The aim of this study was to clarify the relationship between environmental change and vegetational succession in the Kuiseb River area of the Namib Desert. The results reveal the following: 1. About 5000–7000 years ago, wetter conditions prevailed in the Kuiseb River basin, forming a wider riverbed than at present. 2. About 600 years ago, a low terrace formed. The low terrace was characterized by the growth of acacia trees and other vegetation, which trapped and accreted aeolian sand. 3. About 400 years ago, the trapped and accumulated sand began to form a sand dune, eventually killing the tree population. 4. At the present time, all of the buried acacia trees have died and have been replaced by salvadora bushes, which continue to trap sand and increase the size of the dune. 5. Plants such as Acacia erioloba, Faidherbia albida, and Acanthosicyos horridus are very important food sources and shade plants for the local Topnaar people and their livestock. The succession of vegetation in response to environmental change has a profound impact on life in the Kuiseb River area, owing to the harsh environmental conditions and scarce plant life in the region.

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has been argued as one of the prominent cases by which post-confl ict societies coped with diffi culties. Discussions have tended to criticize its effectiveness and limits. That tendency is more marked when the discussion is on the applicability of that kind of activity to another society. This paper features the particularity of South African society without particular evaluation of the TRC, especially dealing with its religious implication. This standpoint is effective for the analysis of the transitional society which is identifi ed from its relative lack of legitimacy on due process. This paper traces some religious discourses, which have affected the TRC body implicitly and explicitly in historical transition. Two prominent fi gures to whom I give my attention are Desmond Tutu and Charles Villa-Vicencio. However the two Christians' discourses have incompatibilities with each other to some extent, both still show a tangency which can be interpreted as a unique function in a sheer estrangement of post- Apartheid transitional society. Tutu's Ubuntu (cultural syncretism) and Villa-Vicencio's restorative justice through negotiation (political secularism) are considered in this context, and both suggest that they let the `divided' people negotiate over confl icting plurality in a transitional society.

Comparative feeding ecology of African apes has recently been intensively investigated principally for testing the THV (terrestrial herbaceous vegetation) hypothesis. The hypothesis argues that peaceful behavioral nature observed in bonobo (Pan paniscus) compared to chimpanzee (P. troglodytes) is derived from presence of suffi cient THV as fallback foods during lean periods, resulting from habitat segregation from more herbivorous gorillas. There was some supportive evidence for the hypothesis such as presence of feeding competition for fi brous foods between chimpanzees and gorillas in sympatry. However, many cast doubt on the function of THV to maintain female cohesiveness. Overall, the ecological and social causality theorized in the THV hypothesis appears sound, but THV itself unlikely plays a major role, although critical data, bonobo ecology in particular, are still missing. Observed behavioral variation among chimpanzee subspecies suggests that West African chimpanzees are behaviorally more peaceful than East African subspecies. Intensive comparison of some socio-ecological parameters between Bossou and Kibale chimpanzees supported this idea. Data suggested that, also in this case, THV consumption is unlikely a key factor. Because West African chimpanzees, like bonobos, have probably been segregated from gorilla habitat for considerable amount of time in their evolutionary history, collective infl uence from coexisting with gorillas, not a competition over a single food source, must be responsible for socio-ecological differentiation observed among bonobo, Western chimpanzees, and Eastern chimpanzees.

In colonial Tanganyika, popular music and football were the most important genres of popular culture in urban areas then as now. From the 1930s, these modern forms of recreation grew out of a precedent tradition of the competitive dance societies among the Swahili on the coast. In the capital Dar es Salaam, various musical and sporting organizations developed in the urban community made up mainly of coastal Africans, besides including the migrants from upcountry and the people of Arab descent. These organizations were interrelated and had overlapping memberships, and their heyday also coincided with the awakening for national politics. The African Association, the fi rst modern political organization established by Africans, was founded in Dar es Salaam in the late 1920s, and later became the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU). During the campaign for independence, there was a close collaboration among the bands, football clubs, and TANU.

