Interrogating the Political Economy of Age

This article considers the argument by Tim Vlandas, in this issue, that an ageing electorate may undermine democracies’ ability to make the right economic choices. Vlandas suggests that the emergence of gerontocratic politics may give rise to ‘gerontonomia’: an economy run for the old, at the expense of younger generations and of future prosperity. However, evidence from the UK suggests a more mixed picture. Age-based voting patterns have been consequential around single issues, not least the 2016 Brexit referendum. However, voters’ interests in broad economic policy models are not easily reducible to age dynamics, and intergenerational politics are filtered through a set of normative and affective considerations beyond straightforward self-interest. Moreover, since the rational interests of different age groups do not speak for themselves, cueing by political elites is potentially significant and may be contributing to older voters’ relative tolerance of a poor economic record.     

This Word is (Not?) Very Exciting: Considering Intersectionality in Indigenous Studies

Gender and intersectional approaches can provide important insights and reflections for indigenous studies. Issues related to indigenous people and communities are broad and complex. Doing research within indigenous studies has to consist of more than simply discussing indigenous identity. I argue that intersectional approaches of varying kinds provide an opportunity to understand several aspects of identity and a diverse set of issues relevant to indigenous communities. Using intersectional approaches enables one to maintain a critical focus on power. In this article, I describe indigenous studies and intersectionality separately, then move on to a discussion of how intersectionality and gender perspectives can be used within indigenous studies. The starting point for intersectional approaches as well as for indigenous studies is the margins rather than the centre. The focus of the article is on methodology, which is based on the reading of literature from indigenous methodologies, gender studies, and intersectionality. A key concept is the cultural interface, which points towards the existence of plural subject positions both for individuals and within a community.     

Integration of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Natural Resources Management in Hurungwe District,Zimbabwe

The study explores the Korekore culture in a bid to show its relevance to modern society's natural resources management in Zimbabwe. The main argument of the article is that the Korekore people have indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) that need to be tapped and integrated in modern-day natural resources management in Zimbabwe and elsewhere. The article argues that if blended with modern technologies, IKS can serve as effective intervention strategies that can mitigate the challenges faced in natural resources management. Adopting a qualitative research design in a case study approach, purposive sampling and snowballing techniques were used to select participants with in-depth knowledge on traditional beliefs and practices in natural resources management. The data collection tools included interviews, questionnaires, and peer-reviewed journal articles analysis. The study observed that the Korekore cultural beliefs and practices are not only relevant at local level, but are consistent with the principles of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations and United Nations Working Group on Traditional Resources Rights.     

Cultural citizenship online: the Internet and digital culture

This paper explores connections between cultural citizenship and Internet-based media. It argues that engaging with cultural citizenship assists in moving debates beyond misleadingly narrow conceptions of the digital divide. It suggests that cultural citizenship invokes questions of access, visibility and cultural recognition, as well as tensions between intra- and inter-cultural communication online. The paper calls for a reflexive and critical research agenda which accounts for the ‘attention economy’ of the Internet and issues of cultural ethics online. The paper concludes that research and debate in this field must acknowledge ongoing tensions and contradictions between a postmodern ‘remix’ ethic in which the Internet serves as an open cultural archive which citizens can freely access and rework, on the one hand, and claims for cultural authorship, sovereignty and protection, on the other.     

Africa's indigenous languages as the cornerstone of the African Renaissance

Abstract

This article explores and emphasises the crucial link between the African Renaissance and Africa's indigenous languages. It sheds light on the impact of colonial languages on Africa's colonial state. Indigenous African languages, Ndhlovu (2008, 42) says ‘are essential for the decolonisation of African minds and for the African Renaissance’. However, the finding was that the promotion of colonial languages at the expense of indigenous African languages is characteristic of the colonial state of Africa. The argument is, therefore, in favour of the consideration of indigenous African languages in the promotion of African Renaissance.     

