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- Convenor:
-
Geoffrey Nwaka
(Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria)
Send message to Convenor
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Climate change
- Location:
- Room 1199
- Sessions:
- Friday 10 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
Climate science needs to integrate the traditional knowledge of local communities in Africa. These communities should partner with scientists to co-produce updated knowledge for climate risk management. Researchers should recognize epistemic diversity, and the need for inter-cultural dialogue.
Long Abstract:
Africa contributes least to but suffers the most from the negative impacts of climate change. How can the continent partner with Europe to cope better with this emergency? We argue that Africa should search within its own knowledge systems for appropriate ideas and approaches. 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 the stability of the ecosystem. They 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, etc that have ensured traditional resilience. This panel recognizes that the unprecedented scale of climate change today may have undermined the reliability of many traditional indicators for predicting climate variability, and techniques for preventing and adapting to climate induced natural disasters. We invite papers that explore how those who hold and use traditional knowledge can partner with scientists and practitioners to co-produce updated knowledge for better climate risk management; how to promote a more collaborative and trans-disciplinary approach to climate research that would ensure that traditional and modern knowledge systems complement and enrich each other; how indigenous knowledge may be better preserved in a form that can be used by policy makers and development practitioners to compare with, and apply in other contexts. How can researchers and the development community in Europe and Africa tap into the vital and time-tested resource of indigenous knowledge?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 10 June, 2022, -Happy Tirivangasi (University of Jyvaskyla, Finland)
Paper long abstract:
Climate change remains a global problem with the current discourse shifting towards developing sustainable mitigation and adaptation measures to contain its effects. Notable adverse impacts include declining water and forestry resources; changes in distribution of fauna and flora with destruction of biodiversity; reduced agricultural productivity; spread of pathogens and vector-borne diseases; and catastrophic weather and climatic conditions. This highlights how climate change is deterrent to human development. Given the crosscutting nature of the impacts of climate change, a holistic approach is required which involves collection of knowledge, ingenuity, and action of all stakeholders for instance, indigenous communities affected by climate change. Significant efforts have been made in developing resilience mechanisms to withstand the effects of climate change. However, it is the absence of Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS) in the Zimbabwean policy framework that emerges as a cause of concern. It is noted with concern that most contemporary Zimbabweans believe that IKS is primitive and irrelevant. However, in the face of the increasing impacts of climate change, traditional knowledge and practices are being researched, revived, and repackaged to build up resilience to climate hazards. This study builds on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s agenda to increase the recognition and fostering of the use of local and indigenous knowledge on improving adaptation and building resilient communities. It utilises the Afrocentric theoretical lens to locate and discuss the indigenous-based knowledge capable of informing our understanding of climate change at local level. Methodologically, the researchers utilise ROSES (RepOrting standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses) conducting of environmental systematic reviews to garner relevant data. Data collected will be analysed using Thematic Content Analysis.
Key Words: Climate Change; Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS); Afrocentricity; Adaptation; ROSES; Zimbabwe.
Geoffrey Nwaka (Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria)
Paper short abstract:
While Africa stands to gain form global science and international best practices, the continent should search within its own knowledge systems for appropriate ideas and approaches to many of its development challenges, including the challenge of climate change.
Paper long abstract:
Africa contributes least to, but suffers the most from the disastrous consequences of climate change. How can the continent cope better with the worsening threats of flooding, drought and other emergencies that result from extreme weather conditions. The paper underscores the value and continuing relevance of indigenous local knowledge for environmental protection and climate change adaptation in Africa. It argues that while Africa stands to gain from global science and international best practices, the continent should search within its own knowledge systems for appropriate ideas and approaches to many of its development challenges, and that indigenous knowledge may provide a model for rethinking and decolonizing climate science. Local communities in different parts of Africa 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 other coping strategies that have ensured traditional resilience. Researchers and the development community should, therefore, try to tap into the vital resource of indigenous knowledge for locally appropriate and culture-sensitive ways to engage with the environment, and adapt to the negative impacts of climate change. The paper concludes with some general reflections on the indigenous knowledge movement as an appropriate local response to globalization and Western knowledge dominance, and as a way to underscore the fact of epistemic diversity and the need for inter-cultural dialogue.
Louise Muller (Leiden University) Boon Cheong Chew (Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka)
Paper short abstract:
The first presenter will focus on ubuntu thinking in Akan culture for a more sustainable environmental management of plastic waste in Ghana and wider Africa. The second presenter will compare the Ghanaian case with plastic waste management in Malaysia in specific and in Asia more general.
Paper long abstract:
West African indigenous knowledge as a source for environmentally sustainable management has long remained invisible. This paper will focus on indigenous knowledge in Akan culture, religion, and philosophy. Akan proverbs, symbols, oral storytelling, and video films will be discussed to bring out the environmental-related ubuntu aspects of this culture.
Ubuntu is a South African concept, but ubuntu cultural-religious elements can be found in many African cultures. An Akan proverb, for instance, emphasizes that a chief attains selfhood and can only become a good (environmental) manager by listening to and serving his or her followers. Such ubuntu-based Akan indigenous wisdom has long been hidden by a (neo) colonial layer of sand. Climate change has increased the need to uncover African ubuntu-based epistemologies in and outside South Africa.
The first presenter will share her findings of ubuntu thinking in Akan culture and concentrate on ways to implement this for a more sustainable environmental management of plastic waste in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Unearthing the ubuntu nature of Akan culture can help stakeholders to improve their management of the lifecycle and the reduction of plastic. The second presenter will compare the Ashanti case with plastic waste management in Malaysia in specific and in Asia in general, to enhance a broader intercultural philosophical understanding of African ubuntu in contradiction to Asian communitarian-based plastic waste management in the Global South.
Philip Egbule (University of Delta, Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria)
Paper short abstract:
Recent happenings have demonstrated our growing vulnerability to climate change. Africa suffers most from the impacts of climate change crisis. Hence, this paper is a call on African researchers to dive into their own indigenous knowledge for proactive approaches in addressing climate change crisis.
Paper long abstract:
Recent happenings have emphatically demonstrated our growing vulnerability to climate change and its threats to human survival. Although there have being numerous discourse on climate change and the consequent environmental hazards, still a call for proactive approach to halt the envisaged ruin is indispensible. This paper, therefore, is a clarion call on African researchers to dive into their own indigenous knowledge systems for proactive approaches towards addressing climate change crisis. Unfortunately, one major challenge that may likely bedevil this proposal is the erroneous believe that African traditional ideas and practices are fetish. This paper will examine how our growing vulnerability could be addressed through the collaboration of climate science/environmental education with relevant indigenous knowledge systems in Africa. Additionally, this study will discuss how African researchers and their counterpart in the global north can tap into the vital and time-tested resources of African indigenous knowledge system. Due to increasing climatic instability, the study will also create the awareness and solutions for mitigation and adaptation so as aid and enforce resilience in African states. The effects of climate change and environmental hazards on the socio-economic activities in Africans will be also reviewed. In conclusion, the paper will note that environmental and socio-economic effects of climate change on Africans include poor health, poverty, increased migration, food scarcity, the occurrence of crime or violence, home lost/displacement as well as herdsmen-farmers crises. However, it expresses optimism that this proposal will contribute to managing climate change in Africa. Possible ways of achieving these will be suggested.