Center For Archaeoastronomy: A&E News Archive and practices of indigenous African peoples. Why study African Astronomy? Instead of telling the star lore of the various African peoples, http://www.wam.umd.edu/~tlaloc/archastro/ae28.html
Extractions: by Jarita Holbrook, History Dept. UCLA Stellar Navigation: Stellar navigation is a method of using the stars to determine directions when traveling at night. During my field work in Tunisia, North Africa, I discovered that the fishermen of the Kerkennah Islands still used stellar navigation to reach their fisheries at night (Holbrook 1998). Since then I've unveiled several sites of stellar navigation all over Africa. A second site which I am researching is the Afar people in Eritrea (Holbrook 1998). During the struggle for independence which ended in 1993, the Afar where consulted to navigate troops at night. Other potential stellar navigation sites are in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, and Madagascar. Most but not all of the sites as associated with ocean travel. Summary: My preliminary findings on African Astronomy reveals a continent rich in astronomical traditions. I have presented four of these traditions as separate from each other, but in fact they overlap in interesting and unexpected ways. Such as stars being named for their use in navigation or being named for the season which begins with their appearance. In addition to the four topics mentioned here there are several more focusing on the moon, the sun, the major planets, and the relationship between the stars and man. I continue to search the literature for mention of African astronomical traditions as well as taking trips to Africa to interview people about their astronomy.
African History And Environmental History 6 The taming of nature and indigenous peoples emerges as the central motif. 7 Both African people, and the settlers and colonists who came to the http://www.h-net.org/~environ/historiography/africaeh.htm
Extractions: Introduction: Approaches to Environmental History Human beings are, before anything else, biological entities as Crosby reminds us. Their interaction with other species and with the natural environment, and their appropriation of the natural resources without which life is impossible, must be a central element in history. Significant sorties have been made over this terrain in a variety of historical writing, and more so in other disciplines. With respect to Africa, environmental issues have been a perennial concern for historical and physical geographers, anthropologists, archaeologists and medical scientists. Historians and social scientists, however, have often been uneasy about incorporating environmental questions into their work, and not only because of disciplinary divisions and their lack of familiarity with the subject matter. Some earlier western intellectual traditions evinced a strong environmental determinism to explain different forms of society, racial characteristics and social division. The legacy of French Annales historians, especially Lucien Febvre, did provide an alternative framework. While Febvre insisted upon studying human history within the totality of the natural environment, or upon geography as an element of history, he energetically attacked environmental determinists who laid too much emphasis on climate, or soil, in shaping culture. Culture and politics, he argued, transcended specific environments. Natural influences were extraordinarly complex and mediated by cultural understandings: it was difficult even to make assumptions that islands produced particular cultures, or that littorals were more densely populated, or that towns developed especially on rivers, or that people living in deserts were isolated. Febvres warning that people with simple technologies were not necessarily more closely shaped by, or attuned to, their environments, was subconsciously echoed in later Africanist scholarship.
Adam Carr's Electoral Archive tswana migrated into what is now Botswana, displacing the indigenous San people.The Afrikaaners continued to move into tswana lands, and in 1885 the http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/b/botswana/statsbotswana.shtml
Extractions: Ethnicity: Over 90% of the population are of African stock, and about 80% are Tswana. The largest minority groups are the Kalanga (11%) and Basarwa (3%). There is a 7% European minority. Languages: English is the official language and the language of government and business: it is the first language of about 5% and the second language of about 30%. Over 70% speak Tswana. Other languages include Kalanga (11%), Kgalagadi (3%), Afrikaans (2%), Herero (2%), Shua (2%) and Yeyi (2%).
