Even though billions are spent on poverty alleviation, and many thousands of pages of policy have been written, there is no clear idea on the effect of poverty reduction strategies. This paper...Show moreEven though billions are spent on poverty alleviation, and many thousands of pages of policy have been written, there is no clear idea on the effect of poverty reduction strategies. This paper argues that not only development aid has not been durably effective, moreover, this lack of effectiveness is due to a fundamental misunderstanding of what is poverty. This paper argues that the mismatch between poverty-definitions of donor and recipient can be solved through a new conceptualization of poverty, in which its intersocial dimension is central. Two new concepts are introduced: aspiration (the desire to belong to a group which possesses certain commodities – ranging from material goods to civil or human rights, and more) and acceptation (the condition that the group needs to accept an aspirer). Hence, poverty is defined in terms of agency, individuality and desire. The last step made in the argument is to apply the new conceptualization – the Aspiration Approach – to three recurring themes in Dutch development aid to Sub-Saharan African countries. It is shown here how a different definition of poverty can lead to a better understanding of failing development aid. The Aspiration Approach to Poverty defines poverty as the state in which one can be where one has aspirations that cannot be fulfilled. This unfulfilment can obviously have many reasons, but the reason that stands out in the Aspiration Approach is that others – the Opulent Society – do not accept the validity or worthiness of the aspirations.Show less
This thesis presents the results of an (official) six-month period of fieldwork research among two different groups in two countries: undocumented Nigerians in the Netherlands and Nigerians that...Show moreThis thesis presents the results of an (official) six-month period of fieldwork research among two different groups in two countries: undocumented Nigerians in the Netherlands and Nigerians that have returned to Nigeria after they had been undocumented in the Netherlands.The thesis presents three main topics: policies towards returns in the Netherlands and how these policies are implemented on the ground in Nigeria; the lives of undocumented Nigerians in the Netherlands; and the lives of those that have returned to Nigeria. How do undocumented Nigerians themselves perceive returning? The thesis presents different aspects related to their perceptions, their lives, strategies, constraints and fears. And how do those that have returned perceived their return? Accounts of their lives after return reveal the constraints, exclusion, shame and stigma that can shape their new lives.Show less
This thesis focuses on current Cuban medical cooperation in Mozambique. It begins by placing this form of cooperation within the emergent field of South-South relations, whereby two nations from...Show moreThis thesis focuses on current Cuban medical cooperation in Mozambique. It begins by placing this form of cooperation within the emergent field of South-South relations, whereby two nations from the Global South maintain an autonomous link throughout the decades. The socialist island of Cuba has long been regarded as a world leader in health, one that, in place of sending substantial revenues, delivers human resources. Its main tactic has been to place Cuban professionals at a grassroots level, in order to work within the local healthcare system. This has been the case in Mozambique, a nation with a healthcare system often described as fragmented and heavily dependent on foreign aid, and in this sense Cuba may represent a more horizontal alternative. From a macro perspective this is an interesting topic within international relations, one that adds various perspectives to the field of medical aid worldwide. However, this paper suggests a further analysis of the different layers within this phenomenon. Beyond merely being a governmental agreement, this is a particular Transatlantic route where women and men move between continents, facing tangible and intangible borders in order to collaborate within the medical field. Under these circumstances, individuals must cope with new environments, re-establishing their lives in other societies, thus modifying their lives and those of their communities. Behind such dynamics, solidarity stands as a remarkable principle to sustain the historical and contemporary mobilization of people in the Global South. Using an ethnographic perspective based on life stories collected throughout six months of fieldwork, this thesis unwraps the multiple layers that go into constructing this phenomenon in order to understand how solidarity is embodied in the daily lives of Cubans and Mozambicans. The aim is to present the “human face” of contemporary South-South mobility, especially in the field of health and medicine, in order to highlight how political discourses on solidarity are deconstructed to be personally internalized within this intercultural encounter.Show less
