A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF PATIENT PERSPECTIVE ON THE INFORMED CONSENT DOCTRINE: ETHICAL AND LEGAL REFLECTIONS

Informed consent is an ethical and legal doctrine of patients’ right of acquiescence to treatment and the disclosure of adequate information by the physician to facilitate patients’ medical decisions. The doctrine seeks to expand the scope of potential legal liabilities of medical practitioners and to promote patients’ rights to medical care. A breach of the informed consent doctrine could be actionable in battery or assault when there is bodily trespass without consent and the tort of clinical negligence when there are inadequate disclosures. This article is a desk-top systematic review of primary data from seven independent empirical studies on informed consent from the perspective of the patient in five common law African countries. The publications which were purposively searched and extracted from Google Scholar reveal that though majority of patients (at least 79 percent) granted consent for treatment, there was insufficient disclosure of material complications or risks, treatment alternatives or the right of patients to refuse medical treatment if they so wished. Disclosures on material risks were as low as 21.2 percent of patients. The physician’s competence in providing adequate information disclosure, demands continual medical training in the practice of the informed consent doctrine. The application of communication strategies that could enhance patients’ capacity to understand the informed consent process is recommended. Additionally, clear guidelines from relevant regulatory bodies are recommended to promote patient rights to informed consent and to protect medical practitioners from potential legal liabilities

BETWEEN MOTHER FIXATION AND COLONIAL ATTRACTION: DERACINATION, ILL-FATED MIGRATION, AND REDEMPTION IN KEN BUGUL’S THE ABANDONED BAOBAB

The Abandoned Baobab, Ken Bugul’s brutally sincere autofiction, is the prototypal model of African postcolonial, feminist, and psychological narrative built around the post-traumatic stress disorder, self-flagellation, and “excesses” of a speaking female/colonial subject in desperate need of love. The paper analyzes the protagonist’s alienation, identity crises, and ill-starred sojourn in Europe against the backdrop of maternal attachment and absorption of colonial codes. The study is eclectically anchored on Hendrika C. Freud’s reconstruction of the Electra complex and postcolonial theory. Its major finding is that notwithstanding the protagonist’s anguish at maternal abandonment and her subsequent colonial assimilation, she still employs repressed norms and values associated with the mother/the land/Africa to berate (neo-)colonialists, Westerners, and herself. The paper concludes that the protagonist-narrator redeems herself somehow through the willful adoption of the appellation Ken Bugul, the admission of her errors, and the return to the motherland

Clandestine, circumscribed and coded: Sexuality in Darko\u27s beyond the horizon and Saadawi’s woman at point zero

This paper explores sexuality in Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon (1991) and Nawal El Saadawi’s Woman at Point Zero (1975). The African tradition regards issues of sexuality as a suppressed discourse which is integrated into a discreet, symbolic language. The portrayal of sexuality and its modes in which individuals realise themselves as subjects of sexual desire have been widely studied but works in which these characters have been presented as subjects of concupiscence have received very little attention. Adopting Michel Foucault’s notion that the history of sexual experience involves the correlation between fields of knowledge, types of normativity and forms of subjectivity in a particular culture, this paper examines the libidinous practices of characters. The paper concludes, among other things, that: firstly, Darko and Saadawi’s writings represent the African notion which considers sexuality to be a silent discourse; secondly, both novels manifest various forms of psychosexual attitude by the characters and the quest for sexual freedom and power

CHALLENGES OF NIGERIA’S DIGITAL ECONOMY: WAY FORWARD

The digital economy is becoming a more important part of the global economy. The digital economy is worth $11.5 trillion globally, comparable to 15.5 percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and has risen two and a half times faster than global GDP over the past 15 years. The importance of the digital economy to a nation’s GDP cannot be exaggerated. For all its potential, the digital economy is yet a rough diamond.  The paper argues that the government must act as a regulator in order for the country to fully profit from the digital potential available. To be an effective regulator, the government must endeavour to remain ahead of the curve, comprehend the nuances of this type of business, and recognise that the digital economy cannot be governed in the same way as a traditional industry. The government\u27s involvement as a regulator may extend to areas such as intellectual property, taxation, data security, and cyber security. The study applied a conceptual, descriptive and analytical approach, relying on extant literature on the benefits and challenges in the digital economy, focusing on the participation of government to maximize the sectors’ potential. Data were collected from statutes and case laws, relevant books, journal articles, materials from periodicals in these fields and materials from the internet, all data obtained was subjected to content analysis

EXPLORING HYBRID MASCULINITIES OF THE MALE CHARACTERS IN OKPEWHO’S THE LAST DUTY

Abstract This paper explores the concept of failed hegemonic masculinity to exact its full benefit from the assumed patriarchal privileges that African men ascribe to with intent of subjugating femininity. The failure of both patriarchy and masculinity to accentuate their hold unto these privileges results in a cataclysmic disfigured form of subordinated masculinities that manifest in a hybridism of masculinities. Utilizing Okpewho’s novel, The Last Duty, this paper examines how the novelist’s portraiture of the male characters in the novel reveals a bastardized patriarchy strangled to the point of suffocation; its relevance to society is seen in the infirmary of hopelessness and nothingness. The salvaging element, the paper argues, is to view the male characters through the lenses of hybrid masculinities which interpret the diverse identity projects of patriarchy in gender studies as ephemeral

