African Studies

تهدف هذه الدراسة لتناول الاسم من الناحية التركيبية بحيث يتم التعامل معه من خلال التركيب، وفي هذا الإطار يتركز الاهتمام حول السلوك التركيبي للاسم في الجملة، حيث تتناول الدراسة وظائف الاسم النحوية ومحدداته في الجملة الأمهرية. وتبدأ الدراسة بمقدمة تبين موضوع الدراسة وجوانب تناوله، يليها تمهيد مختصر يعرض بإيجاز للملامح الأساسية لتركيب الجملة في الأمهرية، ومن ثم تنتقل الدراسة للحديث عن الوظائف النحوية التي يقوم بها الاسم في الجملة ورتبته، وبعد ذلك تتناول الدراسة المحددات النحوية المختلفة التي تساعد في تحديد الاسم وتمييزه في الجملة الأمهرية. وتنتهي الدراسة بخاتمة بأهم النتائج التي توصلت إليها.

Las culturas nacionales de América y el Caribe deben una parte significativa de su formación histórica al poblamiento de africanos esclavizados durante los siglos XVI al XIX.
En el caso de Cuba, la presencia africana ha sido múltiple y constante desde los albores de la época colonial hasta la acelerada intensificación del tráfico clandestino durante el ocaso de la dominación hispánica en la Isla. Sin embargo, aun no queda claro, en relación con las influencias culturales, la amplia diversidad de denominaciones con las que fueron
conocidos (comprados, vendidos, alquilados, perseguidos) más de un millón de personas trasladadas a esta parte del Caribe, a las que se les impuso una identidad otra, disociada casi siempre de su sentido de pertenencia grupal y en muchos casos dependiente del lugar de captura, del depósito de esclavos, del sitio de embarque y hasta de las lenguas
de los traficantes africanos y europeos.
El propio tema de la trata de personas esclavizadas desde África hacia América se aborda desde diferentes perspectivas según regiones (África, América y Europa), lenguas y puntos de vista metodológico. Muchos anglohablantes se refieren a la «Trata Esclavista Trasatlántica» (Transatlantic Slave Trade) con todas las implicaciones interpretativas en lo histórico y sociocultural debido a la trascendencia y actualidad de la lucha contra el racismo, la discriminación racial y sus secuelas; los francohablantes aún hacen referencia a la «Trata Negrera» (Trate Nègriere), lo que rememora dramáticamente el léxico de los
traficantes, independientemente de la seriedad y rigor de los estudios realizados; autores lusohablantes se refieren al «Comercio Negrero» (Comércio Negreiro) para desentrañar las redes establecidas desde el interior del continente africano hasta la costa mediante el
aprovechamiento de sus ricas fuentes documentales y de la memoria oral. De este lado del Atlántico es necesario reflexionar y enfatizar también sobre la Trata Transamericana y Caribeña que, paralelamente a la proveniente de África, se reflejó en las más variadas denominaciones de compra-venta, captura y trasiego de africanos y descendientes según
los sitios de concentración, reventa y distribución de esclavos, desde el sur de los Estados Unidos de América hasta Suramérica, con especial énfasis en el Caribe insular.
Los componentes étnicos africanos en Cuba han sido denominados de múltiples maneras, casi siempre relacionados con la historia y los avatares del tráfico trasatlántico, desde la temprana presencia beréber al norte de África hasta la clandestina irrupción de los makuá en África oriental durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX.

In September 2011, twenty Namibian skulls were repatriated from the collection of the Charité university hospital in Berlin. The remains had been in Germany for more than a hundred years: they belonged to victims of the ‘German-Herero war’ (1904-1908) in German South-West Africa, a genocide that cost the lives of eighty per cent of the Herero and half the Nama population. The majority of the skulls had arrived in Berlin as preserved heads, and all had been used for scientific race research in the first decades of the twentieth century.
Despite the triumphant return of the skulls, not everything went smoothly. The Charité was criticized for failing to answer questions about the identity of the remains, and the Namibian government and Nama and Herero representatives failed to agree on their final resting place. This had everything to do with the complicated nature of the skulls involved. Faber-Jonker analyses how these human remains – remains of individuals – became war trophies, anthropological specimens, and, finally, evidence, symbols, and relics, by examining how, by whom, why, and in what context the skulls were physically handled in the practices of collecting (1904-1910), studying (1910-1924), and repatriating (2011).

