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Technology, Engineering & AgricultureAugust 2023Parasitic Plants in African Agriculture
by Lytton John Musselman, Jonne Rodenburg
Parasitic Plants in African Agriculture brings together for the first time in a single volume, the ecology, biology, damage, and control of all groups of African parasitic plants including both the relatively few parasites introduced to the continent as well as those native parasites that have spread from within Africa. The book covers the well-known witchweeds and broomrapes but also groups and species that have received less attention including mistletoes, dodders, rice vampire weed, and other species posing threats. The book distinguishes between stem and root parasitic weeds and between holoparasites and (facultative or obligate) hemiparasites. Based on their research and experience collectively spanning six decades, the authors provide an authoritative and state-of-the-art overview of the distribution, biology and impact of these highly specialized weeds and include recommendations for their management. Since parasitic plants in African agriculture primarily affect smallholder farmers, these weeds are explicitly discussed within a context of resource limitations and global changes. Readers are informed on all parasitic plant species relevant to African agriculture and the impact these plants have on crop production and livelihoods of smallholders in a changing world. Current and future management strategies are outlined in terms of their principles and effectiveness as well as their feasibility and affordability for farmers, all of which determine farmer adoption. The final chapter synthesises some of the relevant findings and statistics regarding parasitic weed distribution and their host crops and discusses implications in terms of future crop protection concerns in African agricultural systems. Key features: · Authoritative text based on extensive field and laboratory work. · First comprehensive state-of-the-art overview of parasitic plants and their management in Africa. · Highly illustrated with photos, graphs and species distribution maps. · Reviews previous basic and applied work, with relevance to smallholder farming systems. This book will be a valuable reference for students, researchers, extension workers, development officers, national agriculture researchers, plant pathologists, food security specialists, weed scientists, agronomists and botanists.
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The ArtsJanuary 2019Postcolonial African cinema
Ten directors
by David Murphy, Patrick Williams
This is the first introduction of its kind to an important cross-section of postcolonial African filmmakers from the 1950s to the present. Building on previous critical work in the field, this volume will bring together ideas from a range of disciplines - film studies, African cultural studies, and, in particular, postcolonial studies - in order to combine the in-depth analysis of individual films and bodies of work by individual directors with a sustained interrogation of these films in relation to important theoretical concepts. Structurally, the book is straightforward, though the aim is to incorporate diversity and complexity of approach within the overall simplicity of format. Chapters provide both an overview of the director's output to date, and the necessary background - personal or national, cultural or political - to enable readers to achieve a better understanding of the director's choice of subject matter, aesthetic or formal strategies, or ideological stance. They also offer a particular reading of one or more films, in which the authors aim to situate African cinema in relation to important critical and theoretical debates. This book thus constitutes a new departure in African film studies, recognising the maturity of the field, and the need for complex yet accessible approaches to it, which move beyond the purely descriptive while refusing to get bogged down in theoretical jargon. Consequently, the volume should be of interest not only to specialists but also to the general reader.
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Humanities & Social SciencesMarch 2021African cities and collaborative futures
Urban platforms and metropolitan logistics
by Michael Keith, Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos, Susan Parnell
This groundbreaking volume brings together scholars from across the globe to discuss the infrastructure, energy, housing, safety and sustainability of African cities, as seen through local narratives of residents. Drawing on a variety of fields and extensive first-hand research, the contributions offer a fresh perspective on some of the most pressing issues confronting urban Africa in the twenty-first century. At a time when the future of the region as a whole will be determined in large part by its cities, the implications of these developments are profound. With case studies from cities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania, this volume explores how the rapid growth of African cities is reconfiguring the relationship between urban social life and its built forms. While the most visible transformations in cities today can be seen as infrastructural, these manifestations are cultural as well as material, reflecting the different ways in which the city is rationalised, economised and governed. How can we 'see like a city' in twenty-first-century Africa, understanding the urban present to shape its future? This is the central question posed throughout this volume, with a practical focus on how academics, local decision makers and international practitioners can collaborate to meet the challenge of rapid growth, environmental pressures and resource gaps.
