Plundered Kitchens, Empty Wombs: Threatened Reproduction and Identity in the Cameroon Grassfields

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136439/1/ae.2000.27.2.521.pd

Chapter Conclusion

"Many of the men who worked at KTL who have died since the closing of the Kaduna Textiles Limited mill without being paid their entitlements have had their names included on the list compiled by the Coalition of Unpaid Textile Workers Nigeria. This listing of names, along with their graves, funeral programs, and death certificates constitute “the work of the dead” in redressing some of the failures of their government and their society. The lack of food and health care, the minimum requirements needed for a decent life, suggest the need for new ways of thinking about the growing disparity in wealth—with ever greater inequality—in Nigeria. While this situation may be lessened through the reduction of corruption and through government programs for widespread food, health care, and education may be implemented, many Nigerians are considering the creation of alternative paths to well-being. Through the numerous programs proposed for increasing youth employment —training and support for small and medium enterprises, agricultural programs, and more efficient and environmentally sound smaller-scale industries, the possibilities for a new deindustrialized era are being imagined and may be pursued.

Chapter 2 New work-time regimes

The production of manufactured textiles at the Kaduna Textile Limited mill was an important development which led to the employment of many men from the small ethnic groups in southern Kaduna and Middle Belt states. The KTL Handbook, which workers received, laid out work rules which emphasized the importance of being on time. This aspect of industrial labor—the importance of keeping to time with clocks and watches—differed from many workers’ earlier experience of agricultural work. Yet despite KTL workers’ acceptance of the new work and time regime, the closure of the mill due to irregular electricity, antiquated equipment, and lack of government support led many to return to agricultural labor or to service employment in the city. For those preferring to remain in Kaduna, the difficulties of living without regular income and access to food and health care has contributed to the many health problems experienced by former KTL workers and their subsequent deaths

Shifting boundaries of fertility change in Southwestern Nigeria

Anthropologists and demographers rely on distinctive methodologies and forms of evidence even while they share a common interest in explaining fertility change. This paper proposes a cultural anthropological approach that focuses on the process whereby meanings associated with practices and things are reinterpreted over time. Using the image of shifting boundaries of kinship relations, it examines changing interpretations of three fundamental aspects of social life—family land, marriage, and foster parenthood—in the Ekiti area of Southwestern Nigeria which suggest an attenuation of the mutual obligations of extended kin. While these reinterpretations have moral associations that legitimate practices supporting fertility decline, political and economic uncertainty may counter this process

Polio in Nigeria

Poliomyelitis, or polio as it is commonly known, is a disease caused by an enterovirus found throughout the world. Although it is often associated with paralysis of one or more limbs, it is more common for children to experience asymptomatic cases of the disease, which convey life‐long immunity. While lameness associated with polio has long been known in Nigeria, during the colonial period immunization efforts focused mainly on expatriates. Later, with the implementation of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation during the 1980s, polio vaccination was included as part of primary health care. However, it was only after the 1988 World Health Assembly vote to eradicate polio worldwide that intensive efforts to vaccinate all children under five for polio began. Initial efforts, which focused only on polio vaccination, may be characterized as an “override approach.” In 2006, Nigeria had the greatest number of confirmed cases of polio worldwide. However, with the implementation of a more “collaborative approach,” incorporating other vaccines and health incentives such as bed nets, the number of polio cases declined. By the end of 2010, case numbers had declined dramatically and these numbers remain low, reflecting government, NGO, and community efforts to work together to end polio transmission in Nigeria.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/92415/1/j.1478-0542.2012.00859.x.pd

Condom use and the popular press in Nigeria

The increased acceptability and use of condoms by men in southwestern Nigeria is reflected in joking references to condoms in the comic-style popular press. Yet these references display an ambivalence about condoms that is mirrored in survey data and in interviews regarding condom use by rural Ekiti Yoruba men. This ambivalence, which is often couched in terms of health, has implications for the acceptance of government-sponsored HIV/AIDS-related educational programs. Because of the irreverence of comic-style newspapers and the ‘unofficial’ nature of their authority which coincides with popular attitudes about health programs, they have a credibility that could be useful in educating adolescents about sexually-transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS

The Transformation of Men into Masquerades and Indian Madras into Masquerade Cloth in Buguma, Nigeria

The Kalahari Ijo people of the Niger Delta area of southeastern Nigeria use a group of dark indigo-blue cloths with white patterning to cover the faces of masquerade performers. Subsumed under the name of alubite (masquerade cloth) are at least three distinct types: (1) ukara cloth, an indigo-resist of imported muslin, stitched and dyed by Igbo craftsmen, (2) alubite cloth, a gauze-weave, also an indigo-resist, but of unknown provenance, and (3) pelete bite, an Indian madras from which threads are cut and pulled by Kalahari women to form a new pattern. The first two types of cloth apparently come from non-Kalahari sources. The third, pelete bite, transforms dark blue and white imported madras, using local technology, into a patterned masquerade cloth for which there is a cultural demand. We focus on this transformation, examining particular types of Indian madras considered appropriate for this adaptation and the ways that these cloths are altered (i.e., cut and pulled), their relationship in color and design to ukara and to the other alubite cloths, and the significance of the triangular motif, alu, for depicting water spirits in masquerade performances

The Transformation of Men into Masquerades and Indian Madras into Masquerade Cloth in Buguma, Nigeria

The Kalahari Ijo people of the Niger Delta area of southeastern Nigeria use a group of dark indigo-blue cloths with white patterning to cover the faces of masquerade performers. Subsumed under the name of alubite (masquerade cloth) are at least three distinct types: (1) ukara cloth, an indigo-resist of imported muslin, stitched and dyed by Igbo craftsmen, (2) alubite cloth, a gauze-weave, also an indigo-resist, but of unknown provenance, and (3) pelete bite, an Indian madras from which threads are cut and pulled by Kalahari women to form a new pattern. The first two types of cloth apparently come from non-Kalahari sources. The third, pelete bite, transforms dark blue and white imported madras, using local technology, into a patterned masquerade cloth for which there is a cultural demand. We focus on this transformation, examining particular types of Indian madras considered appropriate for this adaptation and the ways that these cloths are altered (i.e., cut and pulled), their relationship in color and design to ukara and to the other alubite cloths, and the significance of the triangular motif, alu, for depicting water spirits in masquerade performances

The Transformation of Men into Masquerades and Indian Madras into Masquerade Cloth in Buguma, Nigeria

The Kalahari Ijo people of the Niger Delta area of southeastern Nigeria use a group of dark indigo-blue cloths with white patterning to cover the faces of masquerade performers. Subsumed under the name of alubite (masquerade cloth) are at least three distinct types: (1) ukara cloth, an indigo-resist of imported muslin, stitched and dyed by Igbo craftsmen, (2) alubite cloth, a gauze-weave, also an indigo-resist, but of unknown provenance, and (3) pelete bite, an Indian madras from which threads are cut and pulled by Kalahari women to form a new pattern. The first two types of cloth apparently come from non-Kalahari sources. The third, pelete bite, transforms dark blue and white imported madras, using local technology, into a patterned masquerade cloth for which there is a cultural demand. We focus on this transformation, examining particular types of Indian madras considered appropriate for this adaptation and the ways that these cloths are altered (i.e., cut and pulled), their relationship in color and design to ukara and to the other alubite cloths, and the significance of the triangular motif, alu, for depicting water spirits in masquerade performances

Mass Producing Food Traditions for West Africans Abroad

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65677/1/aa.2007.109.4.616.pd