The Vitality of Yoruba Culture in the Americas

How did Africans create homes for themselves and maintain ancestral practices after being forcefully taken across the Middle Passage as enslaved people into various regions of the New and Old Worlds? In the Americas, they found themselves in a place clearly distinct from African cultural and geographical landscapes and were forced to adapt to strange climates and contend with alien cultures unfamiliar to those of their homeland. Rather than being completely steamrolled by colonial pressure, however, Africans of various ethnicities actively contended with the diverse influences of the colonial context. Such practices have, in turn, shaped the continued cultural diversity of the Americas to this day. This paper explores the diffusion and vitality of Yoruba culture, in particular throughout the nineteenth century in Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, and Trinidad and Tobago, where Yoruba forms of religion, Roman Catholic sensibilities, and indigenous cosmographies formed hybridized spiritualties and worldviews. This paper interprets historical evidence alongside secondary sources and contemporary cases in order to evaluate how the conjunctural forces brought about by slavery, colonialism, and inter-culturation occasioned the formation of Yoruba Atlantic and Afro-Latinx religions such as Candomble, Santeria, and Voodoo, as well as Orisha practices. This paper also examines how such spiritualties and worldviews have contributed to the complex social and cultural composition of the Americas in the modern world. It pays special attention to the conflictual and creative energies surrounding cultural diffusion and cross-cultural migration. Although various African ethnicities were brought across the Atlantic, Yoruba cultural practices have survived with a sustained intensity

Impact of Leadership for Startup Companies

Startups play a vital role in employment opportunities, creating new markets, and economic developments in a nation. However, several challenges, such as financial and scalability factors, confront startups at the initial stages because of the highly uncertain startup business environment. Recent research has confirmed that the development of startups is indeed connected to leadership. A literature review revealed that entrepreneurial leadership, as opposed to mainstream leadership theories, is more suitable to explain the complex leadership process in startup growth and development. A qualitative, single case study was conducted to investigate the leadership characteristics of successful startup founders to explain the impact of leadership on startup performance. The researcher adopted the primary data collection method to include interviews with 17 founders and leaders from four startup companies. Four data themes were identified: The impact of leadership behavior on startup culture; Leadership approaches driving startup success; Developing emerging leadership behavior because of changing startup business environment; and Improved organizational performance driven by leadership development. Compared to an extensive literature review and anticipated themes, the finding the impact of leadership behavior on startup culture was the most significant, followed closely by Developing emerging leadership behavior because of changing startup business environment. Overall, the emerging leadership styles, including entrepreneurial leadership and humble leadership, appeared to have a positive impact on startup performance. However, the humble leadership style was not explored in the literature review because of its infancy in the academic circle. As a result, it does not contribute significantly to the existing body of knowledge

The Role and Strategies of Food Manufacturers Towards Obesity and Health Policies

Introduction & Background: Unhealthy diets and non-communicable diseases such as obesity are on the rise on a national and global scale, and there is an urgent need to initiate interventions. However, research suggests there is a lack of effective initiatives from major processed food manufacturers, which are a major contributor to the cause of these health issues. Thus, this study seeks to examine the role that food manufacturers have in contributing to the obesity epidemic and the strategies that they use to navigate around health policies. Purpose Statement Question: Is there evidence of a primary role that processed food manufacturers play in enabling the obesity rates nationally and worldwide through market strategies? Literature Review: A wide variety of databases within public health and medicine, such as PubMed, World Health Organization, and National Institutes of Health, were searched using keywords like “Big Food and obesity,” “marketing and obesity,” and “relationship between obesity and food corporations”. Studies that discussed the impact food manufacturers had on obesity and other non-communicable diseases or strategies that they used were selected. Findings: The different research studies analyzed provided evidence that processed food manufacturers, also known as “Big Food, play a significant role in contributing to public health issues, especially non-communicable diseases like obesity. The food industry uses old and new techniques to solidify its influence nationally while gaining power through global means and evading public policy restrictions Conclusions: There is a need for further research to identify these market strategies and effectively dismantle them

Confronting the Challenges to Development in Nigeria with Lessons from Old Testament Prophecy

The concern for development is the plight of any patriotic citizen anywhere. However, in Nigeria, in spite of recurrent claims and efforts, very disturbingly, national development has continued to be elusive. Today, the importance of national development calls for renewed efforts to address its main challenges. In response to this need, the ongoing debate on the role of different disciplines in combatting the challenges of national development is timely. While religion generally would offer useful contributions to national development, the content of the prophetic corpus of the Old Testament, which revolves around the religio-civic development of Israel, proposes to offer more useful hints towards the development of Nigeria. This paper is therefore a specific response to the ongoing search for answers to the national development question. Following a traditionally expository method, this paper first seeks to discover the main challenges to development in Nigeria and then, exegetically drawing relevant lessons from the prophetic corpus of the Old Testament, desires to confront such growing challenge. The hope is that, the application of such Biblical wisdom to confront political issues would not only result in a more responsible civic arrangement towards the desired national development, but will also generate further scholarship in this area. Keywords: Development; Nigeria; Old Testament; Prophecy; Corruption.

