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- Convenors:
-
Hali Healy
(University of Johannesburg)
Geoffrey Nwaka (Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria)
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- Chair:
-
Hali Healy
(University of Johannesburg)
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Decolonisation
- Location:
- Palmer 1.05
- Sessions:
- Thursday 29 June, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
The science and practice of development should integrate the traditional knowledge of local communities in Africa. Researchers and the development community should tap into the time tested resource of indigenous knowledge to formulate locally appropriate policies and programmes of development.
Long Abstract:
Global inequalities today derive largely from the unequal power relations in the way knowledge about development has historically been produced and applied. African knowledge systems have been undervalued because of the dominance of Eurocentric mindsets and practices. Critics now blame state failure and the development crisis in Africa on “the structural disconnection between formal institutions transplanted from outside and indigenous institutions born of traditional African cultures”. How can Africa engage profitably with globalization and modernization by drawing on local human and material resources for greater self-reliance and sustainable development? We argue that Africa should search within its own knowledge systems for appropriate ideas and approaches to many of its development problems. Africa stands to gain from global science and international best practices, and indigenous knowledge and global science need to be made to complement and enrich each other; but the panel stresses the need to tap into indigenous/local knowledge for locally appropriate ways to achieve more inclusive, participatory and sustainable development. The panel welcomes papers that deal with various aspects of the indigenous knowledge movement and of decolonial activism in Africa. Topics include, but are not limited to the following:
- Traditional knowledge and institutions for good governance
- Informal justice systems, and traditional conflict resolution mechanisms
- Traditional medicine and healthcare, debates about intellectual property rights
- Indigenous knowledge, environmental protection and local responses to and adaptation to climate change
- Centering Africa in the educational system, the language question and curriculum reform
- Preserving and promoting indigenous knowledge systems. Collaboration between scientists and those who hold and use indigenous knowledge to co-produce updated and widely applicable knowledge.
- The rising decolonial activism in Africa such as the Rhodes-Must-Fall movement in South Africa, and the agitation for the return/restoration of African works of art looted in the colonial period.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 29 June, 2023, -Hali Healy (University of Johannesburg)
Paper short abstract:
We contribute findings/unexpected lessons from a participatory counter-mapping exercise underway in Xolobeni to support a Peoples' EIA. The EIA is being developed by grassroots community members opposed to state plans to mine titanium sands, and more recently gas and oil reserves off the Wild Coast.
Paper long abstract:
This article describes how participatory methods (combining indigenous storytelling and visioning) were combined with GIS technology to map the past, present and future of Amadiba communities in the area of Xolobeni, South Africa for strategic and research purposes. It illustrates how ‘good practice’ in participatory digital counter-mapping depends on sensitivity to power dynamics everywhere, and researchers’ ability to respond to local realities as they unfold on the ground. We highlight key success factors and challenges, and how they shape outcomes, as well as outputs, even as the mapping project continues to evolve. A key finding points to how - as with all transdisciplinary work- the prioritisation of community needs and interests (in contrast to focusing on outputs), produces unexpected benefits for researchers and communities alike. The paper concludes that participatory digital countermapping can serve as a powerful tool when mobilized to support indigenous knowledge, in a praxis of public political ecology, with the potential to make substantial contributions to the pursuit of epistemic and social/environmental justice.
Phoene Oware (University of the Western Cape)
Paper short abstract:
This paper highlights findings from a study which investigated the potential for complementarity between formal and informal social protection systems in Kenya.
Paper long abstract:
Expanding social protection coverage is imperative in low-resource contexts such as Kenya. Alongside efforts to increase state capacity, alternative strategies for the expansion of social protection need to be explored. To this end, the potential of linking formal and informal social protection systems has been highlighted. Yet, research exploring this possibility is limited. Using a qualitative research design, this paper examines the ways that Kenya’s recently introduced universal old age grant interfaces with informal social protection systems.
Four distinct interfaces between the grant and informal social protection systems of the elderly were identified, namely: Complementarity, this was achieved through the grant providing resources for participation in informal networks, supplementing beneficiaries' inadequate informal protection, reducing dependency on informal networks, and restoring kinship relations; Substitution, informal systems substituted and mitigated the grant's unpredictable and erratic payments; Competition, the grant engendered tensions and conflicts that could weaken informal networks. Informal networks played an auxiliary role to the grant’s implementation which facilitated information dissemination, registration of beneficiaries and their access to collection sites.
