Armah’s Linguistic Mythopoeisis

Ayi Kwei Armah is one of Africa’s most ideologically committed writers. His writings, which consist of a bitter attack on all colonial institutions and activities, reveal a social vision for Africa. Through his diatribe, he shows how Africa could set herself on the path of renaissance and development. This paper, based on Armah’s Two Thousand Seasons and Osiris Rising with occasional references to The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, examines one of Armah’s tools for the construction of this social vision: mythopoeisis. Two Thousand Seasons is based on the myth of Anoa through which Armah tells the story of Africa’s continued resistance to colonial oppression, exploitation and the slave trade. Osiris Rising is a complete transpositi on of the events of the myth of Osiris from its Ancient Egyptian setting to modern Africa. It is a story of Africa’s dismemberment and its eventual re-memberment and resurrection. An aspect of Armah’s mythmaking is the conscious effort to give new semantic denotations and connotations to the word pairs black/white and way/road. Armah gives positive attributes to the colour black and pejorative significations to white. He also opposes ‘way’ to ‘road’. Armah points Africa back to ‘the way’, a set of principles, which according to Armah, made Ancient Egypt, a great African civilization. The paper concludes that the solution to Africa’s problems lies not in demonizing everything white and accepting everything black but in carefully selecting what is good in both cultures.Keywords: Linguistic mythopoeisis, black, white, road, way

Political Myth and Achebe’s Arrow of God

Many African states are in dire political distress. During the political struggle for freedom and the immediate aftermath of political independence, leaders were able to mobilize the citizenry on the banner of the myth of the common nation state, a veritable paradise on earth. The stark reality now is that a combination of factors has led to general disillusionment. One of the ways to rekindle mass political enthusiasm is for the political elite to fashion new myths of the state which the general populace can identify with. This paper suggests that modern leaders of Africa can learn valuable lessons from Achebe’s Arrow of God. Firstly, when a nation is in a crisis, a new political myth becomes necessary. This new myth should be consciously crafted by experts brought together by political leaders. Secondly, if leaders fail to give the state a new cohesive myth, the nation may disintegrate into tribal enclaves, or even worse, any passionate fringe group will fashion a political myth – positive or negative – for the state. The paper concludes that political leaders in Africa should set the process in motion to deliberately craft new political myths for the various countries

Bacterial contaminations of informally marketed raw milk in Ghana

Background: Milk has an outstanding nutritional quality but is also an excellent medium for bacterial growth and an important source of bacterial infection when consumed without pasteurization. Objective: To estimate the bacterial health risk of milk consumption in Accra and Kumasi, the twomajor cities in Ghana. Method: A total of 96 raw milk samples collected in 2002 from the two sites were cultured and theisolated organisms identified by standard bacteriological methods. Results: Overall, the organisms identified and their prevalence rates were Yersinia spp. (19.8%), Klebsiella spp (16.7%), Proteus spp. (7.3%), Enterobacter spp. (6.3%), Escherichia coli (2.1%), andStaphylococcus spp (14.6%), Bacillus spp. (11.5%) and Mycobacterium spp. (1%). Most of the organisms identified were enterobacteria indicating probable faecal contamination of the milkas a result of poor hygiene. Most of the bacteria identified in the milk sampled are potential foodborne pathogens, and though some of them occurred in few samples, the practice of pooling milk from different sources by traders, and the absence of pasteurization generally observed among them could increase the risk posed by such organisms.Conclusion: The study has shown that informally marketed raw milk in the two cities could be an important source of infection with a wide range of organisms, particularly enterobacteria. There is the need for instituting effective control measures including improved hygienic handling of milk and its pasteurization to protect public h

An epidemiological study of recent outbreaks of Gumboro disease in Ghana

A study to assess the epidemiological factors responsible for the recent outbreaks of infectious bursal disease (IBD) in Accra and Kumasi, between October and December 2002 and January to April 2003, was conducted. Case report records at Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories were examined for IBD cases. Farm investigations were carried out using a combination of questionnaire and interviews to obtain information on the disease situation on farms, where the outbreaks had occurred. The highest occurrence of the disease was recorded between March and April 2003, with Accra showing the highest number of cases in March, coinciding with the Easter season. Day-old chicks imported into the country succumbed more easily to the disease than those produced locally. There was an association between IBD and the chicken type that was significant (P < 0.05) in cockerels and layers. Chickens vaccinated twice were more likely to be protected from the disease than those not vaccinated or vaccinated only once. The prevalence of the disease was also influenced by the age of the chickens with a rise in susceptibility with age from 3 weeks to 6 weeks old. The results of the study indicate that the factors studied, namely source of day old chicks, bird type, vaccination history, and age of chicks at the time of outbreak influenced outbreaks of IBD and are likely to contribute to the endemicity of infectious bursal disease in the poultry producing areas of Ghana. It is recommended that stringent biosecurity measures be observed on poultry farms to control the disease in the country

