The African Diaspora, Civil Society and African Integration
This paper, a work-in-progress, makes a contribution to the discussions on the appropriate modalities for incorporating the African diaspora in the African integration project. It argues that the most appropriate entry points for incorporating the African diaspora into the integration project might not, necessarily, be in the formal political structures, although this is important. To the contrary, the most effective and sustainable might be within civil society--that is the links between the peoples and organizations of Africa and the diaspora. Using the case of the African academy-as an institution of civil society--the paper outlines a conceptual framework for incorporating the diaspora into the African integration project.
The Second Boat of Africa’s New Diaspora: Looking at the Other Side of the Global Divide with an Emphasis on Sudan
The processes of globalization have accelerated the exodus of the highly skilled from the collapsing modernization project. This article suggests that the flight of the educated elite is linked to the relative strength of the nation-state and both the length and intensity of internal conflicts. It is also suggested that the "skills exodus" may represent a major disruption in the political and social development of Africa, leading to further marginalization and affecting Africa's capacity to revive development or envision an alternative development path. The emphasis is on Sudan's unprecedented massive skills exodus during the past three decades, suggesting that this one case is extremely relevant to the rest of the continent, given the country's favorable situation at the time of its independence in 1956.
Preparation and performance evaluation of swine manure bio-oil modified rubber asphalt binder
Abstract In order to study the effect of the preparation process of swine manure bio-oil modified rubber asphalt binder on the rheological properties of the binder, the matrix asphalt and asphalt rubber were used as the control group, and swine manure bio-oil modified rubber asphalt binders were obtained by three preparation processes. Then the rheological properties of five binders were evaluated by rotational viscosity, DSR, MSCR and BBR tests. The results show that the addition of swine manure bio-oil to asphalt rubber is beneficial to the workability, but cause negative effect on its high temperature performance, fatigue performance and low temperature crack resistance. The preparation method of premixing bio-oil and rubber powder can reduce the degradation of high-temperature performance of asphalt rubber caused by addition of swine manure bio-oil to a certain extent. The fatigue properties of the three bio-binders are close, and the critical temperature is less than 25 °C. The process of premixing bio-oil and rubber powder will increase the creep stiffness and reduce the low-temperature performance. However, the low-temperature performance of the binder obtained by this process is still better than that of the matrix asphalt and can meet the requirements of use. Therefore, it is recommended to use the preparation process of premixing bio-oil and rubber powder to prepare swine manure bio-oil modified asphalt rubber.