Week 10 - November 11: Introduction to Environmental Knowledges in Africa

1. INDG 2015: Indigenous Ecological
Ways of Knowing
November 11, 2020
Dr. Zoe Todd
Department of Sociology and Anthropology

2. Indigenous Knowledges, TEK in
Africa
§ Indigenous peoples in Africa:
disrupting frameworks from other
regions
§ ACHPR
§ IPACC
§ Traditional Ecological Knowledges in
Africa
§ Knowledges

3. Recap
- Discussion of Brightman, Grotti and Ulturgasheva
- Ulturgasheva and Bodenhorn
- Sapmi: reindeer herders
- Kimmerer: The Honourable Harvest and In the
Footsteps of Nanabozho

4. UN engagement with Indigenous
peoples
§ “Indigenous peoples are inheritors and practitioners of unique
cultures and ways of relating to people and the environment. They
have retained social, cultural, economic and political
characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant
societies in which they live. Despite their cultural differences,
indigenous peoples from around the world share common
problems related to the protection of their rights as distinct
peoples.
§ Indigenous peoples have sought recognition of their identities, way
of life and their right to traditional lands, territories and natural
resources for years, yet throughout history, their rights have
always been violated. Indigenous peoples today, are arguably
among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of people in
the world. The international community now recognizes that
special measures are required to protect their rights and maintain
their distinct cultures and way of life. Find below a short history of
the indigenous struggle in the international stage.”
https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/about-us.html

5. Indigenous peoples in Africa
(ACHPR)
§ “The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR or
African Commission) has been debating the human rights situation of
indigenous peoples since 1999, as these are some of the most
vulnerable groups on the African continent. Since the 29th Ordinary
Session of the ACHPR in Libya in 2001, representatives of indigenous
communities have attended every session of the ACHPR and have
given strong testimony to their desperate situation and the human
rights violations to which they are victim. They have informed the
ACHPR about the discrimination and contempt they experience, about
the dispossession of their land and the destruction of their livelihoods,
cultures and identities, about their extreme poverty, about their lack of
access to and participation in political decision-making, and about their
lack of access to education and health facilities. In sum, the message is
a strong request for recognition, respect and human rights
protection. It is a request for the right to survive as peoples and to
have a say in their own future, based on their own culture, identity,
hopes and visions.” (p. 8, ACPHR) source:
https://www.achpr.org/public/Document/file/Any/achpr_wgip_report_sum
mary_version_eng.pdf

6. Indigenous peoples in Africa
(con’t)
§ “A closely related misconception is that the term ‘indigenous’ is not applicable
in Africa as ‘all Africans are indigenous’. There is no question that all
Africans are indigenous to Africa in the sense that they were there
before the European colonialists arrived and that they were subject to
subordination during colonialism. The ACHPR is in no way questioning
the identity of other groups. When some particular marginalized groups
use the term ‘indigenous’ to describe their situation, they are using the
modern analytical form of the concept (which does not merely focus on
aboriginality) in an attempt to draw attention to and alleviate the
particular form of discrimination from which they suffer. They do not use
the term in order to deny all other Africans their legitimate claim to belong to
Africa and identify as such. They are using the present-day broad
understanding of the term because it is a term by which they can very
adequately analyse the particularities of their sufferings and by which they
can seek protection in international human rights law and moral standards.”
(ACPHR, p. 12) source:
https://www.achpr.org/public/Document/file/Any/achpr_wgip_report_summary
_version_eng.pdf

7. Indigenous peoples in Africa
(con’t)
§ “Another misunderstanding is that talking about indigenous rights will lead
to tribalism and ethnic conflict. This is, however, turning the argument
upside down. There exists a rich variety of ethnic groups within basically
all African states, and multiculturalism is a living reality. Giving
recognition to all groups, respecting their differences and allowing
them all to flourish in a truly democratic spirit does not lead to
conflict, it prevents conflict. What does create conflict is when
certain dominant groups force through a sort of “unity” that only
reflects the perspectives and interests of certain powerful groups
within a given state, and which seeks to prevent weaker marginalized
groups from voicing their particular concerns and perspectives. Or,
put another way: conflicts do not arise because people demand their
rights but because their rights are violated.”

