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Eveline Lemke ist Grünen-Politikerin, frühere Wirtschaftsministerin des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz und frischgebackene Präsidentin der Karlshochschule in Karlsruhe. Sie gehört zu den Fellows der ersten Runde des »Mercator Science-Policy Fellowship-Programms«, das 2016 gestartet ist und Politiker aus unterschiedlichen Ressorts mit Wissenschaftlern der Rhein-Main-Universitäten zusammenbringen möchte. Der UniReport hatte die Gelegenheit, Lemke bei ihren Gesprächen mit zwei Wissenschaftlern der Goethe-Universität zu begleiten. Thema der lebendigen Gespräche waren unter anderem das Erstarken des Rechtspopulismus und neue soziale Bewegungen.
The Heart of Jacob
(2017)
Jacob prospers as a moneylender and pig merchant by taking advantage of other peoples misfortunes. But when he seeks to exploit the famine afflicting his village Tounga by lending money at high interest rates to poor villagers, he does not reckon what a sacrilege his pigs would commit which give the people an opportunity to feast on his own misfortune. When this happens community gives way to individual desires, and the stomach dictates to the head what it should think and believe in. Reason bends to absurdity and custom bows to bizarre novelty. Life explodes into a sinister mess that points to only one outcome: Jacob and societys ultimate ruin.
My Head Master
(2017)
I first time I saw the man who became my headmaster was when he rode his motorcycle past our house in Tyosa. He was a huge, dark, hairy man with big eyeballs that looked like they could see through anything and often saw through everything. His eyes were so frightening to me that I always trembled whenever he turned them on me. Not only were the eyeballs big, he had a way of baring them in the most frightening manner when he focused them on you. Older people said his father Akut was nicknamed Akut the owner of frightening eyes for pretty much the same reason. His eyeballs were said to be so big as to scare away birds whenever he entered the forest. Some people said they scared away chickens too. So he was called Akut the owner of frightening eyes.... But Akuts son was headmaster and no one dared pass his nickname to his son though he had passed his frightening eyes to the son. No one dared sing songs behind him the way children used to sing behind Akut his father Passing through and growing up in school with Akuts son as the Headmaster, and what it took to grow up in a closely-knit community through the eyes and memory of a pupil is a story that has to be told, the story of any pupil. And this is the story
Women in Islam explores the complexities of gender relations in Muslim communities in the Horn of Africa and beyond, engaging critically with the social, political and cultural challenges associated with the intersection of Islam and gender. With an eclectic selection of essays, academic papers, opinion pieces and personal narratives punctuated with poetry and art, the journal seeks to spark creative and forward-looking discussions on how to effectively improve the status of women in Muslim societies. Women in Islam is published annually by SIHA, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa. Issue Three of Women in Islam includes investigations of social issues, profiles of inspiring women, book and film reviews, poetry, and opinion pieces. The dossier on 'Living With Religious Militancy' explores women's experiences in contexts of conflict and extremism, with articles on the dilemma of female political Islamists, a gender-segregated community in Eastern Sudan, and women of Boko Haram. Other articles include stories of Sufi women, the experience of female convert to Islam, Ziba Mir-Hosseini's quest for equality in Islamic law, and reviews of Wadjda and Timbuktu.
This poetry anthology offers a feast and face of poetry as it currently is in Uganda. It is all encompassing and presents a variety of writers ranging from seasoned voices to new ones of great promise. The voices are adventurous, reflective, provocative and even sassy. The poets explore with passion diverse themes from the private to the public realm reassuring the reader that poetry is about everything and is perhaps everything. The pages of this anthology pulsate with rhythmic variations that give unexpected pleasure and provoke the reader to be exceptionally alert. This is a welcome and priceless addition to Uganda Poetry Anthology 2000.
In 1996 President Nelson Mandela described Professor Ali A. Mazrui (1933-2014) as 'an outstanding educationist and freedom fighter.' In 2002 the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan referred to Professor Mazrui as 'Africa's gift to the world.' Author of more than 35 books and hundreds of articles, Professor Mazrui was an African scholar who had treated with uncommon verve and flair a wide-range of themes that included globalization, the triple heritage, peace, and social justice. This volume engages with some of those themes that excited his mind for over six decades. The multidisciplinary essays seek to underline the highlights of Mazrui's intellectual journey and attest to the fact that he was public intellectual par excellence. Indeed, in 2005, he was named one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world. This book is a product of a symposium held from 15 to 17 July 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya. The symposium was jointly organized by the Twaweza Communications, Nairobi, Kenya, and the Institute of Global Cultural Studies (State University of New York at Binghamton) which Ali Mazrui created and presided over as the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities from 1991 to 2014.
Characterization of a novel KCNJ2 sequence variant detected in Andersen-Tawil syndrome patients
(2017)
Background: Mutations in the KCNJ2 gene encoding the ion channel Kir2.1 have been linked to the Andersen-Tawil syndrome (ATS). Molecular genetic screening performed in a family exhibiting clinical ATS phenotypes unmasked a novel sequence variant (c.434A > G, p.Y145C) in this gene. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of this variant on Kir2.1 ion channel functionality.
Methods: Mutant as well as wild type GFP tagged Kir2.1 channels were expressed in HEK293 cells. In order to examine the effect of the new variant, electrophysiological measurements were performed using patch clamp technique. Cellular localization of the mutant in comparison to the wild type ion channel was analyzed by confocal laser scanning microscopy.
Results: The currents of cells expressing only mutant channels or a mixture of wild type and mutant were significantly reduced compared to those expressing wild type (WT) channels (p < 0.01). Whereas WT expressing cells exhibited at −120 mV an averaged current of −4.5 ± 1.9 nA, the mutant generates only a current of −0.17 ± 0.07 nA. A co-expression of mutant and WT channel generates only a partial rescue of the WT current. Confocal laser scanning microscopy indicated that the novel variant is not interfering with synthesis and/or protein trafficking.
Conclusions: The detected sequence variant causes loss-of-function of the Kir2.1 channel and explains the clinical phenotypes observed in Andersen-Tawil syndrome patients.
Der vorliegende Beitrag kann keinen umfassenden Überblick über die Literaturgeschichte moderner Engel in Aussicht stellen. Stattdessen möchte ich das vielseitige und zugleich ambivalente Nachleben der Figur und die divergierende Gestaltung religiöser Sinn- und Anspielungshorizonte textnah anhand von Gotthold Ephraim Lessings 'Nathan der Weise' (1779) und Heinrich von Kleists 'Das Käthchen von Heilbronn' (1808/10) untersuchen.
Welche Signifikanz sich das über die 'Geistlichen Übungen' geregelte Bildliche bewahrt hat, möchte ich im Folgenden anhand einer Erzählung aus den 'Nachtstücken' E.T.A. Hoffmanns, der 'Jesuiterkirche in G.' aus dem Jahre 1816, skizzieren, die sich bei genauer Betrachtung als eine literarische Abhandlung über das jesuitische Bild- und Wahrnehmungsverständnis zu erkennen gibt.
Im Folgenden soll die gegenseitige Befruchtung von Kunstschaffen und Religion am Beispiel Ludwig Meidners, einer der Doppelbegabungen aus dem Umkreis des Expressionismus, vorgeführt werden, der als Maler und Zeichner und Schriftsteller hervorgetreten ist. Interessant scheint das Exempel auch deshalb, weil gezeigt werden kann, wie die Bezogenheit auf das Heilige die Medien Text und Bild durchzieht und so in besonderer Weise transgressiv wirksam wird.
Der vorliegende Essay möchte die Verbindung von Philosophie und Religion näher ausführen und sie exemplifizieren anhand der Exegese der Bibel im 'Stern der Erlösung'. Hierfür sollen zunächst ein paar einleitende Worte zur Biographie Rosenzweigs angeführt werden, da bei diesem Denker, wie bei kaum einem zweiten der jüdischen Moderne, Leben und Werk eng aufeinander bezogen sind. Daran anschließend konzentriere ich mich auf den 'Stern', um herauszuarbeiten, wie Rosenzweig die Bibel benutzt, um gewisse für sein Denken zentrale philosophische Sachverhalte anhand von Bibelstellen zu erläutern.
Im ersten Teil der vorliegenden Analyse werden zwei Themen in Jungs Schrift untersucht: die Amoralität und Unbewusstheit Gottes sowie dessen Menschwerdung. Dann soll erörtert werden, wie Jung zu seiner Interpretation kommt, und schließlich wird gezeigt, welche Bedeutung Jung der Hiobschrift für das 20. Jahrhundert und danach beimisst.
Die Bibel ist Weltliteratur 'und' eine heilige Schrift - damit spreche ich sowohl bereits den Kern des Beitrages als auch die Schwierigkeit dieser Konstellation an. In welchem Verhältnis steht die Bibel als Literatur zu dem Begriff der Heiligkeit, der ihr kanonisch, normativ und auch inhaltlich zuerkannt wurde und teils wird? Beide Aspekte, sowohl ihre Literarizität (1. 'Bible as Literature') als auch ihre Einordnung als eine heilige Schrift (2. Die Bibel als heilige Schrift), werden im Folgenden in einem Wechselspiel aus literaturwissenschaftlicher und theologischer Hermeneutik untersucht, da diese beiden Disziplinen die Bibel als literarisches und/oder religiöses Medium wahrnehmen und aufgreifen.
The East African Rift System (EARS) was initiated in the Eocene epoch between 50 and 21 Ma probably due to the influence of mantle plumes that caused volcanism, flood basalts and rifting extensions in Ethiopa and the Afar region. As a result of magmatic intrusions and adiabatic decompression melting within the lithosphere caused by the impact of the Kenya plume, there was a southward propagation of the EARS of about 30 – 15 Ma from Ethiopia to Kenya, which coincide with the occurrence of volcanism. The EARS developed towards the south along the margins of the Tanzania Craton between 15 and 8 Ma. Previous findings of low-velocity anomalies within the upper mantle and the mantle transition zone indicate an upwelling of hot mantle material in the vicinity of the Afar region and the East African Rift. This study includes the analysis of P- and S-receiver functions in order to determine further impacts on the lithosphere from below. The aim was to determine the topographic undulations of further boundary layers and to identify their variability owing to the rifting processes and the formation of the EARS. The study area included the Tanzania Craton and the surrounding rift branches of the East African Rift System.
