changed gender roles and relations, altered women’s access to and control of resources, altered household food consumption patterns, and increased market dependence for staple food. Commercial aquaculture not only decreased the workload of women but also weakened their access to and control over agricultural products. Women became more dependent on the husband’s income and had lesser control over its use. Farm mechanization reduces women farmer’s drudgery and diversification of rice monoculture toward rice-based high-value crops and aquaculture improves the welfare of every¬one in society. This implies that poor farmers, including women, should be provided better access to improved technologies and credit.

Стратегии и практики коллективного самосохранения населения северной деревни: исторический опыт и современные реалии

Стратегии и практики коллективного самосохранения населения северной деревни: исторический опыт и современные реалии

Witch Tales of El Guache: An Ethnopoetic Analysis

Witch Tales of El Guache:An Ethnopoetic Analysis Carmella Scorcia (bio) “The one who tells the stories rules the world.” —The Hopi Las Bolas de Lumbre Chimes sing as whispering gusts pass the small adobe homes while whipping colorful chile ristras, and buzzing past the rapid-flowing acequias in the Chama Valley and continuing through the small northern New Mexican village of El Guache. The year is 1938. Dos hermanitas, afraid to stay alone at night, pick up a flashlight and scurry down the dirt road to their mother’s house. After repeatedly being told of the possibility of dijuntos loitering around outside after dark, the muchitas grab ahold of each other and just as they approach the infamous house of their Tía Carlota, whom everyone knew as the bruja of El Guache, they gasp at the lurid sight of giant bolas de lumbre flying in front of her house. Panicked and frightened, the sisters frantically run to their mother’s house to take refuge and to seek an explanation of what they just saw. Introduction to Study This cuento is one of many cherished stories passed down didactically as an oral narrative from grandmother to granddaughter and is the basis for the ethnopoetic analysis. Oral narratives such as the myriad of brujería [End Page 781] or witchcraft stories of northern New Mexico are commonly present in much of the Chicano popular and literary culture, from the tales of Jovita Gonzales’s Dew on the Thorn to Cleofas Jaramillo’s Shadows of the Past to Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima. These tales and many others are commonly recounted by elders to their family members articulating many different underlying motives. Many of the tales are told as a verbal art performance in which the performer relates the world of the past to the current one in order to reveal the intricacies of his or her moral economy as well as the moral economy of the communities that are described, which in this case is the community of the past, or of the bygone days. This is the key performative element, which Charles L. Briggs refers to as traer el sentido. Click for larger view View full resolution El Guache, New Mexico. (Photo by Carmella Scorcia.) Community, both the past and current community of the performer, plays an essential role to traer el sentido, in which case the performer brings to life a collective consciousness of her past community in order to relate and understand her own moral economy with that of the present community. As Briggs points out, the performer will quote the words of others of that far-off community of the past, which shows that the performer is not merely describing the past, but rather expressing the past through the voices of others. Thus, the role of the collective [End Page 782] consciousness of the community, both past and present, is crucial in understanding the underlying themes of the oral narrative. This study of the performance and uses of such oral literature will be framed with an ethnopoetic analysis to determine the central strategies and themes of the El Guache brujería narrative. This involves breaking down the narrative into the specific structural and rhetorical layout to clarify, identify, and manifest the sometimes hermetic meanings of the story. Structural components include the linguistic features of the story, which range from expressing doubt to recounting real-life accounts with maximum specificity as well as content and dialectical movements the performer emphasizes, such as key values, quotation framing devices, imperfect forms, and tense-aspect changes. Each of these structural components helps explain the central theme of the narrative by discovering meaning through the examination of form, the central component of Briggs’s framework and analysis. Another area of focus in determining the underlying themes of oral narratives, like brujería tales, is an estimation of the performer’s political unconscious. According to Fredric Jameson, the political unconscious is tied to a web of collective relationships that are formed within the context of actual historical events. This system of relationships includes the interplay of social, cultural, political, and economic factors. Thus a Marxist approach...

