Alterity, and Recharging ‘Othered’ Voices: The Agency of Spirit Possession in Identifying Dead Guerrillas for Reburial as Depicted in Makanda and Vambe’s Ndangariro dzeHondo dzeVachakabvu muZimbabwe (Reflections of War from the Dead in Zimbabwe) Maurice T

After the controversial 2008 presidential elections in Zimbabwe, there was a flurry of claims from children, young adults and some ex-combatants possessed by the spirits of guerrillas who died in Zimbabwe’s Liberation of the 1970s. Some members of political opposition parties in the country dismissed this cultural and spiritual phenomenon as another example of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) party’s gimmick to create new narratives with which to perpetuate the party’s monopoly of power (which began in 1980). Some Christian and Pentecostal churches dismissed the spiritual phenomena as either faked, works of quacks or the doing and manifestation of the handiwork of demonic spirits despite the fact that spirit possession is not new to Shona people. Since time immemorial, spirit possession announced its authority as another way of knowing, explaining and arriving at contested historical and religious truths. The aim of this article is to critically interrogate oral stories narrated by the dead combatants through the agency of spirit possession. I do not focus on the original stories in their oral forms. Instead, I analyse the spiritual voices of dead guerrillas as published narratives contained in the book, Ndangariro dzeHondo dzeVachakabvu muZimbabwe (hereafter, NDDM) or Reflections on War by the Dead in Zimbabwe (Makanda & Vambe, eds, 2015). The main objective of the article is to explore what happens when oral stories drawn from the context of spirit possession are fixed as written narratives. This central objective informs other objectives of the article which are related to the agency of spirit possession in identifying the remains of dead guerrillas for decent reburials. The article argues that the modernity of spirit possession is that it asserts the presence of the departed in human life and that the possessed speak the language of national reconciliation, attack greed, corruption and bemoan the shrinking democratic spaces of freedom in Zimbabwe. Other themes that are voiced through narratives of spirit possession in the book relate to the voices of the forgotten dead combatants: voices viewed in the book as cultural sites of public memory and remembrance. The article asserts that spiritual voices in spirit possession mark the existence of an indigenous knowledge system that can generate political narratives which can be used to counter and alter officially-sanctioned monolithic narratives of war and peace. Furthermore, the possession of children and young adults as represented in the book complicates the very cultural practice normally associated with established adult mediumistic practices built around clan authorities in Zimbabwe

Stories of Milk, Honey and Bile: Representing Diasporic African Foreigner’s Identities in South African Fiction

This chapter explores representations of diasporic black African foreigners’ identities in David Mutasa’s novel, Nyambo Dze Joni (Stories from Johannesburg) (2000), and in Welcome to Our Hillbrow (1999), written by the South African author, Phaswane Mpe. The two novels expose the hypocrisy of the South African officials and masses who scapegoat African black foreigners for crimes ranging from snatching of local jobs, taking local girls and drug peddling. For most African black foreigners and some local black South African citizens, diasporic experience in the new nation is a paradoxical physical space and spiritual experience in which stories of milk, honey and bitter bile might be authorised to capture the fact of being doubled as both potential subject and citizen. Despite experiencing bare lives characterised by nervousness and precarities, most black African foreigners in Johannesburg or Joni command, recall and deploy multiple identities whenever required to confront the ugly underbelly of the physical and verbal violence of xenophobia. Thus, an irony inherent in African diasporic experiences is that most black foreigners appear to retain some semblance of humanity and organise their worlds relatively creatively, and becoming successful by immigrants’ standards, in the most hostile circumstances

IMPACT OF YOUTH PARTICIPATION ON ATTAINMENT OF AGENDA 2063 AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs) 2030 IN NIGERIA

This paper examines the extent to which effective and constructive involvement of Youth in development processes can enhance the attainment of Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 in Nigeria. The paper adopts Gabriel Almond’s structural-functionalism as a framework of analysis. Using majorly documentary sources of data the paper contends that given their energy, youth constitute a critical stakeholder in African development agenda. They serve as object and subject of political socialization, aggregation and articulation; complement and supplement the effort of government in rural development by undertaking self-help projects; protect the environment etc. The paper identifies bad governance, poverty, unemployment, lack of access to data and information on issues that affect Youth, armed conflicts, girl child discrimination, etc as hindrances to effective and constructive Youth participation in development processes in Africa, especially Nigeria. The paper concludes that attainment of Agenda 2063 and SDGs 2030in Nigeria depends essentially on the extent to which  deliberate policy initiatives are not evolved by government to eliminate the factors that prevent youth from participating meaningfully in decision making and implementation especially on matters that affect them. The paper recommends good governance, increased girl child education, provision of social and economic infrastructure to enable youth practice the skills acquired through vocational skill training, increased access to data and information on issues that affect youth etc, as measures that can enhance youth participation and the attainment of Agenda 2063and SDGs 2030

