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In the closing decades of the last century, Professor Akínsolá Akìwowo, in a series of seminal papers, inaugurated what Jìmí Adésíná later dubbed 'the Akíwowo project'. This project involved (1) showing that there are resources in an African culture – Yorùbá – for doing sociology in ways that are as good as the dominant tradition to be found in Western sociology; and (2) offering some original ideas regarding some explanatory framework that could enable us to make sense of social phenomena. In this essay, I advance the Akìwọwọ project by showing how, despite previous criticisms, Akìwọwọ remains a keen identifier of theoretical possibilities lurking in his Yorùbá heritage for doing not only sociology, but also philosophy and other theories with African idioms. I show how those criticisms enhance the practice of sociology in Africa that will be a powerful presence in the discipline and in the world of ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) has been proposed as a key element of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). It is important that the APRM be debated thoroughly in terms of concept and design. This paper is a contribution to the debate. The paper derives design criteria for peer review mechanisms after looking at some functioning examples. These criteria are-competence, independence and competition. It is argued that, while the APRM is a welcome addition to pan-African institutional structure, its design will have to be improved for it to be truly successful. First, APRM should greatly narrow the scope of its reviews if it is to deliver competent assessments. Second NEPAD should devote significant resources to allow civil society in the reviewed country to do assessments of their own, and to critique the APRM assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Akìwowo's vision and scholarship were very much impacted by his historical context. Most of his work was conducted after independence when the issue of development was upmost in the minds of Nigerian academics. Born in 1922, he was an elder among the post-independence scholars who sought to help move the new nation forward. This paper focuses on the distinct ideas Akìwowo brought to this endeavour. It was the area in which I had the most discussions with him and in which I collaborated on a publication. I focus on (1) the context within which his ideas developed, (2) his perspective on indigenous sociologies and (3) his output. Akìwowo's concerns in the 1970s are still with us as is clear from Burawoy's Presidential address at the International Sociological Association meetings in Japan, 2014, and the ongoing work of sociologists and social scientists from other regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gdeim Izik protest emerged in response to Moroccan public policy (the distribution of land for construction) and adopted a nationalist line during the course of the action, provoking a heavy-handed response from Moroccan state security forces. This paper analyses the process and places it in the broader context of protest movements that emerge in situations of occupation and authoritarian rule. To that end, the study addresses the reconfiguration of the protest camp in Western Sahara during the 2000s, including protests that were not explicitly pro-independence struggles, to examine how Sahrawi protest actors perceived and assessed this context and how this assessment influenced their individual and collective action strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African migration is not determined just through misery and danger. Personal ambition is an important catalyst compelling the more intrepid to hit the road. The decision to leave can result in a pressing urge to change lifestyle, to invent new ways of life, to explore far-off lands, real or imaginary. The migratory adventure is not only synonymous with a departure abroad – close or distant; it is also similar to a moral experience which is tightly correlated with risk or intensity of life. After introducing the different promoters of the African migratory adventure, the article will show that more and more African women, in the process of their migration, claim the status of the adventurer for themselves. Then, the times of adventure will enlighten, the beginning, the time of youth, and the end when the migrants come back home. Several outcomes to the migratory adventure are also possible. Upwards, for those who are able to convert their mobility capital and connect themselves to transnational networks. Downwards, for exhausted and socially unaffiliated individuals who can neither continue to move on nor turn back, because they are estranged by their countrymen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of puppets in some sub-Saharan countries is often related to the transmission and persistence of social structures. Public rituals, masquerades such as the Gelede of the Yoruba and the performances of the Kamalen ton of the Bamana serve the need to maintain social stability, but they can also act as agents to modify and adapt culture through performance. The capacity of performance to modify social practices is also reflected in the use of puppets in theatre for development and social change. These applications of puppetry illustrate the almost constant tension between the normative, rationalization and the imagination. The various manifestations of puppetry discussed in this article can, however, be traced to the same desire and driving force - namely, people's need and aspiration to continuously reinforce their world in order both to survive and to function effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cross-cultural relationship between household density and infant indulgence was investigated at the level of the individual household among 12 Logoli infants in East Africa. Time- and event-sampling observations were carried out. The findings (those statistically significant and those at the 10 level) are that the infant in the high-density household is held more than the infant in the low-density household, and is responded to more quickly and positively when he cries. On the other hand, in some respects the infant's mother is less accessible to him in the high-density household: she is less often the baby's caretaker, is less often in close range (within 10 feet), and is more likely to cause him to cry. The mother's lower availability was interpreted as probably due to the greater economic responsibilities she bears in a large household. The findings were taken as supportive of the view that socialization practices are influenced by ecological variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]