A Grammar of the Kafir Language


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The Legacy of Tanzanian Musicians Muhidin Gurumo and Hassan Bitchuka


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Muhidin Maalim Gurumo and Hassan Rehani Bitchuka are two of Tanzania’s most well-known singers in the popular music genre known as muziki wa dansi (literally, 'music for dancing'), a variation of the Cuban-based rhumba idiom that has been enormously impactful throughout central, eastern, and western Africa in the contemporary era. This interview-based dual biography investigates the lives and careers of these two men from an ethnomusicological and historical perspective. Gurumo had a career spanning fifty years before his death in 2014. Bitchuka has been singing professionally for forty-five years. The two singers, affectionately called mapacha (“the twins”) by their colleagues, worked together as partners for thirty years from 1973-2003. This study situates these exemplary individuals as creative agents in a local cultural context, showcasing interviews, narratives, and nostalgic reminiscences about musical life lived under Colonialism, state Socialism, and current politics in the global neoliberal democratic milieu. The book adds to a growing body of work about popular music in Dar es Salaam and shines a light on these artists’ creative processes, the choices they have made regarding rare resources, their styles and efficacy in conflict resolution, and their own memories regarding the musical art they have created.




Dangerous Diaries


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Resilient Asia


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This book summarizes three years of extensive research conducted in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam as part of the CECAR – Asia project, which was intended to enhance resilience to climate and ecosystem changes by developing mosaic systems to strengthen resilience of bio-production systems through the integration of large-scale modern agriculture systems with traditional, decentralized small-scale systems. The book starts with climate downscaling and impact assessment in rural Asia, and then explores various adaptation options and measures by utilizing modern science and traditional knowledge including home garden systems and ancient irrigation systems. The book subsequently examines the influence of climatic and ecological changes and the vulnerability of social economies from quantitative and qualitative standpoints, applying econometric and statistical models in agriculture communities of Asia to do so. The main goal of all chapters and case studies presented here is to identify the merits of applying organic methods to both commercial large-scale production and traditional production to strengthen social resilience and promote sustainable development. Especially at a time when modern agriculture systems are highly optimized but run the risk of failure due to changes in the climate and ecosystem, this book offers viable approaches to developing an integrated framework of modern and traditional systems to enhance productivity and total system resilience, as illustrated in various case studies.




Screams Following Liberation: The Drama of Indonesia's Primordial Conflict After Reformation in Five Regions in 25 Essay Poems


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In 2012, research was conducted by the Denny JA Foundation for Indonesia Without Discrimination. The findings are as follows: there were 2,398 cases of violence and discrimination in Indonesia between 1998 and 2011, a period of 14 years. There are five types of fundamental conflicts that can be used to categorize instances of violence. As many as 65 percent of the conflicts were caused by religious/faith interpretation. The nature of the post-reform conflict is distinctive. Conflicts between communities were more primal or communal. The nature of this conflict differed from that of the New Order era, which was marked by discrimination and ideological feuding. The Denny JA Foundation identified the five worst discrimination cases from five regions.




Language and the Construction of Multiple Identities in the Nigerian Novel


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Language and the construction of multiple identities in the Nigerian novel examines the multifaceted relation between people and the various identities they construct for themselves and for others through the context-specific ways they use language. Specifically, this book pays attention to how forms of identities – ethnic, cultural, national and gender – are constructed through the use of language in select novels of Adichie, Atta and Betiang. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, this book draws analytical insights from critical discourse analysis, literary discourse analysis and socio-ethno-linguistic analysis. This approach enables the author to engage with the novels, to illuminate the link between the ways Nigerians use language and the identities they construct. Being a context-driven analysis, this book critically scrutinises literary language beyond stylistic borders by interrogating the micro and macro levels of language use, a core analytical paradigm frequently used by discourse analysts who engage in critical discourse analysis.