Long-Distance Collaboration Proves Helpful to Ethiopians, Canadians

Long-Distance Collaboration Proves Helpful to Ethiopians, Canadians

Trees and agroforestry for coping with extreme weather events: experiences from northern and central Viet Nam

Although tree-based farming systems are often assumed to be “resilient” or “climate-smart” options, adoption is limited. It could be that the sensitivity of individual tree species to extreme weather events is poorly documented or new systems include unfamiliar species and technologies. This paper reports on initial results of an evaluation of farmers’ experiences with trees and crops for responding to major climatic exposures in 21 villages in northern and north-central Viet Nam. Our study assessed the suitability and roles of trees by analyzing data gathered through focus group discussions, workshops and a survey of 661 households. The results showed that a majority of households were exposed annually to what they perceived as natural hazards. Experiences with using trees for coping and adaptation depended on household income status, awareness and policies. In particular, farms with trees had shorter recovery time after most types of natural disasters, except for cold spells, demonstrating economic and environmental buffers. Many leaders were unfamiliar with agroforestry and mainly looking for economies of scale, hence oriented to land use rather than landscape planning. This indicates disconnects between farmers’ needs and policymakers’ priorities with respect to climate change adaptation strategies. Existing agroforestry systems reflected a transition from indigenous or current farming systems via changing to either new species or technologies rather than changing both at the same time. Gaps in current adaptation strategies and key areas for policy and research interventions are finally discussed.

‘Don't give us an assignment where we have to use spinach!’: food choice and discourse in home and consumer studies

AbstractThe aim of the study was to describe classroom Discourses about vegetables during the planning, cooking, eating and evaluation of meals in the Swedish school subject Home and Consumer Studies. Fifty‐nine students and five teachers were recruited from five northern Swedish villages and towns, and then observed, recorded and in some cases video‐taped during lessons that took place between 2010 and 2012. Based on 56 instances of talk about vegetables, four Discourses were identified and related to the three aspects of Belasco's culinary triangle of contradictions: identity, responsibility and convenience. The results indicated that the identity‐basedsensoryandculturalDiscourses sometimes clashed with the more responsibility‐orientedhealthandevaluationDiscourses. ThehealthDiscourse was only used when there was an element ofevaluation, with assignments connected to grades. In all other cases, thesensoryandculturalDiscourses guided vegetable use. Sometimes different sensory or cultural assumptions could clash with each other, for example when the teacher insisted on the use of a specific recipe regardless of a student's taste preferences. Since these preferences did not always harmonize with curricular demands for responsibility, there might be a risk of basing grades on aspects of students’ identity. Alternatively, students might feel constrained to argue against their own identity in order to be favourably evaluated. Then again, if teachers always bow to student tastes, this limits their chances of learning about food and physical health. Viewing the dilemma through the lens of the culinary triangle of contradictions may help teachers and researchers develop teaching methods that take all aspects of food choice into account.

Controlling Taenia solium and soil transmitted helminths in a northern Lao PDR village: Impact of a triple dose albendazole regime

Taenia solium taeniasis-cysticercosis and soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) are parasitic Neglected Tropical Diseases endemic throughout Southeast Asia. Within Lao PDR, a remote northern hill tribe village had previously been identified as a hyper endemic focus for T. solium. To reduce this observed prevalence, a One Health intervention covering both pigs and humans was implemented, which included two Mass drug administrations (MDA1 and MDA2) for village residents using a triple dose albendazole 400mg treatment regime. In addition to the effect on T. solium levels, the dual impact of this anthelmintic regime on STHs within the community was also monitored.Faecal samples were collected pre and post MDA1 and MDA2 and analysed for the presence of Taenia species and the STHs Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and hookworm species. The McMaster technique was used to measure the changes in both prevalence and intensity of infection. Molecular characterisation of Taenia and hookworm species was conducted to detect zoonotic species.The level of taeniasis within the sampled population decreased by 79.4% after MDA1, remained steady during the five month inter-treatment interval and decreased again by 100% after MDA2. The prevalence of STHs decreased by 65.5% and 62.8% after MDA1 and MDA2 respectively; however an increase to 62.1% of pre MDA1 levels was detected during the inter-treatment interval. Individually, hookworm prevalence decreased by 83.4% (MDA1) and 84.5% (MDA2), A. lumbricoides by 95.6% and 93.5% and T. trichiura by 69.2% and 61%. The intensity of infection within the sampled population also decreased, with egg reduction rates of 94.4% and 97.8% for hookworm, 99.4% and 99.3% for A. lumbricoides and 77.2% and 88.5% for T. trichiura. Molecular characterisation identified a T. solium tapeworm carrier from 21.6% (13/60) of households in the village. T. saginata was identified in 5% (3/60) of households. The zoonotic hookworm A. ceylanicum was detected in the resident dog population.These results suggest that the triple dose albendazole 400mg treatment regime achieved a significant reduction in the level of taeniasis whilst simultaneously reducing the STH burden within the village. The increased STH prevalence detected between MDAs reflects the need for behavioural changes and a sustained chemotherapy programme, which may also need to include the resident dog population.

