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Africa ( soc.culture.african )

From [email protected] Fri Jan 17 18:32:12 1997 Path: uunet!bounce-back From: Prema Qadir <[email protected]> Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,soc.culture.african,soc.culture.south-africa,soc.culture.nigeria,soc.culture.liberia,soc.culture.sierra-leone,soc.culture.ethiopia.misc,soc.genealogy.african Subject: RFD: soc.culture.african reorganization Followup-To: news.groups Date: 17 Jan 1997 23:32:09 -0000 Organization: . Lines: 556 Sender: [email protected] Approved: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> NNTP-Posting-Host: rodan.uu.net Archive-Name: soc.culture.african-reorg Xref: uunet news.announce.newgroups:9506 news.groups:247183 soc.culture.african:66082 soc.culture.south-africa:27275 soc.culture.nigeria:30616 soc.culture.liberia:2610 soc.culture.sierra-leone:2881 soc.culture.ethiopia.misc:1585 soc.genealogy.african:3444                       REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD) moderated group soc.culture.african.moderated (renames soc.culture.african)               unmoderated group soc.culture.african.horn               unmoderated group soc.culture.african.arts           unmoderated group soc.culture.african.west-africa                unmoderated group talk.politics.african  Newsgroup line: soc.culture.african.arts	African arts. soc.culture.african.horn	Culture, peoples, and affairs of Horn of Africa. soc.culture.african.moderated	African culture, peoples, and affairs. (Moderated) soc.culture.african.west-africa	Affairs of West Africa. talk.politics.african	Current political and social issues in Africa.  RATIONALE: all groups  A few years ago, soc.culture.african was created to discuss issues regarding the culture and peoples of the African continent. Over the years, some national and regional newsgroups in the soc.culture.* hierarchy have sprouted off this newsgroup. In spite of these, the group has witnessed continued growth and diversification. This has brought with it its attendant problems, such as off-topic and irrele- vant posts, junks mails, spams, and other posts on topics that should otherwise have been directed to or discussed in appropriate newsgroups, had they been available. Therefore, it has become necessary to re- organize soc.culture.african in order to make it more useful to its numerous and varied readers.  RATIONALE: soc.culture.african.moderated  Soc.culture.african was created few years ago as an unmoderated newsgroup. In recent times, off-topic posts have infested it greatly, to the extent that many of its regular readers are scared away from contributing to the on-goings or find it difficult get valuable items of information. New readers entering the group looking for serious discussion are leaving in disgust. This particularly impacts Africans coming on-line from Africa, or recently arrived in western countries, who do not consider the rudeness of flaming acceptable. The regular readers have requested that it be moderated to remove off-topic and massively cross-posted articles.  RATIONALE: soc.culture.african.horn  The Horn of Africa is a region of Africa with a great history, cultures and rapid political changes.  The Horn of Africa comprises the following countries: Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibutou, etc. Although some national newsgroups have emerged from this region, there are many issues of broader dimensions which cannot be discussed fully in any of the existing newsgroups. There is a need for a forum to discuss issues of common interest to the peoples of this historically rich subregion, especially issues which have tended to divide rather than unite the diverse nations in the Horn of Africa. There are other aspects of the culture, history and sociopolitics of this region that have no better forum for discussion at this moment.  RATIONALE: Soc.culture.african.arts  African art is a significant subject that can sustain discussion on a variety of matters almost indefinitely. There are many issues that are potentially controversial, and much that is up for debate. By virtue of the lack of systematic record keeping of items discovered in (and extracted from) Africa, there is a large body of work that has not been accurately documented. African art is an intense subject. There is much information, both accurate and inaccurate. There are innumerable issues that warrant discussion, and we sincerely believe that a newsgroup dedicated to the subject is well deserved. African art has had a major influence on the art world in many respects, and much of this has been glossed over in mainstream art circles. It is pertinent and necessary to develop a focussed forum on the USENET that encourages and facilitates discussion on issues concerning African art. Experts and interested readers would do well to have a USENET-based forum to discuss the learned issues associated with African arts.  RATIONALE: soc.culture.african.west-africa  West Africa is a 16-nation community, often referred to as the ECOWAS, which stands for Economic Community of West African States. West African states make up a region of Africa with great historical past and cultural linkage. Although some member states within this subregion have established their own national newsgroups, there still exist many issues of broader dimensions which cannot be discussed fully in any of the existing newsgroups. Hence, the need for a USENET-based news- group where issues of common interest to this subregion can be discussed.  