Peasants, land reform and property right in Ethiopia: The experience of Gojjam Province, 1974 to 1997
October 2013
In late 1960s and early 1970s, progressive Ethiopians and international agencies urged Haile-Selassie’s Imperial government to introduced land reform and rural change and in 1974 the emperor was deposed and the Derg took power. Soon, the new régime, the Derg, promulgated a revolutionary land reform program. The land reform proclamation abolished all private ownership making all land...
Problems and prospects of automobile workshops in Bangladesh
October 2013
These days have witnessed a rapid growth of automobile industries all over the world. Although Bangladesh is a poorer country and densely populated, a large number of people works abroad and earn a large amount of foreign exchange. Millions of remittances come into our economy every month, which helps boost our economy and as such, some people have resources to modernize their life-style through the use of...
The historical conjuncture of neo-colonialism and underdevelopment in Nigeria
September 2013
Neo-colonialism is widely viewed by many writers as the survival of the colonial system in an ex-colony. It is one of the issues that have blighted sustainable development in Nigeria. In Nigeria, it can be regarded as a specific phase of her development characterised by its social formation. This situation was carefully crafted during the decolonization process by the colonialists in collusion with Nigerian...
Democracy and institutionalization of poverty in Nigeria
September 2013
Nigerian leaders have severally appreciated the fact that pervasiveness of poverty is one of the major impediments to development. This ostensibly could be one of the reasons that led to the adoption of many poverty reduction policies and frameworks especially since 1999. This paper critically looks at democracy and poverty incidence in Nigeria. It argues that democracy has aggravated the poverty profile in...
China’s foreign aid on human resources for health: Experience and implications
September 2013
China’s foreign aid in terms of Human Resources for Health (HRH) is an important part of the country’s foreign assistance and reflects the basic philosophy and innovative mechanism of China’s foreign aid, as well as being a typical mode of South-South cooperation. This paper systematically reviews the three types of China’s HRH aid: Foreign-aid medical teams; Chinese government...
Voter registers and the question of inclusion and exclusion in Tanzania’s multiparty elections: Learning from observers’ revelations
September 2013
This essay is an inquest to voter registration process in a multiparty Tanzania. The main question that this essay attempts to answer is whether or not the introduction of permanent voter registers in Tanzania has resolved registration controversies. These registers were purposely created in order to address registration problems that were observed by elections stakeholders during the 1995 and 2000 general...
Public-private partnerships and urban sanitation: Do expectations meet realities in Madina-Ghana?
September 2013
Efficient and effective provision of public services is problematic in developing countries. Since the 1980s, there has been an increasing realisation that the state lacks capacity and resources to deliver public goods and services solely. Thus, the private sector has been drawn upon through myriad means to provide these services by injecting capital, expertise, technology, flexibility, and among others. The...
Testing the PPP hypothesis in the Sub-saharan countries
August 2013
This paper examines the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) hypothesis in a number of Sub-Saharan countries by testing the order of integration in the log of their real exchange rates vis-à-vis the US dollar. I(d) estimation techniques based on both asymptotic and finite sample results are used. The test results led to the rejection of PPP in all cases: orders of integration below 1 are found in...
Gender equity in education: An analysis of perceptions of Masvingo urban female students, parents and teachers towards the maternity leave policy for high school girls in Zimbabwe
August 2013
The study examined the perceptions of Masvingo urban female students, parents and teachers towards the maternity leave policy for high school girls in Zimbabwe. A qualitative paradigm and the descriptive survey method were adopted. The qualitative paradigm was selected because the issue under study yields soft data. A descriptive survey was suitable for a relatively large sample. The paradigm lends itself to...
The challenges of ethnonationalism for the Nigerian State
July 2013
Whereas present day socio-economic realities tend to favour globalization and universalism, what is happening in Nigeria is rather a rise in ethnonationalism (Obi 2001). In fact, since the present democratic dispensation in Nigeria in 1999, ethnonationalist sentiments have become so trenchant and divisive that the country’s political, social and economic bear nay future is largely threatened....