The region of the Rwenzori Mountains can be analysed in detail because of the large dataset of the RiftLink project. The use of the P-receiver function technique and the H-K stacking method enabled to determine different vP /vS ratios depending on the tectonic setting in the Rwenzori region: Rift shoulders (vP /vS =1.74), Albert Rift segment (vP /vS =1.80), Edward Rift segment (vP /vS =1.87) and Rwenzori Mountains (vP /vS =1.86). To determine the topography of the Moho, it is necessary to take into account the thickness of the sedimentary layer, the surface topography, the azimuthal variations in crustal thickness and the impact of local anomalies. After correcting these effects on the Moho depths, significant variations in Moho topography could be determined. The Moho depths range from 29 to 39 km beneath the rift shoulders of the Albertine Rift. Within the rift valley, the crustal thickness varies between 25 – 31 km in the Edward Rift segment and 22 – 30 km in the Albert Rift segment. An averaged crustal thickness of about 26 km within the rift valley indicates the lack of the crustal root beneath the Rwenzoris. Similar variations in crustal thickness were determined by using an automatic procedure for analysing S-receiver functions that was developed in this study.
The S-receiver functions are created by applying a rotation criterion in order to rotate the Z, N and E components into the L, Q and T components. It is necessary to perform trial rotations using different incident and azimuth angles to determine the correct rotation angles. The latter are identified by the use of the rotation criterion, including the amplitude ratio of the converted Moho signal to the direct S/SKS-wave signal. The L component is rotated correctly in the direction of the incident shear wave in the case of the maximum amplitude ratio. After analysing the frequency content of the receiver functions in order to sort out harmonic and long-periodic traces, the individual Moho signals are checked for consistency in order to remove atypic signals. To increase the signal-to-noise ratios on the traces, the S-receiver functions are stacked. For this purpose, the signals of the direct shear waves must originate from similar epicenters. On the basis of similar ray paths, the receiver functions show comparable waveforms and converted signals. To perform the stacking procedure, it is necessary to merge the datasets of the adjacent stations in order to obtain a sufficient number of receiver functions. This analysis is based on the assumption that the incident seismic waves arriving at the adjacent stations penetrate to some extent the same underground structures in the case of similar wave propagation paths. This approach accounts for the fact that the converted signals do not result exclusively from the piercing points at the boundary layers. Further signals originate from the conversions at the boundary layer within the Fresnel Zone. The piercing points are derived from the significant signals in the receiver functions. Depending on the order of arrival of the converted phases on the traces, the signals are attributed to the theoretical discontinuities DIS1, DIS2, DIS3 and DIS4. However, partly due to the low signal-to-noise ratios on the traces, it is difficult to identify the real conversions on the traces and to ensure that the converted signals are attributed to the correct boundary layers. For this reason, it is necessary to check the consistency of the conversion depths among each other. In the case of inconsistent conversion depths, the corresponding signals are either adjusted to another seismic boundary layer or removed from the dataset. To verify the functionality of the automatic procedure and to determine the resolvability with respect to two boundary layers, several models are tested including horizontal and dipping discontinuities. To resolve distinct discontinuities, their depths must differ by at least 60 km, otherwise, due to similar depth ranges of the different boundary layers, the converted signals cannot be separated from each other. As a consequence, the converted signals that originate from different discontinuities are attributed to a single one. Further tests including break-off edges of seismic discontinuities are performed to check the attributions of the converted signals to the discontinuities. Owing to the varying number of boundary layers, the converted signals cannot be attributed to the discontinuities according to the order of their arrivals on the traces. It is necessary to correct their attributions to the seismic discontinuities in order to resolve the boundary layers.
The crust-mantle boundary and further discontinuities within the lithospheric mantle are investigated by applying this automatic procedure. Depending on the tectonic setting, the conversion depths of the Moho range from about 30 – 45 km beneath the western rift shoulder to 20 – 35 km within the rift valley up to 30 – 40 km beneath the eastern rift shoulder. The long wavelengths of the shear waves hamper the correct identification of the converted phases in the S-receiver functions. With respect to the relative differences in conversion depth, the topographic undulations of the crust-mantle boundary are consistent with the Moho depths derived from P-receiver functions. In contrast to the Rwenzori region, it is difficult to resolve completely the trend of the Moho in the remaining area of the East African Rift due to the small dataset provided by IRIS. The results exibit an increase in crustal thickness to up to 45 km in the region of the Cenozoic volcanics such as Virunga, Kivu, Rungwe and Kenya. The greatest Moho depths of more than 50 km are located near Mount Kilimanjaro. In addition to the Moho, the analysis of the S-receiver functions revealed two further boundary layers at depths of 60 – 140 km and 110 – 260 km, which are associated with a mid-lithospheric discontinuity and the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary, respectively. The shallowest conversion depths of the LAB are focussed to small-scale regions within the rift branches, namely the northern Albertine Rift, the Chyulu Hills and the Mozambique Belt, which are located around the Tanzania Craton. The larger thickness of the lithosphere beneath the cratonic terrain indicates that the Tanzania Craton is not significantly eroded. However, there are indications that the lithosphere beneath the craton and the rift branches is penetrated by ascending asthenospheric melts to depths of up to 140 and 60 km, respectively. The top of the ascending melts is associated with the occurrence of the mid-lithospheric discontinuity. The shallowest conversion depths of this boundary layer (60 – 90 km) are related to the rifted areas of the EARS and the Cenozoic volcanic provinces, which are located along the Albertine Rift, the Kenya Rift and the Rukwa-Malawi rift zones. The deepest conversion depths of up to 140 km are related to the Rwenzori Belt, the Ugandan Basement Complex and the interior of the Tanzania Craton.
Auch wenn in der Nachfolge der Aufklärung sowie mit dem Siegeszug der modernen Naturwissenschaften eine Verlustgeschichte des Transzendenzwunders geschrieben wurde und Max Weber in seinem vielzitierten Diktum von 1917 die moderne Welt als 'entzaubert' deklarierte, entpuppte sich das vermeintlich vormoderne Phänomen des Wunders in der literarischen Moderne als Reflexionsgegenstand verschiedener Fachdisziplinen. Gleichzeitig erlebte das Wunder im Drama und Theater der Moderne eine Renaissance: Jener "clamor for miracles", so George Bernard Shaw in seinem Vorwort zu 'Androcles and the Lion', wird im zweiten Jahrzehnt des 20. Jahrhunderts in England nicht nur diskursiv verhandelt, sondern für das Publikum durchaus bühnenwirksam eingesetzt, wie ich im Folgenden erläutern möchte.
Indem Benjamin die "Umkehr" als zentrales Element herausgreift – also das Verwandeln von Leben in Schrift und nicht von Schrift in Leben -, löst er Kafka aus einer nur auf das Judentum beschränkten Bedeutung und zeigt dessen Relevanz für das Verständnis von Geschichte überhaupt. Die Form des Kafka’schen Werks enthalte "Hinweise auf einen Weltzustand". Insofern tut sich in der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Benjamin und Scholem bezüglich der Frage von Heiligkeit und Schrift etwas Neues auf: Wie wahre Hoffnung nur für die Hoffnungslosen ist, so erscheint das Verständnis echter Heiligkeit als rein theologischer Kategorie durch die Erkenntnis der nicht mehr heiligen Schrift bedingt.
Im Lichte der "Redevielfalt" basiert textuelle (Über‑)Heiligkeit auf drei Punkten: erstens auf einer Polyphonie, d. h. einer Vielzahl von divergenten Heiligkeitsdeutungen und -perspektiven sowie Weltanschauungen, die sich in der Orchestrierung des Autors brechen und ergänzen. Zweitens: Ein Mehrwert dieser textuellen (Über‑)Heiligkeit liegt darin, dass postmoderne und postkoloniale Literatur sich gegen religiöse und kulturelle Vorstellungen von dogmatischer Homogenität wendet und sich in dieser literarischen Opposition gegen dogmatische Denkvorstellungen von Heiligkeit richtet. Insofern entsteht eine "Ästhetik des Überschreitens" (Michael Hofmann), also eine neue Weltliteratur, die den Herausforderungen der Globalisierung entgegentritt und sich jeder engen nationalen, kulturellen sowie religiösen Zuschreibung definitiv entzieht. Meine Behauptung der Überheiligkeit bzw. der textuellen Redevielfalt über das Heilige ließe sich drittens und schließlich mit einer Beobachtung begründen: Viele Arbeiten über die Darstellung von 'heiligen Texten' in der Literatur untersuchen das Heiligkeitskonzept mit einem Fokus auf die Buchreligionen. Dabei wird oft übersehen, dass es auch Praktiken des Heiligen gibt, die nicht in einer Buchreligion entstehen bzw. die jenseits von Buchreligionen ihren Bestand haben. Es ist diese Überschreitung von gewohnten Apperzeptionen des Heiligen, nämlich die Vorstellung des Heiligen mit und ohne Buchreligion, die ich im Folgenden näher betrachten werde.
Die im religiösen Kontext entstandenen Formen des Umgangs mit Heil und Erlösung bleiben bis in die Gegenwart prägend für den literarischen Diskurs. Die Bibel stellt dabei einen zentralen Prätext dar, wobei in der Moderne nicht selten gerade ihre ambivalenten Erzählungen und Figuren in den Blick genommen werden. Auch mehrere Texte von Joseph Roth befassen sich mit der Frage nach dem Heil und beziehen sich dabei in unterschiedlicher Weise auf religiöse Literatur. Mit dem Roman 'Hiob. Roman eines einfachen Mannes' und der Novelle 'Die Legende vom heiligen Trinker' stehen zwei dieser Texte im Mittelpunkt der folgenden Überlegungen. Beide Texte greifen neben ihren expliziten Bezügen zur religiösen Literatur auf das Motiv der Wüstenwanderung und das damit verbundene Schema von Exil und Wiederkehr zurück, beziehen sich dabei aber auf je unterschiedliche religiöse Konzepte und Erzähltraditionen. Nicht zuletzt steht 'Hiob' in engem Bezug zur jüdischen Kultur Osteuropas, während die 'Legende' stärker an der christlichen Kultur orientiert ist.
