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The use of a Subjective wellbeing scale as predictor of adherence to neuroleptic treatment to determine poor prognostic factor in African population with Schizophrenia

  • Authors: Boshe, J J , Stein, Dan J , Campbell, Megan M
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/450766 , vital:74980 , xlink:href="10.1192/j.eurpsy.2023.384"
  • Description: Objectives: To investigate and identify demographic and clinical predic-tors of subjective well-being in a sample of Xhosa people with schizo-phrenia on neuroleptic treatment. Methods: As a part of a large genetic study, 244 study participants with a confirmed diagnosis of schizophre-nia completed the translated SWN-K 20 scale. Internal consistency analysis was performed, and convergent analysis and exploratory analysis were conducted using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Linear regression methods were used to determine predictors of SWBN in the sample population.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Thermal stress gradient causes increasingly negative effects towards the range limit of an invasive mussel

  • Authors: Ma, Kevin C K , Monsinjon, Jonathan R , Froneman, P William , McQuaid, Christopher D
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/479407 , vital:78299 , https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161184
  • Description: Environmental filtering (EF), the abiotic exclusion of species, can have first order, direct effects with cascading consequences for population dynamics, especially at range edges where abiotic conditions are suboptimal. Abiotic stress gradients associated with EF may also drive indirect second order effects, including exacerbating the effects of competitors, disease, and parasites on marginal populations because of suboptimal physiological performance. We predicted a cascade of first and second order EF-associated effects on marginal populations of the invasive mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, plus a third order effect of EF of increased epibiont load due to second order shell degradation by endoliths. Mussel populations on rocky shores were surveyed across 850 km of the south–southeast coast of South Africa, from the species' warm-edge range limit to sites in the centre of their distribution, to quantify second order (endolithic shell degradation) and third order (number of barnacle epibionts) EF-associated effects as a function of along-shore distance from the range edge. Inshore temperature data were interpolated from the literature.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Tragic Optimism: A Psychobiography of Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.

  • Authors: Harry, Tinashe T , van Niekerk, Roelf
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434439 , vital:73060 , ISBN 978-3-031-28826-5 , https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-28827-2_5
  • Description: For many Zimbabweans, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (1952–2018) became the face of courage and hope during his political career. Tsvangirai was subjected to and witnessed political violence, physical abuse, brutality, emotional humiliation, unlawful detentions, and persecution. He challenged the ruling party in Zimbabwe, and his leadership gave many people hope for the future. In the context of living in a colonial era, poverty, and having to endure the brutality of the Mugabe era, he lived a meaningful life that saw him becoming a Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (2009–2013). This single-case study explores and describes Tsvangirai’s life and interprets it in terms of Frankl’s existential theory. More specifically, Tsvangirai’s life is interpreted from the perspective of Frankl’s three triads, the fundamental, meaning, and tragic triads, as well as the noetic dimension. Tsvangirai was selected through purposive sampling based on his important role in Zimbabwean politics. The primary source of data was biographical and autobiographical publications. The findings indicate that Tsvangirai shifted emphasis within the meaning triad in living a meaningful life and that he was able to use the human capacity of self-distancing/detachment and self-transcendence to find meaning in his life. This chapter sheds light on how individuals make sense of their circumstances and search for meaning and purpose in adverse conditions. It also contributes towards the development of psychobiographical research among non-WEIRD samples.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Transboundary Fisheries Management in Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA-TFCA): Prospects and Dilemmas

  • Authors: Imbwae, Imikendu , Aswani, Shankar , Sauer, Warwick H H , Hay, Clinton J
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/391433 , vital:68651 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054406"
  • Description: Inland fisheries in the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA-TFCA) offer food security to the riverine communities across the region. They also contribute towards the attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 1 and 15, which aim to alleviate poverty and maintain biodiversity conservation. Despite this significant role, the fisheries have suffered severe declines in the previous decades due to multiple factors, such as overfishing and poor legislation. Furthermore, climate change is exerting pressure by altering the ecology and productivity of the river systems. The unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have further constrained management efforts. Attempts to address these challenges have pointed towards transboundary fisheries management as a silver bullet in moving towards sustainable fisheries management. However, the implementation of this strategy in the region has encountered numerous roadblocks, thereby subjecting the river ecosystem to a wider environmental threat, with dire consequences on livelihoods. This paper reviews existing management and governance structures together with key informant interviews to elicit primary and secondary data essential for management at the regional level. The study identifies conflicting regulations, and inadequate policies and institutions across the region as major bottlenecks affecting the successful implementation of transboundary fisheries management. Finally, the paper offers some suggestions for the improvement of fisheries management in the region.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Transnational Activities of Women-Focused Civil Society Actors in Southern Africa