This paper analyses the underwater timber salvation project that will remove timber from submerged forests in the Volta Lake. It will frame this by evaluating how the project can enhance...Show moreThis paper analyses the underwater timber salvation project that will remove timber from submerged forests in the Volta Lake. It will frame this by evaluating how the project can enhance development for Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah’s Volta River Project is primarily assessed as this led to the flooding of the Volta Lake. Nkrumah’s aspirations for Ghana at its independence set the scene for the course of development taken over the last 60 years. Later chapters discuss the underwater timber logging project and the far-reaching impacts it has on Ghana’s sustainable development. Issues such as illegal fishing and logging, deforestation and the Government of Ghana’s protocol for development are analysed. These chapters investigate the implications of the underwater timber harvest on the environment and local communities, special emphasis is placed on discussing the potential of this project to improve inland water transportation on the Volta Lake. Finally some recommendations are made in an attempt to enhance further sustainable development in Ghana. These recommendations are directed towards the Government of Ghana, the underwater timber salvation company and wider subsidiaries involved in increasing safety on the Volta Lake.Show less
The purpose of this thesis was to broaden understanding of the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM) formalisation experience in Côte d’Ivoire. The research was focussed on how the formal...Show moreThe purpose of this thesis was to broaden understanding of the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM) formalisation experience in Côte d’Ivoire. The research was focussed on how the formal regulatory framework for ASM is connected to the informal status of the sector in the country. The research has presented different findings. Firstly, due to a long period of political instability and a high international gold price, the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector has experienced a strong growth over the 1999-2011 period in Côte d’Ivoire. In a response to the strong growth and the negative social and environmental impacts of the sector the government of Côte d’Ivoire presented the PNRO in 2013 for the effective regulation of the sector. While the program was aimed to end in 2016, the implementation of the process is still ongoing. The direct results of the program and experiences of different stakeholder in the field present an image of a formal regulatory framework that was ineffective: no (or very limited) authorisations have been handed out, no geologically viable ASM corridors have been identified and the negative impacts of the ASM sector, including LSM-ASM conflicts, have not decreased. This narrow focus, together with the bureaucratic procedures and costs to obtain an authorisation, the private control of informal gold mines by high ranking politicians, the prioritization of large scale mining and a lack of capacity by the government, have contributed to the design and implementation of an ineffective formal regulatory framework for the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector in the country. A consequence of this, is that with the current approach the sector is deemed to stay informal and increases the likelihood of ASM-LSM conflicts. This scenario is unwanted, because it leaves the ones that most need an effective regulatory framework left in informality, it increases problems with insecurity for mining companies and creates a huge losses of tax revenues for the government. The sole actors that profit from an informal ASM sector are the ones that benefit from the illicit trade of gold.Show less
This thesis attempts to give a description of the forms of demonstratives in Amharic, a language spoken in Ethiopia. Demonstratives are a part of deixis, which are words referring or pointing to...Show moreThis thesis attempts to give a description of the forms of demonstratives in Amharic, a language spoken in Ethiopia. Demonstratives are a part of deixis, which are words referring or pointing to other words. Works like Leslau and Appleyard give a good overview of demonstratives in Amharic. In this thesis I looked at those demonstratives and compared them to demonstratives I found in interviews I took with Amharic speakers. I discuss differences in proximal and distal demonstratives and also in nominal and locative demonstratives. Most demonstratives that are used are masculine. I also discuss a morpheme-ን -n which meaning I couldn’t find in certain situations in the literature I read.Show less
Given the success of African women’s literature in disseminating the African Womanist cause, this study examines popular Nigerian women’s lifestyle magazines to ascertain whether and in what ways...Show moreGiven the success of African women’s literature in disseminating the African Womanist cause, this study examines popular Nigerian women’s lifestyle magazines to ascertain whether and in what ways they are able to reflect, reinforce or contradict the African feminist agenda.Taking an interdisciplinary approach applying qualitative content analysis from literary studies to the content and feature articles of two Nigerian women’s magazines, this study thematically analyzes discourses and practices of femininity in the Nigerian media. Viewed from the African Womanist perspective, this research illustrates that, contrary to the generalization that representations of women in the media are stereotypical and destructive to women, Nigerian women’s lifestyle magazines construct positive images of femininity. Women are portrayed as actively carving out spaces for more freedom of choice and achievement for themselves in work, marriage and motherhood as well as issues that pertain to gender equality and empowerment. Magazine discourse thus mirrors the African feminist agenda, affirming that women’s sectional media can act as vehicles for the positive identity formation of women. Through the application of methods and paradigms from African women’s literary studies to the media, this research contributes to the current shifts in methodological approaches to feminist media studies and provides an understanding of how the mass media can play a role in women’s empowerment.Show less