Im Folgenden möchte ich drei Jesus-Biographien aus den 1920er Jahren analysieren, die zeigen, wie stark sich darin gleichermaßen der theologische und der literarische Diskurs der Zeit widerspiegelt. Es handelt sich dabei um Giovanni Papinis 'Lebensgeschichte Christi', auf Deutsch erschienen 1924, um Josef Wittigs 'Leben Jesu in Palästina, Schlesien und anderswo' von 1925, und um Emil Ludwigs 'Der Menschensohn' von 1928.
In der Moderne verändert sich der Umgang mit heiligen Texten und damit auch die traditionelle Praxis des Kommentars. Einerseits werden solche Texte nun auch wissenschaftlich und kritisch kommentiert, andererseits leben religiöse Kommentarformen auch in säkularen Kontexten fort: etwa in der Dichtung, der Philosophie oder der Philologie. Der Kommentar war lange der Königsweg der Auseinandersetzung mit klassischen, kanonischen und als "heilig" verstandenen Texten. Weil das Verständnis von Schriftlichkeit entscheidend davon geprägt ist, wie man Texte kommentiert, ist die Geschichte des Kommentars zentral, um die Entstehung der modernen säkularen Textkultur zu verstehen. Der Band fragt, wie die Kommentierung religiöser Texte unter den Bedingungen der Säkularisierung noch möglich ist. Er beleuchtet Denkfiguren und Textpraktiken, mit denen säkulare Texte sakralisiert werden und wie jene Verschiebungen unser Verständnis von Kommentar verändern.
Caroline Sauter beschäftigt sich am Beispiel der Theorie und Praxis des Kommentierens bei Walter Benjamin damit, wie traditionelle religiöse Kommentarformen in Kommentare zu moderner Literatur übertragen werden und vice versa. Dabei wird die strikte Grenzziehung zwischen Theologie und Säkularisierung unterlaufen, die gerade in der Benjaminforschung gerne bemüht und auf die Formel einer vermeintlichen Alternative von "Messianismus vs. Materialismus" gebracht wird. So zeigen zwei konkrete Beispiele aus Benjamins Einbahnstraße (1928) und seinen Brecht-Kommentaren (1938), dass Theologie und Philologie - laut Benjamin die beiden "Grundwissenschaften" des Kommentars - in seinem Kommentarwerk ineinander übergehen. Die Alternative von 'Theologie' einerseits und 'Säkularisierung' andererseits ist also für Benjamin nicht ohne weitere Differenzierung haltbar; vielmehr durchdringen die beiden Dimensionen einander gerade in seinem Umgang mit der Gattung des Kommentars, der ein kritisches Verständnis der Theologie selber anschaulich macht.
Die Frage ist, ob und in welcher Weise säkulare Texte auf religiöse Auslegungspraktiken und Deutungsmuster rekurrieren, und welche Verschiebungen dabei zwischen ihnen stattfinden. Die Autoren gehen dabei erstens davon aus, dass der Kommentar eine paradoxe Textpraxis ist, und zweitens davon, dass diese Paradoxie in der Moderne besonders dort manifest wird, wo sie sich mit denjenigen Paradoxien berührt oder überschneidet, die im Prozess der Säkularisierung entstehen.
Der Literatur- und Medienwissenschaftler Michael W. Jennings stellt in seinem Aufsatz die Bedeutung des theologischen Konzepts der 'apokatastasis' in Benjamins Texten heraus, das sich auf Origines' Lehre von der Wiederherstellung der Dinge am Ende der Zeiten bezieht. Nach Jennings basiert Benjamins Vorstellung, dass es in der Gegenwart noch keine Religion geben kann, auf der Überzeugung, dass die Bedingungen für die Möglichkeit von Religion erst nach dem Ende der Geschichte gegeben sind. In einem zweiten Schritt geht er den verborgenen Spuren des Konzepts der 'apokastastasis' in Benjamins medientheoretischen Schriften nach. Er zeigt, wie die im Kunstwerk-Aufsatz artikulierte Hoffnung, dass die vom Kapitalismus deformierten Wahrnehmungsformen durch eine revolutionäre Veränderung der Wahrnehmung zerstört und durch eine neue Sicht auf die Welt ersetzt wird, auf die Idee der 'apokastasis' zurückgeführt werden kann.
Der Philosoph Hent de Vries untersucht das Verhältnis von Technik und Religion in Benjamins Text "Rastelli erzählt". Im Zentrum der Interpretation steht die Erfahrung des Wunders, die Benjamin häufig in einen Zusammenhang mit technischen Apparaturen bringt. "Rastelli erzählt" behandelt das Verhältnis von Religion und Materialismus mit erzählerischen Mitteln. Die Unmöglichkeit, die Entstehung des Wunders und das Wunder selbst zu erklären, steht ihm zufolge im Zentrum von Benjamins Überzeugung, dass Religion und Materialismus sich nicht ausschließen müssen. Im Gegenteil. Vielmehr steht die Unauflösbarkeit des Wunders bei Benjamin paradigmatisch für die moderne Erfahrung von Religion, die keine Antworten mehr gibt, sondern neue Fragen aufwirft.
Despite sustained continental and national struggles for autonomy, sovereignty and independence in postcolonial Africa, the continent is increasingly embattled by the forces of globalisation which threaten African identity that is at the core of African struggles for continental and national unity. Situating the debates in the contemporary discourses on decoloniality, global consumerism, global food apartheid and the challenges and prospects of the emergent sharing economies, this book critically examines the importation, use and implications of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and other such non-food products on African bodies, institutions and cultures. The book poses questions about how Africa can be decolonised both politically and in terms of global food apartheid and the dehumanising importation and use of 'foreign' non-food products, some of which militate against the ethos of [African] identity, Renaissance and indigeneity. On note, the book urges the African continent to ensure the safety of imports ensuing from the global flows and circulations that are mired in the resilient invisible global matrices of power.
There are milliards of off beam assumptions that Africa will always remain immobile in development of whatever type. This pseudo take has mainly been propounded by Western thinkers in order to dubiously make Africans internalise and reinforce this flimsy and flimflam dependency. Africa needs to embark on paradigm shift; and tweak and turn things around. Africa has what it take to do so quickly, especially now that new economic powers such as China and India are evolving as counterweight to the West. Shall Africa use these new economic forces to its advantage based on fair and win-win cooperation? To do so, Africa must make sure that it does not slink back into business as usual vis-a-vis beggarliness, dependence, frailty, gullibility, made-up backwardness, monkey business, and pipedreams, not to mention the nasty and narcissistic behaviours of its venal and navel-gazing rulers. Verily, Africa needs, inter alia, to use its God-given gifts, namely, immense resources, young population, abundance of vast and unexploited amounts of land. Equally, Africa must, without equivocation, invest copiously and earnestly in its people, the youth in the main. Most of all, Africa needs to shy away from all colonial carryovers and encumbrances. This volume shows many ways through and by which Africa can inverse the current imbroglio-cum-no-go it faces for the better; and thereby actualise the dream of being truly independent and prosperous.
Labour migration from Malawi to South Africa is a 'century-old phenomenon'. It dates as far back as the 1880s following the establishment of diamond and gold mines. In the period up to the 1980s, this migration took either formal or informal nature whereas in the post-1990 period it became exclusively informal, popularly known as selufu in Malawi. This book is an attempt to shed light on both forms of migration over time. By using the case of Mzimba, one of the major labour migration districts in Malawi, Perspectives of Labour Migration shows that migration, especially in the post-1990 period, remains a preoccupation of the different categories of both men and women in selected areas in the country. A cross-section of Malawians continue to regard emigration to South Africa as a means to an end: a way of fulfilling their heart-felt and life-time goals at household and societal levels. Because of their distinguished and unparalleled determination, these labour migrants continue to flock to South Africa in the midst of such challenges as xenophobia, crime, arrests and deportations. The book advances the argument that Malawian labour migrants are purposive and rational human beings who are ready to overcome these challenges, at times using the most improbable means, for example, through the use of mankhwala gha mwabi (luck medicine).
Knell.Ashes.Seppuku
(2017)
A delinquent son, a barren woman, troubled marriages, a reunion between old childhood friends, and all manner of family drama. This novel's sudden twists and turns have all the makings of a relatable African saga. Tinashe is an intelligent and vibrant young man who is sent to the city of Gweru to further his education at Midlands State University by his father. He is staying with his aunt Margaret who is always fighting with her son Cephas. Tinashe is looking forward to enjoying life and having a great time in the city but things do not seem to be in parallel with his expectations. He later realises this when he is wrongly accused of murdering his aunt, Margaret.
This project come out from our need to harness voices in Africa and Latin America, giving these voices an opportunity to converse, argue, synthesize, agree, and share ideas on the craft of writing, on life, on being and on thinking for the benefit of all. It was also an opportunity to create literary friendships and contacts between these two great regions. Generally, Latin America and Africa still have a lot of stories to share among themselves and with the rest of the world. There are still very strong untapped storytelling traditions in these continents. The stories in this volume are selected from an amazing range of entries to a call for contributions to an anthology on experimentation. It is hoped this robust selection will serve a wide variety of tastes in both Spanish and English, and that the book will open dialogue and the sharing of ideas between the two regions and the whole world. This is an invaluable contribution on many fronts.
This book critically examines the relevance of the increasingly popular theories on relationality by interfacing those theories with the African [Shona] modes of engagement known as chivanhu [often erroneously narrowly translated as tradition]. In other words, the book takes seriously concerns by African scholars that much of the theories that have been applied in Africa do not speak to relevance and faithfulness to the continent. Situated in a recent Zimbabwean context marked by multiple crises producing multiple forms of violence and want, the book examines the relevance of relational ontologies and epistemologies to the everyday life modes of engagements by villagers in a selected district. The book unflinchingly surfaces the strengths and weaknesses of popular theories while at the same time underlining the exigencies of theorising from Africa using African data as the millstones. By meticulously and painstakingly unpacking pertinent issues, the book provides unparalleled intellectual grit for the contemporary and increasingly popular discourses on (de-)coloniality and resilience in relation to the African peoples and their [often deliberately contested] environments, past, present and future. In other words, the book loudly sounds the bells for the battles to decolonise and transform Africa on Africa's own terms. This is a book that would be extremely useful to scholars, activists, theorists, policy makers and implementers as well as researchers interested not only in Africa's future trajectory but also in the simultaneities of temporalities and worlds that were sadly overshadowed by colonial epistemologies and ontologies for the past centuries.