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July 2024The Untold Stories of African Agriculture
Lessons from Ethiopia
by Tsedeke Abate
This landmark volume presents the results of a comprehensive and coherent in-depth assessment of Ethiopian agriculture and draws lessons from it to generate actionable recommendations that will inform policy decisions and priority setting for agricultural transformation across Africa. Policy makers in Africa are faced with the challenges of ensuring food and nutrition security and the economic wellbeing of their rapidly growing populations while at the same time maintaining the integrity of their natural resource base. Between 2000 and 2021, 74% of the growth in overall crop production on the continent was derived from increases in land area expansion, while increases in yield contributed only 26% of the growth. This unchecked expansion of land use puts the sustainability of the natural resource base under severe pressure. Even though some countries have made substantial increases in their farm productivity over the last two decades, the overall performance for Africa is far behind other regions. For the most part, in Africa, agriculture is not fulfilling its expected functions of food and nutrition security, increased export earnings, import substitution, and raw material supply for local industries. Attempts have been made to transform African agriculture over the years, but few countries have succeeded in achieving sustainable change. Using examples from Ethiopia this book identifies the major factors for success and the root causes of underperformance, and offers evidence-based recommendations for future decision making, policy change and the creation of growth. This book: · Draws on a unique set of case studies from Ethiopia described and told from a truly African perspective. · Emphasises to policy makers in Africa that development cannot be outsourced and there are no shortcuts; it is only through consistent effort and sustained support for their agricultural research and development that positive change can be brought about. · States that past agricultural development efforts by the international community have not properly included a strong African voice, and that therefore, all future academic research, policies and strategies dealing with the continent's agriculture and food security should be formulated by Africa's own leading thinkers and experts. · Is not a polemic; its arguments are knowledge and evidence based, building a compelling picture of how agricultural development can be sustained for the future.
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The ArtsApril 2011Postnationalist African Cinemas
by Alexie Tcheuyap
Postnationalist African cinemas convincingly interrogates the ways in which African narratives locate postcolonial identities and forms beyond essentially nationalist frameworks. It investigates how the emergence of new genres, discourses and representations, all unrelated to an overtly nationalist project, influences the formal choices made by contemporary directors. By foregrounding the narrative, generic, discursive, representational and aesthetic structures of films, this book shows how directors are beginning to regard film as a popular form of entertainment rather than political praxis. Tcheuyap investigates filmic genres such as comedy, dance, crime and epic alongside cultural aspects including witchcraft, sexuality, pornography and oracles. ;
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January 2023African Women in Digital Spaces
Redefining Social Movements on the Continent and in the Diaspora
by edited by Msia Kibona Clark, Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed
From Tamale to Paris, Hong Kong to Texas and back to Ouagadougou, this collection of scholarly chapters, poetry and personal essays theorizes the lives of African women and people of marginalized genders on the continent and the diaspora. The book is an important intervention in conversations on social movements and their convergence with digital media and other praxis tools. The contributors bring a refreshing perspective to discourses on African feminists' agency and how this manifests in their organizing in the physical world and in the digital public sphere. The volume demonstrates the relationships between the struggles of African feminists on the continent and the diaspora charting pathways for African scholars to build coalitions and work toward collective liberation.
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Children's & young adult: general non-fiction2021A Delicious History of Ukraine
by Masha Serdiuk
What is Ukrainian cuisine? Who invented borscht? Where did the holubtsi (cabbage rolls) come from? And why are Ukrainian varenyky (dumplings) called relatives of Chinese dim sums? Answers to these questions can be found in this book. In an interesting accessible form, we tell children the history of the Ukrainian gastronomy. They will find out what famous Ukrainians loved to eat. We will explain in a plain way how the cuisine of Halychyna differs from that of Volyn and Polissya regions. We will also map all the “delicious” places in the country. Furthermore, of course, young readers will learn how to cook cult Ukrainian dishes.
