Citizenship in Ghana: understanding its cultural and political construction

Dissertação de mestrado em Relações InternacionaisOne characteristic of postmodern democratic reading of citizenship is the idea of the citizen as politically, socially, culturally, ecologically empowered and active. A complete citizen is thus one who enjoys his/her freedoms and rights, who fulfils his/her civic obligations, and who has equal opportunities to enhance his/her skills as a multifaceted individual. Within such rationale, the result of this citizen’s action shall be stronger and better democracy in an inclusive society where human rights are effectively respected. Ghana´s democracy is young and continuously defied by complex challenges. Among such challenges, there are traditional cultural and socio-political sets of beliefs and practices that conflict with the common practices of Western democracy. In this work, we argue that although citizenship in Ghana has made some improvements over the last decades, its construction and enhancement as a policy and as a set of social and cultural experiences still face severe constraints. The constraints are mostly caused by the prevalence of embedded traditions regarding the conception of power structuring and of power relations, which limit the development of democratic practices in the management of citizenship. Until these bottlenecks have been removed, citizenship will keep close to inequalities and abuse of human rights (especially of the most vulnerable, such as women, children, and the physically challenged), reflecting more the prevalence of traditional logics of power, than of democratic values in favour of human dignity. In light of this, we argue, education for a new understanding of citizenship is a fundamental path.Uma característica da leitura democrática pós-moderna da cidadania é a ideia do cidadão como um ser politicamente, socialmente, culturalmente, economicamente e ecologicamente capacitado e ativo. O cidadão completo é aquele que goza e desfruta dos seus direitos e liberdades, que cumpre o seu dever cívico e tem oportunidade para aperfeiçoar, promover, melhorar e reforçar os seus dotes, as suas competências, as suas capacidades inatas ou habilidades como individuo pluridimensional. Na logica desta racionalidade, o resultado desta ação do cidadão será potenciadora de uma melhor e mais eficiente democracia, numa sociedade integradora, onde há respeito pelos direitos humanos. A democracia Ganesa é nova, intrincada e continuamente confrontada com desafios complexos. Somos confrontados com várias crenças e práticas da cultura tradicional e sociopolíticas incompatíveis com as práticas comuns da democracia ocidental. O nosso argumento e nossa postura neste projecto é que, apesar de considerarmos que existe algum progresso no conceito da cidadania nas últimas décadas no Gana, o seu aperfeiçoamento, valorização e construção como uma política e conjunto de experiências sociais e culturais enfrentam graves condicionalismos ou limitações. Em geral, os constrangimentos na sua maioria parte são causadas por prevalência do conceito da estruturação de poder e das relações entres os poderes enraizados na tradição, que limitam o desenvolvimento das práticas democráticas na gestão da cidadania. Enquanto estes obstáculos ou constrangimentos existirem, o conceito da cidadania manter-se-á, perto da desigualdade e abuso dos direitos humanos (especialmente dos mais vulneráveis, como as mulheres, as crianças e os fisicamente e mentalmente incapacitados), refletindo mais na prevalência da logica tradicional do poder, em vez dos valores democráticas em favor da dignidade humana. Portanto defendemos a ideia de que a educação para uma nova compreensão da cidadania é a trajetória fundamental

Content and form of selected Ukwuani lullabies

This paper examines the content and form of selected Ukwuani lullabies. Lullabies have been studied by various scholars over the years for their sociological, literary and linguistic values. However, not much attention has been paid to Ukwuani lullabies by oral literature scholars. This study engages some Ukwuani lullabies with the intent of identifying some of its themes and technical qualities. The songs selected for this research were sourced in the course of a fieldwork where those interviewed were made to perform some of the songs. The researcher recorded the songs and transcribed them for analysis. Formalism was adopted as the theoretical fulcrum for this research with its focus on literary texts as independent aesthetic entities. The findings of this paper reveal that Ukwuani lullabies reflect various universal truths and lessons, with themes such as infertility, fear of leaving home, fear of not being loved or giving love, happiness, kindness, friendship, generosity, and merits of hard work. These themes are conveyed using techniques such as metaphor, imagery, repetition, proverbs, symbolism, personification, hyperbole, etc