The volume draws from René Devischs encounters with groups in southsaharan Africa, primarily. The author had the privilege to immerse himself, around the clock, in the Yakaphones activities and thoughts in southwest DR Congo from 1972 to 1974, and intermittently in Kinshasas shanty towns, from 1986 to 2003. The author first examines what sparked his choice to come to Congo, and then to pursue research among the Yakaphones in the borderland with Angola. He then invites us to follow the trajectory of his plural anthropological view on todays multicentric world. It leads us to his praise for honorary doctor Jean-Marc Elas work. He then examines the proletarian outbursts of violence that rocked Congos major cities in 1991 and 1993. These can be read as a settling of scores with the disillusioning colonial and missionary modernisation, along with president Mobutus millenarian Popular Movement of the Revolution. Furthermore, after considering the morose reduction of a major Yaka dancing mask into a mere museum-bound curio in Antwerp, the book unravels the Yakaphones perspectives on spirits and sorcerys threat. It also analyses their commitment to classical Bantu-African healing cults, along with their parallel consulting physicians and healers. By sharing the Yakaphones life-world, the analysis highlights their body-group-world weave, interlaced by the principle of co-resonance. A phenomenological and perspectivist look unfolds the local actors views, thereby disclosing the Bantu-African genius and setting for a major reversal of perspectives. Indeed, seeing 'here' from 'there' allows the author to uncover some alienating dynamics at work in his native Belgian Flemish-speaking culture. To better grasp the realm of life beyond the speakable and factual reasoning, the approach occasionally turns to the later Lacans focus on the unconscious desire, the body and its affects. The book addresses students and researchers in the humanities and, more broadly, all those immersed in the heat of the encounter with the culturally different.
Migration from Malawi to South Africa : A Historical and Cultural Novel ; Real-life Experiences
(2017)
Since the discovery and exploitation of minerals like gold, diamond and copper in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Malawi has played the role of a labour supplier. Malawians were attracted by the relatively higher wages obtaining in the South African mines up to the period of the decline in mine migrancy at the end of the 1980s. Following this decline, a cross-section of Malawians continued to emigrate to South Africa to seek various jobs in the burgeoning informal sector and also for trade purposes. Migration from Malawi to South Africa sheds light on the problems that labour migrants and traders encounter as they are 'toing' and 'froing' between Malawi and South Africa in pursuit of their respective goals. It shows that migration, which initially was exclusively done for wage employment, is becoming more complex by the day. This is a result of the infusion of elements of commercial migration, smuggling and human trafficking. The book advances the argument that the numbers of migrants to South Africa increased in the post-1994 period partly as a result of mal-administration by the successive democratically-elected governments in Malawi. This development weakened Malawi's otherwise promising economy and impoverished the rural masses. The book 'sees' forlorn hope in the future of labour migrants and traders, unless the Malawi Government starts to genuinely have the welfare of the populace at heart! The book is relevant and accessible to policy-makers, university and college students interested in migration studies, general readers and migrants, themselves.
This book weaves together a rich tapestry on football fandom in Zimbabwe. Based on empirical research focusing on the different dimensions of fan practices and experiences, the book is the result of multiple fieldwork processes with fans in Zimbabwe spanning a period of eight years including desk research, interviews, observation, focus group discussions and netnography. It demonstrates the nexus between social identities and supporting a sports team, highlighting that there are deeper underlying meanings and assumptions to one's support of a sporting team. Manase Chiweshe highlights the various nuances of supporting football clubs. This book provides an alternative way to understanding communities and how sport can be viewed as a serious lens into societal organisations. It offers important insights into how Zimbabweans are also engaged in leisure activities and that play is also part of their life worlds. Given the major focus on poverty, disease and conflict, African stories of intimate play and enjoyment tend to be sidelined. Soccer has the power to bring together or divide communities. In many an African context, just as in Zimbabwe, everyday ethnic and religious rivalries are played out through football matches. It is thus important to capture this space and use football as a way to heal historic and deep-seated conflicts.
This is a book on the state of social anthropology as an academic discipline in contemporary Zimbabwe. The authors are frustrated and disheartened by a problematic visibility and sluggish growth of the discipline in the country. The book makes an important claim that the future and vibrancy of anthropology in Zimbabwe, lies in how well anthropologists in the country and in the diaspora are able to join efforts in articulating, debating and enhancing its relevance and vitality. The book provides critical overview and nuanced analyses of the role and continued relevance of the discipline in reading and interpreting the social unfolding of everyday life and dynamism. It is a vital text for understanding and contextualising histories and trends in the development of social anthropology in Zimbabwe and how anthropologists in the country navigate the tumultuous waters and struggles that have engrossed the discipline since colonial times. The book has the capacity to generate added insights and influence national, continental, and global debates and trends in the field.
One of the fundamental challenges in deconstructing, rethinking and remaking the world from a Pan African vantage point is that some captives have tended to delight in the warmth of the [imperial] predator's mouth. In other words, some captives forget that the imperial predator's mouth gets warm because empire is eating and heating up from prey on the continent. (De-)Militarisation, Transnational Land Grabs and Restitution in an Age of the New Scramble for Africa: A Pan African Socio-Legal Perspective is a book that knocks on key aspects relating to land, militarisation, a PostAfrican World Order and a chaotic Post-God World Order, which require critical scholarly and policy attention in the quest to free Africa from centuries-old imperial depredations. The book carefully navigates the imperial entrapments which are designed to focus African attention only on decolonising African minds without also engaging in the [imperially more unsettling] decolonisation of African materialities.
Poverty remains a thorny and topical challenge and research topic to scholars and researchers on African development. Scholars in the Global North have since the Second World War sought to research poverty and underdevelopment in Africa, postulating what they think are the major causes of insipid and abject poverty in the continent, but with little or no success on how to solve the poverty enigma. Sadly, little research and homework have been done by scholars in context (in Africa) on why there seems to be more production rather than eradication of poverty and vulnerability in Africa and among Africans. This book is born out of the realisation for the need for both scholars on the ground and outside Africa to earnestly interrogate and reflect on the poverty situation that continues to haunt the people of Africa and rattle the conscience of the world at large. With contributors from across the continent and beyond, the volume offers a balanced and rigorous, multi-faceted analysis of Africa's poverty and vulnerability from a rich tapestry of perspectives. The volume is handy to scholars and students in the fields of African and development studies, as well as to students of Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science and Policy Studies.
African societies have rich histories, cultural heritages, knowledge systems, philosophies, and institutions that they have shaped and reshaped through history. However, the continent has been repeatedly portrayed negatively as plagued by multitudinous troubles: famine, conflict, coup, massacres, corruption, disease, illiteracy, refugees, failed state, etc. Even worse, Africans are often viewed as incapable of addressing their problems on their own. Based on such erroneous perspectives and paternalism, exogenous solutions are prescribed, out of context, for African problems. This book sheds light on the positive aspects of African reality under the key concept of 'African potentials'. It is the product of sustained consultation over a five-year period between seasoned African and Japanese anthropologists, sociologists and scholars in other areas of African studies.
Through multiple points of resistance, The Repressed Expressed underscores how hard it is to build a community in any nation with no beneficial qualities of hope and transparency. This informative collection of essays highlights that wherever stability and order are lacking, the universal appeal is to express that which is suppressed. Also, like a map or guidebook, The Repressed Expressed indicates how people in such geographical prisons strive to transform their agitation into spiritual and political pathways, free of pain and hurt from, and anger towards a dirty and corrupted world. It thus, underpins discord and brings to the fore the authority's penchant for heaping abuse upon those caused to live in fear. In short, The Repressed Expressed is an impressive compilation of literary evidence informing scholarship on opinions and beliefs relating to repression, its expression, and the immeasurable associated cost.
How come Africa is so underdeveloped when it is one of the richest continents on earth? The present volume is an attempt to theorise Africas [under-]development with a view to providing a sustainable, enduring framework of operations that will arrest the predicament of the continent while taking it forward from its current passivity. The volume rethinks and re-imagines a number of externally imposed problematic mechanisms used (un-)consciously in Africa, with the intention of raising awareness and fostering critical thinking in scholars of African development. The book is a pacesetter on how to think and research Africas [under-]development. It is also an invaluable asset for social scientists, policy makers, development practitioners, civil society activists and politicians.
At the end of his tether, Solomon Wenku contemplates a life gone awry amid widespread postcolonial squalor. Tani enters his life supposedly as a contrast to his encroaching existential gloom only to speed up the pace of his total collapse. Sanya Oshas cult novel beams a searchlight on what it feels like to survive personally and collectively in unyielding tropical malaise. This web of a narrative pits the rural versus the urban, tradition against modernity with a gallery of immortal characters and with a yearning that sings lushly of freedom.
Poetry is fragments of music thrown into the air. The primary job and aim of a poet is to create these musical notes, to play these musical notes, and the wind will take these fragment notes, sounds, musics into the ears of listeners. Zimbolicious Poetry Anthology, Volume 2 is one of those winds among many others. As we all are aware of, when the wind travels it has no boundaries, it collects, it deposits, it mixes things up; you never know where that leaf you see the wind carrying will eventually be deposited, is there another wind, another element that is going to move that leaf to another place... We firmly believe it is a good wind. It will be able to push our poetry making in Zimbabwe into other frontiers. Zimbolicious Poetry Anthology, Volume 2 continues from where we left off with the first Zimbolicious Poetry Anthology we created in 2016. In this Volume 2, we have 77 poems from 30 poets and translators, which include among others; experienced poets, academic poets, street poets, emergent poets, beginning poets, all telling stories associated with what all these poets refer to as home, that is, Zimbabwe. It is an ongoing debate on what is Zimbabwe, what we want our Zimbabwe to be socially, culturally, politically, thus we allowed every opinion space in this anthology, whether us editors agree with them or not. We have poets tackling issues to do with poetry, writing in general, art, place, identity, tradition, struggle, culture, gender, collective understanding, religion, individual, human rights and love, among others.