Extractions: Domain Control Panel Search: All of Kabissa Whole Internet Pambazuka News Home Contact Directory African Mailing Lists African Websites ... Set Up a New List Date Prev Date Next Thread Prev Thread Next ... Thread Index http://www.chronicleworld.org http://www.chronicleworld.org/tomsite/archive6/01_AC_FD/03_AC_05.htm http://www.chronicleworld.org/tomsite/archive6/01_AC_FD/03_AC_05.htm http://www.chronicleworld.org ... Thread Index Last Updated: Sat Apr 02 17:45:19 2005 Back to top About us Free Membership Support us! Your feedback is important. Click here to send us a message. Privacy Notice
The Mongongo Nut, Ricinodendron Rautanenii indigenous people have been reported as eating around 100300 fruit a day in Muller, Hans 1988 A trip to africa a personal report on african fruit and http://www.naturalhub.com/natural_food_guide_nuts_uncommon_Ricinodendron_rautane
Extractions: Ricinodendron rautaneii is a large (up to 15 metres) straight trunked tree, with a broad spreading crown with dark green compound leaves of 5 to 7 ovate to elliptical leaflets at the end of a stalk up to 15cm (6 inches) long, not unlike those of Casimiroa edulis dried flesh of each manketti fruit. The big value is in the seed. The skin takes up 10% of the fruit by volume, the flesh 20%. The remaining 70% is the nut-like seed, including the wide hard shell around it. The 'shell' (endocarp) around the 'kernel' is very thick indeed, and although porous, it is very hard and tough. So hard that even elephants, which love the sweet fruit, can't crack them. "A forester in Rhodesia [Zimbabwe] set this author some Manketti nuts and on the package under the scientific name Ricinodendron , he had written "recovered from elephant dung". This startled me. The nuts are like oversized pecans which have had smallpox and were covered with pockmarks. I wrote the forester to ask why the special inscription, and he replied that there are three reasons: (1) The elephants eat the fruits greedily and it is much easier to let the elephants do the job of picking; (2) The seed will not germinate until it has spent a week inside the elephant, and (3) The elephant enjoys the fruit but his digestive mechanism does not affect the extremely hard shell and the nut inside. The natives of Rhodesia, therefore, follow the elephant, recover the hardshelled nuts where they have been dropped, clean and dry them, then crack the extremely hard shell, and find the contents perfectly delicious."
The San: Southern Africa’s Forgotten People SITUATION REPORT THE SAN SOUTHERN africa S FORGOTTEN PEOPLE (one of theTswana ethnic groups) who claimed territorial rights over the area. http://www.iss.co.za/AF/current/sanmay02.htm
Extractions: SITUATION REPORT: THE SAN: SOUTHERN AFRICA'S FORGOTTEN PEOPLE (Booker, Christopher. Sunday Telegraph; 24/02/2002 :P14) . To make things worse on 18 February 2002, it was reported that the Botswana officials had turned off essential water supplies to the San. According to the government, this became necessary because government sanctioned cattle ranching has lowered the water table, depriving the San of natural water. The government, in its defence, claims that the relocation of the San from the CKGR is essential for them to have access to sustainable state services such as health care and formal education. This is because the government insists that it cannot currently afford to provide water and other services to the San communities in the reserve even though it costs only US$3 per person per week. The position taken by the government of Botswana seems even more baffling if one considers the fact that it turned down an offer by the European Union (EU) to cover the cost of keeping the San in the CKGR. This offer was to form part of CKGR Management Plan that was signed by the Botswana government and the EU in 1996. One of the key provisions of this agreement was that the water supply to the San would not be turned of. It was on the basis of this assurance that the EU agreed to continue its long-standing support to conservation and management of wildlife resources in Botswana. The most important provision of this agreement (relating to the provision of services to San communities) would be rendered meaningless if through the cutting off of services these communities ceased to exist. As a result, the continued funding of this project by the EU stands in the balance.
