Links

"They Do Not Own This Place": Government Discrimination Against "Non-Indigenes" in Nigeria (pdf)

This 64-page report documents the harmful impact of discriminatory policies against those citizens defined as "non-indigenes" in Nigeria. These policies have a harmful impact on the human rights of many Nigerians and are in violation of the Nigerian constitution and international human rights law. The report also shows how these policies of discrimination exacerbate interethnic and interreligious tension in ways that have sparked violence in many different parts of the country. (Human Rights Watch, 25 April 2006)

http://hrw.org/reports/2006/nigeria0406/nigeria0406web.pdf

(Added: Fri May 05 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 205)

Abandoned to the famine

The ghost of famine hangs over the Turkana nomads of northern Kenya. Over the whole drought-hit area, stretching into southern Ethiopia, southern Sudan and east into Somalia, people who spend their time moving with the weather from the valley-floor grazing sites to the springs in the hills have lost almost all their livestock. Animals are everything - food, wealth, insurance and savings accounts. Eight million people in this dry triangle are hungry and thirsty. Experts and charity workers believe the nomads' plight in times of natural disaster is exacerbated by wilful neglect of people with no political clout. In this article, we meet some of the people who expect to die. (Tracy McVeigh, Guardian Weekly, June 2006)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/outlook/story/0,,1797399,00.html

(Added: Mon Jun 26 2006   Modified: Mon May 28 2007   Hits: 182)

British politicians 'taken in by Kalahari PR campaign'

Since 1997 more than 1,500 Gana and Gwi Bushmen have been evicted from their homes in the Kalahari, where diamond deposits have been found. After the Botswanean government organised a tour for a British parliamentary group, its misister has promised to "set the record straight" by disputing allegations that the evictions of Bushmen from are unwelcome. This has angered over human rights groups like Survival International, who say the suffering of the people of the Kalahari is being hidden by a massive PR campaign. (Ben Flanagan, Guardian Weekly, April 2006)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/outlook/story/0,,1761749,00.html

(Added: Mon May 01 2006   Modified: Tue Jun 27 2006   Hits: 134)

Bushmen Court Case Press Pack

The Botswana High Court ruled today that the Botswana government's eviction of the Bushmen was 'unlawful and unconstitutional', and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The court also ruled that the Bushmen applicants have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve, and should not have to apply for permits to enter it. The court's ruling is a victory for the Bushmen and for indigenous peoples everywhere in Africa. This is an online press file about the court case, including summaries, biographies, legal precedents, photos and video clips. (Survival International, 13 December 2006)

http://www.survival-international.org/bushmenpresspack

(Added: Thu Dec 14 2006   Modified: Fri Dec 15 2006   Hits: 46)

Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems

This centre focuses on research, monitoring, documentation, and coordination of indigenous knowledge systems in Ghana. The Centre is based in Accra and has affiliates in the USA, and local communities in Ghana.

http://www.cfiks.org/

(Added: Fri Oct 26 2007   Hits: 146)

Climate change clash in Africa

It is the dry season in Uganda's Karamoja region, and more than 40 people have died in recent weeks in fighting between Karimojong warriors and the Ugandan Army. The semi-nomadic Karimojong are pastoralists who protect their cows, violently if necessary. But the recent clashes are a symptom of more universal problems. As elsewhere in Africa, the population in eastern Uganda continues to grow as the environment deteriorates, putting more and more pressure on a land that grows ever drier. (Tristan McConnell, Christian Science Monitor, 20 December 2006)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1220/p06s02-woaf.html?s=hns

(Added: Tue Jan 09 2007   Hits: 47)

Dawudo.net: on Edo-delta people

This web site is dedicated to all the people of Niger Delta. It is a source of political discussions centered on the events in this area.

http://dawodu.net/

(Added: Thu Jul 13 2006   Hits: 38)

Education for peace in Kenya: indigenous peace traditions and the Millennium Development Goals

Since peace is a prerequisite for the realization of the MDGs by the year 2015, it is important to re-examine and reclaim traditional African approaches to peace building in schools. (Timothy Gachanga, Africa Files, 2005)

http://www.africafiles.org/atissueezine.asp?issue=issue1#art2

(Added: Fri Dec 15 2006   Hits: 134)

Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation

The goal of 'sustainable development' in Africa calls for a re-acknowledgement of the power and contemporary relevance of indigenous knowledge, and its systematic integration into formal and semi-formal education. This article presents a model developed through collaboration between young and old, and between rural Africa and the industrialised world, which might serve as a catalyst for other grassroots organisations to develop educational strategies appropriate to their own circumstances. (Gemma Burford, Lesikar Ole Ngila and Yunus Rafiki, Science in Africa, March 2003)

http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2003/march/ik.htm

(Added: Thu Oct 26 2006   Hits: 302)

Gender, Local Knowledge, and Lessons Learnt in Documenting and Conserving Agrobiodiversity

This paper explores the linkages between gender, local knowledge systems and agrobiodiversity for food security by using the case study of LinKS, a regional FAO project in Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Tanzania over a period of eight years and now concluded. The project aimed to raise awareness on how rural men and women use and manage agrobiodiversity, and to promote the importance of local knowledge for food security and sustainable agrobiodiversity at local, institutional and policy levels by working with a diverse range of stakeholders to strengthen their ability to recognize and value farmers' knowledge and to use gender-sensitive and participatory approaches in their work. (Yianna Lambrou and Regina Laub, UNU-WIDER, 2006)

http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/rps/rps2006/rp2006-69.pdf

(Added: Mon Oct 30 2006   Hits: 281)

Indigeneity in Africa

The articles in this issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly relate to the most marginalized and aggrieved peoples in Africa. Some, such as the Batwa (Pygmy peoples) of Rwanda or the San of South Africa, are hunter-gatherers, or former hunter-gatherers who were driven from their lands and lifestyles by colonialism or development. Others, such as the Maasai of Kenya and the Tuareg of West Africa, are pastoralists whose ways of life require the ability to move freely among traditional places to pasture their animals. And yet others, such as the Mursi of Ethiopia, are characterized less by their mode of production than by their small numbers, remote locale, lack of representation in political structures, and the extreme threat to their lands and lifestyles from governmental and international interests that have failed to consult them or involve them in decisions concerning their fate. While all Africans are indigenous in the sense that their ancestors were there before European colonists, most of them would not fit the broader definitions of the term. Those who do-the subjects of this issue-now find their ways of life at risk from many fronts. (Cultural Survival Quarterly, June 2006)

http://209.200.101.189/publications/csq/index.cfm

(Added: Mon Aug 28 2006   Hits: 48)

Indigenous Democracy: Traditional Conflict Resolution Mechanisms (pdf)

ITDG-EA, January 2004. Edited by Betty Rabar, Martin Karimi. This publication details the indigenous methods of conflict resolution among the Pokot, Tukana, Samburu, and Marakwet communities of North Rift Kenya. Traditional conflict resolution structures are closely bound with socio- political and economic realities of the lifestyles of the African communities. These conflict resolution structures are rooted in the culture and history of African people, and are in one way or another unique to each community. The overriding legitimacy of indigenous conflict resolution structures amongst these communities is striking. The publication outlines scarce and unequal access to natural resources and power, ethnic mistrust (ethnocentrism), inadequate state structures, border tensions and proliferation of illicit arms into the hands of tribal chiefs, warlords and fellow tribesmen as some of the causes of inter-ethnic conflicts in northern Kenya.

http://www.itdg.org/html/itdg_eastafrica/indigenous_democracy.htm

(Added: Fri Jun 18 2004   Modified: Wed Jul 12 2006   Hits: 384)

Indigenous Information Network

The organisation was founded by a group of professionals in response to addressing needs particularly regarding availing information through media and other channels about indigenous peoples, their livelihoods and challenges they face as they struggle to exist. The organisation is based in Kenya and is involved in dissemination of information, community development, lobbying and advocacy activities in support of indigenous and minority peoples in the region.

http://www.indigenous-info-kenya.org/

(Added: Thu Apr 20 2006   Modified: Thu Jun 22 2006   Hits: 59)

Indigenous Knowledge of Edible Tree Products - the Mungomu Tree in Central Mozambique

This report reviews local knowledge of the Mungomu tree by the Kung Khoi-San tribe in the Kalahari Desert in Central Mozambique. The tree provides up to three quarters of the dietary needs of the tribe, but nut consumption is declining. The authors hope to stimulate the production of non-timber forest products from all forests to boost food security and incomes for communities in the area. (Gregory Saxon and Catarina Chidiamassamba, LinKS Project, FAO, 2005)

http://www.fao.org/sd/links/documents_download/Kulima_40.pdf

(Added: Tue Jun 27 2006   Hits: 103)

