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Argues that African students can find more to identify with in Shakespeare's works than can British students. Offers many examples of similarities between African cultural traditions and those of Shakespeare's time. (SRT)

Abstract: A high-resolution sedimentary record from Lake Masoko (Tanzania), based on pollen assemblages and magnetic susceptibility, shows that the most prominent environmental change of the last 45000 years occurred ca 11.7cal.kaBP, near the end of the Younger Dryas event. During this climatic transition, the Masoko catchment vegetation changed from being intolerant to a long/severe dry season to being tolerant, while the inferred lake-dynamics indicates strengthened seasonal fluctuations and/or lower levels than before. Comparison of the Masoko record with other regional palaeoclimatic data shows that evidence of this climatic transition is widespread in tropical Africa. The proposed failure of the African Monsoon during the Younger Dryas, associated with a southward position/migration of the meteorological equator in East Africa, was followed by an abrupt and lasting resumption of monsoon activity, and more pronounced migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) over the African continent. Such a reorganisation of the atmospheric circulation, equally observed across the whole tropical region (South America, East and West Asia, and Africa), could have been a strong amplifier of northern high latitude changes in temperature and precipitation across this major climatic transition. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to provide researchers that investigate fossil phytolith assemblages and model/data comparisons a new tool for estimating C3/C4 grass composition over time. We tested the reliability of modern soil phytolith assemblages and phytolith indices for tracing the dominance of different grass subfamilies and tree cover density. We analyzed modern soil phytolith assemblages from sites over elevation gradients on Mount Kenya (Kenya), Mount Rungwe and around Lake Masoko (southern Tanzania). These data were compared with available botanical data. A phytolith index named Ic, proved to be an effective proxy of the proportions of Pooideae, Arundinoideae and Bambusoideae grasses (mainly C3 grasses) versus Panicoideae grasses (mainly C4 grasses), increasing with elevation in East-Africa. When tropical mountains are covered by open habitats (e.g. grasses and shrublands), Ic should be a reliable proxy of the C3/C4 grass composition. These results highlight the value of the phytolith index Ic, when interpreting paleo-environmental records from tropical mountains, to: 1) better understand past local and regional C3/C4 grass distributions and associated climatic changes and 2) increase the set of C3/C4 data available for model/data comparisons. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]