A releitura romantizada de um passado comunal é um tema central para muito do pensamento crítico na periferia global do capitalismo. São recorrentes os conceitos baseados numa visão holística e comunitarista do mundo, na família ampliada e na comunidade, mesclados com elementos da filosofia política europeia. A ideia de uma herança comunal que possa garantir a passagem direta para uma sociedade igualitária, sem a necessidade de passar pelos males do desenvolvimento capitalista clássico, parece ser um motivo comum no pensamento crítico periférico, desde a defesa dos potenciais da comuna camponesa pelo populismo russo no século XIX. Essa ideia esteve presente nos trabalhos de José Carlos Mariátegui, de Fausto Reinaga, na négritude de Aimé Césaire e Léopold Senghor, na ujamaa de Julius Nyerere, no consciencismo de Kwame Nkrumah, no sumak kawsay ou suma qamaña andino, no “socialismo comunitário” de García Linera, no zapatismo mexicano, no ubuntu do sul da África – para mencionar somente alguns exemplos. Essas propostas assumem uma específica
relação com o tempo histórico: projetam um futuro, mas um futuro em articulação com o passado. Se foi possível no passado, poderá ser no futuro.

This essay explores the interface between specific features in the archaeological record pertaining to African iron smelting and various symbolic meanings that are linked to those remains by ritual
performances and their associated beliefs. Employing a critical direct historical approach that uses ethnographic observations and historical evidence, cross-cultural regularities can be isolated in the
types of symbolic meanings that are attributed to ritual offerings placed in the bases of African smelting furnaces. Such meanings range from interdiction of ancestral spirits and witchcraft to the infusion of the furnace with attributes of a fertility—one of the primary symbolic armatures that confers meaning on iron smelting. Comparison of the ethnographic models to archaeological evidence
then reveals that ritual treatments of iron smelting show significant continuity through time—particularly in the domain of fertility symbolism—reaching as far back through time as the midfirst
millennium B.C.

The theorization of media from the South has arguably entered a new phase. After almost two decades since Park and Curran’s De-Westernizing Media Studies (2000), a large enough corpus of scholarship has begun to form, delineating a shift from a programmatic phase—marked by calls to challenge the dominance of Euro-North American-centric thought—to a more mature one—informed by concrete examples of what this theorization looks like and what types of analysis and interpretation it enables.
Herman Wasserman’s Media, Geopolitics, and Power: A View from the Global South represents both a symbol and a component of this transition.

Numerous African natural resources have been attracting attention of many developed and developing countries, including the People’s Republic of China (China). Unprecedented economic development of recent decades and insufficient domestic supply of energy resources have forced the government in Beijing to foster the policy of securing foreign supplies. Africa has since become an important receiver of Chinese investments in extracting sector despite its apparent political, economic, and social risks. Chinese financial engagement has been crucial to the development of its African partners, though a  wave of criticism from Western contenders has initiated the discussion about unacceptable business incentives used by Beijing. Close links with Africa may challenge Beijing’s traditional diplomatic philosophy and lead to redefining its role in international relations.

The unprecedented rise of China attracts worldwide attention due to the scale of changes as well as the speed at which they occur. Growing economic power has allowed China to undertake economic and financial cooperation with many countries on all continents, Africa included. The Chi-nese engagement in Africa covers extensive trade relations, outward direct investment of private and public companies, as well as development assistance and a rising number of contracted projects. Beijing's drive for African natural resources remains a key determinant factor accompanied by other drivers of political or social provenience. The paper presents the China-Africa economic partnership in different sectors based on an analysis of available datasets.