Browsing by Subject "West Africa"
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Item Combined effects of global warming and a shutdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation on West African and European climate(2012-05) Brown, Meredith Guenevere Longshore; Cook, Kerry Harrison, 1953-; Fu, Rong; Dickinson, Robert E.; Jackson, Charles S.The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation has a vast potential for abrupt climate change due to its large heat transport through the ocean and its nonlinear dynamics. Because of these unique properties, this paper investigates how the climate of West Africa and Europe will respond to a shutdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation at the end of the 21st century. Here we use a regional climate model with 90-km grid spacing is forced by an idealized sea-surface temperature anomaly, based upon coupled atmosphere/ocean global model water hosing experiments, with a business-as-usual global warming scenario to discover how West African and European climate will change. In both the boreal spring and summer, cooling in the eastern Atlantic is associated with a strong intensification and eastward extension of the North Atlantic subtropical high over Europe throughout the depth of the atmosphere, a strengthening of the heat low over West Africa at low levels, and a weakening of the Saharan High in the upper atmosphere. Rainfall rates also decrease markedly throughout most of West Africa and Europe: in spring, rainfall rates decrease by 50-80% over Sahelian Africa, in summer rainfall over Europe decreases by up to 90%, while precipitation over West Africa is reduced by 40%.Item The Diamond Pipeline : the emergence of West Africa in the consciousnese of Lebanese novelists(2005-05-21) Al-Mousawi, Nahrain; Harlow, Barbara, 1948-2017Focusing on the novels Death in Beirut by Tawfiq Awwad and The Story of Zahra by Hanan al-Shaykh, the thesis explores the connections between Lebanon and West Africa, particularly Sierra Leone and Guinea, from the years preceding the Lebanese civil war to the present time. The novels are civil war narratives crisscrossed with Israeli invasions, threatened southern Lebanese borders, and diasporic Lebanese in Africa and their remittances. Although current news headlines are focused on terrorist threats posed by Lebanese diamond smuggling networks in Sierra Leone, the links between Lebanon and West Africa have a longer history. The initial waves of migration (1880s-1940) from Lebanon to West Africa established trading and merchant communities, with the direction of French colonial authority. Lebanese merchants during the first wave of migration entrenched themselves in the economies of West Africa and facilitated the later waves of immigration during the Lebanese civil war. Current articles depicting Africa as a composition of weak, “soft” states vulnerable to terrorist activity echo alarmist publications during the Cold War that identified Africa as fertile ground where “red weeds” can grow (specifically in a Time article). Stereotypes of the Lebanese in West Africa emerge in articles and human rights organization papers, which the two core Lebanese novels selected for the thesis exploreItem Gareth Austin, "Slaves, States, and Markets in West Africa, 1500 to the Present"; "Discussion: Political Science and 'The New Economic History' of Africa"(John L. Warfield Center of African & African American Studies, 2009) John L. Warfield Center of African & African American StudiesItem Letter to A.K. Miller from H.B. Stenzel on 1936-01-30(1936-01-30) Stenzel, H.B.Item The weapons of our warfare are not carnal : an archaeological and ethno-historical study of anti-colonial identity in Krobo, Ghana(2023-05-01) Gblerkpor, William Narteh; Denbow, James R. (James Raymond), 1946-; Wilson, Samuel M; Strong, Pauline T; Falola, Oloruntoyin; Silverman, Raymond; Gavua, Kodzo BThe archaeological research in this dissertation contributes to current debates about the relationship between material culture and identity, and the impact of the triangular Atlantic trade on non-European peoples and their developing cultural diversity over seven centuries. Surface reconnaissance and excavations conducted at the site of Klowem in southeastern Ghana provide evidence that expands, supplements, and in some cases, corrects oral historical and European accounts of Krobo history and identity. By the late 14th century, Klowem already appears to have become a refuge, almost a century before the arrival of Europeans in AD 1471. By the 17th century, it had become a refuge for people displaced by the slave raiding and internecine conflicts associated with the trans-Atlantic trade. Disruptions were also caused by the territorial expansion of adjacent and more powerful states such as the Asante and Denkyira. The European presence on the coast introduced new trade opportunities that included the ability for people to acquire prestige or high value goods (beads, cowries, gins, and schnapps) and food crops (manioc and maize) without necessarily going through the traditional channels from chief to headmen to family head. The new socio-economic opportunities and challenges inspired the Krobo and their neighbors to invent new identities as the old order was threatened and displaced. Data gleaned from archaeological excavations about burial records, faunal remains, settlement patterns, the changing settlement landscapes at Klowem provide new insights into how material culture and daily practices shaped Krobo identity and power relations. AMS dating and ceramic classification document three cultural phases, which I have designated as Proto-Krobo (AD 1270-1450), Early Krobo (AD 1450-1650), and Later Krobo (AD 1650-1892). These traditions formed as the indigenous Dangme, Denkyira and Ewe peoples came together to form a more heterogeneous Krobo identity in the mid-seventeenth century. Over the centuries, daily routines, along with ritual practices such as dipo initiation, burial rites, and landscape transformations changed Klowem from a site of refuge to a national cultural center associated with the historical development of Krobo social identity and power.Item When Fertility Never Declined: Family Planning Policy and Women’s Empowerment in Niger(2021) Basson, Christie; Cavanagh, ShannonThis paper investigates the highest fertility rate in the world, questioning why decades of policy has had little to no effect on the Nigerien fertility rate. It compares two significant pieces of legislation – the 1992 Population Program and the 2012 Action Plan – around fertility rates, and evaluates them on the basis of efficacy. The issue of women’s status, autonomy, and empowerment also presents itself, and it is the aim of this paper to make a case for empowerment as policy and for the implementation of women-focused legislation that prioritizes investments in women as a legitimate approach bringing about economic development. This paper evaluated current understandings of Nigerien women’s societal roles, how policy has attempted to negotiate those understandings, and the future of policy that could work within or around existing structures to change those understandings. By investigating the difference between demand for and availability of contraceptives and family planning services, this paper hopes to offer future avenues of change around fertility policy in Niger. Ultimately, it hopes to bring about solutions that improve the lives of women and expand the ways in which they (and the world around them) see themselves.Item Yoruba Day Celebration(2016-01) Chambers, Eddie; Doroba, Mark (photographer)Currently on display in the periodicals section on the 3rd floor, the FAL is proud to present a celebration of the University of Texas at Austin’s annual Yoruba Day, hosted during the Spring Semester by the John L. Warfield Center for African & African American Studies. The exhibit was curated by Eddie Chambers, Associate Professor in Art History here at UT. The Yoruba people are an ethnic group of Nigeria, including the Southwestern region of the country, and other parts of West Africa. The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, and Yoruba culture has had a profound impact on the nature of the African Diaspora, in different parts of the world. The British Empire controlled vast swathes of the continent of Africa, and in West Africa, the country that became known as Nigeria was, until Independence, one of the largest of Britain’s colonies. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country, and was said to have been coined in the late 19th century by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later married Baron Frederick Lugard, a British colonial administrator, whose career included being Governor-General of Nigeria, 1914–1919. This display shows something of the range of materials relating to the Yoruba peoples, and the history of Nigeria. It ranges from various published histories of Nigeria, including several written for children, through to various publications and items related to Yoruba art and culture. Beyond the materials in this display, a great many publications exist, including a number written by professors at the University of Texas at Austin. Where material in this display is available in the libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. photos and design by Mark Doroba