Paper long abstract

This communication describes the parallel market of foreign currency in Luanda.

The paper is structured as following:

1) introduction note - this topic includes an approach to the extension of this activity based on the information available and a explaining of the methodological procedures adopted;

2) brief description of the history and evolution of this activity, in comparison with the official exchange market in Angola;

3) identification of its determinant factors;

4) characterization of its structural elements, its internal logic and its regulation procedures;

5) identification of the main articulations with the official exchange system;

6) conclusion - the most significant aspects related with the different dimensions analysed are highlight.

The information reported is the result of the combination of several sources:

a) a bibliography revue in the area of parallel market of foreign currency in Angola, as well as in some other sub-saharan African countries;

b) a press dossier, based on the daily newspaper "Jornal de Angola" and the weekly newspapers "Angolense" and "Folha 8";

c) nine (9) interviews with experts and institutional members directly involved in this activity (National Bank of Angola, exchange facilities, and so on);

d) twelve (12) semi-structured interviews collected in the field from September to December 2003 and in July-August 2004 to doleiros based in Asa Branca and Roque Santeiro markets and to kinguilas who perform this activity in some of the main streets of Luanda.

Paper short abstract

Three case studies of provision of education in conflict and post-conflict. - Getting Southern Sudanese up to speed in Communication Skills - Life skills for youth through Youth FM radios and radio clubs in E Congo - Accelerated primary school ifor formerly abducted girls in Northern Uganda

Paper long abstract

War leaves many people stranded in education. During and after, there is always a large number who have missed out on their education. Most of them cannot simply go back to school for reasons ranging from age (for twenty years large areas of Southern Sudan had no schools of any kind), to social situation (e.g. formerly abducted and raped young mothers in Northern Uganda cannot sit in class with young children) through to time available (people have to work for a living). Getting Southern Sudanese up to speed in English/Communication Skills. This paper looks at three of these situations where Echo Bravo ("Education in Difficult Circumstances") has been working.

1) Getting Southern Sudanese up to speed in English/Communication Skills

The above factors and the change-over to English-medium in formerly government held towns has left many people stranded having to cede to returning refugees job opportunities and access to services and donors. The British Coucil/DfID/AET programme seeks to restore the balance by self-help modules and cassettes in English and Communications Skills.

2) Life skills training for youth through Youth FM radios and radio clubs in Eastern Congo

In Baraka, South Kivu, returning refugee youth, ex-militias and those who were just trapped by the conflict in DR Congo have set up their own small radio stations which have a near universal following among the youth of the area, whether in formal school or not. Echo Bravo, working for War Child Canada, has a Congolese youth team training 50 youth as

- journalists and

- animateurs for HIV/AIDS, LIfe Skills.

The radios are also helping teachers following a distance education course and passing messages on health etc prpeared by government, churches and NGOs.

3) Accelerated primary school in afternoons for formerly abducted women in Northern Uganda

In the LRA-affected part of Northern Uganda the on-going conflict has caused massive population movement to very constricting camps. Normal school has resumed as the schools have shifted from the villages to the camps. However in many camps there is a significant number (now growing as peace seems to be coming) of 'boys' and 'girls' who were abducted into the rebel army and managed one way or another to return. Many of the girls have small babies and/or are pregnant. Echo Bravo with the help of the primary schools, and organising creches, provides accelerated education (3 or 4 years of primary instead of 7) in the afternoons for these returning young people.

The paper looks into the issues raised by these situations and how responses evolve and adapt according to local circumstances and factors (such as, for instance, the paramount need in some places to get a certificate).

Paper long abstract

Since the 1990s, heated debates have unfolded in Ghana on the origin of kente cloth. These discussions mainly concern the primacy of Asante versus Ewe weaving. Weaving has a long history in many parts of Ghana, and interconnections between textiles from the Ewe- and Twi-speaking regions go back at least to the 19th century.

In this paper, I will disentangle the ways in which different current claims on the origin of kente cloth are locally reproduced and understood, and therefore I will provide insights in local perceptions and constructions of the past. To unravel apparent paradoxes, I will focus my attention on different ways of seeing, experiencing, interpreting and performing the past in a field of contested narratives. This will add to the existing literature on understanding indigenous truths. Narratives not only create coherent scenarios which articulate shared meanings, as Habermas pointed out, but are also further shaped in their fierce contestations over control and authority in interpreting the past correctly.