RATIONALE: soc.politics.african  The desire to moderate soc.culture.african should not deny netizens access to an all-comers discussions on current issues pertaining to Africa and her peoples. Therefore, soc.politics.african is proposed to fill the void which the creation of a moderated soc.culture.african newsgroup may create. Such newsgroups are generally accepted as good companions to existing USENET newsgroups which are up for moderation.  END RATIONALE  CHARTER: soc.culture.african.moderated  Soc.culture.african is a moderated forum for all discussions, debates, and information about Africa and her peoples.  Therefore, Africans within and outside the African continent and friends of Africa all over the world or all persons interested in Africa, irrespective of nationality, race, creed, sex, age, or language, who can follow USENET netiquette, basic rules of polite human interaction, and any further requirements imposed by the charter are welcome to parti- cipate. Postings can cover any topic of choice provided it has some- thing to do with Africa. This means all social, cultural, political, musical,geographical, scientific, marital, health, technical, legal, and other topics that are, in one way or another, related to African affairs. Postings can also include news, opinions, observations, sports, humor, announcements, or requests. If it has anything to do with Africa, it can be discussed.  Status and Rules ---------------- Soc.culture.african.moderated shall be a moderated newsgroup. All articles posted must have something to do with Africa or the peoples living therein. Insults, flames or unnecessary criticism of a group or a person will be discouraged by the moderators. Anyone will be able to post to this newsgroup. However, being free to post should be considered a privilege and not a right. Hence, junk, hate, sexist, racist, and massively cross-posted articles will be strongly disc- ouraged by the moderators. Most importantly, everyone is responsible for what one posts. Please, read the netiquette rules in news.announce.newusers before posting your first article to this newsgroup, and endeavor to stick to them whenever posting articles.  Moderation Policy: ------------------ The role of the moderators is to ensure that the conditions of the charter are met by any submissions. Submissions shall be evaluated as to whether or not they (a) are on-topic, (b) meet netiquette, and (c) meet any other standards as defined in the charter. The forwarding of articles to soc.culture.african.moderated by moderators shall be in a timely manner. Note: The moderators shall not enforce any cens- orship of opinions or views, no matter how strongly expressed.  We believe that moderation is not equal to censorship and shall never be allowed to degenerate to censorship. Nevertheless, we also believe that a newsgroup should be free of irrelevant articles. The following shall be off-topic in soc.culture.african.moderated:  1) Posts not related to the purposes of soc.culture.african.moderated  2) Posts that exceed 75 characters per line.  3) Crossposts to soc.culture.african are permitted only if they    satisfy the charter of soc.culture.african.moderated. Official    RFDs and CFVs crossposted to other African-interest newsgroups    will be allowed.  4) "Me too" posts, "make money fast" and "try it, it works" type of    posts, and posts that contain an unreasonable amount of quoted    text. As a general rule, a post will be rejected if less than 1/3    of it is a new text. Intensely repetitive posts, unapproved    anonymous posts, no matter the information contained therein,    will be rejected.  5) Commercial advertisements or personal advertisements that have    nothing to do with Africa or Africans living at home or abroad;    "spam" articles; and robogenerated articles. Moderators shall not    be held responsible for any injury resulting from any    African-related ads which they would approve.  6) Anti-African articles. (Note that an "anti-african" article is an    article of which the original purpose is to denigrate Africans or    Africa, or to cause hatred of Africans or Africa by people from    other continents, races, and colors. Anti-African is not the same    as "anti-African-governments". Again, if you don't understand this    distinction, contact the moderators with your submission.)  7) Posts containing profanity or excessive rudeness; posts that lack    appropriate civility. While well-placed heckles are acceptable,    flamewars are not. Any post full of personal abuse, slander or    libel, or unauthorized reference to private e-mail addresses or    mailing lists shall also be rejected. Moderators shall not held    responsible for articles they approve which may lead to legal    charges in the long run.  8) Although discussions on sex and race-related issues are on-topic    on soc.culture.african.moderated, the moderators will strongly    discourage the use of this forum for the propagation of national,    religious, racist, sexual, or ethnic hostility or animosity --    including posts openly justifying violence (in particular, violence    against disabled people, women, and children), war crimes, or    ethnic cleansing.  