Operation World - Detailed Information Nonindigenous 9.1%. African 7.9%. Many work as farm labourers. There arecongregations in every indigenous people, but relatively fewer among the Tonga http://www.gmi.org/ow/country/zimo/owtext.html
Ethnicity And Race By Countries Liberia, indigenous African tribes 95% (including Kpelle, Bassa, Gio, Venezuela,Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Arab, German, African, indigenous people http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0855617.html
Extractions: World Countries Afghanistan Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, minor ethnic groups (Chahar Aimaks, Turkmen, Baloch, and others) Albania Albanian 95%, Greeks 3%, other 2%: Vlachs, Gypsies, Serbs, and Bulgarians (1989 est.) Algeria Arab-Berber 99%, European less than 1% Andorra Spanish 43%, Andorran 33%, Portuguese 11%, French 7%, other 6% (1998) Angola Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, mestico (mixed European and Native African) 2%, European 1%, other 22% Antigua and Barbuda black, British, Portuguese, Lebanese, Syrian Argentina white (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%; mestizo, Amerindian, other 3%
Rastafari Speaks Interactive Forums-viewtopic-The Pillage Of Africa africa for the africans. The benefits that have accrued to the indigenouspeoples from the five centuries of rapine since the Portuguese first settled http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&
People Of South Africa HIV/AIDS people living with HIV/AIDS, 5.3 million (2003 est. If you wouldlike to use this flag of South africa or any other on your website you are http://www.appliedlanguage.com/country_guides/south_africa_country_people.shtml
Extractions: Applied Language Solutions offer quality language translation services for all applications, including website, medical and legal translations Email: enquiries@appliedlanguage.com FREE QUOTE SERVICES RESOURCES ... HOME PAGE Information For South Africa Introduction Geography People Government ... Country Flag Popular Pages Business Translation Free Translation Tools Free website translation Language Identifier Currency Converter Free Translation Information Translation Articles Submit An Article Language Directory Country Guides ... Population 42,718,530 note: South Africa took a census October 1996 that showed a population of 40,583,611 (after an official adjustment for a 6.8% underenumeration based on a postenumeration survey); estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2004 est.) Age structure 0-14 years: 29.5% (male 6,337,468; female 6,254,925) 15-64 years: 65.3% (male 13,898,269; female 14,017,559) 65 years and over: 5.2% (male 886,801; female 1,323,508) (2004 est.)
TDS; Passports, Visas, Travel Documents People from the more populous north have settled throughout the country in recentdecades Religions Predominantly Christian; also indigenous beliefs. http://www.traveldocs.com/na/people.htm
Extractions: PEOPLE Namibians are of diverse ethnic origins. The principal groups are the Ovambo, Kavango, Herero/Himba, Damara, mixed race ("colored" and Rehoboth Baster), white (Afrikaner, German, and Portuguese), Nama, Caprivian, San, and Tswana. The Ovambo make up about half of Namibia's people. The Ovambo, Kavango, and East Caprivian peoples, who occupy the relatively well-watered and wooded northern part of the country, are settled farmers and herders. Historically, these groups had little contact with the Nama, Damara, and Herero, who roamed the central part of the country vying for control of sparse pastureland. German colonial rule destroyed the war-making ability of the tribes but did not erase their identities or traditional organization. People from the more populous north have settled throughout the country in recent decades as a result of urbanization, industrialization, and the demand for labor. Missionary work during the 1800s drew many Namibians to Christianity. While most Namibian Christians are Lutheran, there also are Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, African Methodist Episcopal, and Dutch Reformed Christians represented.
Profile The People; Languages; The Seas; The Coasts; Relief Features GCIS (GovernmentCommunication and Information System); Googling South africa http://www.saembassy.org/aboutsa.htm
Extractions: Profile Useful Links South Africa In South Africa, one finds the the world's most dramatic landscapes, a unique wealth of animal and plant life, a treasure of gold, diamonds and other minerals, and a kaleidoscope of fascinating cultures. Nature's tools of creation, the wind, sun, ice and rain, have worked a special magic. There are extremes of deserts, savannas, snow-covered mountains, grasslands, high forests and tropical mangrove swamps. Within these climatic zones, Earth's most diverse plant population flourishes. South Africa is also the home of big game, a hosts birds as varied as the vast range of habitats and foods that nature has prepared for them. It is this variety of South Africa's fascinating and diverse peoples that is its great asset. South Africa is often called the cradle of civilization, for this is where archaeologists discovered 2.5 million-year-old fossils of our earliest ancestors, as well as 100,000 year old remains of modern man.
