INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL TOPIC "INDIGENOUS IDENTITIES AND ETHNIC COEXISTENCE IN AFRICA"

Abstract

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 important step toward the improvement of the precarious situation of minority groups. Today, seven years later, many peoples are still involved in struggles over citizenship, belonging, and identity. In this volume, we wish to reassess in this light the current and historic situation of selected minority groups in different parts of Africa. Among them are the prehistoric pastoralist groups in northeastern Chad (Lenssen-Erz), the Sandawe and Hadza in Tanzania (Yatsuka), the Mbororo in Cameroon, and the San in Botswana (Pelican and Maruyama). In Africa, the situation of minority groups or indigenous peoples cannot be understood without factoring in their varied and multi-faceted relationships with neighbouring ethnic groups. The contributions in this volume take into consideration that African peoples do not live in isolation, but coexist with other population groups, and that they are a part of overarching regional and national societies. In some cases, issues may arise from a problematic relationship with the state; in others, they emerge over conflicted relationships with neighbour ing groups. The contributions in this volume thus focus on both the contentious and collaborative relations with neighbouring population groups as well as on processes of inclusion and exclusion against the background of national and international politics. Furthermore, the papers critically engage with the achievements and failures of the indigenous rights movement in Africa. More specifically, they discuss the numerous ways in which discourses of citizenship and indigeneity have been translated locally — or vernacularized in Merry’s (2006) terminology — and have been put into use. As the papers suggest, different groups may pursue quite different