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In this article the author argues that indigenous Bemba women of Zambia used their culture of symbolic communication for marital sex agency. African women are often portrayed as not having agency and negotiating power when it comes to sex whether in marital or casual relationships. However, through imbusa teachings, Bemba women of Zambia had the negotiating power and agency over their sexual desires using indigenous beads as a marital communication tool before Christianity, interaction with various cultures, and colonial activity infiltrated the institution of imbusa. Missionaries were consistently and insistently invading the space of imbusa claiming the need to be made aware of what was being taught. Missionaries claimed that they wanted to prepare a manual for new arriving priests so that they would include Christianity to the teachings in order to teach the Bemba women Christian ways of marriage. As a result, much of the indigenous imbusa teaching was portrayed as demonic and Bemba women needed to disregard them in order to be Christian married women. Using symbolic interactionism, this article will demonstrate the teachings of imbusa that gave Bemba women agency to express and negotiate their sexual desires in marriage. Bemba women had a ritual of hanging beads on the wall or placing them on the bed at certain times in their marriage. For instance, when they were menstruating, they hung red beads which was to communicate that they were not available for sexual relations.Contribution: This article contributes to the African indigenous cultural understandings and positions held by indigenous women prior to their interactions with diverse cultures and religious views. Contemporary indigenous women can leverage some positive feminist approaches from within the culture.

This article engages with the question of land in South Africa based on the jubilee notion, from a decolonial theological perspective. It shifts the focus from debating the merits of ‘expropriation of land without compensation’ towards assessing the relations of power that determine and legitimate what constitutes the human relationship to the land. It argues that disruption in eco-relationality wrought by colonial-apartheid is a foundational factor of the land struggles in post-apartheid South Africa. In order to promote land justice, there is a need to liberate the land from apartheid through reclaiming African and Christian notions of land as belonging to God.

The association between oral contraceptive (OC) use and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was established in studies from northern Europe and the USA, which took place during the 1960s and 1970s. Few data are available to quantify the risk worldwide of AMI associated with use of OCs introduced since those early studies. This hospital-based case-control study examined the association between a first AMI and current OC use in women from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America (21 centres). Cases were women aged 20–44 years who had definite or possible AMI (classified by history, electrocardiographic, and cardiac-enzyme criteria), who were admitted to hospital, and who survived for at least 24 h. Up to three hospital controls matched by 5-year ageband were recruited for each of the 368 cases (941 controls). All participants were interviewed while in hospital with the same questionnaire, which included information on medical and personal history, lifetime contraceptive use, and blood-pressure screening before the most recent episode of OC use. Odds ratios compared the risk of AMI in current OC users and in non-users (past users and never-users combined). The overall odds ratio for AMI was 5·01 (95% CI 2·54–9·90) in Europe and 4·78 (2·52–9·07) in the non-European (developing) countries; however, these risk estimates reflect the frequent coexistence of other risk factors among OC users who have AMI. Very few AMIs were identified among women who had no cardiovascular risk factors and who reported that their blood pressure had been checked before OC use; odds ratios associated with OC use in such women were not increased in either Europe or the developing countries. Among OC users who smoked ten or more cigarettes per day, the odds ratios in Europe and in the developing countries were over 20. Similarly, among OC users with a history of hypertension (during pregnancy or at any other time), odds ratios were at least ten in both groups of countries. No consistent association between odds ratios for AMI and age of OC users or oestrogen dose was apparent in either group of countries. No significant increase in odds ratios was apparent with increasing duration of OC use among current users, and odds ratios were not significantly increased in women who had stopped using OCs, even after long exposure. The study had insufficient power to examine whether progestagen dose or type had any effect on AMI risk. Current use of combined OCs is associated with an increased risk of AMI among women with known cardiovascular risk factors and among those who have not been effectively screened, particularly for blood pressure. AMI is extremely rare in younger (<35 years) non-smoking women who use OCs, and the estimated excess risk of AMI in such women in the European centres is about 3 per 106 woman-years. The risk is likely to be even lower if blood pressure is screened before, and presumably during, OC use. Only among older women who smoke is the degree of excess risk associated with OCs substantial (about 400 per 10 6 woman-years).

The subject of race and identity is a burning issue which continues to occupy the attention not only of South Africans but also the wider residents of the continent of Africa and those who are Africans in the Diaspora. The outburst of xenophobic attacks against foreigners mostly of Black African origins in some communities of Kwa-Zulu Natal and areas of Johannesburg during 2008 and 2015 has raised questions about the social cohesion of South African society linked to unresolved structural identity issues bequeathed by the nation’s past colonial and apartheid legacy. This publication argues that there is an embedded schizophrenic identity crisis within the society that requires scholarly interrogation. The chapters assemble scholarly voices from different ethnic groups that examine the central research question of this study: Who is an African? Within the wider Southern African context, identity and ethnicity politics are framing nationalist economic policies and are impacting on social cohesion within many countries. Writing from different social and racial locations the authors have critically engaged with the central question and offer some important insights that can serve as a resource for all nations grappling with issues of race, ethnicity, identity constructed politics, and social cohesion.

