Journal of African Cultural Studies最新文献

{"title":"Listening for Religion in Lagos: Preliminary Reflections","authors":"Vicki L. Brennan, Harrison Adeniyi, Titilayo Tajudeen","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2265838","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2265838","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT For three weeks in January and February 2021, a team of researchers ventured into the streets of Lagos, Nigeria to document the relationships between sound, urban space and religious institutions and practices. In this article we present an overview of the conceptual issues that shaped our investigation into sound, including questions of noise, listening and religion. We also offer preliminary reflections on what we heard, as well as share samples of some of the sounds we recorded. Finally, we offer thoughts about future iterations of this project and reflect on how projects such as ours contribute to the development of African sound studies.","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"379 1","pages":"373 - 391"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139324602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vital Atmospherics: Sonic City-Making in Africa","authors":"Joella Bitter","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2266378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2266378","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Recent concern for noise in African cities has placed the sonic environment at the center of questions of cityness. This article explores the broadcast of loud music as part of a vital atmospheric which makes the city and sustains everyday life in Gulu, Uganda. I consider everyday Acoli sound concepts wo (noise) and dwan matek (loud sound) with and against concepts of “noise” as it is enacted by environmental regulations concerned with the criminalization of loudness. In so doing, this work brings together sonically rich accounts of African cities and the social density of African sonic worlds with attention to a global South “politics of loudness” and Afrodiasporic sonic geographies. Building from a series of ethnographic encounters, and written in experimental form, this work challenges racialized assumptions embedded in efforts to regulate noise, exploring instead how loud sound generates possibilities for social connection.","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"68 1","pages":"358 - 372"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139324772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sound Studies from Africa","authors":"Scott Newman, Susanna L. Sacks","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2262945","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2262945","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"11 1","pages":"353 - 357"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139324604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Foreign Bodies, Local Language: Voicing Foreignness in a Casablanca Dubbing Studio","authors":"Kristin Gee Hickman","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2237913","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2237913","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTSoap operas have been shown to play a key role in the production of national publics. Yet what happens if the lifestyles and actors they feature are distinctly not national? This article examines the role of foreign (Mexican, Turkish, Brazilian) soap operas in producing new national imaginations in Morocco. Through an ethnography of Plug-In studios, the Casablanca recording studio where these soap operas are dubbed in colloquial Moroccan Arabic (Darija), I explore the discomfort experienced by studio employees (translators, voice actors, sound engineers) when laminating this highly local language onto visibly foreign bodies. Through an analysis of discussions between employees, I show how they negotiate this discomfort by bifurcating the national language into two registers: a neutral register that could plausibly be spoken by anybody; and a “real” register that indexes ethnic Moroccanness. This bifurcation, I argue, produces new possibilities for imagining foreigners as part of the Moroccan nation, while simultaneously keeping them at arm’s length.أجسام أجنبية، لغة محلية: صياغة أصوات أجنبية في استوديو للدبلجة بالدار البيضاءالمسلسلات الدرامية تلعب دورًا رئيسيًا في إنتاج الجمهور الوطني . ولكن ماذا يحدث عندما تكون أنماط الحياة والممثلين التي تتميز بها هاته المسلسلات ليست وطنية؟ يبحث هذا المقال عن دور المسلسلات الأجنبية (المكسيكية والتركية والبرازيلية) في إنتاج مخيلات وطنية جديدة في المغرب . عبر دراسة إثنوغرافية لأستوديو پلوگ إن، استوديو للتسجيل بالدار البيضاء حيث يتم دبلجة هذه المسلسلات من لغتها الأصلية إلى اللغة المغربية العامية (الدارجة)، أستكشف الانزعاج الذي يعاني منه موظفو الاستوديو (المترجمون والمدبلجون ومهندسو الصوت ) عند تغليف هذه الأجسام الأجنبية باللغة المحلية . عبر تحليل المناقشات بين موظفي الاستوديو، أظهر كيف يتعاملون مع هذا الانزعاج من خلال تقسيم اللغة الوطنية إلى سجلين : سجل محايد يمكن أن يتكلم به أي شخص وأي جسد، وسجل “حقيقي ” يشير إلى الهوية المغربية القحة . أجادل أن هذا التقسيم ينتج إمكانيات جديدة لتخيل الأجانب كجزء من الوطن المغربي، مع إبقاء مسافة بينهم وبين المغاربة .‏KEYWORDS: MoroccodubbinglanguagevoicetelevisionforeignnessArabic : المغربالدبلجةلغةصوتالتلفزةالأجنبيةالعربية AcknowledgmentsThis article benefitted immensely from discussions at the 2016 Moroccan Studies Symposium in Rabat and the “Race, Blackness, and Africa” panel at the 2018 annual meeting of the African Studies Association. I would also like to extend a special thank you to Mounir Ouzine for answering all my language-related questions, and Hajar Moudni for help with translation.