Crop scouting and the use of other management strategies in combination with pesticides in pest management by the smallholder horticultural grower

A research paper on crop scouting and pest management methods that can be adopted by small-holder horticulture farmers to boost the quality and quantity of their produce.Crop scouting is the cornerstone of any successful pest and disease management program but a sadly missed element with most smallholder horticultural growers. In many cases problem pests are only identified after they have reached very high levels and this is exacerbated when pests are incorrectly identified. Pesticides, the most commonly used weapons, are not given a chance of success because of incorrect timing against the incorrect target pest. One solution to such problems is to make the smallholder horticultural growers aware of a fundamental element of pest management called scouting. This can only be achieved by training. From experience, the implementation of scout training among smallholder horticultural growers is easy. There are other management strategies that the growers can benefit from if used in combination with chemicals for pest management. Crop rotation, cropping patterns, mulching and many other methods can often be used to manage pest populations effectively. Most of our smallholder growers need training for them to be able to implement strategies

Pharmacological and phytochemical evaluation of seven plants used for microbial-related ailments in South African traditional medicine.

Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Sciences. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg 2018.Since antiquity, man has always believed in the healing properties of plants. The age-old practice of phytotherapy is now justified by numerous phytochemical and pharmacological studies which substantiate the presence of biologically active compound(s) in some medicinal plants. Quite often, ethnopharmacological studies provide important leads for the development of different types of plant-based therapeutic drugs. New effective antibiotics are urgently needed to combat multiple and extensively drug-resistant bacterial strains that are currently threatening public health globally. The rich floral diversity in southern Africa and the resultant extensive chemical diversity provide encouraging prospects for discovering novel pharmacologically important phytocompounds within this region. Against this background, the current study was designed to evaluate the in vitro antibacterial properties, phenolic profiles and mutagenic potentials of extracts obtained from seven South African plants used traditionally to manage bacterial infections and where the active principles were unknown. The study also aimed at identifying the principal antibacterial compound(s) in selected plants that demonstrated potent and broad-spectrum antibacterial properties. Aqueous and organic solvent extracts of the seven selected plants namely Bolusanthus speciosus, Cucumis myriocarpus, Ekebergia capensis, Protea caffra, Prunus africana, Searsia lancea and Solanum panduriforme were screened for antibacterial (minimum inhibitory concentration, MIC) properties against a panel of seven bacterial strains (Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, multiple drug-resistant (MDR) E. coli, MDR K. pneumoniae, drug-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus and penicillin-resistant S. aureus) using the microdilution technique. The extracts were also screened for antigonococcal properties using microdilution and agar disk-diffusion techniques. In addition, combinations of the different plant extracts, as well as plant extracts with four antibiotics (ampicillin, cefotaxime, chloramphenicol and penicillin) were evaluated for antibacterial synergistic interactions against MDR Gram-negative bacterial strains (E. coli and K. pneumoniae) using the checkerboard titration and time-kill bio-assays. Preliminary phytochemical analyses for phenolics in aqueous methanol (50% MeOH) plant extracts were conducted using spectrophotometric methods. In addition, specific phenolic acids in 80% MeOH extracts of the plants were quantified with the use of ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). The mutagenic properties of plant extracts that demonstrated noteworthy antibacterial activities (MIC<1 mg/ml) were assessed using the Ames Salmonella/Microsome assay involving two tester strains, TA98 and TA102 (without S9 metabolic activation). The most potent antibacterial activities were exhibited by the MeOH bark extracts of B. speciosus which yielded MIC values of 0.039 and 0.078 mg/ml against S. aureus (penicillin-resistant and drug-sensitive strains, respectively). Dichloromethane (DCM) leaf extracts of S. lancea yielded an MIC value of 0.63 mg/ml against five of the seven test bacterial strains including MDR E. coli and MDR K. pneumoniae. B. speciosus bark (MeOH and DCM), P. caffra seeds (DCM) and twigs (MeOH) also demonstrated broad-spectrum antibacterial activities. B. speciosus MeOH bark extracts, as well as the DCM leaf extracts of P. africana and S. lancea demonstrated moderate antigonococcal properties (MIC range: 0.31-0.63 mg/ml). The checkerboard assay detected antibacterial synergistic interactions in combinations of chloramphenicol with each of B. specious leaf MeOH extracts, P. africana leaf MeOH and DCM extracts against MDR E. coli (fractional inhibitory concentration index ≤ 0.5). However, the time-kill assay did not detect any significant synergistic interactions in any of these three aforementioned combinations. Total phenolic content in the plant extracts investigated ranged from 2.38 to 62.73 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g dry matter. Variations in the quantities of flavonoids, condensed tannins, hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acids among these plant extracts were also observed. In generally, higher levels of phenolic compounds were detected in S. lancea (leaves), P. africana (leaves) and P. caffra (leaves, twigs), while lower levels were detected in B. speciosus (barks), C. myriocarpus (fruits) and S. panduriforme (fruits, leaves, roots, stem). Based on the Ames test, all test plant extracts were non-mutagenic against Salmonella typhimurium tester strain TA98 and TA102 (without S9 metabolic activation). S. lancea leaves and P. caffra twigs demonstrated broad-spectrum antibacterial properties and as a result, a detailed analysis of their phytochemical constituencies was conducted. Antibacterial activity directed fractionation led to the isolation of two compounds from the aqueous (80%) MeOH leaf extracts of S. lancea. The isolated compounds were characterised using NMR data and both of them demonstrated noteworthy antibacterial activities (MIC range: 0.016-0.25 mg/ml) against E. faecalis and S. aureus. 1-Tetracosanol (43.98%), 1-nonadecanol (37.5%), eicosane (7.67%), 1,7-di-iso-propylnaphthalene (4.23%), 1-pentadecanol (3.04%), 2,6-di-iso-propylnaphthalene (1.96%) 1,3-iso-propylnaphthalene (1.62 %) were identified by GC-MS in an active S. lancea leaf ethyl acetate sub-fraction. The sub-fraction inhibited the growth of both E. faecalis and S. aureus at an MIC value of 0.25 mg/ml. 1-Tetracosanol and 1-nonadecanol, which accounted for more than 80% of the total phytochemical constituents of the fraction, are known antibacterial compounds which most likely contributed to the antibacterial properties of S. lancea leaves. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis also revealed the presence of 15 compounds in three fractions obtained from a methanolic P. caffra twig extract. Two of the identified compounds, 1-adamantanecarboxylic acid and levoglucosan, are often incorporated into antimicrobial moieties to improve the efficacy of the therapeutic molecule, or as carbon skeletons. Two known antibacterial compounds, namely 1-heptacosanol and 1-nonadecanol were also among the compounds detected in the methanolic P. caffra twig extract. Overall, the present study reaffirmed that botanical medicines can potentially be used to manage drug-sensitive and drug-resistant bacterial infections often prevalent in humans. The study also provided the scientific rationale for the use of P. caffra, C. myriocarpus and S. panduriforme in South African folk medicine