Analysis of the relevance of traditional leaders and the evolution of traditional leadership in Zimbabwe: A case study of amaNdebele

Abstract

This article analyses the Ndebele institution of traditional leadership in contemporary Zimbabwe. It traces the pre-colonial Ndebele traditional leadership in order to establish the changes that have occurred as well as their causes. The article highlights the importance of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), especially in leadership which is highly controversial in Africa. Traditional leadership is the indigenous way of leadership which can, in a good way, influence contemporary governance for the benefit of the people. The article takes an Afrocentric approach with a clear understanding of the dynamism in culture. It then proceeds to reveal the problems (and their causes) within the traditional leadership institution in contemporary Zimbabwe. Finally, the article recommends solutions to the problems.     

Methodological challenges in doing ethnomathematical research

Abstract

Researchers in ethnomathematics are confronted by a variety of methodological questions when they carry out ethnomathematical research. These have to deal with: participants and knowledge holders; language used in research; interviews and observations; familiarity (or lack thereof) with the knowledge holders; mathematical analysis of cultural artefacts; etc. Knowledge in this field engages with indigenous knowledge systems. This article primarily deals with indigenous games which the author researched. He proceeds to explore questions which arose and to provide possible solutions. The author also reflects on and analyses other studies that have grappled with the questions and draws on the implications and insights of these studies in constructing the suggested answers. The article therefore demonstrates that ethnomathematical research contributes to the demystification of the historical false projection by colonialism that Africa and Africans were and are not culturally embedded in mathematics – especially applied mathematics.     

The Possibility of Liminal Colonial Subjecthood: Yayutz Bleyh and the Search for Subaltern Histories in the Japanese Empire

ABSTRACT

This article examines whether writing histories of colonial subjects is possible. Traditional colonial histories subsume the colonial subject's individual history under a larger narrative of subjugation, which often does not allow room for people to exist outside the dichotomized role of collaborator/resister. This approach has left a gap in the scholarship for histories of colonial subjects whose lives do not easily fit either category. This article addresses this gap by detailing the life of Yayutz Bleyh, an Atayal woman who became one of the most important participants in the Japanese colonial administration of Aboriginal Affairs in Taiwan. For over six years, the author gathered fragmented pieces of information regarding Yayutz from a multitude of sources – visuals, as well as oral and written materials from inside and outside the colonial archive – in order to sketch the contours of an extraordinary woman and her life. Through the process of filtering these disparate sources, it was the silences regarding certain issues and the discrepancies that emerged among sources that proved to be the most revealing about Yayutz as someone who straddled both the world of the colonizer and the colonized.     

Indigenous voices and the making of the post-2015 development agenda: the recurring tyranny of participation

This paper explores recent efforts to ensure the participation of indigenous peoples in the making of the post-2015 development agenda. It is based on an examination of the UN’s global consultation process, conducted between July 2012 and July 2013. Using discursive analysis of consultation findings and reports, we argue that the UN’s approach to participatory development represents a pretence rather than an actual shift in power from development experts to the intended beneficiaries of development. Therefore the post-2015 consultation process aptly illustrates the recurring tyranny of participation, this time at a global level, as the UN maintains control over global development goals. Recognising that it would be unjust to ignore the ability of marginalised groups to challenge the UN’s dominant narratives of development, we suggest that there is still time for indigenous voices to be heard in the build-up to the post-mdg era through ‘invited’ and ‘uninvited’ forms of participation.     

The incorporation of indigenous concepts of plurinationality into the new constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia

This article studies the new constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia in order to determine to what extent indigenous concepts of democracy have been incorporated into these important documents. The research presented here suggests that there is a significant correlation between the demands made by indigenous social movements over the past two decades and the new constitutional texts of both countries, which essentially embrace the alternative forms of citizenship and democracy espoused by indigenous social movement groups. For many activists, these changes open the door to what they perceive as a richer democracy.