Dance4Life is an exciting and innovative programme, launched in Zambia in January 2008 and being implemented by Students Partnership Worldwide (SPW). SPW is a youth-led NGO with the mission to place young people in the forefront of change and development, and has a partnership with Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) in Zambia. Dance4Life is a global movement that involves young people as leaders in pushing back HIV and AIDS. It also unites young people, using aspects of youth culture, particular more...
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This is a feature from the Governance facet of the Eldis development portal. 'Are customary institutions or informal institutions, as they are known, detrimental to the development process? Do these institutions have any relevance in the modern society? Do they matter for development at all and how? What is the relationship between the formal and informal institutional set-up? This key issue guide addresses these questions. It discusses the prevalence of informal institutions in many developing more...
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Located on the left bank of the Ubangi River, the 120,000 Ngbandi have lived in this area of forest and plains since the 17th century. Their settlements were dispersed and lack of overall political organization; a hamlet would generally be made up of an extended family or patrilineal clan. They practiced slash-and-burn agriculture growing manioc, maize, sorghum and bananas and lived off fishing and hunting. The Ngbandi had a system of initiation named gaza or ganza: “that which gives strength. more...
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Living on the left bank of the Zaire River are the Lengola people, who number 100,000. Several ethnicities are also found in this region -- the Mbole, the Yela, and the Metoko, and among them it is difficult to distinguish since their social structure is similar. They make their living from banana farming and hunting. The Butoka society regulates their social, political and economic activities. The Lengola had rituals of circumcision and initiation. Divided into lineages, they are very intricat more...
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The Djimini are a sub-group of the larger Senufo group of Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, and Burkina Faso. This people group of 100,000 lives in the northeastern central region of the country. It is important for a Djimini to be a good farmer. The more successful a man is as a farmer, the greater recognition and respect he receives from his peers. Men and women from all stages of life are expected to farm to contribute to the needs of their family in the village. Community and friendship are equally impor more...
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The eastern coast of the Côte d'Ivoire comprises the area of lagoons. The population here is divided into twelve language groups with Akye being one of them. The Akye numbering 55,000 constitute a part of the Akan group of ethnicities. Before colonization each village was autonomous and, when threatened, they united to form a 'confederation'. Usually these people are not governed by chiefs, although a man's social position is determined by his age.
Early Akan economics revolved primarily ar more...
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The Bambara numbering 2,500.000 million form the largest ethnic group within Mali. The triangle of the Bambara region, divided in two parts by the Niger River, constitutes the greater part of the western and southern Mali of today. The dry savanna permits no more than a subsistence economy, and the soil produces, with some difficulty, corn, millet, sorghum, rice, and beans. Their traditions include six male societies, each with its own type of mask. Initiation for men lasts for seven years and e more...
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