Welcome to AfricArXiv
This initiative showcases UbuntuNet's commitment to fostering knowledge sharing, collaboration, and accessibility within the African research community. With AfricArxiv, researchers across the continent have a dedicated platform to disseminate their findings, making them accessible to a global audience. By facilitating open access to scholarly work, UbuntuNet Alliance plays a pivotal role in advancing the principles of open science, enhancing research visibility, and driving innovation across Africa.
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Select a community to browse its collections.
- The general repository is open for individual submissions by researchers, librarians and research administrators.
- Showcase of project activities, presentations, and scholarly contributions curated by the AfricArXiv initiative.
- Scholarly items sorted by country > Institution > Department
- A Rapid Grant Fund to address research questions and implement science engagement activities associated with COVID-19
Recent Submissions
Co-production of knowledge in transdisciplinary communities of practice: Experiences from food governance in South Africa
(2021) Adelle, Camilla
Communities of Practice are sites of social learning for the co-production of knowledge. Building on recent literature on Transdisciplinary Communities of Practice, this article reflects on the experiences of an emergent 'Food Governance Community of Practice' in South Africa that brings together multiple stakeholders to co-produce knowledge to inform local food policy and governance. Our results show the following lessons for managers and participants engaged in establishing similar 'third spaces' for knowledge co-production: 1) make inevitable power asymmetries explicit; 2) the identity of the group should not be built on a particular normative position but emerge from discursive processes and 3) create a balance between supporting peripheral learning and maintaining the specialist cutting edge discussions needed for co-production. Furthermore, the most beneficial legacy of a Community of Practice may not be the outputs in terms of the co-produced knowledge but the development of a cohesive group of stakeholders with a new shared way of knowing.
In planta gene expression analysis of Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae, African strain MAI1
(2010) Soto-Suárez, Mauricio
Background: Bacterial leaf blight causes significant yield losses in rice crops throughout Asia and Africa. Although both the Asian and African strains of the pathogen, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), induce similar symptoms, they are nevertheless genetically different, with the African strains being more closely related to the Asian X. oryzae pv. oryzicola (Xoc). Results: Changes in gene expression of the African Xoo strain MAI1 in the susceptible rice cultivar Nipponbare were profiled, using an SSH Xoo DNA microarray. Microarray hybridization was performed comparing bacteria recovered from plant tissues at 1, 3, and 6 days after inoculation (dai) with bacteria grown in vitro. A total of 710 bacterial genes were found to be differentially expressed, with 407 up-regulated and 303 down-regulated. Expression profiling indicated that less than 20% of the 710 bacterial transcripts were induced in the first 24 h after inoculation, whereas 63% were differentially expressed at 6 dai. The 710 differentially expressed genes were one-end sequenced. 535 sequences were obtained from which 147 non-redundant sequences were identified. Differentially expressed genes were related to metabolism, secretion and transport, pathogen adherence to plant tissues, plant cell-wall degradation, IS elements, and virulence. In addition, various other genes encoding proteins with unknown function or showing no similarity to other proteins were also induced. The Xoo MAI1 non-redundant set of sequences was compared against several X. oryzae genomes, revealing a specific group of genes that was present only in MAI1. Numerous IS elements were also found to be differentially expressed. Quantitative real-time PCR confirmed 86% of the identified profile on a set of 14 genes selected according to the microarray analysis. Conclusions: This is the first report to compare the expression of Xoo genes in planta across different time points during infection. This work shows that as-yet-unid
The bii4africa dataset of faunal and floral population intactness estimates across Africa’s major land uses
(2024-02-12) Clements, Hayley, S.
Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species' population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate 'intactness scores': the remaining proportion of an 'intact' reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the region's major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.) and intensities (e.g., large-scale vs smallholder cropland). This dataset was co-produced as part of the Biodiversity Intactness Index for Africa Project. Additional uses include assessing ecosystem condition; rectifying geographic/ taxonomic biases in global biodiversity indicators and maps; and informing the Red List of Ecosystems.
D’une initiative privée à une opération nationale – Dresser une carte de l’Afrique à la fin du XIXe siècle
(2023) Arnaud, Jean-Luc
La carte de l’Afrique dressée à partir du milieu des années 1870 par Henri Reynault de Lannoy de Bissy, en 63 feuilles à l’échelle 1:2 000 000, est un document d’exception qui rassemble pour la première fois une abondante documentation alors très dispersée. A la faveur de l’intérêt qu’elle suscite auprès du pouvoir politique, son histoire est marquée par deux moments décisifs qui transforment de manière radicale le programme initial de l’auteur. Après une première partie consacrée à l’analyse du contexte de production de cette carte, son examen montre que sa première édition correspond bien à la représentation d‘un monde en découverte, à l’objectif encyclopédique poursuivi par son auteur et à l’état des connaissances sur l’Afrique pendant la période considérée. Les éditions suivantes, sous couvert d’une amélioration de la facture et de la lisibilité du document, témoignent d’un remaniement au service des intérêts politiques et coloniaux de la France. Cette opération, est conduite au détriment de la richesse documentaire de la version originelle de la carte.
Ontology of the temporary artwork : Walter Benjamin, jazz and EDM
(2019-11-10) Parent, Emmanuel
Coming to grips with the 1936 Walter Benjamin-Theodor Adorno controversy on the aura of the work of art and mechanical reproduction, this paper deals with the heuristic potency of the aesthetic categories Benjamin developed in order to grasp the modernity of jazz and other musical genres of the African-American musical continuum. The translation into the musical field of concepts originally created to address visual arts demonstrates that Benjamin's nascent mediation theory is a fertile way to consider the historical becoming of jazz and its ontological originality within XXth century art. To fully do so, one must however also take into consideration the ethnomusicological knowledge accumulated on African-American music since this debate. A comparison between jazz and EDM is then build in order to make clear why jazz is an appropriate field of application for Benjamin’s intuitions.