We present the first high spatial resolution radio continuum survey of the southern Galactic plane. The CORNISH project has mapped the region defined by \\(295^{\\circ} < l < 350^{\\circ}\\); \\(|b| < 1^{\\circ}\\) at 5.5-GHz, with a resolution of 2.5\\(^{''}\\) (FWHM). As with the CORNISH-North survey, this is designed to primarily provide matching radio data to the Spitzer GLIMPSE survey region. The CORNISH-South survey achieved a root mean square noise level of \\(\\sim\\) 0.11 mJy beam\\(^{-1}\\), using the 6A configuration of the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). In this paper, we discuss the observations, data processing and measurements of the source properties. Above a 7\\(\\sigma\\) detection limit, 4701 sources were detected, and their ensemble properties show similar distributions with their northern counterparts. The catalogue is highly reliable and is complete to 90 per cent at a flux density level of 1.1 mJy. We developed a new way of measuring the integrated flux densities and angular sizes of non-Gaussian sources. The catalogue primarily provides positions, flux density measurements and angular sizes. All sources with IR counterparts at 8\\(\\mu m\\) have been visually classified, utilizing additional imaging data from optical, near-IR, mid-IR, far-IR and sub-millimetre galactic plane surveys. This has resulted in the detection of 524 H II regions of which 255 are ultra-compact H II regions, 287 planetary nebulae, 79 radio stars and 6 massive young stellar objects. The rest of the sources are likely to be extra-galactic. These data are particularly important in the characterization and population studies of compact ionized sources such as UCHII regions and PNe towards the Galactic mid-plane.

The association between use of oral contraceptives (OCs) and cerebral infarction was established in studies from northern Europe and the USA during the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, the constituents of hormonal OCs have changed and now contain lower doses of oestrogen and progestagen. Current recommendations restrict OC use to younger women who do not have other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. In this international study we assessed the risk of OC-associated first stroke in women from Europe and other countries throughout the world. In this hospital-based, case-control study, we assessed the risk of ischaemic stroke in association with current use of combined OCs in 697 cases, aged 20-44 years, and 1962 age-matched hospital controls in 21 centres in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The diagnosis of ischaemic stroke was almost exclusively based on computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or cerebral angiography carried out within 3 weeks of the clinical event. All cases and controls were interviewed while in hospital with the same questionnaire, which included information on medical and personal history, details of lifetime contraceptive use, and blood-pressure measurements before the most recent episode of OC use. The overall odds ratio of ischaemic stroke was 2·99 (95% CI 1·65–5·40) in Europe and 2·93 (2·15–4·00) in the non-European (developing) countries. Odds ratios were lower in younger women and those who did not smoke, and less than 2 in women who did not have hypertension and who reported that their blood pressure had been checked before the current episode of OC use. By contrast, among current OC users with a history of hypertension, the odds ratio was 10·7 (2·04–56·6) in Europe and 14·5 (5·36–39·0) in the developing countries. In Europe, the odds ratio associated with current use of low-dose OCs (<50 μg oestrogen) was 1·53 (0·71–3·31), whereas for higher-dose preparations it was 5·30 (2·56–11·0). In the developing countries, there was no significant difference between overall estimates of risk associated with use of low-dose or higher-dose OCs (3·26 [2·19–4·86] vs 2·71 [1·75–4·19]). This differential effect of dose in Europe and the developing countries is likely to be due to different levels of other risk factors among users of low-dose and higher-dose OCs in the two groups of countries. There was no significant increase in odds ratios with increasing duration of OC use among current users; odds ratios were not significantly increased after cessation of OC use. The incidence of ischaemic stroke is low in women of reproductive age and any risk attributable to OC use is small. The risk can be further reduced if users are younger than 35 years, do not smoke, do not have a history of hypertension, and have blood pressure measured before the start of OC use. In such women OC preparations with low oestrogen doses may be associated with even lower risk.