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Business, Economics & LawNovember 2024African perspectives in international investment law
by Yenkong Ngangjoh Hodu, Makane Moïse Mbengue
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Agriculture & related industriesDecember 2010African Smallholders
Food Crops, Markets and Policy
by Hans Holmén, Magnus Jirstrom, Agnes Andersson, Wolday Amha, Fred Dzanku, Willis Olouch-Kosura, John Kadzandira, Olatunji Akande, Bernard Bashaasha, Hyde Haantuba, Peter Coughlin, Stephen K. Wambugu. Edited by Göran Djurfeldt, Ernest Aryeetey, Aida Isinika.
Poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is predominantly a rural and agricultural phenomenon. The large majority of all poor are farmers and herders, therefore as long as the poor remain smallholders, alleviation of poverty remains an agricultural task. African Smallholders documents the farm-level effects of agricultural policies, focusing on a variety of themes including micro-credit, infrastructure, cash crop production and food security. To deepen our understanding of agricultural development it discusses staple food production in sub-Saharan Africa and its response to changing geo-political, macro-economic and agricultural policy. It is a useful resource for all those researching or involved with food security, agricultural and rural development in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Humanities & Social Sciences2014History of Ukraine from KGB Secret Files
by Volodymyr Viatrovych
The unknown and classified KGB history of the largest country in Europe - Ukraine is the history of people, events, documents and files. The files have answers to many questions. The most important of which - why did a war begin again in Europe? Why is it so important for Russia to conquer Ukraine? Why are Ukrainians putting up such a powerful resistance? Historian Volodymyr Viatrovych, who declassified the secret archives of the Soviet special services from the Cheka to the KGB, talks about the history of Ukraine, the USSR and Eastern Europe from 1918 to 1991. The reader, is offered, along with various heroes and traitors, those who thought they were in control of events, and those who thought they had no power over them, to recreate the nearly century-old chess game between the Ukrainian liberation movement and the creators of the "prison of nations." Described in reports and recreated by a historian, this work looks at the cunning “special operations”, deadly moves, information wars and complex games among several players that are all an attempt to find an answer to the question: what creates our destiny - human will or circumstances?
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Humanities & Social SciencesDecember 2017Selected Works of Culture and History in Hunan
Volume 5
by Hunan Research Institute of Culture and History
The book is divided into several parts, such as the study of Hunan culture, historical stories, Hunan famous characters, folk customs, appreciation of scenery in Hunan, Hunan art and literature, etc., to show Hunan's history, culture and events from different perspectives. The book is supported with theories, historical materials, and also is of interest. It is of positive significance to the advancement of the research and development of Hunan culture.
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Business, Economics & LawNovember 2024
The Island Book of Records Volume II
1969-70
by Neil Storey
The second volume of this highly collectable series, covering the pivotal years of 1969-70. The Island Book of Records Volume II documents the years 1969-70, during which Island sought to build on its success with the Spencer Davis Group by seeking out new British rock talent. By the end of the period, Island was emerging as a major British label, one that could boast releases from Jethro Tull, Nick Drake, King Crimson, John and Beverley Martyn, Fairport Convention and Cat Stevens. Featuring material from recent interviews and from media interviews of the time, and including a comprehensive discography of 45s, The Island Book of Records Volume II is lavishly illustrated with gig adverts (very many at venues that no longer exist), concert tickets, flyers, international LP variants, labels, LP and 45 adverts and other ephemera collector's dream.
