African Political Analysis Think-Tank Vignettes

Background: The nature of the provider-consumer relation of HIV services further translates into claimants and elite groups who influence sexual-reproductive health policies. Three regime contexts were found to influence HIV response. A hindering context goes so much further to provide opportunities for rule of law, enforcement and empower women to report without fear of repercussions. A restrictive context goes on far enough but allows for those with power to buy themselves out of courts and police. Women are not protected from repercussions even if they can report abuses. In a supportive context, abuses go unreported and women are at the mercy of men! Claimants mobilize, campaign and influence government authority on HIV response.  Paternalistic, coercive and occasionally manipulative roles of the elites keep hegemonic male dominance intact.  An examination of 4 Sub-Saharan African countries finds that the interests of claimants have marginal impact on...

College education adds to the critical employment potential of countries, so this should be an opportunity for education to create an entrepreneurial culture among graduates.  Thanks  +The Boston Globe  of Sunday January 6th 2013. As a man recently from Africa, I have met graduates on the Streets of Lagos, Cape Town, Kampala, Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam, Addis-Ababa and Brazzaville. I have also met non-graduates in various categories. These were functionally engaged in businesses termed as 'informal-sector'. They were the City backbone and had the best places for cheaper food, transport and businesses spaces. Many employed graduates. That is in Africa. Education provides skills and gives many opportunities to get into the formal sector. Here they enjoy job security, salaries, trappings and means to improve on themselves further. They pursue their goals with confidence and command respect in society. Education gives one the possibility to earn sums of money commen...

Politics in Africa is a lesson book for many aspects that many appreciate quietly or dispute noisily. When politics provides opportunities that favour the pluralistic diversity then that enshrines popular hope. Africa was divided up into economic plots by those who met between 1884-1885 at the Berlin Conference to provide a working understand and an opportunity to regulate European colonization and trade in Africa. This meeting was one sided and no delegate from Africa was represented. Perhaps better representation of Africans would have had pluralistic outcomes.   Presently, the borderlines seem to be intact save for some minor changes in West, East and Southern Africa where countries gained independence in later years or where conflicts still exist. When all is said and done, African countries we know today are as a result of that conference and no one is refuting that. So, many African heads may talk of the historical injustices but this one confere...

Stories seem to have a life of their own.  But what is that which is life giving?  Eight aspects bring stories to life in all essays and fables written or told in the West and in Africa and these are: Situation; story piece; truthfulness; necessity; kindness; meaningfulness;   memorableness;   and moral-boundedness. By situation is meant the fact that a story is built around context, circumstance and plot. By story-piece is meant the fact that a narrative is the emotional experience that the writer or story teller builds and animates in form of action, sensation, information, progression and insight. Truth(fulness) is the crystallization of the story and how the story portrays the characters. By necessary is meant that the story is entertaining, addresses issue(s) and satisfies a curiosity. By kind(ness) is meant that it contributes something to humanity. By meaningful(ness) is meant that the story has substance. By memorab...