INDIGENOUS RIGHTS IN AFRICA: THEORY AND APPLICATION
Abstract
The question of “indigeneity” is a vital issue in Africa. According to the Commission, all Africans are indigenous to Africa and no particular social formation can claim for the indigenous status. People often talk about ‘Western’ or ‘European’ concept of human rights, and thus compare ‘African’ and ‘Western’ thoughts. This issue occupies an important place in the vast literature that seeks to articulate an African approach towards the rights of the Indigenous people and thus compare such view with the Western concept. Despite the uprising of the consciousness of the African nations, many Africans have not made efforts to fight for these ideas, because many of them have been educated in a ‘colonial mentality’ and think that everything traditionally African is uncivilized. It is my contention that the African conception of the world has not been well studied.
Introduction and Thesis statement
The paper is expected to explore the concept of indigenous rights, as defined in the international arena, applied to the unique African continent. The post-colonial states were effectively determined by colonial government prior to their departure. Accordingly, national borders in Africa do not respect traditional community, traditional or tribal climes. The essay is going to examine the growing indigenous movement in Africa, its motivations and its impacts on modern social and economic life. Unlike other Western countries, as Australia, North America and New Zealand, where indigenous Identification is reasonably straightforward in relation to colonial conquest, the majority of post-colonial Africans would still consider themselves indigenous to African soil. Yet, increasingly, there is an understanding that communities in Africa are more indigenous than others.
Preliminary results and discussion
According to Dorothy Hodgson (2009), traditional Africans had conservationist values, moral attitudes, practices, and ways of life. With the colonization, the African people have been forced to accept the fact that African way of life and values are uncivilized in comparison with the models of development, which came from the West. Igoe Jim suggests that in recent years there is the uprising of the African traditional community on its hard way to the self-determination. This idea was supported by the authors of Indigenous Discourses on Knowledge and Development in Africa. Edward Shizha and Ali A. Abdi are convinced that “Africa continues to lag behind other countries, because African nations have fallen into the capitalist trap”. While, Kelbessa suggests that African views have not been well known because of a type of a contemporary racism, which ignores and denigrates African views based on the assumption that Africans have no ideas to offer or such ideas are inferior and not worth taken seriously. That is why many people in the Western countries have not been willing to explore African ideas. For example, The Rights and Status of Indigenous Peoples in Nigeria explores if the ‘indigenous peoples’ really exist in Nigeria and their right to have the same liberties all over the world. A critical perspective on the issues of culture, power, representation, presented Dorothy Louise Hodgson in her work. The author touches the issue of the environmental sustainability of Indigenous people, “economic liberalization, transnational capitalism and political democratization”.
According to Sena Kanyinke, who discusses the articles 3 and 32 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the right to development is an inalienable human right. There is an African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which questioned the meaning of “Indigenous population of Africa”. It was the first step before regarding the claims in frames of the issue. According to Jérémie Gilbert, despite extremely contentious political issues, “the Commission has adopted a pragmatic approach to human rights, focusing on practical remedies to human rights violations”. Thus, the current Indigenous peoples’ human rights finally received a weak but a protection. More deeply the question of the approach of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights to the status of indigenous peoples in Africa was studied by the researcher Bijosi. The issue of balance between individual and collective rights opens Sylvain Renee talking about the indigenous women of the San tribe in Namibia. According to the author, there is tension between collective group rights and women's individual rights. The civil society organizations working with indigenous peoples in South Africa (WIMSA) established in 1996 to provide a platform for San Communities in Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. First of all, they regarded the claims and guaranteed to people a right for natural resources, economic sustenance, religious and cultural life. Ridwan Laher opens the issue of the Endorois case and the socio-political history of the question of human rights in Africa. According to the book, the domestic jurisprudence confirms that the Indigenous people in Africa are entitled to the protection of traditional lands and resources as the fundamental human right in all over the world. The question of self-determination of Indigenous peoples, specifically in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Africa, researched Kennedy M. Maranga in the book the Indigenous People and the Roles of Culture, Law and Globalization. While Felix Mukwiza Ndahinda went further during his researches and raised the question of 'marginalized' communities in his books that investigate legal and political aspects of indigenous identification in Africa. Development with culture and identity for indigenous peoples is possible, but they need more liberties and possibilities to control the natural resources and lands of Africa by themselves.
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