Scientific Director & Chief Editor
Komla M. Avono (Ph.D.)
ISSN 2710-4699 Online
3 issues per year
Addressing Fatherhood Responsibility in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
Abstract: This paper is devoted to father’s greatest responsibility in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. It addresses how child education constitutes parents’ most preoccupying challenge. Many parents’ irresponsibility towards this challenge is equally highlighted. Through the lens of Reader- response theory, the paper focuses on father’s role in child’s education by considering The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird, two classics of Bildungsroman. It has two parts: after addressing parental irresponsibility in child education, it advocates for parents’ investment in child’s upbringing through analysis of father-child relationships in both works.
Keywords: Responsibility, Child, Education, Parent, Fatherhood
Exploring the Impact of Globalization on Indigenous Languages: A Comparative Analysis of Eʋe and English in Translation
Abstract: Globalization has created both opportunities and challenges for indigenous languages. While it has enabled the dissemination and promotion of these languages through digital platforms and global communication networks, it has also introduced significant challenges, particularly in the field of translation. Effective translation requires a deep understanding of the syntactic, semantic, and cultural nuances of both the source and target languages. This article explores the impact of globalization on the Eʋe language, an indigenous language spoken in parts of West Africa, and compares it with English through the lens of the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) framework. By analyzing linguistic and cultural differences, the study identifies the key challenges faced in translating between these two languages and proposes strategies to improve cross-cultural understanding. The findings demonstrate that a comprehensive understanding of these differences can improve translation practices, leading to more accurate and culturally sensitive communication.
Keywords: Globalization, indigenous languages, Eʋe, translation, Role and Reference Grammar, Cross-Cultural Communication
The Esthetics of Covid-19 in Les enfants de midi by Koutchoukalo Tchassim
Abstract: Towards the end of 2019, the whole world learned of the appearance of Covid-19, a virus which is decimating part of the Chinese population. While it was believed that this virus would be limited to China alone, it spread across our planet with lightning speed, forcing political authorities to take exceptional measures to curb its effects and health specialists to think to remedies. This article therefore aims to study the role that writers were able to play in this time of health crisis. Among the many novelistic productions relating to the writing of Covid-19, we have chosen to look at ‘’Les Enfants de midi’’ by Koutchoukalo Tchassim published in 2020, the time when the crisis was at its peak. His work presents itself as the diary of the second wife of the main character whose acts of infidelity deprive him of a bright future. Beyond the representation of the theme of Covid-19 and its implications, this study reveals man’s awareness of his fragility. The semiotic approach of Joseph Courtés, whose attention is paid to the structure and in particular to the form of the content, will serve as a guide for the study.
Keywords: Aesthetics, Health Crisis, Semiotics, Despair, Responsibility
Heidegger and the Destiny of Metaphysics: Overcoming Metaphysics
Abstract: These lines attempt to make explicit the metamorphoses of the meaning of metaphysics in Martin Heidegger. They constitute an analysis of the phenomenological issues of the project of overcoming metaphysics as it is accomplished through contact with poetry and theology. The overcoming of metaphysics is accomplished in the intersection of phenomenology and ontology on the terrain of poetry. This onto-phenomenology takes on the accents of a theio-poetics announcing the parousia of Being. With regard to its eschatological deployment, the thought of Being implies the following deduction: the destiny of metaphysics is metaphysics as the destiny of Being itself.
Keywords: Dasein, Metaphysic, Phenomenology, Poetry, Theology
Land Grabbing in Sub-Saharan Africa and Food Security
Abstract: Land grabbing has been on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa since the early 2000s. According to the States and institutions that promote it, it is intended to promote investment in agriculture, correcting the inability of family farming to produce beyond self-subsistence to ensure food security. The article takes stock of the issue in sub-Saharan Africa (scale, actors, nature of investments and their purposes) and qualifies the justifications for land grabbing, which, contrary to the arguments of their promoters, rather contribute to a weakening of the resilience capacities of rural populations by dispossessing their main factor of production (land) without providing them with other sources of income. Finally, the article analyzes the destructuring consequences of the WTO’s free trade rules as well as those of African states’ public policies based on the state’s disengagement from sectors as strategic as agriculture. The article, in the continuation of previous reflections on the question of land grabbing, was produced from an exploitation of documentary sources to feed the reflection.