Who will foot the bill? Water services infrastructure backlog in Sub-Saharan Africa
July 2013
Investment in the water services infrastructure remains one of the major challenges that many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are facing. Current levels of investment in the sector, from both private and public sources, are only a quarter of the expenditure needed to meet the growing demand from the rapidly growing urban population as well as the positive economic growth experienced in the last decade....
The modelled solar radiation pattern of Ghana: Its prospects for alternative energy source
March 2013
Solar radiation has many values as it is a driving energy for weather and climate, enhances Ghana’s socio-economic landscape and can be used to generate electricity. In order for solar radiation to be used to generate electricity, we need to know its intensity on daily and monthly basis. To make this data possible would require erecting a sufficiently dense network of sophisticated radiometric stations...
Crises of leadership and the ethical grounds of revolution in Africa
March 2013
Leadership is conceived as a vocation to service backed by authority to exercise administrative powers not for any personal gains but for the good and development of the people and the state. The leadership in Africa seems to derail from this rather noble understanding of leadership while tilting towards the egocentric idea of leadership where there is a shift from the people centered leadership to the person...
Utilizing the participatory social learning theory as a new paradigm to evaluate the International Labour Organization (ILO) assessment of support for growth-oriented women entrepreneurs in Uganda
March 2013
This manuscript highlights the participatory social learning theory (PSLT), an underutilized yet viable theory for assessing development initiatives. The PSLT is presented in this article as a means of analyzing the initiatives proposed and implemented for women’s economic growth in Uganda. It specifically analyzes the International Labour Organizations (ILO) report on support for women entrepreneurs in...
Provision of secondary education in Nigeria: Challenges and way forward
January 2013
Secondary education is critical to the education of a child, being the bridge between primary and tertiary education. In this paper, the challenges militating against the achievement of the objectives of secondary education in Nigeria were examined. They include: inadequate fund; inadequate and decay infrastructural facilities; inadequate and low quality teachers; negative attitudes of teacher; indiscipline...
Curbing witchcraft persecutions in South Africa: A search for alternative solution
January 2013
Witchcraft accusations and the resulting violence have become phenomenal of South Africa’s Limpopo Province (Prof S T Kgatla teaches in Missiology and Science of religion at the University of Pretoria South Africa). In the years 1996-2009, more than six hundred people have lost their lives because of witchcraft-related violence (For the statistics of the people killed and displaced from their homes, see...
Representations of the land reform programme in selected Zimbabwean short stories and Mutasa’s Sekai, Minda Tave Nayo (Sekai, We Now Have the Land): A fait accompli?
December 2012
The issue of the Land Redistribution Programme in the Zimbabwean literary geography is vexed and moot. This is because, like the politics which energised it, it is embedded in different ideological, social, economic, racial, gender and ethnic standpoints. It is this that makes some writers see it as a grand act of final decolonisation whose intention was to empower landless black natives. On the other hand,...
Gender and perception on climate change in Bahi and Kondoa Districts, Dodoma Region, Tanzania
December 2012
Perception precedes measures to adapt to climate change effects. However, little is known on how men and women dealing with agriculture in rural Tanzania perceive climate change. The study to analyze perception on climate change by gender was done in Bahi and Kondoa Districts Dodoma Region, Tanzania. Meteorological data were also used. Primary data obtained from 78 key informants, 12 focus groups and a sample of 360...
The macroeconomic impact of monetization on the Nigerian economy
October 2012
An important question is asked about the relationship between output and monetization of public servants wages and salaries structure: are variations in public servants wage and salaries plus monetization of fringe benefits transmitted to increase output, and do these variations in output constitute an important component of variations in monetization? Total recurrent expenditure is regressed on wages and...
War legacy: A reflection on the effects of the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) in south eastern Zimbabwe during Zimbabwe’s war of liberation 1976 - 1980
October 2012
As its central thesis, this paper discusses the effects of the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF) operations during Zimbabwe’s liberation war on the Hlengwe/Shangaan (a minority group in the south eastern Zimbabwe) from 1976 to 1980. Their homeland was a deeply contested terrain (part of what was dubbed the Gaza province by ZANLA) between the RSF and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA)....
