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- Convenors:
-
Kennedy Opande
(University of Nairobi)
Stephen Ombere (Maseno University)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Transfers:
- Open for transfers
Short Abstract:
Anthropological discourse and knowledge flows demonstrate epistemological divergencies and contextual disjunctures as a result of unequal global knowledge production regimes. The panel will discuss how knowledge reflexivity can enrich and shape intersection of realities across contexts in future.
Long Abstract:
Anthropology remains dominated by exotically-led theoretical domains. This has left unequal knowledge flows in the field. The current movement emphasising accurate representation of knowledge within anthropology offers promise regarding the way the field is engaged with, including how it shapes knowledge production in Africa in the future. The current debates around climate change, health and environmental cataclysms among others which have seriously impacted local societies have renewed anthropology and how it remains pivotal in understanding not just how people interact with their environment but also how the local knowledge systems, epistemologies and ontologies can intersect with global and regional knowledges and praxis. This panel will discuss how the discourse about the shifts in the anthropological knowledge can shape and even influence regional and global realities to extend epistemological and ontological currencies imbued in the local realities including science in Africa. It aims at advancing the debate at the broader sphere of knowledge production, exchange and shareability across different ecological contexts as they are generated. The panel invites discussions optimising the expansion of knowledge spaces across contexts and demonstrating the way this can encourage the intersection of knowledge through flows, exchanges, and utilisation. The central questions are: to what extent has anthropological knowledge generated in Africa influenced viewpoints and understanding of the dominant global theoretical discourses? How is this knowledge positioned and even utilised in the contemporary arena of decolonising knowledge in those spaces – including in the key sectors that directly affect the quality of life and existence?
Accepted papers:
Paper long abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic not only revealed the physical resilience of African peoples in terms of their response but also their technological creativity due to the unsustainable technological supplies from the Global North. Hence, local manufacturers became innovative by producing hand sanitizers, face masks, and hand gloves, among others – made from local fabric that became instrumental in dealing with the pandemic. That contextual response mechanism provided the local gaze of the global health pandemic in the postcolonial states. Moreover, there was the calibration of local solutions informed by the imported, western-centric health protocols that often disregard local practices and traditional knowledge, and these helped to deal with the global health condition. The responses have illustrated a knowledge gap, where indigenous and community-based health systems, which could contribute to pandemic mitigation, remain underutilized. The transformation of anthropological knowledge, although potentially impactful, is hindered by epistemic inequalities that prioritize foreign expertise over locally grounded practices. This transformation process also encounters ethical challenges; as anthropological insights become “precious commodities,” there is a risk of commodifying indigenous knowledge without acknowledging its cultural origins – ultimately undermining local solutions. Amid these complexities, the pandemic reveals an urgent need to decolonize knowledge systems in postcolonial states, ensuring that anthropological insights are adapted to local contexts, and preserving cultural heritage while supporting practical health solutions.
Paper short abstract:
Knowledge ‘generation’ and perpetuation towards public health interventions in Africa has always been championed by global north multilateral organizations at the expense of local knowledge preservation, undermining the contextual interplay between traditional and modern health knowledge systems.
Paper long abstract:
Public health interventions in Africa, particularly those targeting behaviour change around water, sanitation and hygiene have been majorly perpetuated by the multilateral organizations from the global north. This has been done at the expense of indigenous knowledge and practices which have been applied by communities over the years. The north-south relationships has been skewed due to colonial legacy which ‘wiped’ indigenous knowledge and practices relegating them to ‘traditional’ that cannot influence or impact development. Things have been made not better with the transactional nature of the governments relationships when it comes to aid and donor relations leading to none adoption and adaption of indigenous knowledge to public health interventions. More so, this transactional and master-servant nature of donor aid towards public health interventions in Africa has impeded knowledge flow to influence local or national policies on health. There is need for multilateral agencies implementing public health interventions to explore and adopt indigenous knowledge in their undertakings. The adoption and adaption of local and cultural factors such as indigenous knowledge and practices not only assist in improving health outcomes but also local acceptability, ownership and sustainability in improving quality of life.
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on an in-depth ethnography of Western-funded human microbiome projects in Africa, I will analyse how Western scientists can reproduce post-colonial racial categories and stereotypes, and how these conceptualizations can be challenged by interdisciplinary collaborations with anthropologists.
Paper long abstract:
Microbiome research, the genetic analysis of the bacteria living on and within human bodies, has significantly expanded our ability to explore microbes’ role in human health and diseases. As a scientific effort born in the Global North, however, its practices and researchers can perpetuate patterns of scientific colonialism when sampling human microbes in Africa. As the byproduct of Eurocentric historicism, microbiome research can reproduce orientalist legacies in its conceptualization of African bodies and lifestyles (Maroney 2017; Raffaetà 2022). It can rely on a temporal framework that positions non-Western populations as living representations of humanity’s microbial past, effectively relegating them to “the waiting room of history” (Chakrabarty 2007). This presentation is based on prolonged, in-depth ethnographic research on Western-funded human microbiome projects in Africa, and on semi-structured interviews with scientists based in the Global North. In carrying out this research, I also participated actively in the knowledge production process, and my positioning and anthropological background has had a transformative process on how Western scientists conceptualize African subjects. Drawing from Post Colonial Science Studies (Prasad 2023), especially those foregrounding race as a key site where scientific knowledge is extracted (Ferreira da Silva 2007; McKittrick 2015), I will analyze both how microbiome science can perpetuate racial disparities through its practice, and how a place-based, situated anthropological knowledge can contribute to a better-informed, more equitable science. I mobilize Elizabeth Roberts (2021)’s concept of “bioethnographic collaboration” to show what happens when social scientists are brought in in the ontological phases of life science research.
Paper short abstract:
Climate science needs to be decolonized to integrate the traditional knowledge of local communities in Africa and the Global South. Researchers and the development community should recognize the value of different knowledge systems, and the need for inter-cultural dialogue.
Paper long abstract:
For a long time African knowledge systems were undervalued because of the undue dominance of Eurocentric mindsets and practices. Africa contributes least to, but suffers disproportionately from the negative impacts of climate change. The industrialized countries tend to unduly blame the poor countries of the Global South for using natural resources in an unsustainable way; but most traditional African societies have deeply entrenched ideas and practices about conservation and the sustainable use of natural resources because their livelihood depends largely on the land and on the stability of the ecosystem. They believe that land and other forms of nature are sacred, and are held in trust by the present day users on behalf of dead ancestors and future generations. These local communities have over the years developed intricate systems of forecasting weather systems in order to prevent and mitigate natural disasters; traditional techniques of soil management, pest and disease control, adopting suitable crop and animal varieties, and so on. The unprecedented scale of climate change today may have undermined the reliability of many traditional indicators for predicting the pattern of climate variability, and techniques for preventing and adapting to climate induced natural disasters. There is therefore a need for those who hold and use traditional knowledge to partner with scientists and other stakeholders, in a mutually respectful way, to co-produce updated knowledge for better climate risk management. The paper considers various forms of research partnerships, and inter-cultural dialogue that will improve knowledge about the climate crisis and its management Africa.