Minorities Under Siege: Pygmies today in Africa

This 36-page report looks at the status of pygmies in the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It examines treatment of indigenous peoples globally, and the issues confronting pygmies in particular: discrimination, land rights, human rights, political representation - and survival. It includes interviews with individuals relevant to the pygmy cause, and links and references. (IRIN, April 2006)

http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/pygmy/Pygmies-today-in-Africa-IRIN-In-Depth.pdf

(Added: Tue May 16 2006   Modified: Thu Jan 18 2007   Hits: 196)

Protest the the persecution of the Gana and Gwi Bushmen and Bakgalagadi

The Gana and Gwi tribes in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve are among the most persecuted peoples in Africa. Far from recognising their ownership rights over the land they have lived on for thousands of years, the Botswana government has in fact forced almost all of them off it. The harassment began in 1986, and the first forced removals were in 1997. Those that remained faced torture, drastic restrictions in their hunting rights, and routine harassment. In early 2002, this harassment intensified, accompanied by the destruction of the Bushmen's water pump, the draining of their existing water supplies into the desert, and the banning of hunting and gathering. Almost all were forced out by these tactics, but a large number have since returned, with many more desperate to do so.

http://www.survival-international.org/how_to_help.php?howto_help_id=48

(Added: Fri Oct 27 2006   Hits: 215)

Safe as Ghost Houses: Prospects for Darfur African Survivors Removed to Khartoum

Since spring 2003 and earlier, Black Africans in Darfur, Western Sudan, have been systematically 'ethnically cleansed' from the region by Arab militia and Sudanese Government forces. Up to 400,000 have been killed and around 2.5 million internally displaced. 200,000 have taken refuge in Chad. Around 3 million are dependent on humanitarian assistance. Some have fled to the UK, where they are threatened with removal to Khartoum as failed asylum seekers. This 28 page report lays bare the dangers for the survivors of genocide in the Sudan, and the dire treatment of internally displaced people in the camps and settlements around Khartoum. (Sarah Maguire, Aegis Trust, June 2006)

http://www.aegistrust.org/images//khartoum_report_june_2006.pdf

(Added: Tue Jun 27 2006   Hits: 57)

Shell Shocked: People of the Niger Delta fight back against violence and corruption

Over a decade has passed since the Nigerian government killed Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists. Saro-Wiwa led a non-violent struggle against Royal Dutch Shell and other oil multinationals whose operations in the region were devastating the environment and livelihoods of local people. While the struggle remains the same today, the tactics have changed. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) is a well-armed, well-organized group of youth who aim to localize control of the Niger Delta's oil wealth and are demanding compensation for communities environmentally devastated by oil operations. The group has already shut down nearly one fifth of the country's oil production, and are hitting headlines with regular kidnappings of American oil workers. This article looks at the connections between multinational oil companies and Nigeria's military government, and to the links between deep poverty and foreign oil production in the Niger delta. (Hillary Bain Lindsay, Znet, March 23, 2006)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=9975

(Added: Mon Apr 03 2006   Modified: Tue Jun 27 2006   Hits: 107)

Tanzania Indigenous Knowledge Database

The database has been established to enhance sharing and dissemination of Indigenous Knowledge(IK) information, experiences and practices in Tanzania. The content of the database has been pulled together by a variety of Tanzanian community-based organisations. An intiative of the Tanzania Development Gateway.

http://www.tanzaniagateway.org/ik/

(Added: Fri Nov 10 2006   Hits: 62)

The rights of indigenous peoples in Africa

Groups that self-identify as indigenous live a peripheral existence. Most governments in Africa do not have disaggregated data or indicators to monitor the social, economic and political status of indigenous people. How then can they track progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals if the poorest of the poor are not even properly recognised? A major concern is that many states will focus on the bottom line of reaching the MDGs, rather than the matter of who reaches them or how. (Pambazuka, November 2007)

http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/6058.html

(Added: Mon Nov 19 2007   Modified: Thu Nov 29 2007   Hits: 23)

The ruling from the Bushmen's court case in Botswana, 2007

A copy of the landmark ruling made by the Botswana High Court in the case of the Kalahari Bushmen against the Botswana government is now available online. The court ruled that the Botswana government's eviction of the Bushmen was 'unlawful and unconstitutional', and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The court also ruled that the Bushmen applicants have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve, and should not have to apply for permits to enter it. (The High Court of Botswana, February 2007)

http://www.survival-international.org/files/related_material/bushmen_ruling.pdf

(Added: Tue Feb 27 2007   Hits: 38)