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Agriculture & related industriesMay 2005African Food Crisis
Lessons from the Asian Green Revolution
by Edited by Göran Djurfeldt, Hans Holmén, Magnus Jirstrom, Rolf Larsson, Paul Van Mele, A Salahuddin, Noel P Magor
Why can Asia now feed its rapidly growing population, but Africa continues to experience famine? This book is the outcome of a three-year project coordinated by a group of Swedish researchers with collaborating scholars from Africa and Asia. It provides a comparative study between Asian agricultural development during the Green Revolution in food production and the current problematic agricultural situation in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on case studies of eight African and eight Asian countries (focusing on the early part of the Green Revolution), this book presents a causal and explanatory model of Asian green revolutions. It discusses why such progress has been made in Asia, but has not yet occurred in Africa. It also examines the implications of the case studies for future development in Africa.
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Children's & young adult: general non-fiction2021A Cool History of UkraineFrom Dinosaurs Till Now
by Inna Kovalyshena
Do you really think that history is boring and hard to under- stand? The heroes of this book thought so, too, at first. But just one interesting discovery pushed them to get to know history better — and to see that it can be fascinating, vibrant and so close to each of them. Four friends decide to explore the Ukrainian history and learn the truth: what kind of dino- saurs lived on our lands, who fought for Ukraine’s independ- ence, and why Ukrainians are the way they are. It turns out that history can be exciting and very important, even if it was back in the days of the dinosaurs. The subject of the book is the history of Ukraine from dinosaurs to today, which is interestingly and directly revealed. The main characters are children, in whom readers can recognize themselves. The text is written with humor and simple words, which makes the perception of information interactive. The book touches on important points of Ukraine's struggle for independence over many years.
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Mytes et Legendes Africains (African Myths and Legends)
by Adotévi Joël, Kanad Sambiani Tani, Gilka, Assem, Anani Accoh, Adomayakpo Papi
Six stories to make young and old travel through history, the imaginations of Africa. The myth of Shango, the legend of the buffalo woman, the legend of the mother of the Tuaregs, the story of King Agokoli, then that of the Amazons of Dahomey and finally that of the Ablafo
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Humanities & Social SciencesMarch 2017The South African War reappraised
by Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie
The South African War was a catalyst in the creation of modern South Africa and was a major international event which had profound implications for British rule in other parts of their colonial empire. This was South Africa's own 'Great War' - the largest conflict waged by the British in the century between the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War. It shaped political discourse among South Africa's various communities and moulded the outlook of a generation of imperial administrators, soldiers and anti-colonial activists. The war launched South Africa as a moral issue of global significance, involving leading humanitarians, foreign 'pro-Boer' volunteers as well as pro-imperial contingents from various dominions and colonies of settlement, and would later find echoes in the campaign against apartheid. This volume includes a historiographical review of a century of writing on the war. It examines South Africa's place in the imperial structure and reappraises its impact on imperial defence and the political identities of Africans, Asians, Boer commandos and Cape Afrikaners. An analysis of the role of the media and the effects of the war on nationalists in India, Ireland and the Dominions is also included. The South African War reappraised will be of particular interest to students of imperialism, modern South Africa, nationalism and the media.
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Humanities & Social SciencesMarch 2024
A savage song
Racist violence and armed resistance in the early twentieth-century U.S.–Mexico Borderlands
by Margarita Aragon
This book examines key moments in which collective and state violence invigorated racialized social boundaries around Mexican and African Americans in the United States, and in which they violently contested them. Bringing anti-Mexican violence into a common analytical framework with anti-black violence, A savage song examines several focal points in this oft-ignored history, including the 1915 rebellion of ethnic Mexicans in South Texas, and its brutal repression by the Texas Rangers and the 1917 mutiny of black soldiers of the 24th Infantry Regiment in Houston, Texas, in response to police brutality. Aragon considers both the continuities and stark contrasts across these different moments: how were racialized constructions of masculinity differently employed? How did African and Mexican American men, including those in uniform, respond to the violence of racism? And how was their resistance, including their claims to manhood and nation, understood by law enforcement, politicians, and the press? Building on extensive archival research, the book examines how African and Mexican American men have been constructed as 'racial problems', investigating, in particular, their relationship with law enforcement and ideas about black and Mexican criminality.