'Magnus Opus: A Tribute to Ntarikon is a scathing indictment of the political status quo in the Republic of Cameroon where the ruling party, the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), rides roughshod over the populace. In this long poem, Vakunta cries out poignantly against social dystopia and the deplorable moments lived by members of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) at Ntarikon Park on May 26, 1990. One cannot read this poem without feeling the despair and helplessness experienced by members of this political party as they were maimed, killed and reminded that the future holds no good for them. The prosody and semantics of the poem amplify the ontological angst experienced by Cameroonians on a daily basis.' Kashama Mulamba, Ph.D, Professor of English and French, Olivet Nazarene University, USA
This book is a pacesetter in matters of mining and the environment in Africa from multidisciplinary and spatio-temporal perspectives. The book approaches mining from the perspectives of law, politics, archaeology, anthropology, African studies, geography, human ecology, sociology, history, economics and development. It interrogates mining and environment from the perspectives of customary law as well as from the perspectives of Euro-modern laws. In this sense, the book straddles precolonial, colonial and postcolonial mining and environmental perspectives. In all this, it maintains a Pan-Africanist perspective that also speaks to contemporary debates on African Renaissance and to the unity of Africa. From scrutinising the lived realities of African miners who are often insensitively and unjustly addressed as illegal miners, the book also interrogates transnational mining corporations; matters of corporate social responsibility as well as matters of tax evasions by transnational corporations whose commitment to accountability to African governments is questioned. With both theoretical chapters and chapter based on empirical studies on mining and the environment across the African continent, the book provides a much needed holistic, one stop shop for scholars, activists, researchers and policy makers who need a comprehensive treatise on African mining and the environment. The book comes at the right time when matters of African mining and environment are increasingly coming to the fore in the light of discourses about the new 21st century scramble for African resources, in which big transnational corporations and nations are jostling to suck Africa dry in their race to control planetary resources. It is a book that speaks to contemporary broader issues of (de-)coloniality and transformation of African minds and African environmental resources.
Contemporary scholarly discourses about decolonising materialities are taking two noticeable trajectories, the first trajectory privileges establishing connections, relationships and associations between human beings and nature. The second trajectory privileges restoration, restitution, reparations for colonial dispossessions, lootings and disinheritance. While the first trajectory presupposes that colonialism was merely about separation, alienation, and disconnections between human beings and nature, the second trajectory stresses the colonialists dispossession, disinheritance and privations of Africans. Drawing on contemporary discourses about materialities in relation to semiotics, (non-)representationalism, rhetoric, ecocriticism, territorialisation, deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation, translation, animism, science and technology studies, this book teases out the intellectually rutted terrain of African materialities. It argues that in a world of increasing impoverishment, the significance of materialities cannot be overemphasised: more so for the continent of Africa where impoverishment materialises in the midst of resource opulence. The book is a pacesetter in no holds barred interrogation of African materialities.
For centuries the continent of Africa has been characterised by negative images such as poverty, disease and conflicts. Today, however, the People's Republic of China's growing presence in Africa, particularly with regards to China-Africa business relations, brings new vitality to the continent. This new movement is not a windfall but rather obtained through the hard work of both African and Chinese people at various levels. Narrating on daily experiences of Chinese merchants and their vivid interactions with people in Botswana, this book decodes the frustrating while rewarding process through which China-Africa relations have been maturing on the grass-roots level. This book not only presents insights and suggestions to both Botswana and Chinese policy makers interested in understanding their constituents' everyday interactions with each other, but also offers readers interested more broadly in contemporary Chinese experiences in Africa a fascinating glimpse into these cross-cultural encounters. This book is an original and pioneering study of issues that resonate in almost every African country which has responded to a growing Chinese presence. It argues that as the process of globalisation permeates the everyday lives of people, each individual is empowered to be an 'ambassador' in shaping international relations.
The book examines the nexus between youth conflict and the occult drawing its insights from the oil-rich Niger Delta of Nigeria. It sees the occult represented by the Egbesu deity in this conflict as a form of religious belief imbued in this case with the powers of good. Thus, the religious occult is regenerated and re-energised as an idiom of justice and fairness within the Nigerian state by militant youth fighting the forces of the Nigerian state. Ingeniously, the young men simply dug into the cultural repertoire of the people for a hitherto popular expression of justice and perceived source of potency which they felt would not only provide spiritual protection but also pander to the popular imagination of justice. Even against the background prevalent Christianity, the Egbesu does not generate tension in beliefs but responds to the critical exigency of the immediate socio-political milieu of the people.
It Does Matter To Listen is a collection of short anecdotal pieces of writings, spanning different subject areas - including politics, leadership and management - with the purpose of counselling and edifying the present and future generations. It is a must-read for anyone interested in how to go about business in everyday life, at home, at work and during leisure.
In this collection, Doh straddles the Atlantic with voices that doubt, question, and lament the black predicament; voices that evoke the wisdom of Africa's cultural values in a manner reminiscent of the continent's orality. Like the echoing of the talking drums in the forests and the savannahs, these voices acknowledge the challenges and vexing truths of the hour: the plight of a people that have been buffeted repeatedly by waves of invasion, deceit, and betrayals, yet against which onslaught they remain standing, frighteningly tall in dignity and integrity.
In view of the resilience of Africa's underdevelopment, what do Africans make of their determined aspirations for development? The continent of Africa has constantly drawn global attention, most especially for both human and natural evils. Underdevelopment, it appears, is one of the most eminent threatening evils. It has plunged and promises to maintain the majority of Africa in abject poverty, insecurity, and vulnerability. What perpetuates the ghost and gory of underdevelopment in Africa, despite a proliferation of development rhetoric and initiatives? How do ordinary Africans react to repeated talk and claims of development with little evidence of transformation for the better in their material circumstances? This book interrogates the tenacity of underdevelopment amid calls for Africa to rise from its slumber and reclaim its position in global affairs as the mother continent of humankind. It contributes to the ongoing debates on why Africa remains trapped in the clutch of underdevelopment many decades after the purported end of colonialism. The book comes at a critical time in human history; a time when the talk on Africa's [under-]development is louder due to the ravages of economic downturns and dysfunctional conflicts. It poses a challenge to development practitioners, civil society activists, statesmen, economists, political scientists and theorists to rethink and reconsider their role as technocrats, experts and ambassadors of positive change in Africa and the world beyond.
How really worth are the African endogenous knowledge and know-how? Why and how can we promote this inheritage, while the so-called western scientific model looks like the best means of knowing and mastering the world? This book answers these questions by examining ifa, a West-African system of knowledge and practices which a narrow knowledge reduces to a fanciful divinatory art, an art then logically 'perceived as inconsistent and theoretically useless'. Yet, more than a divinatory art, ifa, when we submit it to analysis, appears to be an organized set of knowledge and researches, a science in the making. What makes us really think that way is the intellectual vocation that defines ifa, the rigor of the logical operations that it implies and which recalls in one way or the other the game of implicit mathematics, the objectivity requirement which is valued by the actors of the system and rests on a genuine critical tradition. This opinion is also based on the weight of myths upon which ifa rests and which constitute an important granary where a prominent set of knowledge is packed. Beyond the establishment of the consistency and the limitations of ifa, this book has strived to define a 'method' of examination and validation of the knowledge which has emerged out of the official scientific system. In fact, the questions which arise from it are finally intended to give a new foundation to philosophy of sciences and to epistemology.
Radical land reform programmes generate changes in agrarian structures and capital accumulation trajectories in the countryside. This book examines how capital accumulation is being reshaped by changing financing and marketing of agricultural commodities and presents an emerging Quadi-PMMR-model agrarian structure composed of the poor, middle, middle-to-rich peasants and some rich capitalists with a growing middle scale farmer base constituting two thirds of the rural population in Zimbabwe. This evidence based assessment, 15 years after the FTLRP, sheds light on policy outcomes and impacts on communities, revealing the changing production, marketing, capital accumulation and class formation tendencies across Zimbabwe's settlement models and agro-ecological settings. The book fuses the reliance on agrarian political economy lenses and factor component analysis to reveal the dynamics of agrarian change and to explore the dialectic between production and circulation and between the centre and periphery in exceptional fashion that expands our understanding of Zimbabwe's agrarian transition.
Yves R. Simon (1903-1961), one of the greatest contemporary philosophers, gives a modern formulation for many classical philosophical concepts such as authority, the common good, and natural law. These topics have received extensive attention from scholars. Simon also discusses the nature of human virtue, moral and intellectual, but this topic has been less studied until now. The idea of virtue, and in our case virtue in political life, runs through Simon's works. Through a close study of Simon's works and the relevant secondary literature, this book explores Simon's definition of virtue in order to highlight its originality, and show how he weaves the need for it into the fabric of three facets of political life, namely, the common good, the virtue of the ruler and the ruled, and the law. These ideas are important for the ruler-ship of any country and especially of developing nations which are populated by sit-tight dictators. Philosophy can be dry and abstract, yet in this case we deal with one of its more practical manifestations.
The Ways We Stretch Toward One Another is a collection of essays on the work of Pamela Reynolds. The essays take cues from Reynolds decades-long contributions to the field of anthropology in different ways. The authors weave Reynolds groundbreaking scholarship on the anthropology of childhoodof labour, of family, of resistance, justice, war and sufferingthrough the terms of their own work, in places and contexts that may at first appear quite distant from the villages of Zimbabwe and townships of South Africa that feature in Reynolds ethnographies. The Ways We Stretch Toward One Another is about anthropologists stretching in thought and practice toward one another, between generations, toward the people encountered in the field, through worlds entered and past, and how, in turn, these worlds lean into our own. At the core of each essay is a question about how we learn, how we pass lessons on, how we assume the mantle of anthropology for understanding the contemporary worldsomething that often requires folding intellectual friendships into the tools of our practice. The Ways We Stretch Toward One Another demonstrates how a master anthropologist has come to shape the priorities of others, in terms that are both creative and aware. Contributors: Thomas Cousins, Stefanos Geroulanos, Todd Meyers, Pamela Reynolds, Fiona Ross, and Vaibhav Saria; and a Foreword by Francis B. Nyamnjoh
The book consists of novel and empirical research in broad areas of technology and curriculum in selected African countries. The central theme of the book is technology and the higher education curriculum. The book consists of case studies from selected African countries, namely, Lesotho; Namibia; Kenya; South Africa; Zimbabwe; Tanzania and Nigeria. These studies confirm that in this contemporary digital era, educational technology is playing an increasingly important role. It has become so ubiquitous and fundamental in the teaching and learning. Higher education sectors across the continent are increasingly compelled to use educational technology to keep up with needs of 21st century students who want to be afforded opportunities to be able to learn in real time, anytime, and on their own terms using opportunities for creative innovation made possible by new information and communication technologies.