  • Authors: Nedziwe, Cecilia L , Tella, Oluwaseun
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/445327 , vital:74376 , ISBN 978-3-031-29536-2 , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29537-9
  • Description: Since the 1990s, the opening up of democratic spaces has been characterised by growing transnational activities and regionalisation of non-state actors. In Southern Africa, intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) began to recognise civil society actors and to integrate and prioritise gender and women issues within their policymaking structures. 1 This was assisted by the formulation of norms at a global level which could be diffused to regional and national policies, leading to greater non-state activity in the SADC area. It was achieved through, firstly, the establishment of an eminent group of commissioners in the early 1990s to review the situation of women across the region. Secondly, following the 1995 Beijing International Women’s Conference, a task force was created to draft a Regional Plan of Action to begin to address gendered insecurities across Southern Africa. Finally, the first meeting of the SADC Ministers Responsible for Women and Gender Affairs was convened in 1997 (Made and Morna, 2009: 34).
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Trauma survivors’ perceptions and experiences of prolonged exposure for PTSD at a psychology clinic

  • Authors: Booysen, Duane D , Kagee, Ashraf
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/454177 , vital:75316 , xlink:href="https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-m_sajp_v29_n1_a1869"
  • Description: BACKGROUND Several trauma-focused treatments have been developed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Yet there are limited studies on how trauma survivors perceive and experience trauma-focused treatments such as prolonged exposure therapy (PE) for PTSD, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). AIM The study aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of trauma survivors receiving prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD and the general acceptability of PE for PTSD in a LMIC.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

TVET SI: Evaluating Boundary Crossing Social Learning in Vocational Education and Training: A value creation approach

  • Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila , Sisitka, Lawrence , Chakona, Gamuchirai , Matiwane, Mandilive L , Matambo, Chamu
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/389925 , vital:68495 , xlink:href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/sajee/article/view/238540"
  • Description: This article focuses on the development and application of an evaluation model and approach for evaluating boundary crossing social learning in a Vocational Education and Training (VET) learning network in South Africa, with an emphasis on a Training of Trainers (ToT) course that helped to catalyse and strengthen this learning network via two iterations of the course over an eight-year period. The article shares how we adapted the value creation framework (VCF) of Wenger, Traynor and De Laat (2011; Wenger and Wenger-Traynor, 2020) in the evaluation of a VET Training of Trainers (ToT) programme and learning network that focussed on the uptake and circulation of rainwater harvesting and conservation (RWHandC) knowledge in a particular formal and informal VET context in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, where smallholder farmers were struggling to find water for producing food. The evaluated ToT course was catalytic in establishing a boundary crossing social learning network approach in a VET context that linked formal and informal VET (Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2016; Lotz-Sisitka et al., 2022; Pesanayi, 2019); hence we found it important to develop adequate tools for its evaluation. The focus of this article is to share how we developed an evaluation approach to this work. We share insights on the indicators developed for diff erent types of value created, and also insights gained into the use of this evaluation approach in a boundary crossing VET social learning project that took a ToT course as focus. In short, evaluation findings show that the boundary crossing ToT course off ers strong immediate, potential and applied value that can lead to realised and reframed value, especially if supported by ongoing learning network activities that follow the initial engagement in the boundary crossing ToT course. Th is leads, over time, to transformative value which is important in achieving the overall objective of such social learning, namely making knowledge more co-engaging, accessible and useful in the context where improved food security via better use of rainwater harvesting and conservation amongst smallholder farmers and household food producers is a necessary form of sustainable development. Orientation value, and enabling value were found to be vital for the emergence of other kinds of value. The evaluation model also allows for the lifting out of strategic value which points to wider uptake potential. All this creates the possibility for indicator development that can help inform iterative development of boundary crossing VET courses used to stimulate the co-construction of learning networks and ongoing social learning for sustainable development.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Twelve (Queer) Labours: The mundane as catalyst for the archiving of queer transgressive joy