Keywords: Land Grabbing, Family Farming, Food Security, Food Self-Sufficiency, Sub-Saharan Africa
Lexico-Semantic Study of the Names of the Original Districts of Akumaƒə, a Strain of the Waci Community
Abstract: This study presents the names of the original districts of Akumaƒǝ. It aims to highlight the part of linguistics sometimes neglected in the process from names to places. It is based on the lexicosemantic approach which relates to lexicology, precisely to toponymy since it deals with place names. It uses field data collected and documentation available on the entire waci heritage. The analyses are carried out within the framework of sociolinguistics, a discipline organized and theorized in 1976in the USA by William Labov due to the fact that it concerns the use of language by speakers in the field of attribution of names to the places. It is reinforced by the transformational approach imbued with the generativist theory of Chomsky (1957, trans 13-39) analyzing units in surface and deep structure. It sprinkled with the pragmatics of Anne-Marie Diller and François Recanati (6-20) to be able to identify the context the attribution of names to places and their meaning. In fact, it lists the main basic districts of Akoumapé in chronological order and analyzed the different morphosemantic processes that emerge from their names. It appears that these names are for the most part result from of composition and derivation with relatively varied meanings depending on the contexts of their attributions.
Keywords: Waci, Names, Neighborhoods, Onomastics Lexicosemantics
Enunciative Dynamics in Gabonese Poetry: An Exploration of “Sanglotites Équatoriales” by Nadia Origo
Abstract: “Sanglotites équatoriales” is a discourse that reveals a singular dynamic. Through this poem rises a voice that is in tune with that of the oppressed to create a statement that challenges an audience sensitive to a cause: to denounce the violence of warlords against the weak populations of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The objective of the writer-speaker is to revive these horrible acts, in order to make people aware of the seriousness of the situation. Indeed, the poem becomes a cry of alarm since it exposes a fact that the authorities want to conceal. A descriptive poem, but above all a lyrical one, the sender irremediably leads his multiple speakers to form a community with him. It is in this sense that Nadia Origo’s “Sanglotites équatoriales” acquires an intersubjective posture. The aim of this article is to show how the poem “Sanglotites équatoriales” allows the writer-speaker to speak and create a dynamic space of communication. Hence the choice to explore it using the theoretical and analytical tools of the stylistics of enunciation.
Keywords: Apostrophe, Dialogue, Interaction, Scenography, Subjectivity, Intersubjectivity
Motivating Students in Middle School Mathematics: An Analysis of the Social Use of Mathematics
Abstract: This paper analyzes and understands the place of the social use of mathematics in the motivation of students in middle school. This is how this research aims to characterize the motivation of students in mathematics in middle school. To carry out this study, we chose a qualitative research methodology based on semi-directed interviews. The results obtained show that the social use of mathematics can be the fastest and most effective way to motivate students in learning mathematics in middle school.
Keywords: Motivation, Pupils, Social Use, And Mathematics
School-based Responsibility Education Programs as an Antagonistic Process to Violent Radicalization
Abstract: According to El Ourmi (89), radicalization, which has become a major concern for all countries for several years, is a psycho-affective process which leads the individual to present assertions as incontestable truths, without recourse to a critical spirit therefore reflecting a psychological closure towards otherness. In order to effectively combat this phenomenon, primary prevention strategies are developed in conjunction with military actions. Thus we propose through this reflection carried out on the basic of rich literature obtained thanks to a documentary review, to see to what extent “responsibility education programs” advocated by Hagège (78), can effectively arouse critical thinking, and promote acquisition of skills (epistemic, emotional, attentional, relational and axiological), and constitute a process antagonistic to violent radicalization. The expected results are the adaptation of these programs to the African socio-educational context, and their integration into the school and professional curriculum.