This study examines what the social position of persons with albinism is in Mchinji District, Malawi and how this relates to the situation described by Braathen who conducted research on attitudes...Show moreThis study examines what the social position of persons with albinism is in Mchinji District, Malawi and how this relates to the situation described by Braathen who conducted research on attitudes and beliefs related to people with albinism in Malawi in 2005. At present research that engages with the social and cultural impact of albinism in Africa in general and Malawi in specific appears to be limited and this study contributes to a very limited body of knowledge in the field of albinism in Africa. The aims of this research are threefold: to learn about the views and knowledge of people with albinism and other actors in their social environment (family members, medical personnel, teachers, students and randomly chosen citizens); to explore the relationships persons affected by the condition have with other people; and to create a better understanding of how albinism is perceived in a Malawian context. Based on semi-structured interviews, observations, a newspaper analysis and a survey, this study found out that the social position of persons with albinism in Malawi can be characterised as challenging. Besides physical implications, such as high skin sensitivity and low vision, the condition also has social implications since persons with albinism often face stigma and discrimination from others in society. In addition to these implications that have already been identified in previous studies about albinism in Africa, including Braathen (2005), this research reveals that persons with albinism in Malawi are currently subjected to violence because of the belief that their body parts bring luck and prosperity when used in witchcraft practices. The current study concludes that the social position of persons with albinism has changed significantly during the last decade and that the quality of life of people with the condition is nowadays worse than that of the average Malawian.Show less
Academic research on the controversial Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe during the early 2000s has continuously overlooked or generalised the experiences of farm workers, bar a...Show moreAcademic research on the controversial Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe during the early 2000s has continuously overlooked or generalised the experiences of farm workers, bar a few key pieces of literature. A similar trend can be found in official discourse, despite the fact farm workers were one of the main groups affected. This oversight can be attributed to their role in Zimbabwean society and the space they occupied within it; from their position under ‘domestic governance’ on Large Scale Commercial Farms (LSCF) as Blair Rutherford has outlined, to their ambiguity in terms of rights to citizenship and perceived ‘foreignness’. This study chooses to enter this discussion through analysis of two of the main print publications at the time: the state-funded The Herald and the independent The Daily News. On a superficial level, these two newspapers have been posited as being at two opposite ends of the political spectrum, with The Herald parroting state rhetoric and The Daily News advocating the views of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). However, this study finds that these two publications were not so divergent, but instead deployed the same discourse in describing the experiences of farm workers during the height of FTLRP between 2001 and 2002. Farm worker experiences were co-opted for the benefit of those with discursive authority, for different reasons, but to the same effect. This discourse did and continues to shadow farm worker realities on-the-ground. Thus, farm workers were routinely denied space within Zimbabwe because they were not easily definable in the binary construction of the actors involved in FTLRP.Show less