Isolation and characterization of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) field strains and pathotypes in Ghana

Isolation and characterisation of Ghanaian field IBD virus were undertaken as part of a comprehensive study to establish an efficacious vaccination programme against the disease in the country. Bursal homogenates wereprepared from chickens that died of IBD in five different locations of the country. Batches of 11-day-old Specific Antibody Negative (SAN) embryonating eggs were inoculated with 0.2 ml of homogenate each on the chorioallantoic membrane. The eggs were incubated and candleddaily, and all embryonic deaths were examined for gross IBD lesions. In addition, batches of 3-week-old SAN chickens were inoculated intra-occularly with 10 &mu;l of the bursal homogenate and observed over 10 days for clinical signs and gross lesions of IBD. Pathotyping of the virus isolates was done by the biological method, using groups of 10, 6-week-old SAN chickens and confirmed by the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chainreaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RTPCR- RFLP) technique. Embryos inoculated with homogenates from all five locations died 3 to 5 days pest inoculation (PI), showing characteristic IBD lesionsof extensive haemorrhages, congestion of limbs and stunted growth. Inoculated 3-week-old SAN chickens showed 100 per cent cumulative mortality, enlarged haemorrhagic and oedematous bursae, and haemorrhages in the breast and thigh muscles. Six-week-old SANchickens inoculated with bursal homogenates showed similar lesions. One isolate LV/G19 selected and standardized for viral challenge studies had an ELD50 value of 106.3. The SAN chickens challenged with thisisolate were more susceptible between the ages of 3 and 6 weeks, but morbidity and mortality were seen up to 10 weeks of age. This study confirms the presence of the very virulent Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (vvIBDV) in Ghana and the urgent need for its control

Isolasi Pati dari Pisang Kepok dengan Menggunakan Metode Alkaline Steeping

Tanaman pisang merupakan tanaman yang banyak tumbuh di daerah tropis dan memiliki banyak manfaat mulai dari bagian bawah (bonggol) hingga bagian atasnya (daun). Pisang memiliki kandungan gizi dan pati yang cukup tinggi. Metode isolasi dalam penelitian ini dilakukan dengan perendaman dalam larutan basa (alkaline steeping method), pada berbagai variasi pelarut dan waktu perendaman. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui kandungan pati yang terdapat dalam buah pisang, kandungan air (moisture content), solubility-swelling power, amilosa-amilopektin, dan protein dari pati yang didapatkan dengan variasi pelarut dan waktu perendaman. Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk meningkatkan nilai ekonomi pisang kepok, karena pati yang diambil dapat diaplikasikan dalam tepung pisang yang kaya akan pati. Contoh aplikasi dari tepung pisang ini biasanya adalah sebagai makanan bayi yang kaya akan karbohidrat. Yield maksimum pati diperoleh pada waktu perendaman 6 jam untuk semua variasi pelarut, dan perendaman dengan aquades memberikan nilai lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan perendaman basa. Yield pati dengan perendaman aquades yaitu 34,18%. Rasio amilosa dari pati dengan perendaman basa lebih tinggi daripada pati dengan perendaman aquades yaitu 23,4% untuk perendaman NaOH dan 19,2% untuk perendaman dengan aquades. Sebaliknya amilopektin pada pati dengan perendaman basa lebih rendah dibandingkan dengan aquades yaitu 76,6% untuk perendaman dengan NaOH dan 80,8% untuk perendaman dengan aquades. Kandungan protein pada pati dengan perendaman basa lebih kecil dibandingkan dengan perendaman dengan aquades yaitu 0,76% untuk perendaman dengan NaOH dan 1,05% untuk perendaman dengan aquades

The provision of dietary and physical activity advice for men diagnosed with prostate cancer:a qualitative study of the experiences and views of health care professionals, patients and partners