Keywords: Responsibility Education Programs, Antagonistic Process, Violent Radicalization, School and Professional Curriculum.
When Faith Wavers: Analysis of Religious Disillusionment in Marcos’s La paroisse aux serpents by Marcos Ayayi
Abstract: This article explores the theme of religious disillusionment in the novel La paroisse aux serpents by Marcos Ayayi, based on the sociological, psychological and ethical theories of Luckmann, Erikson and Batson. It shows how Luckmann’s theory of the “deconstruction of religious reality” allows to interpret the evolution of the values and knowledge of the characters facing the crisis of faith. It also examines the link between identity development and religion, according to Erikson’s perspective, to understand the processes of religious disillusionment experienced by the protagonists. Finally, it explores the emotional dynamics related to altruism and compassion in a religious context, based on Batson’s research. This study helps to demystify the complex mechanisms of religious disillusionment in the specific context of Ayayi’s novel and enrich the reader’s understanding of how faith can be questioned, both in reality and in the imaginative universe created by the author.
Keywords: Religion, Deconstruction, Religious Identity, Altruism, Compassion.
Les impatientes by Djaïli Amadou Amal: Between Enunciation and Denunciation of Patriarchy
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyse how Djaïli Amadou Amal’s novel, in describing the life of women among the Fulani of northern Cameroon, denounces cultural and religious practices embodied by men and which are dehumanising for women. Using the scene of enunciation constructed in and by the text, and a plural enunciation that gives voice to Fulani culture in the novel, the writing lays bare the abuses of men’s absolute power.
Keywords: Denunciation, Enunciation, Fulani Woman, Patriarchy, Scenography
Universal Health Insurance in Togo: The Need to Involve Patients’ Linguistic Resources
Abstract: Access to healthcare for the Togolese population has become a reality thanks to Universal Health Insurance (AMU). To this end, AMU has put in place practical measures such as the involvement of the vast majority of health facilities, the mobilization of health care providers, etc. This implies that better health coverage depends on the quality and quantity of healthcare providers and health infrastructures. However, it turns out that the relevance of medical diagnosis and the quality of care administered to patients remain intrinsically linked to the linguistic factor, in particular to linguistic concordance in the patient-caregiver relationship. Using qualitative methods, this paper analyses the impact of linguistic discordance between patients and caregivers in Dapaong hospitals. It is in line with the theoretical approach of linguistics for development (Bearth and Fan 2002; Métangmo-Tatou, 2019; Zouogbo 2022). Analysis has shown that the quality of information received by caregivers influences the nature of the medical act, and taking the linguistic factor into account in the implementation of AMU augurs well for the program’s success, with increased accessibility to hospitals.
Keywords: Linguistic Factor, Patients, Caregivers, Medical Act
Sexual Tontines Among School-Going Adolescents in Abidjan: Modern Rite of Passage and/or Sexual Perversion?
Abstract: In recent years, the Ivorian school system has been confronted with a troubling phenomenon that tarnishes the image of the educational system: the sexual tontine. This unhealthy and socially deviant practice has emerged among students, gaining momentum and gradually eroding moral values within schools. The sexual tontine is characterized by an organized behavior among groups of adolescents who regularly pool funds, estimated at around 2,000 FCFA per day per individual, into a common fund. In turn, each group member uses the collected money to pay for sexual relations with girls, typically in a hotel, a furnished residence, or any other location of their choice. Faced with this phenomenon, we undertook a study in several schools to better understand its mechanisms and implications. The objective of this research is to analyze whether the sexual tontines practiced among school-aged adolescents in Abidjan represent a new form of rite of passage or whether they constitute a manifestation of sexual perversion. This study is based on a sample of six adolescents, aged 16 to 18. To achieve this objective, a qualitative methodology was adopted, utilizing semi-structured interviews to gather the necessary data. These data were then analyzed using a content analysis approach, allowing us to identify the main trends and dynamics at play. The results of the study show that sexual tontines play a significant role as a rite of passage among school-aged adolescents in Abidjan. They serve as a mechanism for integration within social groups, facilitating the recognition and belonging of young people through participation in collective and ritualized sexual activities. By allowing adolescents to assert themselves and validate their status within the group, these practices reflect social integration processes and identity formation characteristic of traditional rites of passage.
