The aim of the paper is to identify which factors influence the production of crude oil in Africa and what it means for the investments in oil production on this continent in the future. In order to identify these factors it is necessary to create a function of production. A number of variables have been chosen, which are likely to have an influence on the level of exploitation, such as the price of oil, oil consumption in Africa, oil import by the US, etc. The estimation of the function was based on the statistical analysis of empirical data. For the years 1980–2015 the linear regression model was estimated using the method of ordinary least squares (OLS) and econometric software – GRETL. In order to find the best model the academic research on the global oil market has been taken into account and a variety of statistical and econometric tests have been made. According to the literature on the subject, the production of crude oil in Africa is mostly affected by two players – Europe and the US. The first includes the member states of the OPEC. There are also countries of West Africa which in the past exported most of their production to the US. The model shows that the situation has changed after the “shale revolution”, which reduced the level of imported oil and consequently the level of African production. Moreover, an interesting trend has been noticed, namely that when oil prices go up, the oil production in Africa decreases. The reason for this phenomenon is that high oil prices make American shale plays more profitable than West African petroleum basins. The model aggregating macroeconomic indicators and statistics is a very useful management tool and it reveals the problems of the efficiency of investments in oil production in Africa.

Recent studies have shown that over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, with the number of people living in slums growing by over 20 million per year and people living in urban areas lacking access to adequate sanitation. This study presents a review of the challenges facing fecal sludge management (FSM). A globally relevant issue in developing urban centers, especially in selected developing countries in West Africa was discussed. Some key findings of the review are that effective sanitation in developing areas depends on the chain of services and that one of the largest problems in sanitation is FSM. This study presents the initial steps toward understanding the main issues involving FSM in developing cities of West Africa. Results are intended to be used as a support for decisions on policies, strategies for FSM, and investments for improved treatment facilities in the region. The study suggests that governments and private sector organizations should develop adequate measures for handling fecal sludge.

The purpose of this article is to establish a frame for arranging and classifying observations relating to the indigenous knowledge and oral traditions of the San people of southern Africa, mainly in Namibia. Oral literature of the San people serve, therefore, as a valuable source for re-constructing and reinforcing a positive collective identity of their history and cultural diversity. Several forms of expression such as folklore, poems, plants' names and personal narratives will be provided.

On the difference between environmental and climate migration and the reasons why migrants should be treated as active agents, rather than passive victims.

Prolacerta broomi is one of the most important of fossil reptiles. First considered as one of the earliest members of squamates, this basal archosauromorph has been used as a model for diapsid morphological evolution ever since its dis- covery, playing a pivotal role in hypotheses on the origin of diapsid reptiles. The holotype of Prolacerta broomi (UCMZ 2003.41R) is known from a mostly complete skull, but the original description is limited to the superficial features of the skull roof and palate. Since then, many other specimens of Prolacerta broomi have been recovered that potentially account for this limited access to anatomical information, but it remains unclear whether these aspects correspond well to the known material of the holotype. Here, the skull morphology of the holotype of Prolacerta broomi is revisited through the use of μCT scans. The identifications of some cranial elements have been corrected, such as the left prefrontal and lacrimal, and several new elements are revealed, including the epi- and ectopterygoids, prearticular, coronoid, and braincase bones. The orbitonasal region is described in detail and significantly shows a contribution of the lacrimal to the dorsal alveolar canal. Finally, the addition of the holotype as an independent OTU in recently published analyses indicate conflicts with the current knowledge on Prolacerta broomi phylogenetic affinity and taxonomy. First, it points to potential taxonomic inconsistency since the holotype does not form a monophyletic group with other Prolacerta broomi OTUs in any of the analyses and, second, it suggests a more basal position for the holotype than that recovered in some studies, more basal than rhynchosaurs and close to the origin of Crocopoda. Together, these findings indicate areas of future research interest in the study of early evolving archosauromorphs.

This study aims at exploring the conceptualisations of writing in the language-oriented Curricula of Polish and South African education in Grades 4–8 and 4–9, respectively. Using Ivanič's model we show how writing is framed in literacy education in Poland and South Africa. The findings suggest in general that curriculum developers in both countries tend to view writing as a set of genres and skills. Comparisons made between Polish and South African curricula reveal some differences both in conceptualising writing and in the presence of discourses of writing. In comparison to the Polish curricula, the South African ones are much more detailed, which what can mainly be traced back to their different formal structure. Nevertheless, implications for policy and curriculum development in both countries include a need for greater consideration of the complexities of writing.

