Treatment Buddies Improve Clinic Attendance among Women but Not Men on Antiretroviral Therapy in the Nyanza Region of Kenya.

Background. Kenyan antiretroviral (ART) guidelines encourage treatment buddies (TBy) to maximize treatment adherence. This study examined the effect of TBys on clinic attendance in men and women on ART. Methods. This retrospective cohort study included all adult patients initiating ART from August 2007 to December 2011 at four health facilities in Kenya. Data were abstracted from electronic medical records and analyzed using Poisson regression. Results. Of 2,430 patients, 2,199 (91%) had a TBy. Relationship between TBy and clinic attendance differed in females and males (interaction p = 0.09). After demographic and clinic factor adjustment, females with a TBy were 28% more likely to adhere to all appointments than those without (adjusted aRR = 1.28; 95% CI 1.08-1.53), whereas males were no more likely to adhere (aRR = 1.01; 95% CI 0.76-1.32). Males reported partner/spouse (33%) or brother (11%) as the TBy while females reported sister (17%), partner/spouse (14%), or another family member (12%). Multivariable analysis found no association between clinic attendance and TBy relationship in either gender. Conclusion. Clinic attendance was higher among women with TBys but not men. Results support TBys to help women achieve ART success; alternate strategies to bolster TBy benefits are needed for men

Charcoal Consumption by Households in Bunia City, Ituri Province, DRC

An environmental study using surveys was done on 599 households in three communes of Bunia city in order to assess charcoal consumption. At least, 90% of the households use charcoal primarily for cooking. The average household consumes 75,85 kg (0,075 T)/month, estimated at 2,52 kg (0,002 T)/day and 910,23 kg (0,91 T)/year. Cynometra alexandri species (Butina in the local language) produced in Komanda land (from Irumu forest and Mambasa) is the most used. Therefore the need to invest in the promotion of renewable energy such as hydroelectricity to reduce the consumption of charcoal in Bunia and thus combat deforestation

Painting/Politics/Photography: Marlene Dumas, Mme Lumumba and the Image of the African Woman

This essay looks at the politics of portrayal, photography and figuration in relation to the colonial/apartheid archive. It focuses on the Dutch/South African artist Marlene Dumas's reworking of a selection images – both personal and public – in order to question contemporary painting's capacity to deal with history, and in particular its spectacular or photogenic trace. By using the painted reworking of both her old school photograph as well as an iconic depiction of Mme Pauline Lumumba, it asks what painting can do when it takes on the photographic past. At the same time, it explores the interpretive filters that have coalesced around the figure of the ‘bare‐breasted African widow’

“Battleground Africa: Cold War in the Congo, 1960–1965 (Book Review)” by Lise Namikas

Review of Battleground Africa: Cold War in the Congo, 1960–1965 by Lise Namika

Struggles to remain in Kigali’s “unplanned” settlements: the case of Bannyahe

Examining the precarious status of informal settlements in Kigali at a time of large-scale planning-induced expropriation, this article considers urban contestation in the context of the city’s changing spatial-legal regime. We analyse the case of one informal settlement’s expropriation and relocation – the settlement of Bannyahe – and the contestation that has ensued as resident property owners take the District of Gasabo to court. Through interviews with settlement residents, we follow the fates of these displaced urban citizens and consider their struggles to remain in their homes. Finally, we suggest that such contestation over legal procedural regularity and negotiation over property valuation at the neighbourhood level forms the limit of overt opposition to the city’s masterplan. Terming these limits to contestation “silent boundaries” that circumscribe contestation for property owners in the Bannyahe settlement, we offer perspectives on contestation and compromise amidst urban socio-spatial reordering in the “new Kigali”

What's in a name? the UK newspapers' fabrication and commodification of Foxy Knoxy

This chapter analyses how, immediately after the arrest of Amanda Knox, the UK’s national press played a pivotal role in transforming the American student into ‘Foxy Knoxy’, the duplicitous, psychologically disturbed femme fatale who orchestrated and participated in the sexually motivated murder of her flatmate, Meredith Kercher. This case exemplifies what happens when UK reporting restrictions do not apply, leaving journalists free to employ imaginative practices to create the infotainment spectacle that ‘Foxy Knoxy’ became and to ignore her legal right to a presumption of innocence. It is also the first example of journalists mining suspects’ social media sites and re-contextualising their text and images to provide ‘evidential’ sources of a guilty persona

The Congo crisis, the United Nations, and Zimbabwean nationalism, 1960–1963

The United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in the Congo in 1960–63 is a major chapter in African and Cold War history. The political consequences of the peacekeeping mission, particularly the use of UN troops against Moise Tshombe’s secessionist Katanga Province, reverberated in neighbouring African States as well. The contours of the UN’s role in the Congo crisis are well known, but this article will consider how UN intervention created a framework for the conflict between white minority rule and African nationalists in Southern Rhodesia. This article suggests that the intersection of Cold War politics and Southern African racial politics helped to create a situation in Southern Rhodesia in which white politicians felt threatened by the UN’s intervention, while Zimbabwean nationalists viewed cautiously the role of the UN as pan-African nationalism in the Congo became consumed by Cold War imperatives. The Katanga secession also demonstrated to both white politicians and Zimbabwean nationalists how intransigence and a small fighting force could challenge much more powerful nations in Cold War Africa

The Lumumba Generation

How and why did the African elite turn from loyal intermediaries into opponents of the colonial state? This book wants to help better understand the dramatic political and cultural processes of decolonization in the Belgian Congo. Focusing on the making of a bourgeois African elite, the book deals with the social identity and cultural self-representations, the daily life and political activism of the so called Évolués

The Economics of Civil War: The Case of the Democratic Republic of Congo

This study analyzes the causes of civil wars in the Congo since independence and investigates how the Congo case fits the model of civil war proposed by Collier and Hoeffler. Five conclusions arise from this case study. First, the level and growth rate of national income increased the risk of war by reducing the cost of organizing rebellions and the government’s ability to counteract the rebellions. Second, while regional ethnic dominance served as a basis for mobilization of rebellions, ethnic antagonism was also an obstacle to the expansion of civil wars beyond the province of origin. Third, while natural resource dependence was a significant determinant of civil wars in the DRC, it is the geographic concentration of natural resources and their unequal distribution that made the Congo particularly prone to civil war. Fourth, the government’s ability to counteract rebellions depended more on external support than on the government’s military and economic capacity. Fifth, discriminatory nationality laws, disruptions in the ethnic balance of the eastern region caused by the influx of Rwandan Hutu refugees in 1994, and shared ethnicity between rebels and neighboring regimes—variables which are not included in the Collier-Hoeffler model—were significant determinants of the outbreak of civil wars in the 1990s.

Americanizing Africanization : the Congo crisis, 1960-1967

"May 2014."Dissertation Supervisor: Dr. Carol Anderson.Includes vita.This dissertation provides a concise account of U.S. intervention in the Congo between 1960 and 1967, explaining the decisions made by U.S. policymakers and their Congolese counterparts. It argues that the intervention occurred not only because of a commitment to contain the communist threat, but also because of a commitment to a liberal ideology, one devoted to remaking the world in the image of the United States. By confining the meanings of liberty, equality, and development to an American framework, however, the United States found itself in competition with local leaders' visions for their own country. As a consequence, the intervention not only failed to deliver freedom to the Congolese people, but tragically abetted Mobutu Sese Seko's rise to power, a dictator whose kleptocratic rule removed any hope for meaningful development over a thirty-year period.Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-235)