Animating the Archive: The trial and testimony of a Sufi saint

In 1895 the colonial administration of Senegal sentenced Sheikh Amadu Bamba to exile for stirring anti-colonial disobedience. At his trial, Bamba allegedly recited a prayer in defiance of the French authorities. Although there is no archival record to prove that the prayer was recited, since the 1970s Bamba's disciples have flocked to the former seat of colonial power to commemorate his act of resistance; their testimony has displaced the authority of the colonial archive and imagines a decolonial utopia in archival absence. This article examines how their prayer subverts the colonial archive, while it remains entangled in its substrate

Infrastructures of utopia: ruination and regeneration of the African future

Ruination has recently received much attention as a defining aspect of the materiality of modernity. Less attention is given to the processes of regeneration that occur within sites of ruination. In this article, we examine how processes of ruination and regeneration are folded into each other, by looking at the materiality of a single site, a small village in the vicinity of Dakar, Senegal. By building the University of the African Future at Sébikotane, the Senegalese president has sought to rekindle the spirit of excellence that inspired education at the École normale William Ponty in a Pan-African spirit. As part of a larger plan for urban expansion, the site of Sébikotane has inspired hope for development. Examining how the different temporalities of utopian modernism and Afro-nostalgia intersect in the ruined site, this article reflects on the ruination of African futures on a site of ever renascent utopian infrastructures. Si les ruines sont souvent décrites comme un élément clé de la modernité dans son aspect matériel, on prête moins attention aux processus de régénération qui peuvent avoir lieu sur leurs sites. Ici nous examinerons les processus de ruines et de régénération dans leurs entrelacements en nous penchant sur un site particulier : un petit village aux alentours de Dakar, au Sénégal. En construisant l'Université du Futur Africain à Sébikotane, le président sénégalais tentait de réanimer, dans une logique panafricaine, l'esprit d'excellence qui avait inspiré l’éducation fournie à l’École normale William Ponty. Dans le cadre d'un plan d'expansion urbaine plus étendu, le site de Sébikotane inspire aujourd'hui de nouveaux espoirs de développement. En examinant le croisement de diverses temporalités de modernisme utopique et d'Afro-nostalgie présentes sur ce lieu en ruines, nous porterons une réflexion sur les ruines des futurs africains, interposées entre des infrastructures utopiques toujours renaissantes

Silences that Speak to the Slave Trade

AbstractThis article reviews three books that address the memory and commemoration of the slave trade in West Africa.  The author contextualises these books in the political context of slave trade commemoration and its academic analysis.  In contrast to several European countries that have publicly admitted that this trade constituted a crime against humanity, in many African countries slavery and the slave trade remain silenced.  The books discussed here address this “silence”.  Holsey examines the politics of commemoration amongst the coastal population of contemporary Ghana. Historically complicit in the slave trade, these populations have “forgotten” the complicity of their forebears.  The books by Shaw and Argenti suggest that the historical memory of the slave trade is no longer available in discourse, but embodied in ritual and performance.  The unspeakable violence perpetrated against historical forebears is still remembered in today’s divination rituals and masked performances.  Thus, these books provide sophisticated analysis of the ways in which a nightmarish modernity is remembered today and why the history of the slave trade is unfinished. Whether sequestered in discourse or embodied in ambiguous performance, the slave trade maintains a ghostly presence.RésuméCet article recense trois ouvrages sur la mémoire et la commémoration de la traite d’esclaves en Afrique de l’Ouest. L’auteur replace ces ouvrages dans le contexte politique de la commémoration de la traite et de son analyse académique. À la différence de plusieurs pays européens qui ont publiquement reconnu la traite comme étant un crime contre l’humanité, dans beaucoup de pays africains l’esclavage et la traite restent silencieux. Les ouvrages dont il est question ici questionnent ce « silence ». Holsey examine les politiques de commémoration au sein de la population côtière du Ghana contemporain. Historiquement complices de la traite d’esclaves, ces populations ont « oublié » la complicité de leurs ancêtres. Dans leurs ouvrages, Shaw et Argenti suggèrent que la mémoire historique de la traite ne se retrouve plus dans les discours, mais qu’elle est incorporée dans le rituel et la performance. La remémoration de l’indescriptible violence perpétrée à l’encontre des ancêtres a lieu dans les rituels contemporains de divination et dans les représentations de masques. Ainsi, ces ouvrages proposent une analyse subtile de la manière dont une modernité cauchemardesque est remémorée aujourd’hui et des raisons pour lesquelles l’histoire de la traite reste inachevée. Qu’elle soit enfermée dans des discours ou incorporée dans des performances ambiguës, la traite d’esclaves reste présente sous une forme spectrale

Protecting the Rhine-Meuse delta against sea level rise: What to do with the river's discharge?