Successions exposed in the Agadir Basin (upper Albian to middle Turonian), in the Anti-Atlas (lower Turonian) in Morocco and in central Tunisia (Cenomanian–Turonian) yield abundant microcrinoids of the family Roveacrinidae, which are described and assigned to 32 species and formae, in ten genera. The following new taxa are described: Fenestracrinus gen. nov. with the type species F. oculifer sp. nov., Discocrinus africanus sp. nov., Styracocrinus rimafera sp. nov., Lebenharticrinus quinvigintensis sp. nov., L. zitti sp. nov., Euglyphocrinus cristagalli sp. nov., E. jacobsae sp. nov., E. truncatus sp. nov., E. worthensis sp. nov., Roveacrinus gladius sp. nov., R. solisoccasum sp. nov. and Drepanocrinus wardorum sp. nov. In addition, the new subfamily Plotocrininae is erected. The stratigraphical distribution of the taxa in two important localities, Taghazout in the Agadir Basin (Morocco) and Sif el Tella, Djebel Mhrila (central Tunisia), is provided. The faunas from the uppermost Albian and lowermost Cenomanian of the Agadir Basin are nearly identical to those recorded from central Texas, USA, some 5,300 km away, and permit a detailed correlation (microcrinoid biozones CeR1 and CeR2) to be established across the southern part of the Western Tethys, independently supported by new ammonite records. For the middle and upper Cenomanian, rather few detailed records of microcrinoids are available elsewhere, and the North African record forms the basis for a new zonation (CeR3–CeR6). The distribution of Turonian Roveacrinidae in North Africa is evidently very similar to that described in the Anglo-Paris Basin, and zones TuR1–3, TuR9, 10 and 14 are recognised for the first time in the Tethys.

The title of the article, formulated by the Editors, requires a few clarifcations of terms. Both phenomena – Christianity and the African culture – are de facto plural and have to be regarded and treated as such. The title also juxtaposes a term that describes a religious reality with a cultural one (this also touches on the understanding of the relation between religion and culture). This can only be done on the assumption that “Christianity” means “a culture permeated by the Gospel message”.

The author argues that Christians have never presented a unifed attitude towards the African culture. As in the Christian antiquity, as in later times (including the present) Christians showed ambivalent attitudes towards the African culture. Some strongly opposed it, some allowed a restricted borrowing, some engaged actively with the African culture. One cannot see these attitudes in terms of development or regress because they have been synchronically present at all times. The attitudes towards African culture also changed at times within the particular strands of Christianity. What was rejected of hardly acceptable at one time becomes the order of the day at other. However, these attitudes have not been synchronized in all christian churches and communities.

After stating the article’s argument and making the terminological reservations, the author substantiate the argument presenting three types of interaction between Christianity and African culture giving examples from different times and regions.

The Arabic influence in West Africa has been studied from the perspectives of linguistics, anthropology, culture and religion. This paper will discuss both the common and divergent aspects of this influence, not only on linguistic material but also on anthropological data. This does not mean that only anthropological data has influenced the languages dealt with, but the donor language is also studied under the perspectives of what is transferred to the recipient. So, for example, Kanuri has been influenced by Arabic loan words for centuries, whereas all the minor languages in the wider Mega-Chad area and even in West Africa received Arabic loan words rather late. This gives us a kind of chronology whereby the linguae francae – simply because of their great numbers of speakers - cannot be neglected. An example is Hausa, which from its strong influence on other languages might be heavily responsible for that transmission. Another fact that cannot be ignored is the Fulfulde. Through their historical migrations over the whole Savanna belt of West Africa, they have been considered as carriers of Islam and thus, through the spread of Islam, have infiltrated the various ethnic groups with many loan words. Therefore this paper provides a concise overview of the work done so far on West African languages.

In this paper, the climate and environmental datasets were processed by the scripts of Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) and R to evaluate changes in climate parameters, vegetation patters and land cover types in Burkina Faso. Located in the southern Sahel zone, Burkina Faso experiences one of the most extreme climatic hazards in sub-saharan Africa varying from the extreme floods in Volta River Basin, to desertification and recurrent droughts.. The data include the TerraClimate dataset and satellite images Landsat 8-9 Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared (TIRS) C2 L1. The dynamics of target climate characteristics of Burkina Faso was visualised for 2013-2022 using remote sensing data. To evaluate the environmental dynamics the TerraClimate data were used for visualizing key climate parameter: extreme temperatures, precipitation, soil moisture, downward surface shortwave radiation, vapour pressure deficit and anomaly. The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) was modelled over the study area to estimate soil water balance related to the soil moisture conditions as a prerequisites for vegetation growth. The land cover types were mapped using the k-means clustering by R. Two vegetation indices were computed to evaluate the changes in vegetation patterns over recent decade. These included the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) The scripts used for cartographic workflow are presented and discussed. This study contributes to the environmental mapping of Burkina Faso with aim to highlight the links between the climate processes and vegetation dynamics in West Africa.