We present the SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey (SMGPS), a 1.3 GHz continuum survey of almost half of the Galactic Plane (251\\deg \\(\\le l \\le\\) 358\\deg and 2\\deg \\(\\le l \\le\\) 61\\deg at \\(|b| \\le 1.5\\deg \\)). SMGPS is the largest, most sensitive and highest angular resolution 1 GHz survey of the Plane yet carried out, with an angular resolution of 8\" and a broadband RMS sensitivity of \\(\\sim\\)10--20 \\(\\mu\\) Jy/beam. Here we describe the first publicly available data release from SMGPS which comprises data cubes of frequency-resolved images over 908--1656 MHz, power law fits to the images, and broadband zeroth moment integrated intensity images. A thorough assessment of the data quality and guidance for future usage of the data products are given. Finally, we discuss the tremendous potential of SMGPS by showcasing highlights of the Galactic and extragalactic science that it permits. These highlights include the discovery of a new population of non-thermal radio filaments; identification of new candidate supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae and planetary nebulae; improved radio/mid-IR classification of rare Luminous Blue Variables and discovery of associated extended radio nebulae; new radio stars identified by Bayesian cross-matching techniques; the realisation that many of the largest radio-quiet WISE HII region candidates are not true HII regions; and a large sample of previously undiscovered background HI galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance.

There has been tremendous progress in reducing vertical transmission of HIV in the past two decades due to the broad availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART) globally. Despite this progress, new paediatric infections are still occurring. In a pilot study, we evaluated a combination adherence support package, which included an adapted motivational interviewing-informed counselling approach (Integrated Next Step Counselling, iNSC) and an optional adherence supporter, for pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV. Participants were recruited from the antenatal clinic in Lilongwe, Malawi. Eligible participants were randomly allocated 1:1 to receive either the combination adherence package (intervention) or standard care (control) at the health facility. Our clinical outcome, measured at three- and six-month follow-up, was a composite endpoint of study retention with HIV viral suppression (HIV RNA <40 copies per mL). We screened 106 women living with HIV between March and July 2020. Of these, 100 women enrolled and were randomly assigned to intervention (n=51) or control (n=49). The majority of participants (94 of 100; 94%) were newly diagnosed with HIV. Retention in care was 92% at three months and 84% at six months. Three-quarters of women retained in care were virally suppressed at the three- and six-month study visits. At three months, our composite outcome (retention & viral suppression) was achieved by 70.6% (36/51) and 69.4% (34/49) of women in the intervention and control groups, respectively. At six months, this composite outcome was achieved by 68.6% (35/51) of the intervention group and 61.2% (30/49) of the control group (probability difference: 7.4%, 95% CI: -11.3%, 26.1%). These encouraging pilot findings suggest that this combination adherence package could be used to support ART adherence among pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV. We demonstrate feasibility of using a combined measure of adherence and viral suppression as an outcome measure. ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04330989).

Background Despite evidence that most child malaria deaths occur at home shortly after symptom onset, receiving timely malaria treatment remains a significant challenge. Timely malaria treatment, defined as early diagnosis and prompt administration of appropriate anti-malarial medication within 24 h of symptom onset, is crucial for reducing mortality. However, factors influencing timely treatment among under-five children in resource-limited settings remain inadequately explored. This study aimed to assess the determinants of timely malaria treatment among under-five children, who receive care at public health facilities in Kisumu East sub-county, Kenya. Methods A health facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Kisumu East sub-county, Kenya, between 5th April and 26th May 2023. The study employed a two-stage stratified-cluster sampling method, first selecting hospitals and then using systematic sampling to select caregivers. Data collection was done electronically using structured questionnaires. Associations at bivariable level were assessed using either the Chi-square or Fisher's exact test based on assumptions. Multiple logistic regression with robust standard errors was applied at a 5% significance level to establish determinants of timely malaria treatment among under-five children. STATA version 16 (College Station, TX 77845 USA) was used for all analyses. Results The sample included a total of 434 caregivers of under-five children. The study revealed that caregivers' ability to recognize malaria symptoms was associated with higher odds of seeking timely malaria treatment for their children (AOR = 2.9; 95% CI 1.4–6.3; p = 0.006). Belief in use of appropriate malaria drugs was associated with higher odds of timely treatment (AOR = 6.9, 95% CI 2.5–18.9, p < 0.0001). Additionally, having health insurance cover was associated with higher odds of timely treatment (AOR = 2.1; 95% CI 1.3–3.6; p = 0.005). Those who visited herbalists before seeking care were less likely to receive timely treatment (AOR = 0.1; 95% CI 0.1–0.3; p < 0.0001). Fear of drugs' side effects reduced the odds of timely treatment (AOR = 0.5; 95% CI 0.3–0.9; p = 0.013). Conclusion Timely malaria treatment was linked to the ability to tell symptoms and having health insurance, while delayed malaria treatment was related to herbalist visits and fear of malaria, among others. There is need for relevant stakeholders to implement strategies that address misconceptions about drug side effects, offer affordable insurance, integrate the informal health sector, and educate caregivers about under-five malaria symptoms in order to promote timely malaria treatment.