  • Authors: Parker, Alan
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/469140 , vital:77213 , https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2023.2295727
  • Description: In the first six months of 2022, the small South African town of Makhanda became the location for a series of queer public performance interventions. These interventions were framed as acts of civic labour and involved a diverse group of queer artists, students and allies labouring alongside local artisans and citizens. The project, entitled 12 Labours, was conceived by performance artist Gavin Krastin, and created in collaboration with the collective of labourers, who appeared, guerrilla-style, dressed as garden gnomes in brightly coloured overalls and with pointed hats, in several public places throughout the town. During these once-off interventions, the gnomes would work together, often for several hours, performing a range of mundane tasks for an incidental audience of passers-by. This paper positions the project as a departure point for wider consideration of some of the ways in which mundane acts of public labour, when approached as opportunities for queer performance, can become spaces for the expression of queer transgressive joy. The discussion critically reflects on three of the twelve labours: the communal repainting of a bus stop, the planting of a public garden and the laying of flowers in a derelict cemetery, as a means to consider how the public performance of mundane tasks by queer artists presents an intriguing opportunity for the performance of queer joy, and Black queer joy in particular, in contexts and spaces not typically associated with queerness and with queer bodies. The discussion also considers how the archiving of these labours, as a public exhibition of filmed documentation, constitutes an ‘archive of feelings’ (Cvetkovich 2003) that seeks to document experiences conjured through the performance of mundane labour, rather than merely archiving the act itself.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Two new Poyntonophrynus species (Anura: Bufonidae) highlight the importance of Angolan centers of endemism

  • Authors: Baptista, Ninda L , Pinto, Pedro V , Keates, Chad , Lobón-Rovira, Javier , Edwards, Shelley , Rödel, Mark-Oliver
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/461572 , vital:76214 , xlink:href="https://zoobank.org/7B5494CC-F8F2-46EA-BB73-D28B13D31CB6"
  • Description: The pygmy toad genus Poyntonophrynus is endemic to southern Africa. The morphology of these small toads is conserved. They are usually dully colored, and are predominately adapted to arid conditions. During recent surveys in Angola we found Poyntonophrynus specimens that were not assignable to known species. Using an integrative approach, based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, morphology, osteology, biogeography and ecology, we identified three new lineages, and describe two of them as new species. All three lineages are closely related to P. pachnodes, an Angolan endemic species, but they are geographically isolated from it. The new species are morphologically distinguishable, and are associated with two of the most important Angolan centers of endemism: the western escarpment and the central highlands. In order to get a more comprehensive understanding of the osteology of the genus, we also provide an osteological characterization of P. dombensis, which was not available to date. Our findings i) increase the number of earless species in the genus Poyntonophrynus, ii) emphasize southwestern Africa as the cradle of diversification in this genus, iii) report the occurrence of Poyntonophrynus in humid environments, thus showing that these toads are ecologically more variable than previously thought, and iv) underline the importance of further biodiversity studies in Angolan centers of endemism.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Understanding foraging practices in Lagos metropolis to redesign urban greenspaces in support of human-nature interactions

  • Authors: Adeyemi, Opeyemi , Shackleton, Charlie M
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/401353 , vital:69728 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2022.127805"
  • Description: Enhancing knowledge of urban foraging across different urban landscapes is an urgent matter given that about two-thirds of the world’s population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050, whilst 50 % of Africa’s population is expected to live in cities by 2030. This study was conducted in Lagos metropolis which is the economic hub of Africa’s most populous country. Data was collected using an in-person, semi-structured questionnaire from 347 persons who were 18 years or older to identify foragers and non-foragers, their sociodemographic profiles, and their foraging practices. Results revealed that about two out of three persons sampled forage to some degree. The collection happened more in domestic gardens (34 %) and streets (27 %) than in other foraging sites (such as unused lands, institutional grounds and lakes and riparian fringes). A total of 35 species were reportedly foraged within the metropolis, mostly for food (71 %) and medicine (26 %). Mango (Mangifera indica), pawpaw (Carica papaya), tropical almond (Terminalia catappa), fish (various species), bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) and spinach (Spinacia oleracea) were the most gathered species. The distance travelled to foraging wild species ranged from 5 m to 25 km. The primary motivation for foraging was the acquisition of fresh and natural materials. However, some felt that foraging was a stressful activity. The unavailability of foraging sites and species was the major constraint to foraging in this megacity. Hence, efforts to increase the edible components of public green spaces and to provide free access could potentially allow more people to forage and make current foraging more secure. We suggest that making provisions for foraging in urban planning goals could contribute to the sustainable development of cities in Africa and elsewhere.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Unveiling the reactivity of truxillic and truxinic acids (TXAs): deprotonation, anion center dot center dot center dot HO, cation center dot center dot center dot O and cation center dot center dot center dot pi interactions in TXA (0) center dot center dot center dot Y+ and TXA (0) center dot center dot center dot Z (-) complexes (Y= Li, Na, K; Z= F, Cl, Br)