9) Large binary files, even if they are related to Africa. By large    is meant any binary file greater than the normal PGP signatures.    African-related binary files should be posted to the appropriate    alt.binaries.* group with a pointer in soc.culture.african.moderated    indicating where the binary in question may be found.  Moderators shall not screen postings for grammar, spelling, syntax, or for intellectual content and accuracy beyond that contained in this charter or its amendment thereof.  Moderators will not alter any message, with the possible exception that long 'tag lines' may be eliminated to avoid problems with news programs.  Moderation Panel ---------------- Anyone may volunteer to join the moderation panel with the consent of a two-thirds supermajority of the current moderators. Moderators shall not be required to belong to any specific group, be it national /ethnic/cultural/... Moderators also may be removed by a 2/3 majority of the active members of the moderation panel. Of course, moderators may resign of their own volition. If a moderator wants to resign or retire, he/she is encouraged to inform other moderators or make a public statement at least 10 days prior to resignation or retirement, so that a replacement may be found.  Moderators shall renew their membership every 24 months or as may be later decided by the readers of soc.culture.african.moderated.  Enforcement of the charter with respect to a rejoinder ------------------------------------------------------  * Rejoinders with over quoted materials shall be returned. Please,    read the rules about incoporating quoted materials into your    rejoinders. Furthermore, as documented in news.announce.newusers,    you should read the group for a while before posting to it for the    first time.  * Rejoinders which do not satisfy the charter of the newsgroup,    even if the original post did, shall be rejected and returned to    the author.  Moderators also reserve the right to terminate any thread which degenerates into unacceptable namecalling, rudeness, vulgarity, or which they feel has reached its end or flash point. Such threads shall be terminated by a simple majority of the current moderators. The intention to terminate a thread should be announced by the moderators in a posting to the group.  More on Rejection of Articles -----------------------------  * Rejected messages will always be returned to the sender with an   explanation from the moderator.  * Articles which are rejected by a majority decision of the moderators   shall be returned to their author(s) by the moderator who was on duty   when the articles were submitted.  * Articles which are cancelled by the moderators may also be returned to   their authors.  However, the moderators shall not have to return the following articles:     * articles from anonymous posters. if you want to post anonymously,      contact the moderators first, to explain why you are posting so.    * articles crossposted to inappropriate newsgroups    * a mail-bomb sent to moderators as a submission to the newsgroup    * crossposted "spam" article which the author clearly knew was      off-topic when he/she submitted it.    * articles from forged addresses.  The moderators shall periodically post an informational article to the newsgroup containing this charter.  Grievance Procedure ------------------- Individuals who believe a particular moderator has unfairly rejected a submission can appeal to the entire panel of moderators. The panel will re-evaluate the submission and make a majority decision as to whether it will be posted. In the event that the moderation panel is evenly split over whether a submission ought to be posted, the submission shall be posted.  Robomoderation -------------- At any time, the moderators may develop a robomoderation script to assist in their duties. The codes of the robomoderator program shall be consistent with charter of the group and approved by a simple majority decision of the current moderators.  Languages and Character Sets ---------------------------- Postings in any of Africa's native languages, as well as Pidgin, Swahili, English, French, and Portuguese shall be accepted. Postings in languages other than these are welcome provided that the English and/or French translations of the articles are supplied. Africans are encouraged to provide, where necessary, English or French translations to articles written in vernacular in order to improve readership.  Articles should be sent in the standard 7 bit ASCII character set, conform to RFC822. If accented characters are necessary one is allowed to use the standard 8 bit ISO-8859-1 character set. Other language or machine-specific character sets are not acceptable in this newsgroup.  END CHARTER.  CHARTER: soc.culture.african.horn  Soc.culture.african.horn is an unmoderated newsgroup for all discuss- ions, debates, and information pertinent to the Horn of Africa. Post- ings can cover any topic of choice provided it has something to do with  the Horn of Africa. This means all social, cultural, political, musical, historical, geographical, scientific, marital, health, technical, legal, and other topics that are, in one way or another, related to the Horn of Africa. Postings can also include news, opinions, observations, humor, announcements, or requests. If it has anything to do with the Horn of Africa, it can be discussed. To encourage wider readership and participation, mailing lists belonging to any member nation of Horn of Africa can be gated to soc.culture.african.horn. Intention to gate any mailing list should first be posted to the newsgroup not less than 2 weeks before it is effected.  