Remarks on J. H. Nketia’s Funeral Dirges of the Akan People

J. H. Kwabena Nketiah’s Funeral Dirges of the Akan People (1955) is undoubtedly one of the classics among studies devoted to African oral poetry. However, it has received little comment and continues to be inaccessible to students and teachers of oral literature. The purpose of this essay is to introduce the monograph and its subject to college students and lecturers. For purposes of classification, we put the poems in the class of elegies and justify this in the first part of the essay. The second part explores some of the features of the verse form. The final part discusses the theme of life, growth and procreation in the family and the choice of imagery in expressing it

A review of evidence on mobile use by micro and small enterprises in developing countries

The paper offers a systematic review of 14 studies of the use of mobile telephony by micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the developing world, detailing findings about changes to enterprises' internal processes and external relationships, and findings about mobile use vs. traditional landline use. Results suggest that there is currently more evidence for the benefits of mobile use accruing mostly (but not exclusively) to existing MSEs rather than new MSEs, in ways that amplify existing material and informational flows rather than transform them. The review presents a more complete picture of mobile use by MSEs than was previously available, and identifies priorities for future research, including comparisons of the impact of mobile use across subsectors of MSEs and extensions beyond studies of existing enterprises. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.