Keywords: Sexual Tontines, Adolescence, Rites Of Passage, Sexual Perversion
Beyond the Shadows of the Street: Understanding the Impact of Psycho-Affective Development on the Defense Mechanisms Adopted by Children in Street Situations in Lomé
Abstract: This study, carried out in the streets of Lomé, made it possible to explore the psychological aspects of street children on the one hand, and then to analyze the impact of psycho-affective development on the defense mechanisms they adopted. We started from the hypothesis that street children who have not received strong emotional support in childhood use aggressive defense mechanisms to survive on the street. To collect our information, we selected children in street situations aged 10 to 19, who had spent at least three months on the street with any family breakdown and who were present on the three sites planned for our survey, such as Kodjoviakopé, Agoè Zongo and Hollando on the days of the interviews. Using an interview grid, the Rorschach projective test and the Rosenberg scale, the information was collected and then analyzed using the quantitative and qualitative method including content analysis. The results obtained show that in the process of psychoaffective development, attachment experiences influence the ability to negotiate and form compromises in interpersonal relationships and in the choice of psychic defense systems. In our sample, we find a workforce of 95.23% with child needs and 85.71% with conflict management difficulties. To get out of this impasse a little, the ESRs in particular withdraw into themselves with a tendency to stifle their emotional lives. (That’s 80.95% of our sample). The quality of psycho-affective development leads to the adoption of particular defense mechanisms. Despite the fragility of their daily lives, these children in street situations demonstrate an astonishing inner strength that allows them to cope with the harsh conditions of life on the street.
Keywords: Child, Street, Psycho-Emotional Development, Defense Mechanisms
Challenges and Prospects for Urban Land Management in Kara
Abstract: The city of Kara has been experiencing rapid population growth for several decades resulting in urban dynamics which results in the spread of the city towards its outskirts. This urban dynamic implies an increase in space requirements. We then witness more and more the sale of the land domains of the local authorities who are Kabyè. In the sale of their properties, these communities do not take care to consistently reserve the spaces dedicated to the State or the municipality for the establishment of basic socio-collective infrastructures. These land-owners are selling or occupying the spaces abusively without any respect for the road layout plans, which leads to the drafting of the widths of many lanes in the city. The fragmentation and sale of spaces in the city of Kara which have not been supervised by the municipality has led to urban development which does not respect the rules of the art. The objective of this dissertation is to analyze land management in the city of Kara and its impact on sustainable urban development. The methodology used to obtain the data was the interview, the field survey which consisted of administering the questionnaires to 128 people. At the end of the field results, Word, Excel, SPSS, Arc gis, Q gis and Auto cad software were used to process these data. The results thus obtained show that in the Kozah commune 1.60% of the administrative reserves are fragmented and sold by the local communities.
Keywords: Land Management, Population Growth, Land Pressure, Sustainable Urban Development, City of Kara
Scriptural Simplicity and Thematic Complexity in L’étranger by Albert Camus
Abstract: Albert Camus, in L’étranger, adopts a simple, spare writing style to explore some highly complex themes. The novel is characterized by short, direct sentences, an everyday lexicon and an absence of elaborate figures of speech. This stylistic choice creates a distancing effect and reflects the emotional detachment of the protagonist, Meursault. The first-person narrative, centered on Meursault, offers a limited, subjective perspective, reinforcing the character’s sense of alienation from society and social norms. This essay highlights the novel’s antinomic dimension and analyzes its implications. Drawing on Gérard Genette’s narratological approach and Julia Kristeva’s semiotics, it shows that Camus has succeeded in using simple linguistic tools to address major themes such as the absurd, death and justice. The concept of the absurd, a key element in Camus’s philosophy, is embodied in Meursault’s reactions and attitudes, shown through his indifference to social conventions and the quest for meaning.
Simplicité scripturale et complexité thématique dans L’étranger d’Albert Camus