The Politics of Walking: Rural Women Encounters with Space and Memoir

A group of elderly and retired women from a northern village in Spain (they call themselves las chicas, the girls), try gather every week to take a walk together. Assembling my ethnographic notes, I describe the walk and offer an analytical foray into the following questions: What can we learn about the rural and the relationship of these women with the rural? What is the specificity of walking here? Walking is a practice that has in this case a twofold capacity: walking creates a mobile space for visibility in in which rural women’s work is considered private, and thus, walking provides a precious inter-subjective space for relationality; and second, the walk enacts a particular archaeology of memoir. The landscape bears witness to the socioeconomic changes of the rural environment. Such memoirs are actualized in the walk. Finally, as las chicas walk, not only do they travel across space and time, their movement allows for a particular methodological engagement of the researcher with the methods of research. Mobilities often question what hinders mobilities. But here my question is, what is the walking telling us about both the rural and these women in the rural context?

Politizacija senzibiliteta - efekat spektakla kolonijalnog carstva 1930-ih u Seoulu

This paper aims to analyse the phenomena of the consumption culture in terms of the spectacle effects of the colonial empire, which were unprecedented prosperity in the 1930s in Seoul. The phenomena could be interpreted as the politicization of sensuality. The spatial change intensified the colonial differentiation of city that was segregated into the Southern Village for Japanese and the Northern Village for Koreans. It facilitated the modern homogenization of the urban space. Especially, department stores were invigorated as a powerful apparatus for consumer capitalism, inviting Koreans to Japanese street, transcending the spatial border of the colonial segregation. Manipulating the exhibition techniques of department store, Japanese Empire built up the visually attractive self-representation image, encouraging the colonized to experience the fascination of modem urban culture as crowds or spectators in the street. The spectacle of the Empire made new lines of cultural distinction based on the differentiation of social stratum inside the colonized community.

First Report of Bacterial Wilt Caused by Ralstonia solanacearum in Ghana, West Africa.

Tomato and pepper plants exhibiting wilt symptoms were collected from fields in seven villages in Northern (Vea, Tono, Pwalugu), Ashanti (Agogo, Akumadan), and Brong Ahafo (Tanoso, Tuobodom) regions of western Ghana in November 2012. The plants were wilted without leaf yellowing or necrosis. Disease incidence was generally low, with less than 20% symptomatic plants observed. Most of the plants collected produced visible bacterial ooze in water in the field. Ooze was plated on 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride-amended (TZC) medium. Isolated colonies were fluidal, irregularly round, white with pink centers, gram-negative, and oxidase positive. One strain from each of seven fields was selected for further study. All strains induced a hypersensitive reaction on tobacco. Randomly selected strains SM855-12 and SM857-12 tested positive in R. solanacearum ImmunoStrip assays (Agdia Inc., IN). An end-point PCR assay with primer set 759/760 (3) generated an R. solanacearum-specific 280-bp amplicon for all seven strains. Two of these strains were biovar I and the remaining five were biovar III based on utilization of cellobiose, lactose, maltose, dulcitol, mannitol, and sorbitol. A phylotype-specific multiplex PCR assay that recognizes four geographically linked monophyletic groups within R. solanacearum (1) indicated that one strain (SM855-12) was phylotype III (African origin), whereas the other six were phylotype I (Asian origin). All strains were subjected to repetitive sequence-based PCR (Rep-PCR) with BOXA1R and REP1R/REP2 primers (4). Strain SM855-12 was grouped with the phylotype III reference strain UW 368 and the remaining six strains were grouped with the phylotype I reference strain GMI 1000. A pathogenicity test was performed with bacterial wilt-susceptible tomato line OH7814. Inoculum was prepared from 48-h cultures of strains SM855-12, SM856-12, and SM858-12 grown on casamino acid peptone glucose (CPG) medium at 30°C. Roots of ten 4-week-old tomato plants per strain were drench-inoculated with 5 ml of a 108 CFU/ml bacterial suspension after wounding with a sterile scalpel. Non-inoculated control plants were drenched with 5 ml distilled water after root wounding. Plants were kept in a greenhouse at 25 to 30°C. By 12 days after inoculation, 80 to 100% of inoculated plants were wilted, whereas no symptoms appeared in non-inoculated plants. Bacteria re-isolated from wilted plants were confirmed to be R. solanacearum using techniques mentioned above. Although an association of bacterial wilt with tomato/pepper was mentioned previously (2), to our knowledge, this is the first documented report of bacterial wilt caused by R. solanacearum in Ghana. The presence of Asian strains (phylotype I) may be the result of one or more accidental introductions. Awareness of this disease in Ghana will lead to deployment of management strategies including use of resistant varieties and grafting desirable varieties onto disease-resistant rootstocks.