8. Francis Nkitoria Ole Sakuda
(2004)
§ “Since 1992, the indigenous people of Africa have
entered the international arena to fight for their
recognition, land, language, and culture. Recent years
have not been easy for many indigenous activists, who
have faced intimidation, arrests, and even death as they
fought for the rights of their communities. The fight took
Africa’s indigenous people to Geneva for the U.N.
Working Group on Indigenous Populations, to New York
for the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues,
and to the African Commission of Human and People’s
Rights.”
§ Source: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-
quarterly/hardships-and-successes-being-indigenous-africa

9. UN Indigenous leadership
§ Indigenous communities in Africa are
advocating at the local, regional, and
global level to assert their rights
§ This includes the UN Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
§ Former UN Special Rapporteur on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria
Tauli-Corpuz (2014-2020) conducted a visit
to the Republic of Congo in 2019 to
address Indigenous peoples’ concerns in
the country

10. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, October
2019 – visit to the Republic of
Congo
“Discrimination:
I concur with the observations of my predecessor, Prof. James Anaya, and of
the Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the African Commission on
Human and Peoples’ Rights, on the widespread situation of discrimination,
exclusion and marginalization of indigenous peoples from mainstream social,
economic and political life in Congolese society. The observation made by my
predecessor in 2010 that indigenous peoples are in non-dominant positions in
Congolese society, and have suffered and continue to suffer threats to their
distinct identities and basic human rights in ways not experienced by the Bantu
majority, remains valid.
Most of the government officials I met asserted that there is no discrimination
against indigenous peoples, and that the challenges they face are not
exclusive to them. They said the Bantu similarly suffer from lack of access to
basic social services. However, I do not agree that discrimination and exclusion
of indigenous peoples do not exist in the Republic of Congo.”
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25196&LangID=E&fbclid=IwAR1cNdyxHigxcM
EP7gr2FscOlFqJ6ExPD3VwNrQMURnz0_-mqu_SJTK0ACo

11. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz
§ https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=
14&v=xgBqgSkWV5o&feature=emb_logo

12. Indigenous Ecological Knowledges:
global conservation context
§ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agQDKkueT-c

13. This week’s readings -- IPACC

14. https://web.archive.org/web/20170128133321/http://ipacc.org.za/en/africa%E2%80%99s-indigenous-people.html

15. IPACC 2016
§ “Though the term ‘indigenous’ is sometimes
confusing in the African context, it remains
relevant for recognising peoples who rely on
natural resources, sustain their knowledge
system and live primarily not of agricultural
farming production.”p.4
https://www.ipacc.org.za/images/reports/cli
mate_and_environment/climate/conflict_sen
sitive_adaptation2014/LimaReportFinal.pdf

16. § “The term originated in Georgia with a remark
by Mbuto Milando, first secretary of
the Tanzanian High Commission, in
conversation with George Manuel, Chief of the
National Indian Brotherhood (now
the Assembly of First Nations). Milando stated
that "When Native peoples come into their
own, on the basis of their own cultures and
traditions, that will be the Fourth World."[2][3]”
§ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_World
4th world and Indigeneity

17. Manuel and Milando 4th world con’t
Valerie Alia, The New Media Nation, 2012, p. 13-14

18. § “Knowledge arises from the combination of usage, experience,
observation and with that the elaboration of systems of thought,
taxonomies, and methods of intergenerational transmission of
knowledge. Africa’s complex historical climatic fluctuations have
required most African peoples to develop sophisticated systems of
understanding cycles of nature, predictive systems related to
climate and rainfall, observation and theory building on animal
behaviour and detailed taxonomies and systems of knowledge
about the properties of plants as medicines, food, poisons or other
purposeful applications. Much of Africa’s intellectual resources, built
on centuries of engagement with nature and biodiversity remain
undocumented, locked within the specialised terminology of
thousands of local languages. It is this resource which may make
the difference between life and death, stability or migrations,
sustainability or catastrophes.” - IPACC 2016, p. 9
Indigenous Traditional
Knowledge - IPACC

19. Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim
§ https://www.ted.com/talks/hindou_oumarou_ibrahim_indigenous_knowledge_meets_
science_to_solve_climate_change?language=en
“climate change is
impacting our
environment by
changing our
social life”

20. Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim
§ “Indigenous peoples’ knowledge is
crucial for our planet; it’s crucial for all
the peoples. Science knowledge was
discovered 200 years ago; technology
100 years ago. But Indigenous peoples’
knowledge, it’s thousands of years ago.
So why we cannot put all these together;
combine those three knowledges and
give the better resilience to the peoples
who are getting the impact of climate
change?”

21. Readings, continued: Keguro
Macharia:
§ “I have been thinking about belatedness, what it means to be
marked as absent or delayed or not yet ready or undeveloped or
illiterate or primitive. Or as child or woman or black or blackened.
Or African. I have been thinking about what this belatedness
means for politics and thinking, for theory and coalition, for gene-
alogies of knowledge and pedagogical practice, for co-imagining
freedom and co- building a different world. In this issue of GLQ,
dedicated to “interdisciplinary discussion,” “new research,” and
theoretical innovation, I wonder what it means to have a special
issue dedicated to Africa almost thirty years after the journal was
first published in 1993. What kind of belatedness is at work, and
how do I write with and into it?” (Macharia, 2020, p. 561)

22. § “I wonder if reading strategies—against
the grain, along the grain, in the mar-
gins, through white space, in gaps and
silences, counterintuitively—counter
the overall negating force and effects of
such archives.” (Macharia 2020, p. 563)

23. Yaw Agyeman Boafo,Osamu Saito,Sadahisa
Kato,Chiho Kamiyama,Kazuhiko
Takeuchi &Miri Nakahara
§ “the use of traditional protected areas
as a form of TEK appears to be highly
valued by the majority of survey
participants. Demand-led research
aimed at examining TEK’s role in the
face of changing socioeconomic and
environmental conditions can contribute
to the formulation and implementation of
policy-relevant strategies.”
https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/doi/full/10.1080/21513732.2015.1124454

24. Yaw Agyeman Boafo,Osamu Saito,Sadahisa
Kato,Chiho Kamiyama,Kazuhiko
Takeuchi &Miri Nakahara
§ “Furthermore, policymakers should mainstream TEK into formal
educational curricula right from the primary level. This might help
promote knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of TEK
associated with the sustainable management of ecosystem services
at an early age. In the context of Northern Ghana, where youthful
populations migrate to the urban south even before completing their
basic education, this could be an important step toward bridging the
current wide gap in awareness between younger and elderly
populations that this study found. It is recommended that informal
education stakeholders such as parents and traditional authorities be
actively engaged in the transmission of TEK knowledge in formal
school systems. These stakeholders can contribute by offering
practical sessions to students in their local context. Finally, the study
recommends that policymakers enact ecosystem management
policies and conservation strategies that pay attention to the links
between local communities and nature.”
§ https://www-tandfonline-
com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/doi/full/10.1080/21513732.2015.1124454

25. “How Africa can use its traditional
knowledge to make progress | Chika
Ezeanya-Esiobu
“
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28sa2z
GgmwE

26. Africa is the forward that the world needs
to face | Pius Adesanmi | TEDxEuston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofrxl7zDh_Q

27. Weekly reflection question:
How can the global Indigenous rights
movement be more accountable to
Indigenous peoples’ rights and knowledges
in Africa?