Reflections On The Detective Novel As A Moral Fable Of Contemporary Kenya

The detective novel has for a long time been seen as a popular genre, often supposedly read for entertainment as opposed to its concern with ‘serious’ issues about society. This paper reads two detective novels by Richard Crompton to examine what they seem to be suggesting about social reality in 21st century Kenya. Crompton’s The Honey Guide (2013) and Hell’s Gate (2014) appear to suggest that the Kenyan national body is ailing because of social turpitude. We argue that these two detective novels are profound commentaries, moral fables and critiques of given socio-economic, political and cultural realities in the 21st century Kenya; and that the corruption of the Kenyan body is partly a consequence of both local and international forces such as the circulation of what could be called ‘crimescapes.’ &nbsp

From Alterity To Agency: Pathways Of Subversion And Resistance In Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Personal Essays

In this paper, we have evaluated the contribution of aesthetic and rhetorical devices to Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s artistic mission of sabotaging the political, social, cultural and economic hegemony of empire. We have focused on his deployment of anecdotes, extended metaphors, essayistic allusions, argumentative structure, persuasive juxtaposition, concession structure and irony as aesthetic categories to undermine the domineering imperial codes. Our guiding theoretical lights have been postcolonialism, stylistics and the theory of the personal essay. The postcolonial approach adopted here is in the mould of Gayatri Spivak and Kwame Anthony Appiah; the stylistics perspective is illuminated by Rodger Webster, Peter Barry, Paul Simpson, Eriko Bollobas, Michael Kirkhood Halliday and Chris Holcomb; while the theory of the personal essay is framed by Michel de Montaigne, Phillip Lopate, Theodor Adorno, Holman Clarence Hugh, John D. Ramage and Bensel-Meyers and others. This investigation is pitched in the premise that Ngugi writes subversively from the subordinated margins of ‘alterity’ against the hierarchical power of colonial and imperial empire. In this study, we selected personal essays from the following collections: Writers in Politics: Essays; Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms; Decolonising the Mind: Politics of Language in African Literature; Homecoming: Essays on African and Caribbean Literature, Culture and Politics; Penpoints, Gunpoints and Dreams: The Performance of Literature and Power in Postcolonial Africa; Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance (first published as Remembering Africa); and Secure the Base: Making Africa Visible in the Globe

Utility of p16INK4a expression for the interpretation of uterine cervical biopsies in Kenya

Introduction: histologic interpretation of hematoxylin and eosin-stained cervical biopsies is subject to substantial discordance among pathologists. Immunohistochemical staining for p16INK4a can reduce inter-observer disagreement. We did a cross-sectional study to evaluate the utility of p16INK4a staining in the assessment of cervical biopsies in Nairobi, Kenya. Methods: hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections from 91 colposcopic biopsies diagnosed as negative for dysplasia or as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade 1-3 from 2011-2013 in Nairobi, Kenya, were reviewed and immunostained for p16INK4a. Agreement in interpretation of cervical biopsies was compared between primary and consensus review results. Results: on primary evaluation, 16 cases were negative for squamous dysplasia; 23 were CIN 1; 37 CIN 2; and 15 CIN 3. On consensus review, 32 cases were negative for dysplasia; 19 were CIN 1; 16 CIN 2 and 24 CIN 3. Agreement was moderate between primary and consensus histology review results for the diagnosis of low-grade versus high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (Kappa = 0.568). None of the cases negative for dysplasia were positive for p16INK4a expression, but in primary and consensus review results, 17% and 5% cases of CIN 1; 49% and 69% of CIN 2, and 80% and 96% of CIN 3 were p16INK4a positive, respectively. Conclusion: there was significant variability in the interpretation of cervical biopsies on hematoxylin and eosin between primary and consensus review assessments. 75% of CIN 1 cases that were upgraded to CIN 2 during consensus review expressed p16INK4a. These findings demonstrate the role of p16INK4a in increasing diagnostic accuracy and as a marker of high-grade CIN 2/3

The Textualities of the AutobiogrAfrical

In your mind’s eye, summon a map of the world—that famous text. There, there is Africa. The familiar, highly visible bulge of head to horn and curve, and the islands as you travel down to the continent’s southernmost point. It is likely that your imagination, like ours, has archived the inherited template of a Mercator projection, the powerful sixteenth-century cartography which remains influential offline and e-nfluential on Google Maps, even though it misleadingly distorts the size of continents. The 30.2 million square kilometers of the African continent appear much smaller than, say, the areas of the US (9.1 million square kilometers), Russia (16.4 million square kilometers), or China (9.4 million square kilometers). In comparison, the corrective cartographic morphing of the GallPeters projection revises the habituated representational geography of the world’s landmasses, showing the relational sizes of continents more accurately.1 Such tensions are not surprising, for the map, we know, is not to be equated with the territory and, in the context of our interest in this special issue in the textualities of the AutobiogrAfrical, divergent cartographies of the same space, drafted from different ideological perspectives, remind us to ask questions about how life narratives might make Africa intelligible. If, as Frances Stonor Saunders observes, “the self is an act of cartography, and every life a study of borders,” then “[e]nvisioning new acts of cartography that give substance and dynamism to the spaces between borders … produces new selves—or, at the very least, new ways of thinking about selfhood—and thus new objects of autobiographical enquiry.” 2 Any map of Africa reflects assumptions about a collective (“Africa”), as well as the political-geographical divisions of nation-states. “Africa” implies degrees of commonality among the (possibly more than) fifty-four countries that comprise the continent. Yet we know the dangers of a single story. Africa is not, after all, a country. Bear in mind, too, that our editorial team is located at the bottom end of the continent in South Afric

