African Marriage Systems: Perspectives from Evolutionary Ecology

There are many characteristics of contemporary African societies that puzzle demographers and others concerned with economic and social modernization. One of the most prominent is that the birth rate remains in both urban and rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa in spite of the presence of several factors that supposedly promote lowering of fertility (McNicoll 1980). Some of these factors are increased survivorship of children into adulthood, increased availability of education and levels of educational attainment (for both sexes), increased urbanization, and increased monetarization of the economy via migratory wage labor and cash cropping. Each of these is normally thought to promote the freeing of young people from the control of elders and to foster the development of economically independent nuclear families, close conjugal relations between spouses, and parenting practices with more intense investment in smaller numbers of higher quality children (Caldwell 1977a, 1977b, 1982; Caldwell and Okonjo 1968; Anker et al., eds. 1982; Sudarkasa 1977; Page and Lesthaeghe 1981; see Barkow and Burley [1980] and Vining [1986] for further biosocial consideration of demographic transition.

Building bridges across knowledge systems: Ubuntu and participative research paradigms in Bantu communities

This paper discusses how Ubuntu as a philosophy and a methodology was used among Bantu in South Africa together with participative Western paradigms in evaluating an educational computer game. The paper argues that research among Bantu has to articulate research experiences within Ubuntu paradigms if valid outcomes are to be realised

Molecular Epidemiology of Human Polyomavirus JC in the Biaka Pygmies and Bantu of Central Africa

Polyomavirus JC (JCV) is ubiquitous in humans and causes a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system , progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy which is common in AIDS. JCV is excreted in urine of 30-70% of adults worldwide. Based on sequence analysis of JCV complete genomes or fragments thereof, JCV can be classified into geographically derived genotypes. Types 1 and 2 are of European and Asian origin respectively while Types 3 and 6 are African in origin. Type 4, a possible recombinant of European and African genotypes (1 and 3) is common in the USA. To delineate the JCV genotypes in an aboriginal African population, random urine samples were collected from the Biaka Pygmies and Bantu from the Central African Republic. There were 43 males and 25 females aged 4-55 years, with an average age of 26 years. After PCR amplification of JCV in urine, products were directly cycle sequenced. Five of 23 Pygmy adults (22%) and four of 20 Bantu adults (20%) were positive for JC viruria. DNA sequence analysis revealed JCV Type 3 (two), Type 6 (two) and one Type 1 variant in Biaka Pygmies. All the Bantu strains were Type 6. Type 3 and 6 strains of JCV are the predominant strains in central Africa. The presence of multiple subtypes of JCV in Biaka Pygmies may be a result of extensive interactions of Pygmies with their African tribal neighbors during their itinerant movements in the equatorial forest