Variations for Wreckords

Variations for Wreckords by NOMAGICMAN is the culmination of three years of work and experimentation within the Electronic Music department at Bard College. The music is built from the deconstruction and reconstruction of vinyl records, juxtaposed to create a new piece of music unique from the original material. My experimentation with vinyl manipulation started as a class project and quickly became a passion. Since that class, this form of work has turned into my primary academic focus and has allowed me to intertwine an interest in visual art into my senior project. This specific manipulation process was initially inspired by the work of visual artist and composer Christian Marclay, who popularly debuted this technique in the 1980s. I was drawn in by the physicality of the process as different from the often lifeless and detached experience of working with a DAW. I started out using saws and scissors to make cuts in the vinyl; this method proved to be very unwieldy and unpredictable. While this led to some very interesting and sporadic grooves, the process wasted a lot of vinyl and thus was not sustainable in the long term. Since then I streamlined the process. Instead of making rough cuts I took a much more methodical approach. I started by measuring the vinyl, then tracing a line in Sharpie to denote cuts. From there, I made an initial cut in the vinyl before heating up my box cutter and making my final cuts. While I started out using tape to bind the various pieces of vinyl together, I came to use a hot glue gun that, while messy, gave me desirable results. I found the troubleshooting highly effective and was able to develop a precise method by the end of the project. I debuted the process in the fall of 2019 at my moderation concert. The concert reflected where I was musically at the time. The themes were hip hop, ambient, free jazz and soul and Avant Garde composers like John Cage and Christian Marclay. The recording and DJing of Wreckords in accompaniment with other sampling within the DAW was the amalgamation all these influences and created an interesting mix of digital and analog sounds. Although, I enjoyed where I was sonically at my moderation performance when I decided to make an album for my senior project, I knew I wanted the sounds to be completely recorded from Wreckords. While I dabbled with midi performance and sample triggering leading up to the week before the album was due I decided to follow my initial intuition and have the entire composition be sourced from layered recordings, with minimal mixing and effects to accentuate what is interesting about the raw and unpredictable sounds. Variations for Wreckords is a 40-minute LP consisting of four tracks. The tracks are titled Variation 1-4 as each song is an exploration into a unique sonic world, overwhelmed by countless sources of music being cut and pasted into a new unrecognizable composition. I started making Wreckords from old 45s I had lying around my house; but after conversations with my advisor, Sarah Hennies, I decided it would be interesting to curate my Wreckords with the music of the people who inspired me such as Pierre Henry, Max Neuhaus, and Harry Partch. Additionally, I decided to try to make Wreckordscompletely out of percussion to act as accompaniment and to add to another layer to the natural grooves and loops formed by the cracks in the vinyl. These ideas formed the cornerstone of the experimentation I did with sample layering and lead to unique combinations such as the juxtaposition of the creaking from Variations for a Door and a Sighand Adina Howard acapellas. This album is a culmination of three years of work and experimentation within the world of vinyl. Additionally, the process of working through my senior project sonically pushed what I thought my practice was and where my place was in the music making world. While my day-to-day musical practice is situated in somewhat popular music, my roots in music appreciation stem from Free Jazz and the Avant Garde. Making Variations for Wreckords took me on a journey that reoriented what I found valuable in music and art and allowed me to re-explore all the different musical forms I loved. Despite the album not being a conventionally easy listening experience, I have found much value in the sonic world that I have created, and I hope it can provide listeners with the same cathartic experience it has for me

Physicochemical studies on starches isolated from plantain cultivars, plantain hybrids and cooking banana

Starches from mature, unripe fruit pulp of plantain cultivars (Musa supp., AAB group) representing the wide variability in Africa, tetraploid and diploid plantain hybrids and starchy cooking bananas (Musa spp., ABB group) were isolated and characterised. In general, studies revealed very compact irregularly shaped and sized granules, with low amylose content (9.11–17.16%), highly resistant to bacterial α‐amylase attack; Brabender amylograms showed very restricted swelling type patterns with great stability and negligible retrogradation. Results indicate that differences in physico‐chemical properties exist amongst the three Musa fruit group starches. Plantains represent a chemical/molecular homogeneous group, but heterogeneous for granule structure. Ploidy level affected hybrid properties. ABB cooking bananas starches exhibited highly pronounced restricted swelling and high gelatinisation and pasting temperatures, indicating a more ordered, very strongly bonded granule structure; chemical and physical properties varied considerably within the ABB genotype