An updated atlas of human helminth infections: the example of East Africa.

BACKGROUND: Reliable and updated maps of helminth (worm) infection distributions are essential to target control strategies to those populations in greatest need. Although many surveys have been conducted in endemic countries, the data are rarely available in a form that is accessible to policy makers and the managers of public health programmes. This is especially true in sub-Saharan Africa, where empirical data are seldom in the public domain. In an attempt to address the paucity of geographical information on helminth risk, this article describes the development of an updated global atlas of human helminth infection, showing the example of East Africa. METHODS: Empirical, cross-sectional estimates of infection prevalence conducted since 1980 were identified using electronic and manual search strategies of published and unpublished sources. A number of inclusion criteria were imposed for identified information, which was extracted into a standardized database. Details of survey population, diagnostic methods, sample size and numbers infected with schistosomes and soil-transmitted helminths were recorded. A unique identifier linked each record to an electronic copy of the source document, in portable document format. An attempt was made to identify the geographical location of each record using standardized geolocation procedures and the assembled data were incorporated into a geographical information system. RESULTS: At the time of writing, over 2,748 prevalence surveys were identified through multiple search strategies. Of these, 2,612 were able to be geolocated and mapped. More than half (58%) of included surveys were from grey literature or unpublished sources, underlining the importance of reviewing in-country sources. 66% of all surveys were conducted since 2000. Comprehensive, countrywide data are available for Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. In contrast, information for Kenya and Tanzania is typically clustered in specific regions of the country, with few records from areas with very low population density and/or environmental conditions which are unfavourable for helminth transmission. Information is presented on the prevalence and geographical distribution for the major helminth species. CONCLUSION: For all five countries, the information assembled in the current atlas provides the most reliable, up-to-date and comprehensive source of data on the distribution of common helminth infections to guide the rational implementation of control efforts

Utility of Repeated Praziquantel Dosing in the Treatment of Schistosomiasis in High-Risk Communities in Africa: A Systematic Review

Infection by Schistosoma worms causes serious disease among people who live in areas of Africa, South America, and Asia where these parasites are regularly transmitted. Although yearly treatment with the drug praziquantel is fairly effective in reducing or eliminating active infection, it does not cure everyone, and reinfection remains a continuing problem in high-risk communities. Studies have suggested that a repeat dose of praziquantel, given 2 to 8 weeks after the first dose, can improve cure rates and reduce remaining intensity of infections in population-based programs. Our systematic review of published research found that, on average, in Africa, such repeated dosing appears to offer particular advantages in the treatment of S. mansoni, the cause of intestinal schistosomiasis, but there was less consistent improvement after double-dosing for S. haematobium, the cause of urogenital schistosomiasis. Based on this evidence, we used a calibrated life-path model to predict the costs and benefits of a single-dose vs. a double-dose strategy in a typical high-risk community. Our projections suggest cost-effective incremental benefits from double dosing in terms of i) limiting a person's total years spent infected and ii) limiting the number of years they spend with heavy infection, with consequent improvements in quality of life

<em>“It Is Good for My Family’s Health and Cooks Food in a Way That My Heart Loves”</em>: Qualitative Findings and Implications for Scaling Up an Improved Cookstove Project in Rural Kenya

The use of indoor, three-stone fire pits in resource–poor countries is a substantial burden on human health and the environment. We conducted a pilot intervention promoting the purchase and use of an improved cookstove in rural Kenya. The goals of this qualitative inquiry were to understand the motivation to purchase and use; perceived benefits and challenges of cookstove use; and the most influential promotion activities for scaling up future cookstove promotion. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 10 cookstove promoters and 30 cookstove purchasers in the Luo community. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis conducted. Women reported the need for less firewood, fuel cost savings, reduced smoke, improved cooking efficiency, reduced eye irritation, lung congestion and coughing as major benefits of the cookstove. Cost appeared to be a barrier to wider adoption. The most persuasive promotion strategies were interpersonal communication through social networks and cooking demonstrations. Despite this cost barrier, many women still considered the improved cookstove to be a great asset within their household. This inquiry provided important guidance for future cookstove implementation projects