This book comprises 19 creative non-fiction pieces and essays centred around the topics of language, thought, art and existence seen through the prism of practising artist in contemporary Africa. The collection continues with Zimbabwe's Tendai Mwanaka's creative non-fiction ideology of presenting non-fiction in a creative, fresh, easy reading, simple language. With most of the essays driven by personal stories, the author ably renders them accessible to a wide spectrum of readers from the scholarly to the journalistic and the general. The pieces are grouped according to the topics, with the language essays starting the book, followed by thought, existential, and art essays. In tune with the adage the personal is political, Mwanaka lets the personal drive these essays as he tries to investigate and conversationally navigate his thoughts, beliefs, feelings and experience on language, existence and art. This is an invaluable contribution to the academic establishment, social theorists, linguists, literary theorists, journalists, activists and the general readership.
This book is a biography based on a qualitative ethnographic study of adaptation to climate by Mr Zephaniah Phiri Maseko, an award-winning smallholder farmer from Zvishavane, rural Zimbabwe. Ethnographic data provides insight and lessons of Mr Phiri Maseko and other farmers' practices for rethinking existing strategies for adaptation to climate change. The concept of adaptation is probed in relationship to the closely related concepts of vulnerability, resilience and innovation. This study also explores the concept of conviviality and argues that Mr Phiri Maseko's adaptation to climate hinges on mediating barriers between local and exogenous knowledge systems. The book argues that Mr Phiri Maseko offered tangible adaptive climate strategies through his innovations that 'marry water and soil so that it won't elope and run-off but raise a family' on his plot. His agricultural practices are anchored on the Shona concept of' hurudza'(an exceptionally productive farmer). This book explores the concept and practices of 'uhurudza,'to suggest that the latter-day 'hurudza' (commercial farmer)'as embodied by Mr Phiri Maseko offers an important set of resources for the development of climate adaptation strategies in the region. This study of smallholder farmers' adoption of innovations to climate highlights the 'complex interplay' of multiple factors that act as barriers to uptake. Such interplay of multiple stressors increases the vulnerability of smallholders. The study concludes by arguing that in as much as the skewed colonial land policy impoverished the smallholder farmers, Mr Phiri Maseko nonetheless redefined himself as a latter-day 'hurudza and thus breaks free from the poverty cycle by conjuring ingenious ways of reducing vulnerability to climate. The book does not suggest that Mr Phiri Maseko's innovations offer a silver bullet solution to the insecure rural livelihoods of smallholder farmers; nevertheless, they are a source of hope in an environment of uncertainty. His steely tenacity in the face of a multi-stressor environment is to be treasured.
Barbed Forest
(2017)
Ivory Stars is Tanzanias first ever all-girls football team, but what makes this team even more unique is that they are people with albinism. Disregarded by society, the team is determined to show the world that they wont be held back. As International Albinism Awareness Day approaches, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro would defy stereotypes and prove that they are extraordinarily capable. Join Tatu, the team leader, and the Ivory Stars on their quest to reach the summit of the highest peak in Africa. Find out whether their determination will meet the challenges ahead. How will they manoeuvre through the twists and turns that lie in wait for them? What would it mean for them if they failed?
Reading these tales from Northern Malawi readers come close to watching an original performance and the tales and the songs encapsulate the essence of Malawian culture. The authors presentation, using performance directions, allows the reader to see and hear old Nyaviyuyi as she, through word, voice, tone and gesture, mocks nosy wives, and celebrates the devotion of friendship and parental love. The author has made a further contribution to the topic by including musical notations for the songs.
Democracy and Education in Namibia and beyond debates the educationdemocracy nexus in Namibia and the southern African context. It defines and explores the meaning of democracy and related concepts. It also looks at what democracy means in the context of human rights and access to education. The ten chapters in this collection interrogate the strengths and limitations of education as an instrument of social change and question whether or not the Namibian educational objectives and practices do develop and help to sustain a democratic culture in Namibia. The authors in the collection have drawn material from their own teaching and research experience across the fields of education and social science in Namibia and beyond, and present their findings in a pedagogical framework suitable as a challenging text for tertiary students. At a time when education is in crisis, especially in South Africa where strident calls for free tertiary education and Africanisation of the curriculum are spreading like wildfire, this book gives scholarly insight into the history and social conditions that gave rise to our current predicament.
Otuzo twOvaherero
(2017)
Otuzo twOvaherero provides valuable information on Ovaherero patriclans and records folklore and praise poems in Otjiherero. Previously, these did not exist in written form. The book attempts to preserve these oral traditions before they disappear. It aims to restore pride to the Ovaherero, particularly in patrilineages that were displaced by the Ovaherero-German war of 1904-1907. Otuzo twOvaherero is structured around the Ovaherero patrilineal descent system (otuzo) which is the basis of the Ovaherero religion Oupwee. The surnames and homesteads that belong to the same patrilineage are grouped together under each patriclan to help the reader to easily trace the homesteads that belong to one patriclan (and thus have a common ancestry). The distinct features of each patriclan are specified in terms of totems, taboos, patriclans which collaborate, and praise poems of homesteads. All the patriclans and praise poems in this book were collected from Ovaherero communities living in Namibia. The author uses the term Ovaherero to include the various groups which speak the common language Otjiherero and which include the Ovahimba, Ovaherero, Ovatjimba and Ovambanderu. This book has the potential to promote unity within the Ovaherero community by showing how families are connected in lineages which trace back centuries.
The Lie of the Land
(2017)
The Lie of the Land is a novel set against the background of the German colonial wars in Namibia in the early 1900s. The central character is an academic in linguistics who occasionally acts as a British agent. He is a cynical, private individual who sees himself as a neutral observer but is eventually forced to take sides when he witnesses the atrocities of the Herero and Nama genocide and, above all, meets a young Nama woman who enchants him. The novel explores the shifting nature of the oppressor and the oppressed. Despite the unfolding tragic events, the story is lightened by surprising bursts of humour, and is ultimately a love story.
A New History of Tanzania
(2017)
Tanzania, the land and the people have been subject of a great deal of historical research, but there remains no readily accessible and concise history of the country. The aim of this volume is to fill that void. A New History of Tanzania takes its name from a lecture series introduced at the University of Dar es Salaam by Professor Isaria Kimambo in 2002. Prior to that, a book titled, A History of Tanzania, had been published in 1969 by East African Publishing House in Nairobi for the Tanzania Historical Association. That book is currently out of print and this is not a reprint. In this book, Prof. Kimambo has been joined by two other colleagues; Prof. Gregory H. Maddox of Texas Southern University, Houston (USA) and Salvatory S. Nyanto, a Tanzanian, Lecturer at the University of Dar es Salaam, and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Iowa (USA); together they have produced an outline history of Tanzania that covers all important aspects from antiquity to the present that is different from and richer than its predecessor. Sources from the fields of archaeology, anthropology, biology, genetics and oral tradition have been used to produce this excellent book.
Although there have been a number of studies on Black resistance, very few of these have focused exclusively on such a wide range of resistance campaigns and strategies within a single volume. One of the central arguments of this study is that from as early as the sixteenth century, when Europeans attempted to systematically exploit Africans, Black people have engaged in a variety of organised and sustained resistance campaigns to assert their independence and identity. This book examines some of the different strategies employed by Black people in Africa and the Diaspora in response to European domination and exploitation. Drawing upon research from scholars based at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana and the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, this collection of original essays, covers the academic disciplines of African and Caribbean history, literature, politics and psychology. Despite these different approaches, the consistent theme throughout, centres on the strategies employed by Black people to resist European domination and oppression, by fighting for their freedom at every possible opportunity, whether they were in Africa, Britain or the Caribbean.
'It is my duty to take the message of revolt to other[s]. is is the only way to liberate the victims of suffering and slavery,' Nazmi Durrani quotes W.L. Sohan in this book. Resistance to imperialism in pre-independence Kenya by progressive South Asian Kenyans propelled the Kenyan liberation struggle to new heights. They were active in almost every field, from publishing progressive newspapers to supplying arms and material to Mau Mau. Liberating Minds consists of biographies of progressive South Asian Kenyans written by Nazmi Durrani. Originally published in Gujarati in the 1980s, they are available here in English for the first time, together with the original Gujarati. Also included is Naila Durrani's 1987 conference paper, 'Kenya Asian Participation in People's Resistance,' while Benegal Pereira introduces Eddie H. Pereira (1915-1995) and his resistance letters to the Colonial Times Newspaper.
Eni and Other Poems
(2017)
Eni kaleidoscopically unveils human intrigues, predicaments and woes. It brings into sharp focus the most dreaded products of cruel oppression, exploitation, and destructionthe worst forms of human degradation and sufferings. However, it also sheds beams of hope, celebrating optimism in the struggle and eventually opening the curtain to the stage of victory of the oppressed and impoverished under the shameless sky.
The African conundrum... is rooted out of the historical, philosophical and cultural bastardisation, imbalances and inequalities which many post-colonial African governments have always sought to address, though with varying degrees of success, since the 1960s. Lamentably, this African conundrum is rarely examined in a systematic manner that takes into account the geopolitical milieu of the continent, past and present. This volume seeks to interrogate and examine the extent of the impact of the geopolitical seesaw which seems poised to tip in favour of the Global North. The book grapples with the question on how Africa can wake up from its cavernous intellectual slumber to break away from both material and psychological dependency and achieve a transformative political and socio-economic self-reinvention and self-assertion. While the African conundrum is largely a result of historic oppression and a resilient colonial legacy, this book urges Africans to rethink their condition in a manner that makes Africa responsible and accountable for its own destiny. The book argues that it is through this rethinking that Africa can successfully transcend the logic of post-imperial dependency.
Campground
(2017)
Through poetry and fiction that engage the readers heart and mind, Loretta Burns explores the beauties, perils, and mysteries of day to day life. With a graceful simplicity of style and an often intimate voice, she represents a range of experiences and observations that include stories and memories of childhood, encounters with nature and music, and poignant reminders of Americas racial history. With delicate craftsmanship and an ear attuned to the eloquence of everyday language, she moves from quiet contemplation to youthful exuberance and from love to the pain of loss with sensitivity and understanding. Implicit throughout is a resilient affirmation of the fractured joy of being human.
