Culture & development
Indigenous peoples’ in Africa
Indigenous mobilisation in Africa
Authors:
N. Crawhall (ed)
Publisher:
Norwegian Church Aid , 2006
This paper argues that indigenous peoples’ mobilisation is related to the impact of globalised capitalism penetrating increasingly remote rural areas where indigenous modes of subsistence have managed to survive. Political marginalisation, itself a product of colonialism and the ethnic character of the post-colonial state, requires redress and new platforms for dialogue between states and vulnerable peoples. The authors argue that development co-operation needs to be based on at least three intersecting approaches: human rights, cultural resources & knowledge management, and an ecological approach to sustainability.
The paper outlines the history and explains indigenous modes of subsistence. An overview of the regional issues in Southern Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and the Horn of Africa and West and North Africa is provided. The authors then introduce the principles of new policy approaches considering groups such as the rural poor, hunters and gatherers and migrant poor.
The paper questions different aspects of development and concludes with a number of points including:
- privatisation of land and property represent a direct threat to the collective trusteeship of land and natural resources which is at the core of indigenous economies and belief systems
- development, in the African context, is more a question of choice and maintaining a healthy equilibrium, than enforcing one particular model of globalised economics
- privatisation of land and property represent a direct threat to the collective trusteeship of land and natural resources which is at the core of indigenous economies and belief systems
- the fact that African indigenous peoples survive in very different and diverse economic and social systems despite all of the odds is a reminder that linear views of history and development are naïve and sometimes dangerous.