  • Authors: Isamura, Bienfait K , Patouossa, Issofa , Muya, Jules T , Lobb, Kevin A
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/452827 , vital:75173 , xlink:href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11224-022-01965-5.pdf"
  • Description: Herein, we report a quantum chemistry investigation of the interaction between µ-truxinic acid, referred to as TXA0 , and Y+ (Y=Li, Na, K) and Z− (Z=F, Cl, Br) ions using M06-2X, B3LYP and 휔 B97XD functionals in conjunction with the 6–31+ +G(d,p), aug-cc-pVDZ(-X2C) and 6–311+ +G (d, p) basis sets. Our computations suggest that Y+ cations can bind to TXA0 through several combinations of cation…O and cation-π interactions, while Z− anions generally establish anion… H–O contacts. Predicted binding energies at the M06-2X/6–311+ +G(d,p) level range between−26.6 and−70.2 kcal/mol for cationic complexes and−20.4 and−62.3 kcal/mol for anionic ones. As such, TXA0 appears as an amphoteric molecule with a slight preference for electrophilic (cation... O) attacks. Furthermore, the most favourable binding site for cations allows for the formation of O…cation…O interactions where the cation is trapped between O37 and O38 atoms of TXA0 . Anions do not behave uniformly towards TXA0 : while the fuoride anion F− induces the deprotonation of TXA0 , Br− and Cl− do not. All of these structural insights are supported by topological calculations in the context of the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM). Finally, SAPT0 analyses suggest that TXA0 …Y+ and TXA0 …Z− complexes are mainly stabilized by electrostatic and inductive efects, whose combined contributions account for more than 60 percent of the total interaction energy.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Using Citizen Science to Protect Natural Untreated Drinking Water Sources: Natural Springs in Rural Catchments and B3 Municipalities in the Eastern Cape

  • Authors: Mtati, Nosi , Chetty, Preven , Norman, Yondela , Mvulane, Paulose , Libala, Notiswa , Weaver, Matthew J T , Wolff, Margaret M , Cockburn, Jessica J , Mazibuko, Thembalani
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/425732 , vital:72279 , ISBN 978-0-6392-0550-2 , https://wrcwebsite.azurewebsites.net/wp-content/uploads/mdocs/3097 final.pdf
  • Description: Citizen science is a well-known mechanism used by researchers to col-lect scientific data working together with citizens. It can also be used by interested and concerned citizens (social activists regarding environ-mental threats) to protect natural occurring things like biodiversity, rare species that are threatened extension and much more. It can be a natu-ral occurring process that evolves with time but it can also have some guidelines of how to monitor, collect, analyse and disseminate data. In this project we used participatory action research processes to co-develop tools (co-create being one of the types of citizen science) with local communities, using their knowledge of their area to monitor and protect natural springs. Springs are useful for providing drinking water for people but also for livestock. In rural areas and small towns where service delivery is not reliable, natural occurring water sources become the reliable supply for these communities. Springs also provide ecosys-tem services as they are a keystone ecological infrastructure. These natural water sources can be threatened by pollution, especially that of livestock which is mostly unattended, because they are sometimes shared by people and animals. This poses health risks to the users. This study co-developed the “spring protection and sustainable use” tool/s that can be used to guide communities and local government on how to protect these important water sources. Citizen science also cre-ates opportunities for learning to take place among the participants as well as the researchers involved.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Using Facebook user photos to quantify surface water dependency in Southern African arid-zone bird species

  • Authors: Dixon, Elizabeth A , Smit, Ben
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/441668 , vital:73905 , https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2182223
  • Description: Birds need to maintain their hydration by either gaining water from their food or by drinking surface water. Many arid-zone birds do not need to consume surface water to maintain body condition. Conservationists need to better understand avian use of surface water sources to inform management plans in a warming world. In this study, we explored the use of Facebook’s image search as a tool to predict interspecific variations in avian surface water use. There was a significant correlation between the proportion of Facebook photographs of each species associated with surface water, and surface water use indices for these species based on published field studies. These findings suggest that Facebook may be a useful source of data for determining the dependence of bird species on surface water. Future research could address the potential for Facebook and other social media platforms for answering a range of ecological questions relating to avian water dependency.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Vantage Points: Essays, Critical Perspectives, Field Notes, and a Manual.

