Modern Farming in Africa: DR Congo’s cultural factors of failure (1885-2015)

The introduction of modern agricultural technology in Africa is an enormous challenge. It will only succeed in the long term. That was the case in all the “industrialized countries” around the planet. And it is specifically true when it comes to revolutionizing agriculture.Africa still appears to be lagging behind in this area. The volume of...

From Europeanization to Africanization: The Complexities of the Technological Encounter in the Colonial Era

Through an examination of three case studies, this paper reviews the complexities of the technological encounter in various settings in Africa in the colonial era. Technology played a role in fostering many colonial conflicts, but also enabled many connections, collaborations and opportunities. Together with its destructive role, it was also...

Indigenous Knowledge and Modern Technology in the Management of Natural Disasters: Exploring the Linkages

The increasing frequency of disasters, coupled with a number of emerging threats and trends, are leaving more people vulnerable to the effects of disasters and inflicting greater damage, loss, and dislocation on vulnerable people worldwide. According to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), in 2008, more than 235,000...

A Culture of Innovation: A model for Qualitative Analysis at Universities and the Case Study of Civil Engineering Students at the Addis Ababa Institute of Technology

Innovation offers opportunities for modernization and development. In recent years it has become a buzzword in the world of NGO’s, IGO’s and governments in developing countries and is featured in the proposed UN Sustainable Development Goals. Different types of innovation are increasingly recognized, complicating the classic notion of innovation...

State and civil society as an enabling environment for economic growth: A historical and contemporary perspective

For entrepreneurship to flourish an enabling institutional and cultural environment is required. On the surface of things entrepreneurship is dependent on initiatives of daring and competitive individuals, but implicitly in the notion of entrepreneurship there are also assumptions about cooperation and regulation, without which it cannot deliver...

Teaching academic staffers’ performance contracting and community service for innovation and academic development in kenya

Performance contracts can be made to work, but there are numerous pitfalls along the way which can punish innovation, success and can erect complex barriers to effective implementation. Performance contracting has largely been considered as the remedy to the quality of service delivery in public universities in Kenya. Performance is the extend...