From rituals to films: a case study of the visual rhetoric of Igbo culture in Nolywood films

Many reasons have been advanced as to why the video film industry in Nigeria has been so successful financially and in building loyal audiences among Africans around the world. The present thesis argues that Nollywood films help to provide a time and a place for resolving deep-felt tensions in an increasingly modern world while affirming an authentic African [Igbo] identity. The way contemporary video films are produced brings these films close to the dominant emotional and identity questions posed by the Igbos, Nigerians and Africans alike. Particularly in Nigeria, the Nollywood film industry has brought familiar symbolic rituals of cultures on to the screen for audiences’ pleasure. Exploring the recurrent themes of these films raises consciousness about Nollywood as a new and special site where cultures are generated and regenerated. Here, major questions of values and meanings of life are explored, which raise awareness of the Igbo’s journey as a people. This thesis uses textual analysis as well as indigenous audience focus-group analysis to explore cultural representations in Nollywood. A wide range of participants were interviewed in the eight focus-group sessions that were conducted. Two in-depth interview sessions were also carried out on some Nollywood actors. Broadly, this research objectives were: • to identify a conceptual framework for understanding the culture of Africa and Nigeria, in particular, using the concept of ‘communalism’. • to determine the range of reception and consumption modalities of Nollywood products in Nigeria by means of focus-group interviews. • to explore the impact of Nollywood as an industry in the wake of globalization and in the context of current global trends. In pursuing these goals, this study looked at selected key films including, Things Fall Apart (1986), Coronation (2004), Bless Me (2005), Igodo: The Land of the Living Dead (1999), Living in Bondage (1992), My Best Friend (2003), Oil Village (2001), Widow (2007), Last Ofala (2002), Fool at 40 (2006), Festival of Fire (1999) and a lot more as listed in this study’s filmography. At the end this research found that the experience of Nollywood films is something of a centripetal process of communication for the Igbo and Nigerian viewers who believe that these texts help build their societies, culturally from below

Indigenous African music (IAM) performance assessment: an exploration of the role of teachers during the grade 12 external practical examination.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Since the introduction of the outcomes-based education in 1997 that overcame the curricular divisions of the past, Indigenous African Music (IAM) has finally attained a seat in the national music Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). However, due to its prominent mode of transmission which is aural/oral; lack of trained IAM teachers; and varied performance styles, schools still face performance assessment challenges. The study explores the dual role of teachers in order to examine what kind of competences that can be envisaged for them, specifically, during Grade 12 final practical examination. The main aim was to find out teacher perceptions on the current state of IAM performance assessment in Umlazi district and therefore determine how IAM performance and assessment guidelines can be further developed. Creswell’s (2013) social constructivist worldview whereby individuals seek understanding of the world in which they live and work, allows the researcher to present an explanation for the behavior and attitudes of IAM teachers, pertaining to their dual role, which is teaching and assessing the learners. Again, social constructivism as a learning theory which views learning as asocial process, underpins the study’s design and also informs the understanding of IAM performance assessment. Through a qualitative approach, the researcher purposively sampled individuals who have experienced IAM performance in the classroom setting. In this descriptive approach knowledge is constructed in a social environment, in which the researcher and the participants share their lived experiences. Through one-on-one semi-structured interviews, the study finds that, besides the limited number of IAM-trained teachers, the dearth of performance content/material in the music CAPS, results in teachers choosing certain topics and avoiding IAM performance. To mitigate this impediment, this study developed specified performance and assessment guidelines for selected IAM styles which act as a fragmented or criterion-referenced evaluation system that can ensure valid and reliable assessment results. The process of guidelines’ development was achieved through secondary data collection which were presented in forms of literature reviews and textual & structural analyses of each delimited IAM performance style. Furthermore, these guidelines constitute a framework that will aid assessors and non-IAM teachers who are willing to adapt to teaching the IAM stream in their schools

Lawrence University Course Catalog, 2024-2025

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Lawrence University Course Catalog, 2023-2024

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Undergraduate Course Catalog (1997-1998) - College of Arts and Sciences; School of Business; School of Nursing; School of Engineering

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The Contribution of Christian Missionaries to Education in Bengal, 1793-1837.

This thesis is concerned with the educational activities of Christian missionaries in Bengal between 1793 and 1837. An attempt has also been made to relate them to the educational and religious situation in the home countries of the missionaries, principally England and Scotland, which is explored in parts of Chapters I and V. The greater part of the thesis consists of an account of the development of the missionaries' schools for boys. This is traced from the early experiments made by William Carey shortly after his arrival in Bengal in 1793, through the great extension of the schools which took place during the administration of the Marquess of Hastings under the auspices of several different societies; but which was followed by a decline in the late 1820s and finally by a revival and further progress, with a new emphasis on English, consequent on the arrival in 1830 of Alexander Duff. Some analysis is made of the educational methods used by the missionaries, the subjects taught, the type of religious teaching given, the languages used, the compilation of textbooks, the caste of pupils and teachers, and the missionaries' relationship with Indians, lay British sympathisers, and with each other. Some account is also given of the schools for girls, and of the two institutions for higher education - Serampore and Bishop's Colleges - which the missionaries founded. The thesis is based mainly on manuscript letters from the missionaries in Bengal, found in the archives of the main English missionary societies and in the National Library of Scotland; and complemented by Indian Government records and by contemporary printed reports, newspapers, and periodicals of missionary, official and general provenance