  • Authors: Muscatello, Mariagrazia , Touré, Ndèye Mané , Venturi, Francesco , Nicholson, Benjamin Ross , Krastin, Gavin , Rajeh, Omar , Hajimohammad, Saman , Tupajić, Tea
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/469129 , vital:77212 , https://doi.org/10.3167/turba.2023.020205
  • Description: A distinctive trait of the Chilean art scene, its insular condition came about as a consequence of the 1973 coup d’état, which interrupted foreign relations for a long time. The situation is only now being reversed, with local artistic production still being restricted to a homegrown market and audiences. Within this national circuit of the arts, almost entirely centered in the city of Santiago, artistic work is mostly limited to the activity of graduates and faculty from metropolitan universities, such as the Universidad de Chile and the Universidad Católica. The trend is now being reversed thanks to recent social events, primarily the 2019 uprisings or the increased market value of lithium, which put Chile back at the center of the global geopolitical agenda. In addition, a shift in media attention toward the art of indigenous peoples, which peaked in 2022, with examples such as the Venice Biennale, has allowed artists like Cecilia Vicuña, active since the seventies, to enter the so-called star system of art.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Water Footprint and Economic Productivity of Potato Production in South Africa

  • Authors: Egbetokun, Olugbenga A , Fraser, Gavin C G
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/473093 , vital:77605 , https://doi.org/10.51847/IfamMEMliR
  • Description: An alarming four billion individuals worldwide grapple with acute water scarcity. Notably, South Africa, nestled amongst the world's most parched lands, suffers from severe freshwater limitations, ranking 30th in scarcity indices. Introduced in 2003, the" water footprint" framework offers a valuable technique for measuring water utilization in production systems. The WF is composed of three colors: green, blue, and grey. The present study aimed to investigate the water footprint and economic productivity of potato production in South Africa. Data on potato production, price, and weather data from 2006 to 2015 were obtained from the Potatoes South Africa (PSA), Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) databases. Analysis of staple water use, evapotranspiration, and irrigation schemes for crop production was carried out using CROPWAT 8.0 software as well as physical, land, and economic water productivities. Across South African provinces, the water footprint of potato production-encompassing green, blue, and grey components-outstrips global averages, exhibiting notable provincial discrepancies. The result shows that there is a need for more efficient water use across the provinces. PWP was highest in Northern Cape (3.08 t/m 3) and lowest in Gauteng (1.99 t/m 3). EWP was highest in the Northern Cape (1.0) and lowest in Gauteng (0.65 US $/m 3) depicting the high cost of water use per m 3 in potato production. ELP, however, was highest in the North West and lowest in the Free State. The scenario could be improved upon by efficient irrigation water use and the application of a minimum level of fertilizer in a bid to ameliorate blue and grey water.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Water, Transport, Oil and Food: A Political–Economy–Ecology Lens on Changing Conceptions of Work, Learning and Skills Development in Africa

  • Authors: Lotz-Sisitka, Heila
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , book chapter
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/434894 , vital:73114 , ISBN 978-1529224634 , https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/transitioning-vocational-education-and-training-in-africa
  • Description: Not enough has been said about the kinds of skills develop-ment that are needed if we are to stem the rising tides and impacts of political economies that have been driving what some call ‘fossil capital’(Malm, 2016). In this book, we are producing an emerging argument that it is necessary to also rethink and reframe vocational education and training (VET) logics and approaches if we are to fully consider the implica-tions of a warming future. This chapter provides the context of why this is such an urgent challenge and some thinking tools for understanding where we have come from and where we need to go. The prognosis is that it is now almost impossible to stop global warming below 2oC. The 2021 In-tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is-sued a ‘red alert’for humanity, noting climate change to be one of the most severe challenges facing human societies for decades and potentially centuries to come. Scientists are warning that we have entered a new ‘geological epoch’, named the ‘Anthropocene’, in which human activity, especial-ly the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through fossil-based pollution, is transforming the stability of the earth system and creating knock on effects such as ice melt and methane release, which exacerbate the impacts of pollutants on the stability of the earth system.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Wing-moult and seasonal occurrence of sunbirds (Nectariniidae) captured at four sites in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