Sea level rise (SLR) will affect water levels and increase flood risk in river deltas. To adapt river deltas to SLR, various strategies can be followed. Many urbanised river deltas already have flood protection in place. Continuing a protection strategy under an increasing SLR, would mean higher embankments along the coast and rivers and possibly closing off the river mouths from the sea. However, closing of rivers will hamper the river flow. How to adapt river deltas and enabling rivers to discharge into the sea is a challenging question. This paper assesses impacts of SLR on flood risks in the Rhine-Meuse Delta in the Netherlands in case the current protection strategy is continued and explores two alternative protection strategies: (1) a closed system with pumps and discharge sluices and (2) an open system in which rivers are diverted to less densely populated areas. The second alternative results in a more flexible river delta, which can accommodate larger SLR. The paper shows that a systems approach and using quantitative assessments of the implications of strategies is possible. This is needed to further assess the adaptation options, so we can anticipate and adapt when needed and avoid regret of decisions

A four-month gatifloxacin-containing regimen for treating tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: Shortening the course of treatment for tuberculosis would be a major improvement for case management and disease control. This phase 3 trial assessed the efficacy and safety of a 4-month gatifloxacin-containing regimen for treating rifampin-sensitive pulmonary tuberculosis. METHODS: We conducted a noninferiority, randomized, open-label, controlled trial involving patients 18 to 65 years of age with smear-positive, rifampin-sensitive, newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis in five sub-Saharan African countries. A standard 6-month regimen that included ethambutol during the 2-month intensive phase was compared with a 4-month regimen in which gatifloxacin (400 mg per day) was substituted for ethambutol during the intensive phase and was continued, along with rifampin and isoniazid, during the continuation phase. The primary efficacy end point was an unfavorable outcome (treatment failure, recurrence, or death or study dropout during treatment) measured 24 months after the end of treatment, with a noninferiority margin of 6 percentage points, adjusted for country. RESULTS: A total of 1836 patients were assigned to the 4-month regimen (experimental group) or the standard regimen (control group). Baseline characteristics were well balanced between the groups. At 24 months after the end of treatment, the adjusted difference in the risk of an unfavorable outcome (experimental group [21.0%] minus control group [17.2%]) in the modified intention-to-treat population (1356 patients) was 3.5 percentage points (95% confidence interval, -0.7 to 7.7). There was heterogeneity across countries (P=0.02 for interaction, with differences in the rate of an unfavorable outcome ranging from -5.4 percentage points in Guinea to 12.3 percentage points in Senegal) and in baseline cavitary status (P=0.04 for interaction) and body-mass index (P=0.10 for interaction). The standard regimen, as compared with the 4-month regimen, was associated with a higher dropout rate during treatment (5.0% vs. 2.7%) and more treatment failures (2.4% vs. 1.7%) but fewer recurrences (7.1% vs. 14.6%). There was no evidence of increased risks of prolongation of the QT interval or dysglycemia with the 4-month regimen. CONCLUSIONS: Noninferiority of the 4-month regimen to the standard regimen with respect to the primary efficacy end point was not shown. (Funded by the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00216385.)

Supervised learning for the automated transcription of spacer classification from spoligotype films

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Molecular genotyping of bacteria has revolutionized the study of tuberculosis epidemiology, yet these established laboratory techniques typically require subjective and laborious interpretation by trained professionals. In the context of a Tuberculosis Case Contact study in The Gambia we used a reverse hybridization laboratory assay called spoligotype analysis. To facilitate processing of spoligotype images we have developed tools and algorithms to automate the classification and transcription of these data directly to a database while allowing for manual editing.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Features extracted from each of the 1849 spots on a spoligo film were classified using two supervised learning algorithms. A graphical user interface allows manual editing of the classification, before export to a database. The application was tested on ten films of differing quality and the results of the best classifier were compared to expert manual classification, giving a median correct classification rate of 98.1% (inter quartile range: 97.1% to 99.2%), with an automated processing time of less than 1 minute per film.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The software implementation offers considerable time savings over manual processing whilst allowing expert editing of the automated classification. The automatic upload of the classification to a database reduces the chances of transcription errors.</p

The Guinea-Bissau Family of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Revisited

The Guinea-Bissau family of strains is a unique group of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex that, although genotypically closely related, phenotypically demonstrates considerable heterogeneity. We have investigated 414 M. tuberculosis complex strains collected in Guinea-Bissau between 1989 and 2008 in order to further characterize the Guinea-Bissau family of strains. To determine the strain lineages present in the study sample, binary outcomes of spoligotyping were compared with spoligotypes existing in the international database SITVIT2. The major circulating M. tuberculosis clades ranked in the following order: AFRI (n = 195, 47.10%), Latin-American-Mediterranean (LAM) (n = 75, 18.12%), ill-defined T clade (n = 53, 12.8%), Haarlem (n = 37, 8.85%), East-African-Indian (EAI) (n = 25, 6.04%), Unknown (n = 12, 2.87%), Beijing (n = 7, 1.68%), X clade (n = 4, 0.96%), Manu (n = 4, 0.97%), CAS (n = 2, 0.48%). Two strains of the LAM clade isolated in 2007 belonged to the Cameroon family (SIT61). All AFRI isolates except one belonged to the Guinea-Bissau family, i.e. they have an AFRI_1 spoligotype pattern, they have a distinct RFLP pattern with low numbers of IS6110 insertions, and they lack the regions of difference RD7, RD8, RD9 and RD10, RD701 and RD702. This profile classifies the Guinea-Bissau family, irrespective of phenotypic biovar, as part of the M. africanum West African 2 lineage, or the AFRI_1 sublineage according to the spoligtyping nomenclature. Guinea-Bissau family strains display a variation of biochemical traits classically used to differentiate M. tuberculosis from M. bovis. Yet, the differential expression of these biochemical traits was not related to any genes so far investigated (narGHJI and pncA). Guinea-Bissau has the highest prevalence of M. africanum recorded in the African continent, and the Guinea-Bissau family shows a high phylogeographical specificity for Western Africa, with Guinea-Bissau being the epicenter. Trends over time however indicate that this family of strains is waning in most parts of Western Africa, including Guinea-Bissau (p = 0.048)