An examination of health care financing models : lessons for South Africa

South Africa possesses a highly fragmented health system with wide disparities in health spending and inequitable distribution of both health care professionals and resources. The national health system (NHI) of South Africa consists of a large public sector and small private sectors which are overused and under resourced and a smaller private sector which is underused and over resourced. In broad terms, the NHI promises a health care system in which everyone, regardless of income level, can access decent health services at a cost that is affordable to them and to the country as a whole. The relevance of this study is to contribute to the NHI debate while simultaneously providing insights from other countries which have implemented national health care systems. As such, the South African government can then appropriately implement as well as finance the new NHI system specific to South Africa’s current socio-economic status. The objective of this study was to examine health care financing models in different countries in order to draw lessons for South Africa when implementing the NHI. A case study was conducted by examining ten countries with a national health insurance system, in order to evaluate the health financing models in each country. The following specific objectives are pursued: firstly, to review the current health management system and the policy proposed for NHI; secondly, to examine health financing models in a selected number of countries around the world and lastly to draw lessons to inform the South African NHI policy debate. The main findings were firstly, wealthier nations tend to have a much healthier population; this is the result of these developed countries investing significantly in their public health sectors. Secondly, the governments in developing nations allocate a smaller percentage of their GDP and government expenditure on health care. Lastly, South Africa is classified as an upper middle income developing country; however, the health status of South Africans mirrors that of countries which perform worse than South Africa on health matters. In other words the health care in South Africa is not operating at the standard it should be given the resources South Africa possesses. The cause of this may be attributed to South Africa being stuck in what is referred to as the “middle income trap” amongst other reasons

Resource Allocation Framework in Fog Computing for the Internet of Things Environments