The dilemma of adopting ethnic federal system in Africa in light of the perspectives from Ethiopian experience
September 2012
This article aims to analyse the major challenges of adopting ethnic federal system in Africa with special focus on the context of Ethiopia’s ethnic federal system. It is argued that though the adoption of ethnic federal system in Ethiopia has created the opportunity for minority groups to exercise their cultural and linguistic rights, the ethnic federal experiment has faced enormous challenges. The...
Curriculum governance and contestation in teacher education: The Zimbabwean experience
September 2012
This study investigated factors which underlie controversies in the assessment of student teachers in teacher training colleges in Zimbabwe. A case study methodology was adopted. The results of the study indicate that student assessment activities in teacher education reflect ideological contests between external and internal assessors than professional judgments on students’ performance. Firstly, it...
Tradition versus Modernity: A study on Emecheta’s The Bride Price
August 2012
Buchi Emecheta’s (1976) in ‘The Bride Price’ shows the confrontation of tradition and modernity in African society, where the traditional tribes are looking for their own power and custom; but a young heroine- Aku-nna- decides to go beyond all those totalities and make a free play of the structure. She tends to create a new discourse that rejects the fundamental immobility of African...
Exogenous shocks and financial stability in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)
August 2012
The search for financial stability remains a priority in every country today, mainly because of high costs incurred by financial crises and induced effects of financial stability on economic growth. The economies of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) countries are characterized by a strong dependence on the outside, especially with regard to the value of their currency, the CFA franc, and...
Ascending or descending the ladder? A View of Great Zimbabwe University students on higher education as a vehicle for vertical social mobility
July 2012
The article was an attempt to unravel the assorted sentiments of Great Zimbabwe University students regarding higher education as a vehicle for upward social mobility. The researchers became enthusiastic to undertake this study after detecting a steady increase in the number of students enrolling for higher education amid a diversity of militating variables. A sample of 50 students comprising 20 males and 30...
Impact of foreign trade and investment on Nigeria’s textile industry: The case of China
July 2012
The textile industry in Nigeria is the third largest in Africa after Egypt and South Africa. It is the largest employer of labour in the manufacturing sector. The industry is mainly controlled by large private-sector firms, often with substantial foreign participation. Low productivity levels limit Nigeria’s export possibilities. Nevertheless, the substantially liberated economic environment and the...
The practice of polygamy under the scheme of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa: a critical appraisal
July 2012
Today the assertion that polygamy is a human rights issue admits of no demur. Polygamy and other cultural practices are as legitimately subject to criticism within the context and setting of human rights as is any other structural aspect of society. There is a movement that is rapidly gaining momentum to contest the legality and legitimacy of polygamy in a human rights context. In several parts of Africa,...
The enduring impact of the 1804 Fulani Jihad on Igbomina society
May 2012
The Islamic revolution that swept through Western Sudan in the 19th century brought into existence the estwhile Sokoto Caliphate that dominated the political landscape of a considerable proportion of the area that later became Nigeria. While British Colonial intervention brought to an end the exercise of political power by this empire at the beginning of the 20th century, the socio-cultural and religious...
An evaluation of demonstration and industrial attachment as strategies in implementing clothing curriculum: A case of a Masvingo Polytechnic in Zimbabwe
May 2012
This study examined demonstration and industrial attachment as strategies in implementing national certificate in clothing design and construction curriculum. A qualitative approach utilizing a case study of Masvingo Polytechnic in Zimbabwe was used. The population comprised of national certificate second year students, production managers in industry and clothing lecturers. The participants were drawn using...
Does dependency rate really impede savings? Some Sub-Saharan African evidence
April 2012
This study examines whether the age dependency ratio exerts a negative effect on the domestic savings rates. We test this issue for 16 African countries using annual data. The empirical analysis was conducted using the bounds test of cointegration of Pesaran et al. (2001) and the modified Granger causality test due to Toda and Yamamoto (1995). The advantage of using these two approaches is that they both avoid the...