This study focuses on sacred forests in the North Pare Mountains, Tanzania, and questions the reasons behind their current conservation. In spite of not being gazetted by the State, studies show...Show moreThis study focuses on sacred forests in the North Pare Mountains, Tanzania, and questions the reasons behind their current conservation. In spite of not being gazetted by the State, studies show that sacred forests in North Pare have a wider variety of endemic flora and fauna and are better preserved than national forests reserves. Although they are small in size, sacred forests are thus important globally. Some scholars suggest that the reason of such high biodiversity is the local culture and religion, or traditional conservation methods, which are decelerating the process of diminishing of these small forest patches. However, these aspects are not studied in depth. This thesis seeks to investigate these ‘traditions’. Sacred forests are in fact being considered a new type of (modern) conservation model. They are considered ideal also because of local caretakers, who enable to organize conservation with low economic expenditures. I argue, however, that the environmental ethics of people in North Pare emerge from a fusion of local Pare worldviews and modern discourses of Christianity, Islam and formal education. Therefore the assumed traditional/modern dichotomy that the new conservation agenda wants to reconcile does not reflect the reality on the ground and, by misunderstanding these dynamics, policies are likely to fail. The findings of this research also clarify that sacred forests and people constitute each other. The forests, in other words, symbolize a group of people. So, new ways of linking the community and the forests can complement recent conservation efforts, which typically neglect environmental values and moral meanings that are at stake in environmental practices and are fundamental for long-term positive results.Show less
The presence of indigenous heritage elements in all the various domains is a hardly avoidable fact in the Canary Islands. The ideological discourses from moderated nationalism to pro-independence...Show moreThe presence of indigenous heritage elements in all the various domains is a hardly avoidable fact in the Canary Islands. The ideological discourses from moderated nationalism to pro-independence perspectives, justify the attention towards “the noble indigenous past”. These political discourses help preserve traditional customs and celebrations in a process referred to as “folklorization”. This is mainly accomplished by turning the indigenous past into museums and ethnographic parks. Similarly,the Canarian moderate nationalism has become the main political force in the archipelago in the recent history of the Spanish democracy. While being for over 20 years in power, the nationalistic party Coalición Canaria has been able to build an identity discourse based on what Estévez called the indigenous patrimonization. The government has been offering funds to support the scientific research, the patrimony management and the encyclopaedic volumes on “Canarian themes” with didactic purposes, all of which have elicited an emotional legitimacy of the above-mentioned concepts. The patrimony management could also be considered as an important political and economical tool used to the re-creation, regulation and conservation of certain patrimonial elements of a culture that often occurs to the detriment of others. The experts’ view serves mostly as a filter through which material items of cultural patrimony are interpreted and regarded as valuable, while others are not. From the perspective of globalization, the protection of the historical patrimony can be interpreted as a resistance against the homogenization of social behaviors and consumption. However, tourists rather than the locals are the biggest consumers of this historical cultural patrimony. Thus, one could argue that it could have been created with the intention to satisfy the tourists’ demands (Estévez, 2004:16). On the one hand, a large part of the scientific community takes a stance against the indigenous heritage commercialization and its consumption by tourists and locals, based on the idea that such processes could undermine the intrinsic value of the indigenous heritage. On the other hand, the artists and their audiences continue to appreciate the value that is to be found in the indigenous imagination, as expressed in social situations when the audiences enjoy music and pottery inspired by the primal cultures of the first inhabitants of the Canaries. The concept of “folklorization” is tightly related to the general social interest of giving to the past a decisive role in the population’s destiny. This tendency provides the Canarian citizens a sense of feeling members of the same community/family and helps sculpt personality. In regard to the past generations, one can only use their remains to draw assumptions about the way they lived, but it is impossible to know exactly how they were and felt. In that sense, the museums assist in re-constructing the history according to scientific, political and ideological assumptions depending on the given historical period (Estévez, 2004:13). A consensual concern seems to exist in regard to preserving the traditions and conserving the cultural patrimony of the Canaries. However, the patrimony is selected through today’s lens. Hence, its preservation is linked to the current demands and uses of such cultural patrimony. In many cases, Estévez argues, the measures applied to classify what could be defined as patrimony, correspond to cost related and opportunistic criteria rather than scientific ones. Indeed there are many instances in the Canary Islands where the archaeology and patrimony management were interrelated with political purposes. In the present, a museum is meant to play a social function based on grounds of cultural democratization. Therefore, while visiting a museum, one expects a reflective and interactive exchange of contrasted scientific information provided to the public to draw their personal conclusions. However, when the explanations provided are too simple, obsolete or ideologically manipulated, the visitors are left with a feeling of confusion. This leads us to the argumentation that the proliferation of archaeological and ethnographical sites across the archipelago has not always been based on historical and archaeological motives, aiming to acquire a better understanding of the indigenous heritage of the Canaries. On the contrary, in most cases such proliferation has been based on economic profits, with tourists and also locals consuming their own patrimony at the cost of falsifying the history.Show less
