African Journals Online
The African Anthropologist

JOURNAL OF THE PAN AFRICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Number 2 Volume VII September 2000
Abstracts

ASSESSING APARTHEID'S DAMAGE: THE BROKEN MARRIAGE OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND EPIDEMIOLOGY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Suzanne LECLERC-MADLALA
School of Anthropology and Psychology
University of Natal

ABSTRACT
South Africa is currently grappling with the problem of transforming a fragmented, apartheid-inspired health delivery system structured along racial lines. Cuban doctors have been invited to serve in rural areas where many South African-trained medical personnel refuse to go, often joining the post-democracy 'brain drain' as a result of dissatisfaction with government health policies. This paper attempts to bring to light a once very successful and highly innovative health delivery model that was conceived and piloted in South Africa over a half-century ago. This model combined anthropology and epidemiology and resulted in calls for a re-design of national health delivery based on what was called the Pholela model. Due to short sighted government policy at the time, the model was exported abroad (via immigration) where it formed the basis of several progressive health initiatives in various countries. Significantly, it marked the beginnings of social science and medicine collaborations that are still viewed as an ideal for developing more effective health interventions. The author suggests that this historic experiment at Pholela has much to offer in terms of providing a model that could foster transformations in both academic and medical service.

L'ENVIRONNEMENT DANS LE CONTEXTE DE LA MONDIALISATION

HAUHOUOT Asseypo
Université de Cocody, Côte d'Ivoire

ABSTRACT

Globalization is the process of standardization and globalization of economic exchanges which turns the world into a vast market in which the game of economic scales and comparative advantages are played in full. This tendency which started in the 80s seems to relegate weak nations to the background and give multinational companies far-reaching powers. The weakening of state powers has emerged as a consequence. The degradation of the environment by big firms have led to serious environmental consequences.

The depletion of our forest resources, intensive exploitation of mineral reserves; worsening of climatic conditions due mainly to the emissions of greenhouse gas, etc are just some of these problems created not by Africans but by those who have no interest in a humane world but only in profit. This papers attempts to address these issues.

L'URBANISATION AFRICAINE SOUS LES REFLETS DU MIRAGE DE LA MONDIALISATION

KOUAKOU N'GUESSAN François
Universite de Bouaké,Bouaké,
Côte d'Ivoire

ABSTRACT

Reflection on "African urbanisation in the light of the mirage of globalization" focuses on the following main preoccupations: Characteristics of African urbanisation in the context of globalization; Response of social and cultural anthropology; and Perspectives offered to research and research-action? This paper raises questions about the processes of urbanisation in Africa and its developmental corollaries within world-wide ideology. It finally focuses on anthropological perspectives of a true "africanisation" of urban space within the global perspective.

L'EDUCATION DE BASE DANS LE CONTEXTE DE LA MONDIALISATION

NIAMKEY Koffi
Université de Cocody
Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

RESUME

Notre communication s'interroge sur les principes anthropologiques que la mondialisation propose et sur la pertinence des adaptations qu'elle commande à l'éducation. Comment légitimer la transposition, les exigences de la transnationalité de l'économie dans le domaine de la citoyenneté? Comment concilier l'exigence civique de solidarité nationale avec les exigences d'adaptation à la flexibilité et à la précarité? Pour examiner ces questions, nous nous sommes engagés à restituer la mondialisation à son histoire, celle d'une perversion du libéralisme sous sa figure néolibérale qu'il faut corriger en rejetant l'idéologie anti-humaniste qui prône la marchandisation du monde et des hommes.