Impact of poverty on housing condition in Nigeria: A case study of Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos State
April 2012
The poor in most developing countries are found among four identifiable economic groups, the rural landless, the small farmers, the urban underemployed and the unemployed. Generally, the poor are dis-proportionately located in rural areas and slums in urban areas. The urban poor in Sub-Saharan Africa especially the West Africa region experience difficult time. This research work examined the impact of poverty...
A qualitative study of Chieftaincy and Local Government in Ghana
April 2012
It is widely argued that chiefs do not play any meaningful role in local government in Ghana as they used to; since there is an existing structure which is responsible for local governance in Ghana. In recent times, this debate has been raging on ferociously to the extent that people want the chieftaincy institution to be abolished. This qualitative study uses the institutional framework to assess the role of...
Is participatory forest management (PFM) an asset or liability to local community households adjacent to Arabuko Sokoke Forest, Kenya?
April 2012
The study examined the impact of participatory forest management (PFM) on the wealth of households living adjacent to Arabuko–Sokoke Forest (ASF). The study question was “is PFM an asset or liability to local communities living adjacent to ASF”. The study hypothesized that PFM areas have higher household wealth than non-PFM zones. Between 2008 and 2009, questionnaires were used to collect...
Gender income inequality and development in Africa: Analysis based on Kuznets’ inverted U curve
March 2012
Africa is a continent which faces important inequalities between men and women. In this connection, this article aims to analyze the evolution process of gender income inequality, in the light of Kuznets’ theory of the inverted U curve. The analysis is undertaken from a panel data with the estimation of a reduced model first and then an extended model afterwards. The results suggest that income...
Effects of agricultural reforms on the agricultural sector in Nigeria
March 2012
The various economic reform strategies undertaken by governments over a period of about three decades on the agricultural sector in Nigeria were the exploitative strategy, agricultural project strategy, direct production strategy and integrated rural development strategy. Overall, these economic reform strategies were geared toward the achievement of food self-sufficiency and food security, generation of...
Impact of fiscal policies aimed at increasing aggregate investments on employment and household incomes in Senegal
March 2012
This study explores the impact of budgetary policies, aimed at an increase in aggregate investments in Senegal on employment and household incomes. The analysis is based on a computable general equilibrium framework, which allows us to capture the multi-faceted microeconomic implications of the chosen macroeconomic policies and uses very interesting recent macro and micro-level data sources. Our results...
Spatial planning, legislation and the historical and contemporary challenges in Zimbabwe: A conjectural approach
February 2012
This paper seeks to unravel the spatial planning system in Zimbabwe in cognisance of its potential role to addressing some of the skewed phenomena of planning in the country. Some of the contemporary planning challenges are rooted in the colonial footprints, emanating from the Rhodesian segregationist policies and repressive legislation that have continued to exist into the ‘free Zimbabwean’ era...
African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional trade: Challenges and prospects
February 2012
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a US trade act that has significantly enhances US trade with about 39 Sub-Saharan (SSA) countries. However, despite the opportunities in the trade program ECOWAS countries have not benefitted much from the available opportunities in the program. The mission of this paper is to look at why ECOWAS countries have not been able to capture the opportunities of AGOA...
The global political agreement (GPA) and the persistent political conflict arising there from: Is this another manifestation of the council of Jerusalem?
November 2011
The global political agreement (GPA) and the council of Jerusalem (CJ) manifested in different times and geographical locations. The GPA is purely a political agreement signed by three political parties namely the movement for democratic change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) led by Morgan Tsvangirai, the movement for democratic change-Mutambara (MDC-M) led by Arthur Mutambara and the Zimbabwe African National Union...
Patterns of marital instability among married couples in Lagos, Nigeria
November 2011
This study investigates the patterns of marriage instability in modern African society, especially Lagos metropolis, and the implications on marriage counselling. Two hundred and fifty married men and women were selected in Lagos metropolis, using purposive and convenience sampling technique. Among the participants were: one hundred and eleven married men (44.4%) and one hundred and thirty nine married women (55.6%)...
