Untitled - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Völkerkunde

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Ankündigungen
From the Africanist perspective, we witness discourses featuring a
“new nativism” (Mbembe), and there are successful movements to obtain
guaranteed land titles (Botswana) or shares from the commercialisation of
medical plants (Namibia) linked to the promotion of indigenous rights. In
these cases, the concept is used to remedy wrongs committed against minority
groups. On the other hand, rhetorics of exclusion, primarily based
on “autochthony” principles (a dominant notion above all in West Africa)
are gaining ground, sometimes even sustained by national laws. So while
indigeneity can be used by minorities in an emancipatory way to claim
their rights, it takes on an oppressive and exclusive character if used by
a majority group. Clearly, the political problems of both cases go hand in
hand with the conceptual ones: the categorical difference between “autochthonous”
and strangers (often themselves born in a country) can only be
established by the political act of focusing on (often invented) origins, and
by fixing fluid identities in a clear ascription of indigeneity.
The workshop discusses the usefulness and pitfalls of the concept, promotes
the discussion of comparative case studies also beyond Africa with
respect to various local understandings and cultural constructions of indigeneity,
strategies of local actors, but also legal contexts and political
frameworks. Finally, we may discuss whether alternative concepts can be
developed that both meet scholarly standards and comprise universal human
rights standards, or whether the political ascription of rights based on
such group differences is doomed to become oppressive.
Convenors: Gregor Dobler (gregor.dobler@unibas.ch), Tilo Grätz (tilograetz@yahoo.de)
Discussant: Adam Kuper (angefragt)