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 The Darija-language scripts at Plug-In studios were always written in Arabic script. See Caubet (Citation2018b) on the use of different scripts to write Darija.2 For a discussion of the Casablancan dialect and how various speakers align themselves with it, or distance themselves from it, see Atiqa Hachimi (Citation2007).3 One exception is a recent article by Hachimi (Citation2022), which exami","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136154058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Guiding Muslim Women in the University: The Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria Women’s Programmes in Northern Nigeria","authors":"Adeyemi Balogun","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2238267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2238267","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article discusses how the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN) shapes the way of life of Muslim women in northern Nigeria’s higher educational institutions. The MSSN expects Muslim women to be symbols of piety, home builders and career professionals, and, in line with these objectives, it promotes an Islamic reform that emphasises Western education and the embodiment of prophetic traditions. Many platforms, such as the Sisters’ Circle and Marriage Guidance and Counselling (MAGACO), are used by the MSSN to guide the women on how to achieve this tradition of reform. Through these platforms, the women are engaged on a variety of subjects, such as giving support to acquire Western education, learning the prophetic traditions, and dealing with marital concerns and societal problems that affect their gender. I argue that these platforms enable Muslim women to actively participate in public life and deal with the problems they face in education, religion and marriage. This is demonstrated in their employment in many professional careers, and their ability to stimulate changes, including contesting the notion of women’s education, the women-centred reform orientation of the MSSN, and the government policy on veiling in public schools.","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"9 1","pages":"268 - 283"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nigerian Universities’ Sexual Harassment Policies: Palliative or Provocative?","authors":"R. Popoola","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2237922","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2237922","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Sexual violence and sexual harassment have been perennial topics in higher education across the continent and beyond. In response to stories and scandals, including the 2019 “Sex for Grades: Undercover in West African Universities” documentary by the BBC’s Africa Eye series, Nigerian universities have instituted sexual harassment policies. This article draws on a feminist textual analysis of the BBC documentary and three Nigerian higher institutions’ sexual harassment policies, complemented by specialized literature on gender, history, and sexuality, to examine the value of the policies and their limitations. I argue that the fundamental limitation of most of the policies is the persistence of how coloniality shapes gender in education. The gendered influences on education date back to colonialism and need to be challenged and questioned. I argue that, while policies are vital for driving transformative education, inclusive learning and a safe environment, it is crucial to consider how colonialism shaped gender in Nigeria, and to reflect on the structural and cultural logics that perpetuate gender norms.","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":"254 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nigerian University Dress Codes: Markers of Tradition, Morality and Aspiration","authors":"Morolake Dairo","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2237912","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2237912","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article attempts to give an overview of the fashion and dress cultures on Nigerian campuses. Through clothing, we see the various ways in which institutions and individuals engage with “tradition” and with an imagined professional future. The clothing rules on campuses also reveal the extent to which women are held responsible for sexual misconduct there. I show how the debates around clothing have been part of Nigerian universities since their founding.","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"386 1","pages":"345 - 352"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139364061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Dream Factory: Chinese Presence on a Nigerian University Campus","authors":"Olayinka Solomon Elusoji","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2237927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2237927","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Chinese presence in Africa is usually analysed through a soft power framework that benefits China at the expense of host countries. But this article argues that the Chinese presence at the University of Lagos, one of Nigeria’s premier universities, benefits both Nigerians and Chinese. For the former, signs of this presence generate