Fog computing plays a pivotal role in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem because of its ability to support delay-sensitive tasks, bringing resources from cloud servers closer to the “ground” and support IoT devices that are resource-constrained. Although fog computing offers some benefits such as quick response to requests, geo-distributed data processing and data processing in the proximity of the IoT devices, the exponential increase of IoT devices and large volumes of data being generated has led to a new set of challenges. One such problem is the allocation of resources to IoT tasks to match their computational needs and quality of service (QoS) requirements, whilst meeting both task deadlines and user expectations. Most proposed solutions in existing works suggest task offloading mechanisms where IoT devices would offload their tasks randomly to the fog layer or cloud layer. This helps in minimizing the communication delay; however, most tasks would end up missing their deadlines as many delays are experienced during offloading. This study proposes and introduces a Resource Allocation Scheduler (RAS) at the IoT-Fog gateway, whose goal is to decide where and when a task is to be offloaded, either to the fog layer, or the cloud layer based on their priority needs, computational needs and QoS requirements. The aim directly places work within the communication networks domain, in the transport layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. As such, this study follows the four phases of the top-down approach because of its reusability characteristics. To validate and test the efficiency and effectiveness of the RAS, the fog framework was implemented and evaluated in a simulated smart home setup. The essential metrics that were used to check if round-trip time was minimized are the queuing time, offloading time and throughput for QoS. The results showed that the RAS helps to reduce the round-trip time, increases throughput and leads to improved QoS. Furthermore, the approach addressed the starvation problem, a phenomenon that tends to affect low priority tasks. Most importantly, the results provides evidence that if resource allocation and assignment are appropriately done, round-trip time can be reduced and QoS can be improved in fog computing. The significant contribution of this research is the novel framework which minimizes round-trip time, addresses the starvation problem and improves QoS. Moreover, a literature reviewed paper which was regarded by reviewers as the first, as far as QoS in fog computing is concerned was produced

A patch-based convolutional neural network for localized MRI brain segmentation.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Accurate segmentation of the brain is an important prerequisite for effective diagnosis, treatment planning, and patient monitoring. The use of manual Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) segmentation in treating brain medical conditions is slowly being phased out in favour of fully-automated and semi-automated segmentation algorithms, which are more efficient and objective. Manual segmentation has, however, remained the gold standard for supervised training in image segmentation. The advent of deep learning ushered in a new era in image segmentation, object detection, and image classification. The convolutional neural network has contributed the most to the success of deep learning models. Also, the availability of increased training data when using Patch Based Segmentation (PBS) has facilitated improved neural network performance. On the other hand, even though deep learning models have achieved successful results, they still suffer from over-segmentation and under-segmentation due to several reasons, including visually unclear object boundaries. Even though there have been significant improvements, there is still room for better results as all proposed algorithms still fall short of 100% accuracy rate. In the present study, experiments were carried out to improve the performance of neural network models used in previous studies. The revised algorithm was then used for segmenting the brain into three regions of interest: White Matter (WM), Grey Matter (GM), and Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF). Particular emphasis was placed on localized component-based segmentation because both disease diagnosis and treatment planning require localized information, and there is a need to improve the local segmentation results, especially for small components. In the evaluation of the segmentation results, several metrics indicated the effectiveness of the localized approach. The localized segmentation resulted in the accuracy, recall, precision, null-error, false-positive rate, true-positive and F1- score increasing by 1.08%, 2.52%, 5.43%, 16.79%, -8.94%, 8.94%, 3.39% respectively. Also, when the algorithm was compared against state of the art algorithms, the proposed algorithm had an average predictive accuracy of 94.56% while the next best algorithm had an accuracy of 90.83%

Resource Allocation Framework in Fog Computing for the Internet of Things Environments

Fog computing plays a pivotal role in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem because of its ability to support delay-sensitive tasks, bringing resources from cloud servers closer to the “ground” and support IoT devices that are resource-constrained. Although fog computing offers some benefits such as quick response to requests, geo-distributed data processing and data processing in the proximity of the IoT devices, the exponential increase of IoT devices and large volumes of data being generated has led to a new set of challenges. One such problem is the allocation of resources to IoT tasks to match their computational needs and quality of service (QoS) requirements, whilst meeting both task deadlines and user expectations. Most proposed solutions in existing works suggest task offloading mechanisms where IoT devices would offload their tasks randomly to the fog layer or cloud layer. This helps in minimizing the communication delay; however, most tasks would end up missing their deadlines as many delays are experienced during offloading. This study proposes and introduces a Resource Allocation Scheduler (RAS) at the IoT-Fog gateway, whose goal is to decide where and when a task is to be offloaded, either to the fog layer, or the cloud layer based on their priority needs, computational needs and QoS requirements. The aim directly places work within the communication networks domain, in the transport layer of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. As such, this study follows the four phases of the top-down approach because of its reusability characteristics. To validate and test the efficiency and effectiveness of the RAS, the fog framework was implemented and evaluated in a simulated smart home setup. The essential metrics that were used to check if round-trip time was minimized are the queuing time, offloading time and throughput for QoS. The results showed that the RAS helps to reduce the round-trip time, increases throughput and leads to improved QoS. Furthermore, the approach addressed the starvation problem, a phenomenon that tends to affect low priority tasks. Most importantly, the results provides evidence that if resource allocation and assignment are appropriately done, round-trip time can be reduced and QoS can be improved in fog computing. The significant contribution of this research is the novel framework which minimizes round-trip time, addresses the starvation problem and improves QoS. Moreover, a literature reviewed paper which was regarded by reviewers as the first, as far as QoS in fog computing is concerned was produced