  • Authors: Bonnevie, Bo T , Craig, Adrian J F K , Hulley, Patrick E , Schultz, Albert , Tree, Anthony J
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/449607 , vital:74833 , https://doi.org/10.2989/00306525.2022.2075482
  • Description: Ringing activity in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa, spanned 30 years, with three sites active concurrently over a 14-year period, and three sites over a 6-year period. In total, in the course of 714 ringing days, in all months, we handled 1 207 Amethyst Sunbirds, 708 Southern Double-collared Sunbirds, 707 Greater Double-collared Sunbirds, 381 Grey Sunbirds, 121 Malachite Sunbirds and 140 Collared Sunbirds. Although individuals of all six species were recaptured more than five years after ringing, and despite evidence of the seasonal passage of sunbirds at two sites near the Indian Ocean coast, no birds were recaptured away from the original ringing site.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

Women farmers leading and co-learning in an agroecology movement at the intersections of gender and climate

  • Authors: Chanyau, Ludwig , Rosenberg, Eureta
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/373873 , vital:66730 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2023.2239313"
  • Description: This study, carried out in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, was particularly interested in women farmers’ access to social learning spaces for expanding their knowledge about farming in the context of climate change. Small-scale women and peasant farmers face historical intersectional inequalities as a result of the colonial and apartheid past which has continued to disadvantage women in the present through exclusion, limited or no access to finance, insecure or no land tenure, little bargaining power and unequal access to water. The gender prejudices and unequal access to resources experienced by women is brought into sharp relief by climate change. The article provides a case study of an agroecology movement led by women farmers that promotes climate-appropriate, low-cost farming practices using community and home gardens. The practices are tried out and further developed by women farmers themselves, relying on agroecology-informed extension services, open dialogue and the support of communities of practice. Unlike traditional top-down approaches to farmer learning common in public extension services, extension officers in the movement participate in creating conditions for co-learning and co-construction of new knowledge − that is, social learning − thus responding directly to their needs as farmers. The lead researcher joined in and observed farming and learning activities following an ethnographic approach. Farmers and other movement members were engaged in semi-structured interviews which explored the value derived from social learning (Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner Citation2020). The article concludes that the movement is responding to many of the intersectional challenges that women farmers in the Eastern Cape face. Further, its social learning approach holds potential for expanding women farmers’ ability to provide for themselves and their communities and inform their climate change adaptation.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

‘Opera and music theatre’

  • Authors: Brukman, Jeffrey J
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/468516 , vital:77086 , https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2023.2265252
  • Description: In South Africa, from the first performances given by northern hemisphere-based touring companies in the 1800s through to the creation of state-funded Arts Councils used to promote high western culture during the time of apartheid, the opera genre has always occupied contested territory. Today, it still occupies disputed space with opera productions having to navigate difficult questions around cultural diversity, social relevance, societal inclusivity as well as financing. Despite the many successes of personal triumph and the creation of productions representing high standards of performance integrity, among the wider society opera is frequently considered to represent the cultural tastes of a small (often elite) minority. These concerns are common across the African continent from Cape Town to Cairo and beyond. In general, these issues are also replicated in terms of musical theatre.
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  • Date Issued: 2023

“A Sort of Arcadian Country”: Plant-Life in Some Early South African Travelogues

  • Authors: Wylie, Dan
  • Date: 2023
  • Subjects: To be catalogued
  • Language: English
  • Type: text , article
  • Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/458061 , vital:75713 , https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-iseaeng_v50_n1_a1
  • Description: Various branches of current ecocriticism are exploring ways of dismantling or at least diminishing dominant anthropocentric ways of evaluating the relationships among humans, the non-human world, and the literary imagination. Critical Animal Studies, Critical Plant Studies, and multispecies ecocriticism endeavour to re-evaluate the roles, even agency, of non-human life, as represented in literary works. This article unpacks the depiction of plants in three early South African travelogues (1795–1836), illuminating the sources of some enduring assumptions and iconic imageries in our relations with the natural world.
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  • Date Issued: 2023
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