Conservation of Indigenous Livestock : Sustaining Biodiversity for Current and Future Generations

This report, presented by Roger Blench, Managing Director of Mallam Dendo Ltd, UK, considers some of the current challenges involved in the conservation of indigenous livestock. The importance of livestock biodiversity in reducing the risks faced by manyu poor rural households is described in the context of accelerating erosion of livestock diversity. The role of science in identifying genetic resources and the implications of emerging techniques for science based policy are also discussed. The need for coherent policies on livestock is highlighted focusing on a framework that allows input from evolving science, the implementation of the Convention of Biodiversity, regional policies, and a re-orientation of research and extension towards species and uses relevant to poor people. This report was discussed during the Stakeholder meeting at AGM2005

Final Records of the Sambe Language of Central Nigeria: Phonology, noun morphology, and wordlist

This paper presents all the available data on the Sambe language [xab], formerly spoken in a remote area of Central Nigeria. Two field trips were made, in 2001 and 2005, and a substantial wordlist was collected. By 2005, the two remaining informants were very old and it is presumed Sambe is no longer spoken. The speakers still retain their ethnic identity but today speak a dialect of Ninzo. Sambe is part of the little-known Alumic group of languages and its closest relative is Hasha. Alumic in turn is one subgroup of Plateau, itself a branch of Benue-Congo and thus part of Niger-Congo. Sambe has an extremely rich phonological inventory. Fossil prefixes show that it had a system of nominal affixing until recently, but this had become unproductive by the time the language was recorded.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

L'homme et l'animal dans le bassin du lac Tchad

Une appréciation personnelle est donnée du recensement national du bétail qui a été effectué au Nigéria de 1989 jusqu'au milieu de l'année 1991. Ce recensement, dans lequel l'auteur était responsable des enquêtes au sol, a été conçu comme un exercice technique et statistique, mais il comportait de fortes implications politiques. Pour toutes les catégories de bétail, l'examen des effectifs et des systèmes de production a porté sur la totalité du pays. On résume les diverses méthodes utilisées et les principaux résultats chiffrés. Puis, les problèmes rencontrés pour obtenir des données numériques fiables sont évoqués, ainsi que les raisons de cette situation. Le rapport final a été mal accueilli par le gouvernement nigérien, en partie parce que ses résultats contredisaient les statistiques officielles utilisées dans la répartition des crédits. De ce fait, ce recensement n'as pas été utilisé dans l'élaboration de projets de développement pour l'élevage. (Résumé d'auteur

Were the first Bantu speakers south of the rainforest farmers? A first assessment of the linguistic evidence

Popular belief has it that the Bantu Expansion was a farming/language dispersal. However, there is neither conclusive archaeological nor linguistic evidence to substantiate this hypothesis, especially not for the initial spread in West-Central Africa. In this chapter we consider lexical reconstructions for both domesticated and wild plants in Proto-West-Coastal Bantu associated with the first Bantu speech communities south of the rainforest about 2500 years ago. The possibility to reconstruct terms for five different crops, i.e. pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), okra (Hibiscus/Abelmoschus esculentus), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) and plantain (Musa spp.), indicates that by that time Bantu speakers did know how to cultivate plants. At the same time, they still strongly depended on the plant resources that could be collected in their natural environment, as is evidenced by a preliminary assessment of reconstructible names for wild plants. Agriculture in Central Africa was indeed “a slow revolution”, as the late Jan Vansina once proposed, and certainly not the principal motor behind the early Bantu Expansion

Gender equality, resilience to climate change, and the design of livestock projects for rural livelihoods

Currently, there is growing interest in how livestock projects can contribute to resilience to the effects of climate change. In this article we recommend a shift away from gross productivity to sustainability, via the use of thrifty local breeds, with an additional emphasis on improving survival of young animals. These animals, due to their local adaptations, are more likely to be resilient to climate change. There is a gender dimension to these proposals, since smaller animals and local breeds are more likely to be perceived by communities as suitable for husbandry by women. We recommend a re-orientation towards an explicit gender-equality focus for these projects

Was there an Austroasiatic Presence in Island Southeast Asia prior to the Austronesian Expansion?

No Austroasiatic languages are spoken in island SE Asia today, although we know from the Chamic languages of Vietnam and the SA Huynh culture that contact was extensive between the mainland and the islands. However, the diversity of Neolithic materials in various island sites has led some archaeologists to question the Austronesian ‘Neolithic package’ model, without advancing a positive alternative. This paper suggests that Austroasiatic speakers had reached the islands of SE Asia (Borneo?) prior to the AB expansion and that this can be detected in both the archaeology, the languages and the synchronic material culture. The paper will focus in part on the transfer of taro cultivation as part of this process

From Tibet to Nigeria via Hollywood: travels of Chaucer’s ‘Pardoner’s Tale’

The paper reports a new Nigerian version of the ‘Tale of the three robbers’ similar to that narrated by the Pardoner in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It describes the diffusion of the story, originating as a birth narrative of the Buddha in the Himalayas, spreading westward to India, Persia and thence to Western Europe, where it was recorded as a folktale in Portugal in the last century. West African versions of the story are recorded among the Fulɓe pastoralists of the Fouta Jallon, and among the Nupe and now the Kamuku of Nigeria. More surprisingly, it has also been recorded among the Sakata of the southwest DRC. Its most plausible source is the Swahili inland trade, since there is a Swahili version which resembles the Persian versions. Its most recent re-incarnation has been the film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948, starring Humphrey Bogart. The constant re-invention and reframing of the core narrative suggests an attractive meme which has been transmitted across many centuries