dreams of migration and economic freedom; for the latter, they inspire dreams of cultural and economic influence. However, this interaction has not had a significant impact on Nigerian attitudes towards China, which are complex and variegated. The data was gathered through interviews with students and instructors at the University of Lagos’s Confucius Institute and the direct observations of the researcher over a six-month period between 2021 and 2022.","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"6 1","pages":"333 - 344"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139364117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Elitist and Popular Ideological Forms in Selected Nigerian Campus Novels","authors":"Kayode Gboyega Kofoworola","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2237906","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2237906","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In Nigeria, the university system and its campuses are relatively new, having only been in existence for about 70 years. Within this university system, there has always been a tension about whether its role is to reproduce elites (initially considered its role), or to change society for the better, which later became the expectation of society. The tensions between these two trends in thinking about universities are transgenerational. As the nation that gave birth to these universities changed for the worse, its universities followed. This bifurcation in thinking about the role of Nigerian universities is evident in the novels that have been inspired by the Nigerian university as setting. This article argues that the Nigerian campus, in terms of ideological formation, as reflected in the novels selected for this study, is elitist in foundation and populist in progression. It argues that campus narratives, while acting as documents of elite behavioural activity, also highlight that the relationship between the evolution of Nigeria and its university system is instrumental to the formation of elite forms on campus, and reveals universities’ subsequent transformation into spaces for the creation of non-elite ideological forms in the larger society.","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"297 - 310"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139364164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nigerian Campus Forms","authors":"Carli Coetzee, L. Egbunike","doi":"10.1080/13696815.2023.2238200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2023.2238200","url":null,"abstract":"This special issue is the result of a long-running collaboration between the Journal of African Cultural Studies and the Lagos Studies Association (Figure 1). The Lagos Studies Association, through its annual conference held at the University of Lagos, has made a name for itself for the sustained attention it pays to the development and professionalisation of younger scholars. Panels around the theme of Nigerian Campus Forms were first convened at the 2019 conference, and the call invited participants to develop arguments related to any aspects of university life in Nigeria. The research project has at various times consisted of more people than are represented in this special issue, but not all in the end were able to submit their research (Ayalogu, Cheng and Ojudun, Fasan, Nwako and Ogunoye, all with unpublished work in progress, were active participants in the reading group and meetings we had). The current special issue is one of three themed issues published by the Journal of African Cultural Studies devoted to African universities. This issue follows the volume guest edited by Anne Gulick (2023), and a bilingual English/ French issue “Campus Forms / Le campus sous toutes ses forms” is forthcoming, guest edited by Ruth Bush. The collective project on Nigerian universities invited scholars to reflect on the conditions under which knowledge was produced, from a specific place and community. The infrastructure of the University of Lagos campus, where the conference takes place, was a useful starting point from which to document and analyse the remnants of the idealism and beauty of what Tim Livsey in his influential monograph has called Nigeria’s University Age (2017). This beautiful campus, with its buildings that allow fresh air to circulate, and with the lush gardens extending to the lagoon, shows signs of the challenges faced by scholars working and studying there. Kolawole Charles Omotayo’s striking conference presentation was delivered at the 2019 LSA conference. His work documented and analysed the lack of toilet facilities on university campuses, something which was made very concrete for those of us attending the conference and which accurately reflected our experiences struggling to find facilities. In these articles, there is a repetitive refrain of decay and decline, as infrastructures have not managed to keep up with the rising numbers of students seeking higher education alongside other economic challenges facing Nigerian institutions. This special issue provides snapshots of the campus experiences across Nigeria, historicising campus culture, and considering the gendered, religious and international aspects of campus life. Authors present the distinctions between public and private universities,","PeriodicalId":45196,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Cultural Studies","volume":"63 1","pages":"249 - 253"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139363637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}