Dissatisfaction has matured in Africa and elsewhere around the fact that often, the dominant frameworks for interpreting the continents past are not rooted on the continents value system and philosophy. This creates knowledge that does not make sense especially to local communities. The big question therefore is can Africans develop theories that can contribute towards the interpretation of the African past, using their own experiences? Framed within a concept revision substrate, the collection of papers in this thought provoking volume argues for concept revision as a step towards decolonizing knowledge in the post-colony. The various papers powerfully expose that cleansed knowledge is not only locally relevant: it is also locally accessible and globally understandable.
From Antagonism to Re-engagement : Zimbabwe's Trade Negotiations with the European Union, 2000-2016
(2017)
The book interrogates the European Union (EU) - Zimbabwe Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, covering trade in goods, trade-related rules and development cooperation. The negotiations coincided with EUs motives as the dominant development partner, and Zimbabwes state-stakeholder fault-lines, creating dilemmas in the pursuit of a fair EPA outcome. As a result, the economically weak Zimbabwe signed and ratified an asymmetrical interim EPA (iEPA) with an economically powerful EU in 2009 and 2012, respectively. Meanwhile, direct bilateral re-engagement which eluded the Government of National Unity (GNU), became real following ZANU-PF landslide victory on 31 July 2013, that sufficiently altered the power balance to trigger the process between the former nemesis in support of iEPA domestication, and social and economic development. ZANU-PF government stopped blaming the EU and other western nations for the countrys continued economic under-performance, signaling a softening approach on its part. Similarly, the EU and its member states softened its perception on ZANU-PF leadership leading to resumption and intensification of re-engagement despite failure to implement the Global Political Agreement-related constitutional and democratic reforms, agreed by GNU. This re-engagement was firmly endorsed when the EU and Zimbabwe signed an agreement in July 2015 to normalise bilateral relations and start cooperation.
Echoes of a Whisper
(2017)
Lughano Mwangweghos Echoes of a Whisper is an imaginative array of poetic verse steeped in Africa and tackling the fraught space of being betwixt and between, within and without, memory and the present. Love runs avidly as a theme throughout and imagery thereof is at once beautiful and absurd, adding further to a sense of suspension, a sense of unease. Mwangweghos poetry is edgy: its colour is that of tension. Yet, in such a way it speaks to both mind and soul - in places it provokes both physical and emotional reaction from the reader and the empowerment it transfers is uncanny. As his second collection of poetry, Malawian poet and short story writer Lughano Mwangwegho once again offers here writing rich in anguish and loveliness.
This book is about transnational migration (familiarly called bushfalling) and remittance flows to Cameroon. With the current dire economic state, Cameroonians increasingly aspire to go abroad to make a living. Migrants achieve this through a collective (family) strategy and with the help of migration brokers. Relations between migrants and the family that stays in Cameroon can be characterized as follows: Families raise and educate their children to become adults. In return to giving their children the gift of life, families expect reciprocity, best secured through economic success abroad and the sending of remittances by migrants. As families in Cameroon heavily contribute to the funding of migration trajectories, often by selling properties such as land or houses or borrowing money, they also expect a return on their investments. All that constitutes this study explores under the notion of the moral economy of transnational remittances. In this study, remittances are understood to be a composite of financial, material, and cultural flowsmaintaining and transforming social and kinship ties. The book proposes also a large exploration of themes in relation to transnational migration: why and how Cameroonians migrate (the role of the operational family in terms of decision and funding; the role of migration brokers through the identification of lines and the provision of the necessary papers); the moral justification for migration; the ways social relations and customs are changed by status gained through migration; the ways people explain the failure of migration projects, the difficulties to stay abroad; the matrimonial strategies to go and stay abroad. This is an empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated study that takes thinking on transnational migration informed by African strategies and experiences a step further.
This volume interrogates and theorises various forms of fundamentalism and fetishism that impinge on Africa and the African people. The book valiantly rethinks and unpacks these forms of fundamentalisms and fetishisms, offering in the process critical vistas for students, scholars and activists on matters of decoloniality and transformation. By meticulously and painstakingly unpacking pertinent issues, the book provides unparalleled intellectual milestones and platforms for the oncoming revolution and quest for justice in the form of decoloniality and transformation. Drawing from several disciplinary domains such as Development Studies, Security Studies, Political Anthropology and Sociology, Economic Anthropology and Social studies, English Studies, History, Philosophy and Religious Studies, and drawing from scholars from across different universities in the Southern African region, the book provides multiple lenses from which to understand the complex goings on in a continent that can no longer afford to simply fold hands and watch while its citizens suffer multiple forms of coloniality, fetishisms and fundamentalisms.
Serine/arginine-protein kinase 1 (SRPK1) regulates alternative splicing of VEGF-A to pro-angiogenic isoforms and SRPK1 inhibition can restore the balance of pro/antiangiogenic isoforms to normal physiological levels. The lack of potency and selectivity of available compounds has limited development of SRPK1 inhibitors, with the control of alternative splicing by splicing factor-specific kinases yet to be translated. We present here compounds that occupy a binding pocket created by the unique helical insert of SRPK1, and trigger a backbone flip in the hinge region, that results in potent (<10 nM) and selective inhibition of SRPK1 kinase activity. Treatment with these inhibitors inhibited SRPK1 activity and phosphorylation of serine/arginine splicing factor 1 (SRSF1), resulting in alternative splicing of VEGF-A from pro-angiogenic to antiangiogenic isoforms. This property resulted in potent inhibition of blood vessel growth in models of choroidal angiogenesis in vivo. This work identifies tool compounds for splice isoform selective targeting of pro-angiogenic VEGF, which may lead to new therapeutic strategies for a diversity of diseases where dysfunctional splicing drives disease development.
Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is a ligand that activates, through co-receptor GDNF family receptor alpha-1 (GFRα1) and receptor tyrosine kinase “RET”, several signaling pathways crucial in the development and sustainment of multiple neuronal populations. We decided to study whether non-mammalian orthologs of these three proteins have conserved their function: can they activate the human counterparts? Using the baculovirus expression system, we expressed and purified Danio rerio RET, and its binding partners GFRα1 and GDNF, and Drosophila melanogaster RET and two isoforms of co-receptor GDNF receptor-like. Our results report high-level insect cell expression of post-translationally modified and dimerized zebrafish RET and its binding partners. We also found that zebrafish GFRα1 and GDNF are comparably active as mammalian cell-produced ones. We also report the first measurements of the affinity of the complex to RET in solution: at least for zebrafish, the Kd for GFRα1-GDNF binding RET is 5.9 μM. Surprisingly, we also found that zebrafish GDNF as well as zebrafish GFRα1 robustly activated human RET signaling and promoted the survival of cultured mouse dopaminergic neurons with comparable efficiency to mammalian GDNF, unlike E. coli-produced human proteins. These results contradict previous studies suggesting that mammalian GFRα1 and GDNF cannot bind and activate non-mammalian RET and vice versa.
Echolocation allows bats to orientate in darkness without using visual information. Bats emit spatially directed high frequency calls and infer spatial information from echoes coming from call reflections in objects (Simmons 2012; Moss and Surlykke 2001, 2010). The echoes provide momentary snapshots, which have to be integrated to create an acoustic image of the surroundings. The spatial resolution of the computed image increases with the quantity of received echoes. Thus, a high call rate is required for a detailed representation of the surroundings.
One important parameter that the bats extract from the echoes is an object’s distance. The distance is inferred from the echo delay, which represents the duration between call emission and echo arrival (Kössl et al. 2014). The echo delay decreases with decreasing distance and delay-tuned neurons have been characterized in the ascending auditory pathway, which runs from the inferior colliculus (Wenstrup et al. 2012; Macías et al. 2016; Wenstrup and Portfors 2011; Dear and Suga 1995) to the auditory cortex (Hagemann et al. 2010; Suga and O'Neill 1979; O'Neill and Suga 1982).
Electrophysiological studies usually characterize neuronal processing by using artificial and simplified versions of the echolocation signals as stimuli (Hagemann et al. 2010; Hagemann et al. 2011; Hechavarría and Kössl 2014; Hechavarría et al. 2013). The high controllability of artificial stimuli simplifies the inference of the neuronal mechanisms underlying distance processing. But, it remains largely unexplored how the neurons process delay information from echolocation sequences. The main purpose of the thesis is to investigate how natural echolocation sequences are processed in the brain of the bat Carollia perspicillata. Bats actively control the sensory information that it gathers during echolocation. This allows experimenters to easily identify and record the acoustic stimuli that are behaviorally relevant for orientation. For recording echolocation sequences, a bat was placed in the mass of a swinging pendulum (Kobler et al. 1985; Beetz et al. 2016b). During the swing the bat emitted echolocation calls that were reflected in surrounding objects. An ultrasound sensitive microphone traveling with the bat and positioned above the bat’s head recorded the echolocation sequence. The echolocation sequence carried delay information of an approach flight and was used as stimulus for neuronal recordings from the auditory cortex and inferior colliculus of the bats.
Presentation of high stimulus rates to other species, such as rats, guinea pigs, suppresses cortical neuron activity (Wehr and Zador 2005; Creutzfeldt et al. 1980). Therefore, I tested if neurons of bats are suppressed when they are stimulated with high acoustic rates represented in echolocation sequences (sequence situation). Additionally, the bats were stimulated with randomized call echo elements of the sequence and an interstimulus time interval of 400 ms (element situation). To quantify neuronal suppression induced by the sequence, I compared the response pattern to the sequence situation with the concatenated response patterns to the element situation. Surprisingly, although the bats should be adapted for processing high acoustic rates, their cortical neurons are vastly suppressed in the sequence situation (Beetz et al. 2016b). However, instead of being completely suppressed during the sequence situation, the neurons partially recover from suppression at a unit specific call echo element. Multi-electrode recordings from the cortex allow assessment of the representation of echo delays along the cortical surface. At the cortical level, delay-tuned neurons are topographically organized. Cortical suppression improves sharpness of neuronal tuning and decreases the blurriness of the topographic map. With neuronal recordings from the inferior colliculus, I tested whether the echolocation sequence also induced neuronal suppression at subcortical level. The sequence induced suppression was weaker in the inferior colliculus than in the cortex. The collicular response makes the neurons able to track the acoustic events in the echolocation sequence. Collicular suppression mainly improves the signal-to-noise ratio. In conclusion, the results demonstrate that cortical suppression is not necessarily a shortcoming for temporal processing of rapidly occurring stimuli as it has previously been interpreted.
