On July 10, 2019, we had a small farewell lunch party for exchange students and a visiting professor from African countries. Shukulu and Rodrigue from Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences, Rwanda, Abigail from University of Ghana, and Dr. Hampwaye from University of Zambia joined it. Shukulu and Rodrigue have stayed here since Fall Semester 2018, and Abigail and Dr. Hampwaye have stayed here during Spring Semester 2019. Students were busy with classes including everyday Japanese classes, and also joined various kinds of activities to meet Japanese people and experience Japanese culture. Dr. Hampwaye has teached both for undergraduate and graduate students at TUFS and gave presentations in Tokyo and in Kyoto. He also met many Japanese researchers on African issues and widen the researchers' network. We know they miss their countries and people there, but they always showed us how much they were enjoyiong their lives in Japan. Besides, many Japanese luckily gained opportunities to meet them and learn about their countries and cultures from them. We are so pleased to have them here and hope they can come back to Japan in the future. At last, Abigail gave us a word on behalf of other Africans and told us that they would like to come back here for sure.

◆Date & Time: Friday, June 28, 2019 5:40 - 7:10 pm ◆Venue: Room 322, Research and Lecture Building, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies ◆Theme: Political Regime and Societal Responses in Africa ◆Programme: 5:40 - 6:10 Ian Karusigarira"Memory of War: Victimhood as a Regime Survival Card in Uganda's Revolutionary Politics" 6:10 - 6:40 Emmanuel Vincent Nelson Kallon"Ethnoregional-Neopatrimonialism and the Challenge to Post Conflict Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone" 6:40 - 7:10 Maïsha Tunzine"Land Grabs and Land Titling in Mozambique: Security Tenure for Whom?" ◆Report: African Studies Center held its 37th Seminar on PhD Student's Workshop with the theme: "Political Regime and Societal Responses in Africa," at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, where three African PhD students, Ian Karusigarira from Uganda, presented on "Memory of War: Victimhood as a Regime Survival Card in Uganda's Revolutionary Politics," Emmanuel V. N. Kallon from Sierra Leone, presented on "Ethnoregional-Neopatrimonialism and the Challenge to Post Conflict Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone;" and Maisha Tunzine from Mozambique, presented on "Land Grabs and Land Titling in Mozambique: Security Tenure for Whom?" Mr. Ian Karusigarira presented about Memory of War in Uganda. Ian Karusigarira, during his presentation, highlighted the equal importance of memory of war and ideological orientation to Uganda's revolutionary regime consolidation matrix. He explained the differentiations in the memory sites- the epicenter of the 1981-1986 war, the generational discourse of war traversing changing population, and the national discourse involving remembering, forgetting and repudiating some of the important historical facts. He noted that, in a revolutionary political system, lies a strong collective memory that attempts to organize and enforce national identity as a cultural property. Karusigarira also mentioned that national identity nurtured by the nexus between lived war representations and discourses on collective memory of war therefore, presents itself as a kind of politics with repetitive series of nation-state narratives, metaphorically suggesting how the assumed qualities of the nation's past reinforce the qualities of the present state of affairs. He concluded that this is the source of a political culture he calls the civic-public culture, a culture nurtured by society that had a direct interface with revolutionary war, a history of turmoil, and the regime that shapes what the nation as a whole should know and do or say. Mr. Emmanuel Vincent Nelson Kallon explained about "ethnoregional-neopatrimonialism." Emmanuel V. N. Kallon, on his part, expatiated that the sociological cultural pattern inherent within a certain structural image of societies, particularly one that directly relates to identity, its constructions, its strategic interactions within states, and the impacts such a pattern constitutes on the governance structure of heterogeneous environment of postwar state where maximum focus of liberal peacebuilding appears to have been concentrated. This almost entirely makes the viability of the liberal peacebuilding theoretical construction a non-starter, not compelling and therefore, impracticable. In addition, he specified that the sociological cultural pattern is visualized in the practice of an ethnoregional-neopatrimonial political system, where ethnic and regional identities of people at the very periphery of the nation-states regulate the behavioral pattern of political actors at the mainstream political structure. He concluded that the inherent nature of this practice in the political superstructure of Sierra Leone has made liberal peacebuilding in the country to be fraught in a serious sustainability dilemma. Ms. Maisha Tunzine focused on land issues in Mozambique. Finally, Maïsha Tunzine said, among the many debated issues connected to the issue of land, there is the concern of promoting a secured land ownership tenure that will give incentives for bigger investment in land as well as the importance of preventing and correcting social inequalities to promote a more equitable development. She also noted that foreign interest in land, particularly the case of Mozambique, has raised concerns over the implication of this concessions in the tenure status of rural communities, and majority of which only have a customary right to the lands they occupy in a context of a pluralist legal land system. Thus, Tunzine opined that this has promoted the formalization of rights or titling of communal lands, as a way to ensure their protection to rip the benefits of these investments. She concluded by asking that how the large scale investments in land are shaping land security in Mozambique and to what extent land titling improves the rural communities' bargaining power when land concessions are negotiated. This constitutes the pivot of her research interest.

Rodrigue has joined Choeur Soleil, the chorus club at TUFS, from this semester. I visited the club the other day and found out he has already integrated himself into the club. The member warmly welcomes him and teaches him very kindly when he is struglling with Japanese. Rodrigue, as a music lover, likes to play music instruments and sing, but it is not the only reason why he's been enjoying the club activity. He also likes people in the club and shares time with them. He wrote about the club activity and showed his gratitude to the club member. Since the beginning of this term, I decided to join Choeur Soleil, one of the clubs at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The club is made of a significant number of students mainly from Japan and few international students. We meet twice a week (Wednesday from 4:10 pm to 6:40 pm and on Saturdays from 1 to 4 pm) in order to train ourselves on how to sing well. Apart from my desire for learning how to sing very well which is being satisfied every week, I experienced many more good elements from the club. I am going to describe some of them: first, the club is well structured with an active committee. Tasks are shared and in a harmonious way, many activities are planned such as concerts and sharing dinner every Wednesday after the practice time. Second, the training is conducted in a good mood. Many jokes are shared by trainers and trainees. I've never been bored during practice time. Third, I was surprised by the care I got there. As I don't speak the Japanese language very well, all the members are doing their best in order to integrate me in each and every activity. There is always someone to translate for me and all the members talk to me in English or in Japanese. I do like that. In addition to that, one member of the club decided to surprise me by singing the national anthem of my country Burundi. I wondered where he got the chords of the anthem and he told me that he prepared it by himself. Later, I found that some members can also sing the national anthem of Tanzania and they did it in the last mini-concert. I was overwhelmed with joy. As a sum up, I've found love and joy at Choeur Soleil. Therefore, I recommend the International and Japanese students at TUFS who are interested in singing and making new friends to join the club. Thank you!!!

Institute of Developing Economies - JETRO, APL (Ajiken Power Lunch) seminar. Date and Time: June 17, 2019 13:30 - 15:00 Venue: C23 seminar room Title: FIRM PERFORMANCE IN AN AFRICAN ENVIRONMENT: THE FOOD PROCESSING SUB-SECTOR IN ZAMBIA Abstract: From literature, there are many factors that affect firm performance. Generally, firm performance is affected by interplay between internal and external factors. However in Africa, the often unstable external environment (factors) seems to have an overriding effect on firm performance, especially when the firm's internal capabilities are relatively weak. This presentation examines the findings of a study of the Food Processing Sub-Sector in Zambia from 2012 when the firms seemed to be growing, to 2016 when some firms faced challenges to the extent that a few closed down their operations. The presentation in particular brings out factors that attempt to explain the poor performance of these firms.