An alternative conceptualization of indigenous rights in Africa under the international human rights law framework (original) (raw)
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Indigenous rights in southern Africa: international mechanisms and local contexts
The San are the indigenous peoples of southern Africa, numbering approximately 100,0001 and representing three linguistic families.2 Once living throughout the southern part of the continent, today the San live primarily in Botswana and Namibia, to a lesser extent in Angola and South Africa, with very small numbers also residing in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Like indigenous peoples worldwide, San communities are currently facing drastic social change, extreme marginalisation and poverty.3 Hitchcock and Garcia-Alex emphasise the starkness of indigenous peoples’ deprivation, noting that ‘they tend to have the lowest health and nutritional standards, the highest rates of unemployment, illiteracy, and mortality, the shortest life spans, the lowest incomes, and the lowest degrees of political participation of the various categories of people in the countries in which they reside’.4 This description fits for the San of southern Africa, who have played an important role in the collective global imagination about human ancestry, and have been a prime focus of much anthropological research. Despite all this attention, the standards of living have continued to deteriorate. Can a rights-based approach help?Will the signing of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have any impact? How do local, national and regional contexts come into play? What do anthropologists have to contribute to a discussion of indigenous rights in southern Africa?
Journal of African Law, 2017
The adoption by some peoples in Africa of the indigenous rights concept has brought about new challenges regarding the application of the concept to these peoples. The indigenous rights concept was shaped by the colonial experiences of indigenous peoples in the Americas and Australasia. The international understanding of the concept presupposes the existence of a set of group rights belonging to peoples who are descendants of the earlier inhabitants of the territory on which a state is located, in contrast to other citizens of that state who are considered colonial settlers. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights has attempted to overcome this challenge by evolving a description of indigenousness for Africa. This article argues that, although the conceptual challenges that flow from the foreign origin of the concept have not been fully overcome, the African Commission's description has successfully located Africa within the global indigenous rights framework.
Evolving Legal Protections for Indigenous Peoples in Africa: Some Post-UNDRIP Reflections
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Prior to the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) many African states held a unified and seemingly hostile position towards the UNDRIP exemplified by the concerns outlined in the African Group's Draft Aide Memoire. In order to gain a better understanding of the protections offered to indigenous peoples on the African continent, it is necessary to examine the concerns raised in the aforementioned Draft Aide Memoire and highlight how these concerns have been addressed at the regional level, effectively changing how the human rights norms contained within the UNDRIP are seen, understood and interpreted in the African context. The purpose of this article is to do just that: to examine in particular how the issue of defining indigenous peoples has been tackled on the African continent, how the right to self-determination has unfolded for indigenous peoples in Africa and how indigenous peoples' right to free, prior and informed co...
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In recent decades, discourses of citizenship, minority, and indigenous rights have ranked high on the agenda of the international development establishment (Niezen, 2003). They have also made their way into national and domestic politics in many parts of Africa. Among these, the concept of indigenous peoples has raised debates, both in political and academic circles, particularly in the African context (Kuper, 2003). At the same time, this and related notions have been adopted by many minority groups in their struggles for recognition, resources, and rights, yet with varied outcomes. In September 2007 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among its most significant assertions are indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination to lands, territories, and natural resources, and to free, prior, and informed consent. Activists and organizations concerned with human and minority rights saw the adoption of the declaration as an i...
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Journal of International Law and Jurisprudence, 2013
Indigenous Peoples (IPs) have been subjected to a series of humiliation, discrimination and in some cases dis-membership of a state. This is germane, but not peculiar, to the developing states with special reference to Africa. Globalization and efforts to link human, cultural and social rights to the IPs remain blurred and continue to generate academic curiosity. Despite the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) and the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) positions on the need to accord some special rights to the under-privileged IPs based on their culture, religion and economic/mode of production, they remain a second fiddle in their various states. For them to have access to their resources, issues of prior informed consent, indigenous knowledge and access and benefit sharing dicta need to be observed religiously by states and business corporations in harnessing the resources of the IPs in the form of natural resources that they are in control of because they are found on...
This article outlines the different trajectories of the indigenous rights movement in Africa, and discusses the factors that have contributed to its success ordecline. Two case studies are compared; namely, the case of the San people of Botswana in Southern Africa, and the case of the Mbororo people of Cameroon in West Africa. On a general level, this article argues that the indigenous rights movement in different parts of Africa has gone through various phases, from expectation and success to disillusionment and pragmatism. Moreover, it demonstrates that the San and Mbororo communities and other groups not only rely on the global indigenous rights movement, but have also adopted alternative and complementary strategies to deal with the unforeseen consequences of this movement. Finally, we argue that our case studies attest to the enduring relevance of the nation-state and the ideal of ethnic coexistence in Africa.
The Indigenous Rights Movement in Africa: Perspectives from Botswana and Cameroon
African Study Monographs, 2015
This article outlines the different trajectories of the indigenous rights movement in Africa, and discusses the factors that have contributed to its success or decline. Two case studies are compared; namely, the case of the San people of Botswana in Southern Africa, and the case of the Mbororo people of Cameroon in West Africa. On a general level, this article argues that the indigenous rights movement in different parts of Africa has gone through various phases, from expectation and success to disillusionment and pragmatism. Moreover, it demon- strates that the San and Mbororo communities and other groups not only rely on the global indigenous rights movement, but have also adopted alternative and complementary strategies to deal with the unforeseen consequences of this movement. Finally, we argue that our case studies attest to the enduring relevance of the nation-state and the ideal of ethnic coexistence in Africa.