Murdering our promising babies: The Pan-African historical theatre festival (Panafest) factor

International cultural festivals have attracted researchers and tourists globally for their role in impacting understanding and appreciation of societies and cultures worldwide. Regardless of this recent emphasis, in Ghana, there is paucity of literature on one of the most historically celebrated international historical and cultural festivals of unique significance to the global Pan-African family, the Pan-African Historical Theatre Festival (PANAFEST). Yankah (2012) critiques the Ghanaian PANAFEST by examining the chequered history behind its evolution from a small-scale, culturally local vision to a grandiose event more appealing to tourists than to local citizens. So, deploying the interpretive paradigm and narrative design and with a SWOT analysis, we explored PANAFEST in perspective, seeking to critically examine its genesis, state of affairs for its prime periods, from 1990s to 2010, to expose challenges shackling its sustainability by the Citizens. The findings revealed that a lack of funding, mismanagement, negative perceptions and misgivings, poor planning and organisation, and partisan politics defeat the purpose for which PANAFEST was established. We opine that PANAFEST represents geopolitical, public memory, cultural space and theatrical event, and that it has come to stay and all governments, private individuals, tourists, African diasporans, Pan-Africanists, slave descendants and other corporate institutions should put their shoulders to the wheel in making it a monumental festival for generations yet unborn

INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW AND MEDICAL CONFIDENTIALITY

This study focuses on appraising the right of the wounded and sick to medical confidentiality within the context of international armed conflict in International Humanitarian Law. It finds a correlation between the right to medical confidentiality and the general protection accorded to the wounded and sick in IHL. The paper argues that in hostilities, just like in peacetime, the right to medical confidentiality exists to protect the wounded and sick. However, it is the major finding of this paper that as important as the right to medical confidentiality may be, because military medical personnel owe dual loyalty, (one to the medical profession and the other to the Military), they face the dilemma of striking a balance between these responsibilities, which in turn affects their obligation to respect medical confidentiality. To address this challenge, the paper recommends greater commitment and respect by States to their obligations under IHL through the provision of adequate training for their military and civilian medical personnel on what the duty of confidentiality entails; and the stipulation of effective sanctions against the violation of this right through their domestic laws

Ethnographic and functional perspectives of tilapia names among the Ewe of Ghana

Modern methods of rearing tilapia in recent years and the importation of same may have contributed to the increase in the consumption of tilapia in Ghana as a whole, particularly among the Eʋe. Most organisms, including animals and fish, are named but they may not respond to their names as humans do. Observation also shows that consumers of tilapia are mostly conversant with the generic name of the fish and less interested in particularising the different species with their names. This paper seeks to investigate the essence of animal names with particular reference to tilapia among the Eʋe of Ghana. The research questions that are germane to the study are the following: Does the composition of names of tilapia derive from their physical characteristics? What knowledge do the Eʋe have about the names of tilapia and how does their knowledge influence the production, marketing and consumption of tilapia. The paper adopts a descriptive design approach in data collection and analysis. It establishes that the idiosyncrasies and general physical features of tilapia reflect in their naming system. Analysis also reveals that the names are both free and bound morphemes. The data further shows that geographical location, vocation, sex and age dynamics affect knowledge on the names of tilapia. These, to some extent, influence the production, marketing and consumption of the fish. The paper, therefore, concludes that even though organisms may not respond to their names, the names of those organisms such as tilapia are relevant to the people who ascribe these names to them

A RHETORIC OF CHINA’S EXPLOITATION OF RELIGION IN WEST AFRICA

This paper attempts to deconstruct Chinese business agents’ exploitation of religion as an economic resource in West Africa. Focusing on three cases from Ghana sampled on YouTube, the paper argues that China’s religion project in Africa involves three rhetorical strategies. These are reverse proselytization, repackaging of African/Ghanaian Christian gospel songs, and enstoolment of Chinese as African chiefs. The analysis reveals that Chinese foreign workers employ this capitalist model based on the working hypothesis that the average African of the postcolonial/neocolonial epoch is economically vulnerable and yet passionately religious, and, thus, would look to religion for solutions. Implications of the findings are reported in the paper

Editorial

This special issue of Drumspeak brings together five papers that shed novel theoretical and interpretive insights on Amma Darko’s novel Beyond the Horizon. Written in the fin de siècle of the long twentieth century, Beyond the Horizon is a sobering meditation on the migration of Africans to the West. It is an important text in the subgenre of African literature that focuses on migration, dislocation, prostitution, and the crisis of expectations that confront African migrants in the West. The novel is, therefore, central to what Iheka and Taylor (2018, p. 18) call “the migration turn in African cultural productions.” Since its publication, Beyond the Horizon has generated asignificant corpus of literature that attests to theamplitude of Darko’s craft and vision