A Don Quizote fighting windmills: A study of teachers’ imagined stress in the teaching profession
September 2011
The present study investigated the prevalence of teacher occupational stress among primary school teachers in Matebeleland North Region. A survey method was used to collect data for the study. A sample of 10 schools was randomly selected from primary schools in the Region. A total of 120 teachers drawn from the 10 schools participated in the study. A survey questionnaire (the adapted version of Kyriacou and...
Intelligence operations as terrorism: Emerging state terrorism in Botswana
September 2011
Botswana is considered one of Africa’s credible democracies. Its economic performance and good governance over the years distinguished its statehood from its African counterparts. The stable political landscape backdating to independence also made it a regional security exception. However, the security landscape has changed over the last three years. Using a historical procedure, the article illustrates how the...
The attitudes, knowledge and skills of district literacy coordinators in three regions of Zimbabwe
August 2011
This study was conducted to investigate the attitudes, knowledge and skills of District Literacy Coordinators (DLCs) in Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central and Manicaland Provinces of Zimbabwe, with a view to determining their training needs. A descriptive survey design using data collection instruments involving face-to-face interviews and questionnaires was adopted. Thirty conveniently sampled DLCs...
Impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on millennium development goals (MDGs): Context for diffusion and adoption of ICT innovations in East and Southern Africa
August 2011
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) impact all the millennium development goals (MDGs), especially in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. The correlation between ICTs and high economic growth has not been well researched in most African countries. The specific objectives of the research are: to assess the impact of ICTs on MDGs, to ascertain the ICT impact on economic growth, and...
Using computer in science class: The interactive effect of gender
July 2011
The advantage of “computer-assisted instruction” is weakened by factors such as gender stereotyping. Therefore, this study was an attempt to investigate the effect of gender on the use of computer in science class and its effect on the students’ academic performance. It was a quasi-experimental design that used pre-test, treatment-control, and post-test. Using computers, the experimental...
Integrating early childhood development (ECD) into mainstream primary school education in Zimbabwe: Implications to water, sanitation and hygiene delivery
July 2011
The study sought to investigate implementation of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) deliverables by rural primary schools in Bikita District. Four school heads and eight early childhood development (ECD) teachers from four schools were interviewed. An observation checklist was used to assess the adequacy and age-appropriateness of WASH facilities. The research analyzed the capacity of WASH policies to...
To what extent are regional trade arrangements in Africa fulfilling the conditions for successful RTAs?
June 2011
Almost all African countries have embraced RTAs since attaining independence in 1950s and 1960s as means of enhancing policy credibility and accelerating trade to overcome the economic disadvantages of fragmentation of many small-nation economies on the continent. Today, there is no country in Africa that is not a member of at least one regional economic group. As reflected in the 13 RTAs operating in Africa,...
What happened to post-imperial development in Africa during the last fifty years? Re-thinking the post-colonial turn in creative art, social ‘writings’ and films
June 2011
This paper argues that post-colonial theory in its classical usage is limited. However, when its premises are employed as a point of understanding, they can be very useful for comprehending the situation of contemporary developments in Africa. From this light, it contends that, after the fiftieth anniversary of Africa’s independence, the continent’s development could not really take off the ground...
Religion as a tool in strengthening the democratic process in Ghana
June 2011
Recent elections in Ghana bear witness to the extraordinary power of religion to affect social and political change. This paper illustrates a few varieties of this power through case studies which examine the role of religious leaders in promoting peaceful elections, the way inter-faith dialogue enhances civic duties and fosters peace by bolstering values of justice, forgiveness and cooperation, and the...
Hopes and hiccups expressed: Barriers to university female lecturers’ promotion
May 2011
The study explored barriers to promotion for university female lecturers to leadership positions. In Zimbabwe, women have gained legal rights through government pronounced policies such as the Gender policy and Affirmative Action policy (Government of Zimbabwe, 2004; Chabaya et al., 2009). The theoretical framework used is critical feminism which deals with issues that marginalize women from leadership roles...
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