A simplistic representation of Nigeria characterises the African giant as a country with northern Muslim and southern Christian sections. This regional and religious dichotomy hides ancient ethnic tensions rooted in Nigeria’s colonial past. Since 1999, Nigeria’s democratisation process has exacerbated national divisions during the presidential elections. Thereafter, the zoning system—a mechanism to manage the political tensions among northerners and southerners, between Muslims and Christians, and among the Yoruba, the Ibo and the Hausa-Fulani—was adopted, soon becoming a key characteristic of Nigeria’s political landscape. Additionally, Goodluck Jonathan, as Musa Yaradua’s vice-president, rose to the presidency after the latter’s death. Jonathan’s association with the Christian Association of Nigeria promoted a Christian agenda to fight against what they perceived to be Muslims’ ‘evil’ plans for Nigeria. Through a comparative analysis of the period ranging from the 1999 presidential elections to date, the present study analyses the impact of presidents’ religious affiliation on democracy, development and corruption in Nigeria.

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Rumour, a basic feature of rural livelihoods, has often been utilised to dispel fears and elaborate events deemed complicated. As ordinary people continue to adopt digital platforms to engage with the state and markets, rumours prominently feature on digital platforms, thus becoming definitive agents for political and social change. This study provides an in-depth analysis of how rumour was leveraged as a tool for political messaging on digital platforms in rural Kenya during the 2022 general elections. We argue that political actors made normative policy claims that were weaponised by the two dominant coalitions’ supporters at the grassroots level through dynamic networks that spread campaign information. The weaponisation of policy statements transformed normative claims into age-old rumours that have aided political discourse in contemporary Kenya. As the rumours spread, the networks informed the recipience of political messages and their popularity. To build this thesis, this study uses empirical evidence gathered through fieldwork in an ethnography of the residents of rural central Kenya. We use social network analysis (SNA) to analyse the subject matter by picking key spreaders of information on digital platforms to show the networks on which they relied to spread their information.

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This study examines existing trade networks in African countries. Using bilateral trade statistics, a regression analysis examining colonial legacy, geographical relationships, and existing subregional agreements in the gravity model is conducted. The results suggest that existing regional agreements are associated with more trade to some extent, but with exceptions. Moreover, using network analysis, the African trade ties and their historical changes are considered. Visualization of African trade networks clearly revealed that the importance ofWestern trade counterparts was overshadowed by emerging Asian and other countries. Moreover, the importance of intra-African trade is confirmed. While African intra-regional trade is often described as minimal, network analysis also suggests that African countries are indeed connected through trade ties even though trade volume may be low.

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The study examines the implications of customary land tenure conversions for the power of traditional leaders, who have had the power to allocate land and upholding customary law among occupants of such land. It is argued that conversion of customary land to leasehold tenure system negatively affects the power of traditional leaders. Using the conceptual framework premised on Gluckman’s theory of power, one variable factor ‘size of land’ was used to formulate an interview guide. In-depth interviews were conducted with key informants. For validity and reliability, various stakeholders with different specialisation on this topic were incorporated to deepen/widen the scope of producing this knowledge. The results revealed that customary land that was being converted to leasehold tenure system was reducing the size of the customary land for the Chiefdom. Additionally, the change from customary land tenure system denies traditional leaders the rights to allocate land to local people. Second, local people are forced to change their livelihood from agricultural based to informal jobs. Finally, it stops local people living in clans for their unity and easy formulation of customary law in a collective voice.

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The global demand for cocoa has increased. As a result, the area used for cocoa production rapidly increased. Africa alone produces over 70% of the cocoa in the world, with Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire being the main producers. Although listed as a crop that drives deforestation and forest degradation, cocoa farming has the potential to actively contribute to forest restoration. If practised in agroforestry and fallow or degraded areas, it can considerably contribute to biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, poverty mitigation, and other services. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which features a large forest in the Congo Basin (60%), has become a new hotspot for this cash crop. As one of the areas suitable for the development of this crop, which has been grown since colonial times, Tshopo province, DRC, is experiencing rapid increases in its cocoa-growing area. As such, our objective in this study was to track the trajectories of cocoa farming in Tshopo and determine their contributions to climate change mitigation through the restoration of degraded ecosystems. We described all cocoa development initiatives in the Tshopo province, along with their potential responses to climate change.

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In Tshopo, a forested province in the north-eastern part of the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), the regulation of water availability and quality is crucial for sustaining livelihoods and protecting communities from natural hazards. These ecosystem services are crucial for reducing water vulnerability and providing sufficient water for domestic use in places where the government’s capacity to manage water resources is insufficient. However, the forests of Tshopo are threatened by climate change and various anthropogenic activities. Its rural landscape is dominated by forests that are undergoing several transformations, exposing water bodies to contamination. Hence, water is one of the key resources vulnerable to climate change in the Tshopo Province. As few studies have focused on the understanding of water availability at the sub-national level in the DRC, in this work, we aim to review the current water situation and its relation to climate change and forest degradation in the Tshopo province. Our analysis shows the necessity to develop well-defined strategic plans that consider contextual specificities and to find a trade-off between forest and water management strategies to respond to water-vulnerability risks in the region.

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In Cameroon, malaria is a major public health problem despite the response mechanisms put in place. According to the Ewondo Population, an interinfluential relationship exists between this pathology and spleen disease, a disease recognized as such only at the community level. Our main objective was to describe the perceptions and different cultural mechanisms of the management of these two affections. To achieve this goal, 70 informants were interviewed, and results were obtained. The populations attributed to these pathologies, namely, ebem koé or snail spleen and tite meki or an animal’s blood disease describe the characteristics and potential sources of these pathologies. In the event of a malaria crisis, 37.1% of the informants used their knowledge of existing therapeutic solutions, 28.6% passed through clinician advices, and 34.3% recourse to traditional pharmacopoeia. For proven spleen disease cases, 77.1% of the informants directly sought the services of traditional doctors, and 20.8% used their own knowledge. Of the 42 samples identified, 28 were used against spleen disease and 14 against malaria, while 9 were used against both pathologies. This reflection contributes to the enhancement of traditional pharmacopoeia through the enrichment of knowledge of the natural resources used by Ewondo.

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