Natural environments are usually composed of multiple objects. Thus, each echolocation call reflects off multiple objects resulting in multiple echoes following the calls. At present, it is largely unexplored how neurons process echolocation sequences containing echo information from more than one object (multi-object sequences). Therefore, I stimulated bats with a multi-object sequence which contained echo information from three objects. The objects were different distances away from each other. I tested the influence of each object on the neuronal tuning by stimulating the bats with different sequences created from filtering object specific echoes from the multi-object sequence. The cortex most reliably processes echo information from the nearest object whereas echo information from distant objects is not processed due to neuronal suppression. Collicular neurons process less selectively echo information from certain objects and respond to each echo.
For proper echolocation, bats have to distinguish between own biosonar signals and the signals coming from conspecifics. This can be quite challenging when many bats echolocate adjacent to each other. In behavioral experiments, the echolocation performance of C. perspicillata was tested in the presence of potentially interfering sounds. In the presence of acoustic noise, the bats increase the sensory acquisition rate which may increase the update rate of sensory processing. Neuronal recordings from the auditory cortex and inferior colliculus could strengthen the hypothesis. Although there were signs of acoustic interference or jamming at neuronal level, the neurons were not completely suppressed and responded to the rest of the echolocation sequence.
Lieblingsbild
(2017)
Das Bild zeigt die Kryo-EM-Elektronendichtekarte des bakteriellen Kalium-Aufnahmesystems KtrAB mit ADP gebunden mit einer Auflösung von 6.6 Å. Das Bild ist mein Lieblingsbild, weil man bereits auf den ersten Blick eine dramatische Konformationsänderung im Vergleich zu einer früheren ATPgebundenen Struktur erkennen konnte, nämlich die Ausbildung langgestreckter α-Helices (hier gelb markiert), die die regulatorischen A-Untereinheiten (blau) mit den Kaliumionen-translozierenden B-Untereinheiten (grau) verbinden. ...
VJD Newsletter (1-2-2017)
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VJD Newsletter (1-5-2017)
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VJD Newsletter (1-4-2017)
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VJD Newsletter (1-3-2017)
(2017)
»Nicht schon wieder BAföG!« : die BAföG-Erstberatung des Studentenwerks bringt Licht ins Dunkle
(2017)
Two missense mutations of the DYRK1B gene have recently been found to co-segregate with a rare autosomal-dominant form of metabolic syndrome. This gene encodes a member of the DYRK family of protein kinases, which depend on tyrosine autophosphorylation to acquire the catalytically active conformation. The mutations (H90P and R102C) affect a structural element named DYRK homology (DH) box and did not directly interfere with the conformation of the catalytic domain in a structural model of DYRK1B. Cellular assays showed that the mutations did not alter the specific activity of mature kinase molecules. However, a significant part of the mutant DYRK1B protein accumulated in detergent-insoluble cytoplasmic aggregates and was underphosphorylated on tyrosine. The mutant DYRK1B variants were more vulnerable to the HSP90 inhibitor ganetespib and showed enhanced binding to the co-chaperone CDC37 as compared to wild type DYRK1B. These results support the hypothesis that the mutations in the DH box interfere with the maturation of DYRK1B by tyrosine autophosphorylation and compromise the conformational stability of the catalytic domain, which renders the kinase susceptible to misfolding.
Das zwischenstaatliche Gewaltverbot steht im Zentrum der völkerrechtlichen Aufmerksamkeit. Auf bewaffnete Konflikte auf dem afrikanischen Kontinent trifft dies nur begrenzt zu. An dieses Defizit knüpft die Autorin ab der Zeitwende 1989/90 an. Dabei überschreitet sie die traditionellen Grenzen des Gewaltverbots und analysiert, inwieweit dies, v. a. durch die Fortentwicklung der Menschenrechtslehre, eine inhaltliche Änderungen erfahren hat, die auch die militärische Anwendung von Gewalt im Innern eines Staates ächtet (ius contra bellum internum). Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt sind Interventionen durch Regionalorganisation. Hierbei wird untersucht, ob multilaterale Interventionen schon dann gewohnheitsrechtliche Akzeptanz erfahren, wenn sie entweder formell oder materiell rechtmäßig sind. Zumindest solche, die durch den UN-Sicherheitsrat autorisiert sind, können diese sog. Baugenehmigungsthese für sich in Anspruch nehmen. Doch auch ohne UN-Mandat vermögen humanitäre Interventionen regionaler Organisationen in engen Grenzen völkerrechtmäßig sein.
[Rezension zu: Lewe, Christiane; Othold, Tim und Nicolas Oxen (Hg.): Müll. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf das Übrig-Gebliebene. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2016.]”.
Der von Christiane Lewe, Tim Othold und Nicolas Oxen herausgegebene Band Müll. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf das Übrig-Gebliebene eröffnet in Schlaglichtern Zugänge zu ‚übrig-gebliebener‘ Materialität in kulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive. Ausgehend von der Annahme, bei nicht mehr gebrauchten Dingen handele es sich um das Ergebnis sozio-kultureller Zuschreibungsprozesse, interessieren sich die Beiträge für so unterschiedliche Phänomene wie die Inszenierung von Müll im Fernsehen, Gender und Schmutz, Gebäuderecycling, Self-Storage oder künstlerische Auseinandersetzungen mit Müll. Als gemeinsamer Schnittpunkt der Fallstudien stellt sich dabei das Vorhaben heraus, den als konventionell unterstellten Abwertungen des Übrig-Gebliebenen entgegenzuarbeiten. Eine literaturwissenschaftliche Perspektive fehlt hingegen.
Endogenous AJAP1 associates with the cytoskeleton and attenuates angiogenesis in endothelial cells
(2017)
The adherens junction associated protein 1 (AJAP1, aka shrew-1) is presumably a type-I transmembrane protein localizing and interacting with the E-cadherin-catenin complex. In various tumors, AJAP1 expression is reduced or lost, including hepatocellular and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and glial-derived tumors. The aberrant expression of AJAP1 is associated with alterations in cell migration, invasion, increased tumor growth, and tumor vascularization, suggesting AJAP1 as a putative tumor suppressor. We show that AJAP1 attenuates sprouting angiogenesis by reducing endothelial migration and invasion capacities. Further, we show for the first time that endogenous AJAP1 is associated with the microtubule cytoskeleton. This linkage is independent from cell confluency and stable during angiogenic sprouting in vitro. Our work suggests that AJAP1 is a putative negative regulator of angiogenesis, reducing cell migration and invasion by interfering with the microtubule network. Based on our results and those of other authors, we suggest AJAP1 as a novel tumor suppressor and diagnostic marker.
A recent report showed PINK1 transcript levels to be up- or down-regulated by the gain or loss of Ataxin-2 function, respectively, in human blood, in a human neural cell line and in mouse tissues. These observations may have profound implications for the regulation of cell growth and may be medically exploited for the treatment of cancer and neural atrophy...
Es ist üblich, die Regisseure des festlandchinesischen Kinos in unterschiedliche Generationenkohorten einzuteilen. Sechs sind es bislang, wobei es die fünfte Generation war, die erstmals auch jenseits der Grenzen Chinas, zumal im westlichen Ausland breit rezipiert wurde. Ihre Vertreter, darunter Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige und Tian Zhuangzhuang, schlossen ab 1982, also nach Ende der Kulturrevolution, ihr Studium an der erst vier Jahre zuvor für den Lehrbetrieb wieder geöffneten Pekinger Filmakademie ab, um Mitte bis Ende der 1980er Jahre ihre Debütfilme zu drehen. Deren prominent herausgestellte Individualität einerseits sowie unübersehbare Frontstellung zum bis dahin verbindlichen revolutionären Realismus mit seiner ungebrochenen Mao-Verherrlichung andererseits weisen sie als Produkte der auch und vor allem kulturellen Liberalisierungstendenzen unter Deng Xiaoping aus. Hiervon legt unter anderem Gelbe Erde (1984) ein deutliches Zeugnis ab, Chens immer wieder zu Recht als Initialwerk der fünften Generation gehandelter, subtil Systemkritik übender Erstling.
Für die vorzüglichen, seinerzeit als hochgradig experimentell wahrgenommenen Aufnahmen des Films zeichnete der anfangs auch als Schauspieler tätige Zhang Yimou verantwortlich, der mittlerweile in China ebenso wie im Ausland als der bei weitem bekannteste Vertreter nicht nur der fünften Generation, sondern des festlandchinesischen Kinos überhaupt gilt. Sein Regiedebüt legte er 1987 mit Rotes Kornfeld vor, der das vom so genannten Kultur-Fieber gepackte heimische Publikum begeisterte, aber auch im westlichen Ausland für Furore sorgte. Zahlreiche Auszeichnungen gingen an den Film, darunter, 1988 auf der Berlinale, der Goldene Bär, der damit erstmals einem asiatischen Film verliehen wurde.
As new generations of targeted therapies emerge and tumor genome sequencing discovers increasingly comprehensive mutation repertoires, the functional relationships of mutations to tumor phenotypes remain largely unknown. Here, we measured ex vivo sensitivity of 246 blood cancers to 63 drugs alongside genome, transcriptome, and DNA methylome analysis to understand determinants of drug response. We assembled a primary blood cancer cell encyclopedia data set that revealed disease-specific sensitivities for each cancer. Within chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), responses to 62% of drugs were associated with 2 or more mutations, and linked the B cell receptor (BCR) pathway to trisomy 12, an important driver of CLL. Based on drug responses, the disease could be organized into phenotypic subgroups characterized by exploitable dependencies on BCR, mTOR, or MEK signaling and associated with mutations, gene expression, and DNA methylation. Fourteen percent of CLLs were driven by mTOR signaling in a non–BCR-dependent manner. Multivariate modeling revealed immunoglobulin heavy chain variable gene (IGHV) mutation status and trisomy 12 as the most important modulators of response to kinase inhibitors in CLL. Ex vivo drug responses were associated with outcome. This study overcomes the perception that most mutations do not influence drug response of cancer, and points to an updated approach to understanding tumor biology, with implications for biomarker discovery and cancer care.
Cleaning an ion beam from unwanted fractions is crucial for intense ion beams. This thesis will explore separation methods using a collimation channel, electric and magnetic dipoles and a velocity selector for low intensity beams on an experimental basis. In addition, statistical data of degassing events during the commissioning of a pentode extraction system for beam energies from 20 - 120keV will be presented.