The study of land tenure in Africa has a long history. This paper examines critically some classical frameworks of land tenure studies in Africa and suggests that it is important to pay attention to land variations in terms of the resource use. Among the Oromo society, which is the main ethnic group in the study area, the term abba lafa (a father of land) has been treated as a key concept for their land tenure system. This case study, however, indicates that there is a wide range of land use variation and that its meaning and value can be varied based on the way of resource utilization, and according to the agricultural calendar. In the individually owned coffee plot, labor force is intensively inputted at a very limited time in the harvest season, but it is not exclusively enclosed. In maize field, which is also owned by households, farmers use and keep it exclusively from sowing to harvest, but after harvest, cattle herd of other villagers come in and graze freely. At lowland meadow, the cattle graze all year round and no one owns the land. While the land in settlements, especially along the main street, is frequently sold and bought, the land in each compound of household, enclosed with a fence, is owned and used in multilayered way among family members. All these lands are not under a single local institution, or not fully covered by a certain folk system. The differences of land use influence the degree of exclusivity and the value of the land. This paper reveals the wide varieties of land resources in a rural village and argues that the land use pattern is one of the most significant factors for land tenure.

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Among Lebu people in Senegal, a new-born child's name is announced one week after its birth on the occasion of naming ceremony (ngénte). The name is selected by its father from his relatives' or friends' names. The person after whom the child is named is called turandoo. A turandoo should make gifts for the child occasionally and help and support him or her materially and morally.
In March and April, 2005, I made an inquiry about personal naming practices of a family in a Lebu village. The object of this paper is to show the data and consider the matter. The family is a polygamous extended family based on patrilocal residence rules. A male child's turandoo is his father's father (11.3%), his mother's father (5.7%), his father's brother (5.7%), his father's male cousin (3.8%), his father's half brother (of the same mother) (9.4%), his father's friend (24.5%), a leader of his Islamic brotherhood (3.8%), and so on in 53 cases. A female child's turandoo is her father's female cousin (14.3%), her father's mother (11.4%), her father's sister (5.7%), her mother's co-wife (17.1%), her father's mother's co-wife (5.7%), and so on in 35 cases.
In other words, a boy is named after his father's relatives (45.3%), friends (24.5%), Islamic persons (11.3%) and half brothers (9.4%); a girl after her father's relatives (57.1%), wives (except for the girl's own mother) (22.9%), half sisters (5.7%) and father's wives (except for the girl's own grandmother) (5.7%). Therefore, there are four major options of the child's turandoo; for a boy his father selects non-family men (about 35%), and characteristically-polygamous-family men (e.g., his half brothers) (about 10%), for a girl characteristically-polygamous-family women (e.g., his wives, half sisters, father's wives) (about 35%), and for both a boy and a girl his consanguineous family (each about 45; 60%).
Lebu people say that naming by turandoo is for strengthening family ties and easing polygamous family tensions and conflicts. The findings above exemplify this. And I must add that the father also uses his sons' names for constructing outer family relations.

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In the Gold Coast, the spread of Western education and the influx of educated Sierra Leoneans in the second half of nineteenth century caused an increase in the population that was literate in English. The expansion of the literate class activated discussions in English, which formed the basis of the publication of newspapers. Such newspapers could be regarded as one of the important written sources for examining the contemporary historical issues of the Gold Coast; this is because they allow us to directly access the discussions and arguments of the editors, writers and contributors through the articles and letters that they contain. However, when we refer to these articles and letters as historical documents, it is indispensable to clarify the conditions under which the newspapers conveying them were published.
In order to elucidate these aspects, this paper surveys the characteristics of the newspapers published in the Gold Coast in the latter half of the nineteenth century, particularly with regard to the years, place and frequency of publication; the newspaper's price, number of pages and size; and the names of the editor, publisher, proprietor and printer. The author also examines the following questions: how many copies were published, what kinds of people subscribed to or read these newspapers, how was the newspaper business managed in those days, what was the tone of the press, and how did the colonial authorities react to them? The appendix contains further information on the collection of the nineteenth-century Gold Coast newspaper issues owned by the libraries and archives at which the author has so far conducted this research (the British Library Newspaper Library at Colindale; the Ghana National Archives, now known as the Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD); and the Balme Library, University of Ghana at Legon).

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Today, the main stream of development approach has changed from economic growth to social development, and not only international organizations but also non government organizations came to be core actors of development. ‘Gender and Development (GAD)’ is an important approach for development, especially ‘empowerment’ is a new key concept of GAD approach. However, there are still few reports on local women's NGOs working in developing countries. In this paper, through a case study of one women's NGO in Burkina Faso organized in 1975, I would like to focus on ‘empowerment’ activities done by this NGO and examine the possibility of this kind of empowerment approach.

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