Findings affirm the value of cash transfer programs which even though inadequate, improve access to informal social protection systems, resulting in better wellbeing outcomes. High-quality, adequate, and universal social protection programs are essential to complement enhance these outcomes. Systematic engagement with informal social protection systems is necessary to strengthen inefficient grant administration, expand access to basic services through informal networks, and to mitigate negative effects such as resource conflicts.
Neil Maheve (Rhodes University)
Paper short abstract:
I bring a fresh, nuanced understanding of development in the new dawn of decoloniality by dismissing the mainstream idea of development and conservation in marginal rural areas. My research brings a fresh impetus to understanding development from the local perspective and their expectations.
Paper long abstract:
This research endeavors to re-evaluate the concept of development in Zimbabwe, focusing on the Community Areas Management Program for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) in Kanyemba. Drawing upon the tenets of the post-development theory, this study seeks to contextualise the participants' experiences in the program and challenge the prevalent belief that development is a uniformly positive and homogenous phenomenon. The study adopts an ethnographic methodology to critically analyse the program's impact on the local community and determine the root cause of its unpopularity. Qualitative research techniques, including in-depth interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, are employed to understand the attitudes and experiences of the people involved in the program, with a particular emphasis on marginalised groups such as women and ethnic minorities. The research highlights the significance of incorporating local cultures and indigenous knowledge into development initiatives and demonstrates that the neglect of these factors resulted in the failure of the CAMPFIRE program in Kanyemba. By illuminating the experiences of marginalised groups, the study brings to the fore the imbalances inherent in mainstream development. It advocates for a more inclusive and equitable approach to development that considers local communities' cultural context and expertise. This study provides valuable insights into the potential and limitations of the CAMPFIRE program in Kanyemba. It contributes to ongoing discussions about sustainable development and the role of local communities in conservation efforts. Through its rethinking of development in Zimbabwe, this research represents a critical step towards a more nuanced and equitable approach to development.
Shamira Ahmed (Data Economy Policy Hub)
Paper short abstract:
Considerations of the ethical implications of artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve a just transition to the circular economy (JTCE) have been limited and concentrated on global North perspectives. This workshop explores an AI ethics framework based on the pan-African principles of Ubuntu ethics.
Paper long abstract:
There is growing global hype that a green-digital twin transition can be achieved by leveraging data-intensive digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) combined with more sustainable industrial and economic models such as the circular economy (CE). However, most countries well positioned to build AI-based circular innovation at scale are based in the global North.
In Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) the concept of circularity is not new ⸺ Many indigenous communities have been using circular principles for generations, and in contrast to many Western notions of industrial circularity, indigenous SSA notions of circularity take on an animist view of Ubuntu, which considers communities as environmental stewards in a “circle of life” where flows of matter, energy, and relations exist between all organisms in a balanced closed loop with an emphasis on interdependencies, synergetic relationships, mutual respect, restorative justice, and the greater common good⸺ including for the environment.
The current global governance, design, and deployment of AI systems to lessen environmental degradation present significant ethical challenges to the pan-African philosophy of Ubuntu, they are made without meaningful global communal accountability and regulation, are extractive, often ignore indigenous knowledge and historical injustices, and are driven by commercial and techno-nationalist agendas to gain global dominance of AI innovations and hardware value chains that power frontier technologies. This paper addresses this gap, by outlining how an ethical AI framework based on Ubuntu can be used in SSA contexts and beyond, for a just transition to the circular economy (JTCE).
Sripriya Iyengar Srivatsa (University of Cambridge)
Paper short abstract:
I ask how the configuration of individual identities impact the success of tax reform at the sub-national levels by comparing cases of Sierra Leone and Zambia.
Paper long abstract:
Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, among others, have shown the unique position of Africa in the process of coloniality and how knowledge within colonialism and imperialism have been central to controlling and obscuring African bodies and minds (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2018). This project proposes a comparative study of sub-national revenue mobilisation efforts in Sierra Leone and Zambia within the narrative of the legacy of colonialism. The main outcome of state capacity I study is the ability to generate a steady system of revenue collection and spending at the sub-national level, with a particular focus on property taxes. A large body of literature examines the legacy of colonialism on state capacity through an institutional lens (Acemoglu and James A Robinson 2012; Kohli 2004; Waldner 2018). My research will contribute to the literature on state capacity and development by drawing on the theoretical framework of Akerlof and Kranton (2000) to show how individual perceptions of state capacity can significantly impact reform agenda. This framework explains in a binary setting that economic decisions of an individual are a product of their identities (e.g., gender, nationality, occupation etc.). The vestiges of colonial tax practices persist, and local governments across the two countries struggle to establish legitimacy in the shadow of chieftains. My work aims to inform policy on managing incentives to implement change with citizen support at the sub-national level.