The thesis examines the relationship between cultural performance and society in the context of breakdance in Uganda. It reflects on the particular appeal of breakdance as a tool for social change...Show moreThe thesis examines the relationship between cultural performance and society in the context of breakdance in Uganda. It reflects on the particular appeal of breakdance as a tool for social change and analyses the challenging agendas that shape and influence the country’s breakdance communities. The central research question is: does breakdance succeed to facilitate individual and social transformation? And if yes, how is this change experienced by the youth in Uganda, and which consequences do these actions have for the social fabric of the country? This actor-centred approach, on the one hand, requires a comprehension of the meaning and nature of social change as understood and experienced by various performers; and on the other hand calls for a contextualisation of its socio-cultural environment and interacting agendas. It thereby offers a detailed description of the self-organising practises and social experiences of youth in Uganda – as well as the structures they are set in.Show less
This thesis reflects the findings of a study conducted in Lumwana in the North-Western province of Zambia in 2009, 2013 and 2014. It looks at the socio-economic impacts of large scale mining...Show moreThis thesis reflects the findings of a study conducted in Lumwana in the North-Western province of Zambia in 2009, 2013 and 2014. It looks at the socio-economic impacts of large scale mining activities on the Lumwana community. To find out how the community has been impacted, the study combined primary and secondary data collection including a small survey, open and structured interviews,a documentary research, field observations and focus group discussions. Copper mining industry plays a very important role in Zambia: it is the main driving force behind Zambia's economy. In order to mitigate some of such negative effects and ensure peaceful coexistence between the mining company and the surrounding communities, LMC tries to provide certain socio-economic incentives for the Lumwana communities. However, perceived inequalities in the distribution of economical benefits, unfulfilled expectations, the lack of social infrastructure and the issues of migration are all contributing to the development of social conflicts. It is suggested that for the interests of the communities to be represented, government, chiefs and the international corporations involved should redefine their roles. Copper mining industry plays a very important role in Zambia: it is the main driving force behind Zambia's economy. In order to mitigate some of such negative effects and ensure peaceful coexistence between the mining company and the surrounding communities, LMC tries to provide certain socio-economic incentives for the Lumwana communities. However, perceived inequalities in the distribution of economical benefits, unfulfilled expectations, the lack of social infrastructure and the issues of migration are all contributing to the development of social conflicts. It is suggested that for the interests of the communities to be represented, government, chiefs and the international corporations involved should redefine their roles.Show less
The thesis approaches the complex of ethnicity in Rwanda under German colonial rule (1885-1916) and focuses on how Rwandan social structures were perceived by German colonialists and influenced by...Show moreThe thesis approaches the complex of ethnicity in Rwanda under German colonial rule (1885-1916) and focuses on how Rwandan social structures were perceived by German colonialists and influenced by their policy. The research question – what was the German approach to ethnicity in the former protectorate of Rwanda, what informed it, and how did it impinge on the society? – already suggests that this period is severely under-researched. Challenging the contemporary discourse that it was the Belgian rule under which Hutu and Tutsi were divided into two premordial entities, the thesis argues that it was earlier, during the German period, that social differences were introduced as racial differences. This argument gets developed on the basis of archive material and with a focus on four key personalities who were implementing German racial ideology in Rwanda by translating it into colonial policy. Without attributing direct responsibility for the 1994 genocide to the German rule, the case shows that the search for root causes of ethnic conflict in Rwanda must consider this timespan as a crucial incision for the further developments that tore society apart along racial lines.Show less
