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
Français en contact et nouvelles pratiques linguistiques en Afrique sub-saharienne
(2015-12-01) de Féral, Carole
Listening to local narratives about ukuhlonipha and isihlonipho in South Africa. Understanding respect practices through a decolonial lens
(2024-11-25) Le Doeuff, Hermelind
This dissertation aims to (re)establish the concept of “ukuhlonipha” in epistemologies of/from the South. The word “ukuhlonipha”, a verb meaning “to respect” in Xhosa or Zulu, has historically been used in the scientific literature to refer to a set of avoidance practices stereotyped to language and to married women. This thesis takes a historical and decolonial standpoint and aims to draw attention to what local discourses frame as “ukuhlonipha” in the Xhosa-speaking and Zulu-speaking contexts. Drawing on from archives written in Xhosa, Zulu and English, from interviews in urban and rural contexts in today’s Xhosa-speaking society, and from a discourse analysis of a social media platform, this thesis intends to show the diversity of realities associated with “ukuhlonipha” in 20th century and 21st century South Africa. By focusing on local narratives, this thesis illustrates how the invention of a linguistic-only and feminine-only “hlonipha” in the scientific literature has contributed to erase several actors from the context of respect practices. Through local endogenous narratives, the thesis shows that “ukuhlonipha” and “isihlonipho/izihlonipho” refer to a set of respectful behaviours which can be language-related but are not exclusively language-related. Moreover, these respectful behaviours regulate social relationships with regard to kinship and gender roles, as well as age and class. Combining historical and contemporary narratives of “ukuhlonipha”, this thesis takes on decoloniality and attempts to spark a discussion about the ways in which respect practices can be apprehended through and contribute to theories of the Global South.
How can the African Continental Free Trade Area help Green African Trade?
(2025-05-28) de Melo, Jaime
Africa has contributed little to Climate Change (CC), though being hardest hit, especially African agriculture, both in the short-run (fast-onset events like droughts and floods) and in the long-run through lower productivity in agriculture (slow-onset events from warming). The paper starts with a template of the dimensions of the trade environment nexus in Africa, then reviews evidence on the role of international trade in helping African countries mitigate and adapt to CC. Much of the focus is on the AfCFTA and on the contribution of the AERC GVC phase II to the state of knowledge. [...]
Cultural Heritage’s Value in African Sustainable Development
(2022-09-02) Huaqiong, Pan
Over the past half century, our understanding of development has shifted from economic growth to economic viable, social equitable, and environmental bearable, so-called “sustainable development”. The United Nations (UN) has launched 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030 (UN 2015), three of which relate to sustainable tourism. The latter is not a new category of tourism but a new ethic to guide tourism. World Heritage, including Cultural Heritage, Natural Heritage, and Mixed Heritage, especially Cultural and Mixed heritage properties, link closely with local communities’ development and become tourist attractions with physical stability, historical continuity, archeological authenticity or aesthetic harmony. Cultural Heritage begins with capital letters in this paper indicating it as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage.The chapter introduces: 1) - an overview of Africa’s Cultural Heritage; 2) - explains why Africa’s Cultural Heritage is significant for sustainable development from a theoretical perspective, based on relevant UN documents; 3) – highlights the challenges faced by all stakeholders: African governments, local communities, tourist agencies, national and international visitors, etc., on how to enhance the value of Africa’s Cultural Heritage through tourism; 4) - analyzes potential value of Africa’s Cultural Heritage, as a driver and resource for sustainable development; and finally, 5) – concludes with the economic, social, and environmental value of Cultural Heritage in African sustainable development.