The lower Upper Albian ammonite genus Dipoloceras Hyatt, 1900 (subfamily Mojsisovicsiinae Hyatt, 1903) is represented in KwaZulu-Natal by the type species, D. cristatum (Brongniart, 1822), marker species for the base of the Upper Albian Substage. Rhytidoceras van Hoepen, 1931 (of which Drepanoceras van Hoepen, 1931, non Stein 1878 and Ricnoceras van Hoepen, 1941, are synonyms), previously regarded as subgenera of Dipoloceras, are afforded generic status as are its supposed synonyms Diplasioceras van Hoepen, 1946a, and Euspectroceras van Hoepen, 1946a. The type species of these genera are revised, and assigned to the subfamily Pervinquierinae Spath, 1926.

The cosmopolitan Late Albian ammonite subgenus Pervinquieria ( Deiradoceras) van Hoepen, 1931, and its synonyms Cechenoceras van Hoepen, 1941 and Mimeloceras van Hoepen, 1944, originally based on material from northern KwaZulu-Natal, are reviewed. The type material of the type species, Subschloenbachia prerostrata Spath, 1921, is revised and reillustrated, as are its numerous synonyms.

In this contribution we complete the revision of species we refer to Pervinquieria ( Deiradoceras) van Hoepen, 1931, focusing on those assigned by him to his genera Cechenoceras and Mimeloceras.

Given Morocco’s geographical position and climatic conditions, solar energy will supply a large portion of the country’s energy demand. In this paper, the suitability of Moroccan lands for hosting Solar Power Plants was studied using the combination of the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the Analytical Hierarchy Method (AHP). The multi-criteria decision framework integrates technical, socio-economic and environmental constraints. For this purpose, a GIS database was created using layers from various sources. In addition, since the potential of Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) is the most relevant criterion for the selection of solar farms, a high-quality solar satellite map with a spatial resolution of 0.27 km was used, covering a period from 1994 to 2018. Obtained results show a great potential for solar energy development in Morocco, represented by the availability of 90% of areas. In fact, the resulting map was classified into 6 different classes, namely: Very high suitability, High suitability, Moderate suitability, Low suitability, Very low suitability and Exclusion areas, which 53.88%, 24.08%, 0.15%, 0%, 0% and 21.89% are respectively the percentages of their area occupation. According to the performed investigations, the most significant criteria that should be considered include: The Global Horizontal Irradiation, Slope, Temperature and Slope orientation. The obtained map was then compared to the existing solar farms, and show that all the existing projects are located within areas classified as highly suitable.

Groundwater is a vital resource for domestic, agricultural, industrial activities and ecosystem services. Despite its multi-ple purposes, the resource is under significant threat owing to increasing contamination from anthropogenic activities and climate change. Hence, in order to ensure the reliability and sustainable use of groundwater for the present and future gener-ations, effective management of groundwater (quality and quantity) is highly important. This can be achieved by identifying areas more vulnerable to contamination and implementing protective measures. The present study aims at assessing the vul-nerability of groundwater using GIS-based DRASTIC index in the Quaternary catchment (A21C) within Limpopo River Basin. The vulnerability index varied from 87 to 207. About 53.6% (408 km2) of the catchment area also exhibited high risk of groundwater contamination mostly in central, north-eastern and western part of the sub-catchment. The medium and low vulnerability classes cover only 18.1% (137.5 km2) and 21.7% (165.1 km2) of the study area, respectively. The shallow groundwater at the Doornfontein Campus belongs to very high vulnerability area. The sensitivity analysis indicates that depth to water level, recharge, aquifer media, soil and topography are the important contributors to vulnerability assessment. The correlation analysis performed to validate the final vulnerability map shows a moderate positive correlation, indicating the model’s applicability to the urbanised environment. The study indicates an area that is highly vulnerable to pollution, and hence protective measures are necessary for sustainable management of the groundwater resource in the study area. The result of this study can also be further improved and verified by using other vulnerability assessment models.

Płomyczek Afrykański [ The African Little Flame] (1943–1945) was a bimonthly children's supplement to Polak w Afryce [ The Pole in Africa], a weekly published in Nairobi for Poles evacuated in 1942 from the Soviet Union. This study, based on a collection of 45 issues from 1943–1945, attempts to characterize the content of this publication (themes, type of texts, layout), the circle of contributors as well as examine any facts that may throw additional light on its production and reception.