LANGUAGES-ON-THE-WEB: BEST XHOSA LINKS ombrarossapiccola.jpg (728 byte) South African Language XHOSA In these warsthe Xhosa, agricultural and pastoral peoples native to the Eastern Cape, http://www.languages-on-the-web.com/links/link-xhosa.htm
AEGiS: South Africa There are 11 official languages in South africa, but most people speak English.US Department of State Travel Advisory Travel Warnings are issued when http://www.aegis.com/countries/safrica.html
Extractions: Population 43,647,658. Note: South Africa took a census October 1996 that showed a population of 40,583,611 (after an official adjustment for a 6.8% underenumeration based on a postenumeration survey); estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2002 est.).
Afrol News - Botswana Expels Government Critic AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY. The only independent news agency dedicated exclusively to majority s inhumane treatment of the San ( Bushmen ) indigenous people. http://www.afrol.com/articles/16468
Extractions: Botswana expels government critic afrol News , 31 May A Botswana appeal court today decided the government could go ahead with the deportation of Kenneth Good, an Australian political science Professor lecturing at the University of Botswana since 1990. Professor Good had received a presidential deportation order after criticising the government's democracy record, causing outrage among human rights activists. Judge Stanley Sapire of Botswana's Lobatse High Court today announced the sentence in the controversial case between the state and Professor Good. The critical academic's appeal against his deportation order was turned down and Judge Sapire deprived the Australian of any further right to appeal. According to the judge's final statement, "the applicants' lawyers failed to convince the court that the presidential deportation order served on Good on 18 February was unjustified." The lawyers had focused on technicalities to nullify the deportation order issued by President Festus Mogae in person.
The National Question In Post-'94 South Africa As conventionally understood in South africa, as elsewhere, the National Question Which raises the question Is the ANC leaving those of our people who http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/discussion/natquest.html
Extractions: The National Question in Post-'94 South Africa A Discussion Paper in Preparation for the 50th National Conference of the ANC by Z. Pallo Jordan (Abridged version) This paper proceeds from the premise that the ANC had to make a number of concessions to the old order in order to secure the beach-head of majority rule in 1994. They were made with the implicit understanding that the main thrust of movement policy would be to consolidate that beach-head and employ it to lay the foundations of a truly democratic society. It is our further contention that the economic unification of the country spawned a number of centripetal forces which have conspired to create a common South African society. However, the productive relations structured and determined by Colonialism of a Special Type (CST), reproduced a racial hierarchy which was institutionalised and has engendered equally centrifugal forces reinforced by the racial and ethnic divisions sponsored by the apartheid state. Our third premise is that the ANC has been the most consistent advocate of an inclusive South African nationhood rooted in the universalist, liberatory outlook of modernity and the realities and imperatives of South Africans of all races sharing a common territory. I would therefore contend that issues of democracy, non-racialism and national liberation, on the one hand, and those of racial oppression and ethnicity, on the other hand, come together in acute fashion. And that the attitude one adopts to these two sets of issues defines distinct commitments.
A WALK IN THE NIGHT - Notes For Viewing The Film applied to black South African descendants of the bantuspeaking people ofthe region. Coloured was a category referring to people of mixed race, http://www.newsreel.org/guides/walk.htm
Extractions: Before the Film . . . Read the essay on A Walk in the Night . Note that this film depicts a killing. Although you don't need to know Hamlet Alex La Guma, the author of the story published in 1962 was an anti-apartheid activist from the Coloured community who died in exile in 1986. The original story was set in the 1950s in Cape Town's multi-racial District Six, which was ultimately razed by apartheid authorities. Although the protagonists are still from the Coloured community, the film version transports the story to post-apartheid Johannesburg. *** The local library may have the book A Walk in the Night and Other Stories by Alex La Guma, Northwestern University Press, 1985. After the film . . . 1. What are some of the various economic activities Dube highlights as Mike walks around the city after being fired? Why is his loss of a job at the steel mill such a blow and what alternative economic opportunities are open to him? 2. The problems of racism, crime and unemployment still exist in post-apartheid South Africa. Does the situation in South Africa's ghettoes remind you of the inner cities of the United States as characterized by drug addiction, police brutality and gangs? What would you say the film shows as the underlying causes of these social ills?
