Combating Forced Labour and Human Trafficking in Africa: The Role of Endogenous and Exogenous Forces

It is widely believed that indigenous culture and tradition are at the root of the human trafficking and forced labour problem in Africa. Adherents to this viewpoint also claim that endogenous as opposed to exogenous forces impede efforts to eradicate the problem. This study employed a loglinear regression model to test the tenability of this claim. It hypothesized an inverse association between indigenous culture/tradition and efforts to combat human trafficking. The hypothesis was rejected. It is shown that anti-trafficking initiatives are less successful where indigenous tradition is dominated, or has been usurped, by imported cultural practices

Combating Forced Labour and Human Trafficking in Africa: The Role of Endogenous and Exogenous Forces

It is widely believed that indigenous culture and tradition are at the root of the human trafficking and forced labour problem in Africa. Adherents to this viewpoint also claim that endogenous as opposed to exogenous forces impede efforts to eradicate the problem. This study employed a loglinear regression model to test the tenability of this claim. It hypothesized an inverse association between indigenous culture/tradition and efforts to combat human trafficking. The hypothesis was rejected. It is shown that anti-trafficking initiatives are less successful where indigenous tradition is dominated, or has been usurped, by imported cultural practices

Colonialism, Female Literacy and the Millennium Development Goals in Africa

Illiteracy levels remain higher among women than among men in Africa. This imbalance constitutes a leading source of the weaker position of women vis-à-vis men throughout the continent. However, the causes of the imbalance, and especially why it is higher in some African countries than others remains largely unknown. This study posited colonial influence as an important explanatory factor of this phenomenon. Countries that were colonised respectively by France and Britain, two colonial powers with contrasting colonial philosophies and policies, are compared. Based on the relevant literature, and previous empirical evidence in other areas of development, adult female literacy levels were hypothesised to be higher in erstwhile British colonies than in countries that experienced French colonialism. A difference of means test employing the t-statistic and a cross-tabulation analysis using the concomitant chi-square statistics were employed to test the hypothesised relationship. The results show former British colonies as outpacing their former French counterparts, thus confirming the central hypothesis

Adapting Modern ICTs to the Spatial and Cultural Environment of Urban Africa : The Experience of Cameroon

Navigation-facilitating information and communication technologies, especially personal navigation devices (PNDs), are commonplace, and account for a significant share of the GDP, in developed countries. However, their utility is compromised in Africa where the precise and unambiguous physical addresses necessary for their functioning are a rarity. This paper proposes a strategy that can significantly improve the functioning of these devices despite the lack of precise and unambiguous physical addresses. The strategy incorporates major aspects of African indigenous culture and tradition blended with received cultural practices. Cameroon serves as the empirical referent. The paper identifies specific benefits of facilitating geospatial navigation including economic value of journey time savings, environmental protection via reduced carbon emissions, cost savings resulting from reduced fuel consumption, and improved efficiency for entities involved in door-to-door service/goods delivery

Africa’s Triple Heritage, Land Commodification and Women’s Access to Land: Lessons from Cameroon, Kenya and Sierra Leone

Women have less access to land than men in Africa. Previous analyses have typically identified African indigenous culture as the problem’s exclusive source. With Cameroon, Kenya and Sierra Leone as empirical referents, an alternative explanation is advanced. Here, the problem is characterized as a product of Africa’s triple heritage, comprising three main cultures, viz., African indigenous tradition, European/Christianity and Arabia/Islam. The following is noted as a major impediment to women’s access to, and control of, land: the supplanting of previously collective land tenure systems based on family or clan membership by ‘ability-to-pay’ as the principal determinant of access to land

Electricity Supply, and Access to Water and Improved Sanitation as Determinants of Gender-Based Inequality in Educational Attainment in Africa

The central hypothesis of this study is that gender-based inequality in education in Africa depends to a significant degree on electricity supply, and access to water and improved sanitation. Gender-based educational inequality is operationalized in terms of the proportion of females to males within any given group of educated people. Three groups, people with basic literacy skills, people with primary education, and people with a secondary education, are considered. Logarithmically-transformed multiple regression analyses, with R2 values ranging from .26 to .55, confirmed the central hypothesis in all but one instance. The instance concerns the hypothesized positive link between access to improved sanitation and females with a secondary education. An analysis of the data revealed this relationship as negative. This paradoxical revelation is explained as follows. Recent positive trends in African economies have occasioned improvements in sanitation that are unmatched by a corresponding increase in female secondary education. The confirmed positive link between access to basic services and female education is easy to explain. The availability of basic services facilitates execution of domestic chores hence, free up time for girls and women to pursue educational opportunities. The article’s significance resides in its empirical validation of the following widely-held but hardly interrogated view. The progress of women in Africa is significantly retarded by the fact that they are overburdened by domestic chores

Institutional, Economic and Socio-Cultural Factors Accounting for Gender-Based Inequalities in Land Title Procurement in Cameroon

The study identifies and analyzes factors causing women to procure fewer land titles than men in Cameroon. It employs a qualitative approach, and an analytical framework grounded in feminist thought. The identified factors are analyzed under five broad categories as follows: institutional impediments, indigenous culture, received culture, productive and reproductive roles of women, and economic constraints. The analysis ends with a number of policy recommendations prominent among which are the following: drastically reducing the cost, number of agencies and steps involved in the land title application process; employing informal channels of communication to disseminate information on land; and maintaining office hours that take into account the tight schedules of women. The study holds lessons for land reforminitiatives not only in Cameroon but other developing countries in general