The Impact of Leadership Style on Employee’s Performance in an Organization

This study examines the impact of leadership style on employees performance in an organization. It went ahead in ascertaining the relationship between employees’ performance and productivity, which is the hallmark of the organization goals and objectives. The study revealed that there is significance relationship between leadership style and employees’ performance in the attainment of organization goals and objectives. Keywords: Theories and Models of Leadership, Keys to Leadership Success, Appropriate Application of Leadership Style, Situational Leadership, Leadership Style, Value and Beliefs

Guillain Barre syndrome

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of Guillain-Barre syndrome

Farmer-Pastor Affinity in the Old Testament: Lessons for Pastoral Ministry Today

In most real life situations, everything produces its kind. In the same vein, most things also generate their nature. This is also Biblically founded as God even had to create man in His own image. Biblical history confirms the existence of different classes of people, by nature, functions and role for example the priests, kings, and prophets of the Old Testament. Most of these roles were prerogative of certain groups. Most priests came from the priestly family of Levi. Most kings came from the house of David. Most prophets were drawn from among the sons of prophet. One situation that is glaringly different and calls for study, is the few instances where the appointment of some people into pastoral office tends to depart from that pattern. It is of note that many Old Testament pastoral agents were originally farmers. The correlation between farming and pastoral care calls for examination. This research, Farmer-Pastor affinity in the Old Testament, is a response to the need to examine and explore the meaning, nature, implications and import of the ‘farmer to pastor graduation.’ Using exegetical and expository methods to study selected Biblical personages reflecting this affinity, Descriptive and Analytical methods will also be employed to fully uncover and critically situate the import of this farmer-pastor affinity. By analyzing the Farmer-pastor affinity in some passages of the Old Testament, it will be possible to determine and comprehend the theological direction of this affinity towards some objective application. The findings, conclusions and recommendations will not only add to scholarship but they definitely promise to benefit pastoral care attitude today

In-Service (Professional) Training and Teaching Effectiveness in Secondary Schools in Uyo Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State

This study was carried out to determine the difference in teaching effectiveness between teachers who had staff development and those who did not in secondary schools in Uyo Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State. The population of the study consisted of all the 3,116 Secondary School teachers and 21485 students in the Senatorial District. The cluster random sampling technique was used in drawing the sample of 467 teachers and 1401 students as respondents for the study. Data collection was done with the use of the instruments tagged “Staff Development Questionnaire (SDQ)” and “Teaching Effectiveness Questionnaire (TEQ)” developed by the researcher. Test re-test reliability technique was used to test the reliability of the “Staff Development” Instrument; this yielded a result of .86 reliability estimate. Also Cronbach Alpha Reliability Technique was used to test the reliability of the “Teaching Effectiveness” instrument of which a result of .71 reliability coefficient was obtained. A research questions guided the study and a corresponding null hypothesis was formulated and tested at .05 alpha level using independent t-test analysis. The findings of the study revealed positive and significant differences between teachers who attended in-service training programmes and those who did not in their teaching effectiveness. On the basis of this, it was concluded that in-service training programme significantly influence teaching effectiveness of Secondary School teachers in Uyo Senatorial District. Consequently, it was recommended that State Secondary Education Board should emphasize and also approve in-service (professional) training for the qualified teachers to update their knowledge from time to time. Keywords: In-Service (Professional) Training, Teaching Effectivenes

Clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors in a rural adult population in Nigeria

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is responsible for one third of global deaths and is the leading contributor to global disease burden. A non-communicable disease survey done in Nigeria helped determine the prevalence of major CVD risk factors in the country and showed a rising trend in the prevalence. This study aims to determine the proportion of adults in a rural farming community in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria with clustering of the following CVD risk factors: hypertension, diabetes, obesity, dyslipidaemia, hyperuricaemia, ECG-LVH, smoking, heavy alcohol consumption and physical inactivity.Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional survey carried out in a rural farming community in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Stratified sampling method was used to recruit study subjects aged 18 years and above and a total of 500 subjects completed the survey. Socio-demographic information, anthropometric, blood pressure and ECG measurements were obtained. Venous samples were collected and analyzed.Results: Five hundred subjects participated. There were 156 males and 344 females with male to female ratio of 1:2.3. The overall mean age was 41.32±17.0 with range of 18 years to 95 years. The mean age for males was 42.84±17.8 and females 40.62±16.6. Overall, 38.2%, of subjects had 2 or more risk factors. Additionally, 42.1% of males and 31.4% of females had ≥2 of these risk factors. Multivariate logistic regression showed higher clustering of risk factors with increasing age, male gender, Government staff and higher educational attainment.Conclusions: Clustering of CVD risk factors is high in this rural community of Nigeria and requires integrated approach to its prevention, detection and treatment