Performing Resistance

Introductiongrowing up in st Vincent in 1980s and 90s, I inhabited predominantly urban and middle-class southern portion of island; specifically, I lived in an affluent and well-known area that was about fifteen minutes' drive from nation's capital, Kingstown. Some of my friends at Kingstown Preparatory School also resided in general vicinity - we all lived in comfortable homes in easy proximity to city and all its amenities, we had pipe-borne water in our homes, and we went to school in private vehicles instead of mini-vans which plied St Vincent's roads and highways. The top schools and modern supermarkets were all in town and we were privy to all these things, due to our physical location in south of island, and our economic privilege.There were of course smdents in my large classes from further afield - from places like Layou on Leeward coast, or from distant reaches of Windward side or 'country'- from villages and towns with names like Lauders, Greiggs, Georgetown and Sandy Bay - smdents who made serious efforts to make it to school on time from these relatively far-flung places, whose families undoubtedly made sacrifices for their children to attend a prestigious school located in the city. I had a good number of friends from these rural areas also, but it was hard to see them outside of school time. They could not visit me in Ratho Mill - they lived far away, van routes from these destinations into more urban areas were scattered and few and far between on week- ends, and these friends had chores and hard work to do, to contribute to their families' economies and well-being. I heard stories of homework by kerosene lamp at night. I did not have much to do in terms of domestic chores, and my family had a generator for when power (frequently) went out - but some of my schoolmates at time did not have electricity to begin with.In reality I could have gone to visit some of these classmates on weekends since I was sometimes in neighbourhood - my family favoured drives and picnics in country, and we always drove out there to see splendid green mountains and to sit near pristine rivers, but never really to visit people. So I had a good visual impression of area, but not much understanding of what social constructs, histories and forces underlay difference in lifestyle I had noted between my residential enclave and more northern villages, towns and agricultural expanses. Long before I was exposed to Marx and other theorists who opened my eyes to political economics and class theory, I sensed a divide that was physically demarcated, in sense that place, way you lived and how much money you had were all interconnected. But I did not know how deeply divide, neatly symbolised by my rolled-up car window and curious gaze outwards, was connected to island's past.Before my years in prep school, I attended kindergarten in home of St Vincent's esteemed veterinarian-cum-archaeologist Dr Kirby; his wife Monica was known as Aunty Kirby and was proprietor of popular preschool. Over few years that I attended Aunty Kirby's, I had exposure to historical artefacts that Earl frequently brought downstairs to show us young ones. These seemed to me to be relics of an ancient past - Caribs (the European misnomer for Kalinago), no longer with us, stories buried deep in soil and turned to stone. I had also seen painting series up at Fort Charlotte that depicted Black Caribs (a similarly colonial term for Garinagu, or Garifuna culture) and their struggle for sovereignty - but again, this seemed to me to be so long ago. And I certainly never made clear connections with these experiences and my later experiences in school and as a sort of local tourist in rural northern areas of island. As much as I loved my time with Uncle when he came to talk with us, I never knew about his book on St Vincent's Garifuna history until in my early twenties - when I was introduced to it as a university student in Toronto. …