Rules ----- Soc.culture.african.horn shall be an unmoderated newsgroup. Never- thless, all articles posted must have something to do with the Horn of Africa or the peoples living therein. Insults, flames or unnecessary criticisms of a group or a person will be discouraged by the readers. Anyone will be able to post to this newsgroup. However, being free to post should be considered a privilege and not a right. Hence, spams, junk, hate, sexist, racist, and massively cross-posted articles/ads which have nothing to do with the Horn of Africa will be discouraged by the readers. Most importantly, everyone is responsible for what one posts. Please, read the netiquette rules in news.announce.newusers before posting your first article to this newsgroup, and endeavor to stick to them whenever posting articles.  Language: Postings in english and other indigeneous languages of           Horn of Africa are welcome.  END CHARTER.  CHARTER: soc.culture.african.arts  Soc.culture.african.arts is an unmoderated newsgroup to discuss all aspects of African arts. The topics involved are varied but we believe that the following topics and other related issues will serve the group well.  Topics: ------- The influence of African art on global culture can be discussed. Were the Corinthians influenced by the Egyptians? Is Egyptian art African? What influences occurred accross the Sahara? How did African art influence 18th century Europe (and later) as more and more of it came to light?  Further issues that can be discussed include but not limited to these:  What role did African art play in the indigenous cultures? What effect did systematic extraction and destruction of the art have on the communities? What role does African art play in the current lives of Africans? How does reproductive art play a role in today's African art? Are there still traditional practices that include traditional art forms? What evolution has African art undergone in the last three centuries? What parallels exist between African art and European and Eastern art? How do these fit into the development of the respective societies?  What do people think of the commercialization of traditional African art? What constitutes a "real" piece of African art over a "fake". What becomes of private western collections of African art that are ferreted away from public view? Do these collectors have a responsi- bility to share these works with the art community? How should one go about starting an Afrcan art collection? How does commoditization of African art affect the people? How is the collection, production and distribution of art in modern Africa practiced. How do people feel about their art inheritance?  What art is being surreptitiously removed from Africa? How are African communities coping with the removal of their cultural heritage? How are western nations positioned as far as cultural desecration is concerned? What areas are of particular concern?  Where are the latest archeological digs occurring? What are they yielding? What new cultures (such as the Nok) are being unearthed? What new discoveries of art are taking place? Who are experts in the African art field? How can one find out information regarding a particular piece of art or culture? What institutions offer good programmes on African art? Books? Sources on the internet? How have imported religions affected the influence of African art on the local ethnic groups? Has Islam or Christianity (no graven images) helped reduce the application of art as religious or cultural icons?  Discussions on photography, video and film, film and art festivals, fashionand fabric design, culinary arts (food, cooking etc), and art education are on-topic. Conference announcements related to African arts and requests about African arts are also welcome.  Rules: ----- Although this newsgroup is unmoderated, we urge posters to show some civility in their discussions. Readers of this group will strongly discourage irrelevant posts such as spams, ads, make- money-quick, all manner of junk mails, racist and sexist mails, and such other posts that are unhealthy to the purposes of the newsgroup.  Language: English, but articles in French and Portugese are welcome. Posters in French and Portugese are encouraged, where possible, to provide translations of their articles in English.  END CHARTER.  CHARTER: soc.culture.african.west-africa  Soc.culture.african.west-africa is an unmoderated newsgroup for all discussions, debates, and information pertinent to the ECOWAS subregion of Africa. Postings can cover any topic of choice provided it has something to do with the West-African (ECOWAS) states.  Topics include but not limited to:   Education system(s) - post-secondary education, WAEC, 6-3-3                        education program, etc.  Economy - The ECOWAS Fund, role of IMF and other financial instit-            utions, the effect of continued military rule in the ECOWAS            subregion.  