PURPOSE: To explore the views and experiences of health care professionals (HCPs), men diagnosed with localised prostate cancer and their partners about the provision of advice on diet and physical activity after diagnosis and treatment for localised prostate cancer. METHODS: Semi-structured in-depth interviews with ten HCPs (Consultant Urological Surgeons, Uro-Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialists and Allied Health Professionals: see Table 1) and sixteen men diagnosed with localised prostate cancer and seven of their partners. Data from interviews were thematically analysed using the Framework Approach. RESULTS: The men and their partners provided differing accounts to the HCPs and sometimes to each other concerning the provision of advice on diet and physical activity. Some men were unable to recall receiving such advice from HCPs. Factors impacting upon advice-giving included the perceived lack of an evidence base to support dietary and physical activity advice and the credibility of advice providers. The timing of advice provision was a contentious issue as some HCPs believed that patients might not be willing to receive dietary and physical activity advice at the time of diagnosis, whilst others viewed this an opportune time to provide behaviour change information. Patients concurred with the latter opinion. CONCLUSIONS: Men and their partners would value nutritional and physical activity advice from their HCP, after a localised prostate cancer diagnosis. Men would prefer to receive this advice at an early stage in their cancer journey and may implement behaviour change if the received advice is clear and evidence-based. HCPs should receive suitable training regarding what information to provide to men and how best to deliver this information

Indigenous markets for dairy products in Africa: trade-offs between food safety and economics

In the absence of information on which to base policies in emerging dairy markets in developing countries, public officials have tended to rely on models for dairy product marketing and health assurance derived from industrialised countries where large-scale production systems, cold-chain pathways and milk pasteurization and packaging are key features. These models have invariably failed in many African market situations where small-scale dairy systems without cold-chain market pathways currently dominate and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. The main reason is simple: many resource-poor consumers simply refuse to pay the extra costs that pasteurized, packaged milk incurs, and prefer to buy raw milk and boil it themselves. But the role of traditional preferences should not be discounted: in Kenya, high-income consumers express the same preference for raw milk as do those with lower income, and often end up buying more of it. As a result, informal or raw milk and traditional product markets generally dominate in developing countries, comprising over 90% of the market in Tanzania and Uganda, for example, and some 83% of the market of the world’s largest milk producer, India. In Kenya, the informal market has some 85% market share. The issue, of course, is public health concerns linked to raw milk. Current dairy market policies throughout the developing world have largely been adopted from the West, and reflect international standards of food safety, etc. However, as the percentages above show, they are being systematically ignored, and as a result, most consumers buy milk and dairy products that are completely outside any regulatory environment. It is possible that to better address the public health issues, policies may need to take a more pro-active approach to informal milk trading, and which better address the realities of consumer willingness to pay for higher standards. The policy question which needs to be answered is thus: is it preferable to maintain strict milk standards which result in higher costs and thereby free most marketed milk into informal channels, or is the public better off by standards that are relaxed but capture more of the informal market? If standards were relaxed to allow raw milk marketing, yet maintain some regulations regarding handling and if some incentives were given to milk traders to comply (e.g., training and certification), then a much larger proportion of the milk market may fall under regulatory control, improving the average standards of milk in the market. An important step to addressing this issue is to collect quantitative and qualitative information about milk-borne health risks under different production and marketing situations. This paper describes specific dairy marketing studies in Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania aimed at assessing public health risks from informally marketed milk and examines the economic trade-offs that policy makers should consider. Preliminary results from Kenya are presented and recommendations on cost-effective and practical interventions to improve milk safety made

Market mechanisms and efficiency in urban dairy products markets in Ghana and Tanzania

This research report presents an analysis of the problems encountered in the milk markets in Ghana and Tanzania. It is based on a study carried out during 1999 and 2000 to identify and quantify the public health risks and economic performance in dairy product markets in these two countries. The study was led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Scientists from the University and Technology (Kumasi, Ghana), the Animal Research Institute (Accra, Ghana), Sokoine University of Agriculture (Morogoro, Tanzania) and the Natural Resources Institute (UK) collaborated in implementing the study. Funding was obtained from the UK Department for International Development-Livestock Production Programme (DFID-LPP). This report is divided into an executive summary and a main section. The summary highlights the methodology used and the main outcomes of the research. Chapter 2 addresses market mechanisms and efficiency and contains the results of the economic and structural analysis. The key findings and achievements of the study. The main report gives a detailed account of the markets. Chapter 3 deals with the milk-borne public health risks, and focuses on the results of laboratory testing of milk and dairy product samples; this chapter also uses some of the economic results in the analysis. Processing of traditional dairy products is the topic addressed in Chapter 4, with a focus on the traditional fresh cheese, wagashi, in Ghana. Chapter 5 presents the impacts of the training activities conducted during the study while Chapter 6 indicates ways in which the project contributed to meeting the research goal. The project team hopes that the technologies and strategies developed in this study will inform development in other similar production and market systems