The Haya, densely settled in the western Lake Victoria basin of Tanzania, have developed a unique banana-based farming system over centuries. The land use is characterized by intensively cared home garden called kibanja, and open grassland, lweya where cattle grazed. Cattle manure has much contributed to the farming in kibanja. Household survey revealed current farming patterns that have differentiated since the independence of Tanganyika in 1961. Lweya has become important also as major bitter cassava field (musiri) of due to increased land pressure, decline of cattle husbandry, and decline in soil fertility. At the same time penetration of cash economy has given market values to banana, their staple crop. Consequently many households became musiri-dependent while some specialized on kibanja farming. Despite increased cultivation in lweya, the prime importance of kibanja continues due to preference in banana and sociocultural appreciation. Lweya has served as a buffer against various internal and external impacts, providing options for individual households. Thus the social differentiation process took place under the field of rural dynamics deep-rooted in their inherent recognition of the environment.

Economic reforms and the quest for efficiency in public administration call for the decentralization of collective bargaining and wages in the public sector in Nigeria. But the effort to decentralize has translated into both a protracted industrial relations crisis and intergovernmental conflict. This situation is traced to the failed effort at institutionalising collective bargaining and the consolidation of the unified wage structure in the public sector by the resort to ad hoc wages commissions. The distorted fiscal federalism and intergovernmental relations under the military in Nigeria complicated the situation, such that resolving the federal question has become critical to returning stability to Nigeria's industrial relations system.

The study examines the extent to which cultural elements affect the operations of multinational firms investigate how these problems are tackled. Also it identifies major cultural groupings, and examines marketing strategies that could achieve organizational objectives of these firms. Twenty multinational firms that have subsidiary offices in Nigeria and involved in the manufacturing and or marketing of food, beer, soft drink, soap, health and cosmetics were selected for the study. Personal interviews, and structured and unstructured questionnaires were used to obtain data and analysed using simple percentages and statistical tools. It was found that culture had an effect on product offering, pricing, promotion and distribution. The most influential cultural elements are language, religion beliefs and ethnic values. It was therefore recommended that multinational corporation should embrace the marketing concept in their operation, their promotion and products adapted to the environment The consumer should be receptive to other people's ways of life which leads to inter-cultural socialisation while the government should promote mass literacy programme.

Interrelationship among man, plants and animals in the Ituri forest is described and analyzed. Plants contribute mainly to establish the material world of forest foragers, and their eternity gives man and animals living in the forest a sense of security and certainty of life. Animals are characterized by an ontological duality. They are like man and differ from it. They interact with man actively, emotionally and ambivalently. Animal meat is highly prized as food but it is often connected with food toboo. Animals bring joys and happiness to man, but also perform as agents of various diseases. Both plants and animals provide many possibilities of uses on which forest people construct their material, social, symbolic and spiritual life. Finally the cosmology of forest foragers concerning the relationship between man and nature is compared with that of Western people and Buddhism.

The |Gui and ||Gana, Karahari hunter-gatherers, practice certain rites every time one passes critical phases in their life, or when something unfortunate happens. Because the rites are a kind of curing, they use traditional medicine in the rites. The medicines are composed of plants and substances from human bodies. Comparison with the rites performed by the Kgilagadi, neighboring agropastoral people, reveals that, the |Gui/||Gana consider bodily substances to be mor important than medical plants. The |Gui/||Gana think that all bodily substances stem from one identical power and people exchange the power through these rites.

This paper describes the companionship patterns in size and composition of Central San children to explore the influences of relocation and schooling, the two epochal events for children in the last 50 years. In the Central Kalahari Game Reserve of Botswana, San children formerly played only with relatives. Especially the elder pupils nowadays often become schoolmates who are not kin. Relocation and schooling brought about children's exposure to nonrelatives. Schoolmate is a new option for San children to make friend with others.