Music  Regional cooperation, civil wars, ECOWAS monetary issues, immigration  Religion  Science, technology, and Transportation  Health and social issues  Language issues, the use and development of Pidgin english,....  Customs, marriages, and other topics which are, in one way or another,  related to the ECOWAS subregion of Africa.  Postings can also include news, opinions, observations, humor, announc- ements, or requests. If it has anything to do with the ECOWAS, it can be discussed.  Rules ----- Soc.culture.african.west-africa shall be an unmoderated newsgroup. Neverthless, all articles posted must have something to do with the ECOWAS subregion of Africa or the peoples living therein. Insults, flames or unnecessary criticisms of a group or a person will be disc- ouraged by the readers. Anyone will be able to post to this newsgroup. However, being free to post should be considered a privilege and not a right. Hence, spams, junk, hate, sexist, racist, and massively cross-posted articles/ads which have nothing to do with the ECOWAS subregion of Africa will be strongly discouraged. Most importantly, everyone is responsible for what one posts. Please, read the netiquette rules in news.announce.newusers before posting your first article to this newsgroup, and endeavor to stick to them whenever posting articles. To encourage wider readership and participation, mailing lists belonging to any member of the ECOWAS can be gated the newsgroup provided not less than 2 weeks notice is posted on the newsgroup.  Language: Postings in english, french, portugese, pidgin, and other           indigeneous languages of the ECOWAS subregion of Africa           are welcome. For wider readership, please provide the           english translation where possible.  END CHARTER.  CHARTER: talk.politics.african  Talk.politics.african is an unmoderated newsgroup for discussing current sociopolitical issues concerning Africa, Africans, and Africans in diaspora.  END CHARTER.  MODERATOR INFO: soc.culture.african.moderated  Moderator: Susan Almy <[email protected]>   Susan is a new state legislator in the USA after 25 years of   agricultural development work in and about many parts of Africa   and the African part of Brazil. She is strongly concerned with   better access by Africans to the Internet.  Moderator: Anton Dil <[email protected]>   Anton lectures in computer science in Coventry, England. He grew   up in Zanbia, and has travelled widely on the continent. He is   interested in development work and education in Africa, and in   helping to provide a good forum for all people to discuss topics   related to Africa in a civil and constructive atmosphere on the   Internet.  Moderator: Prema Qadir <[email protected]>. Moderator: Rodney Coates <[email protected]> Moderator: Wayne De Jager <[email protected]> Moderator: Stephen Kennedy <[email protected]> Moderator: Solomon Makobili <[email protected]> Moderator: Boubacar Bah <[email protected]>  END MODERATOR INFO.  PROCEDURE:  This is a request for discussion, not a call for votes.  In this phase of the process, any potential problems with the proposed newsgroup should be raised and resolved.  The discussion period will continue for a minimum of 21 days (starting from when the first RFD for this proposal is posted to news.announce.newgroups), after which a Call For Votes (CFV) will be posted by a neutral vote taker.  Please do not attempt to vote until this happens.  All discussion of this proposal should be posted to news.groups.  This RFD attempts to comply fully with the Usenet newsgroup creation guidelines outlined in "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup" and "How to Format and Submit a New Group Proposal".  Please refer to these documents (available in news.announce.newgroups) if you have any questions about the process.  DISTRIBUTION:  This RFD has been posted to the following newsgroups:         news.announce.newgroups,        news.groups,        soc.culture.african        bit.tech.africana        soc.culture.kenya        soc.culture.zimbabwe        soc.culture.south-africa        soc.culture.nigeria        soc.culture.liberia        soc.culture.sierra-leone  and the following mailing lists:   Naijanet <[email protected]> (Nigerian Main Mailing List)           Subscribe via: [email protected]           Subscription Command: subscribe naijanet user-name   Zambia Network <[email protected]>   Cameroon Network <[email protected]>           subscribe via: [email protected]           subscription command: subscribe camnet user-name   This RFD will be posted by the mentor/proponents in:         soc.culture.south-africa.afrikaans        soc.culture.somalia        soc.culture.malagasy        soc.culture.caribbean        soc.culture.berber        soc.culture.egypt        soc.culture.maghreb        soc.culture.african.american        soc.culture.brazil        soc.culture.algeria        soc.culture.ethiopia.moderated        soc.history.african.biafra        soc.culture.guinea-conakry  PROPONENTS:  Proponent: Prema Qadir <[email protected]> Proponent: Stephen Kennedy <[email protected]> Proponent: Boubacar Bah <[email protected]> Proponent: Anton Dil <[email protected]> Proponent: Susan Almy <[email protected]>  MENTOR: Oguocha Ike <[email protected]>