Indigenous environmental knowledge and challenging dualisms in development: observations from the Kalahari

ABSTRACT

The dividing practice of separating indigenous and scientific knowledge should be avoided. The article illustrates how these forms of knowledge are negotiated in development projects where research participants are included as co-researchers. Data were collected through interviews and participant observation during fieldtrips to the Kalahari. !Xaus Lodge, the first research site, a poverty alleviation tourism asset built by the South African government and owned by the ǂKhomani and Mier communities. The second research site was Biejse Poort, where an intercultural rock engraving recording project was conducted. The article discusses challenging dualisms that are usually evident in development projects.

La pratique clivante qui consiste à séparer le savoir indigène du savoir scientifique doit être évitée. Cet article illustre comment ces formes de connaissance sont négociées dans les projets de développement qui incluent, en tant que co-chercheurs, des participants aux recherches. Les données ont été collectées au cours d’entretiens et d’une observation participante, à l’occasion de visites de terrain au Kalahari !Xaus Lodge, le premier site de recherche, un atout touristique dans la lutte contre la pauvreté construit par le gouvernement sud-africain et possédé par les communautés ǂKhomani et Mier. Le deuxième site de recherche était Biejse Poort, où un projet de peinture rupestre était mené. L’article ouvre un débat sur la remise en question des dualismes qui sont habituellement évidents dans les projets de développement.

Es necesario evitar la práctica divisionista que lleva a separar el conocimiento indígena del conocimiento académico. El presente artículo da cuenta de cómo son sorteadas estas formas de conocimiento en proyectos de desarrollo en los que quienes participan en la investigación quedan implicados como coinvestigadores. Durante un trabajo de campo efectuado en el Kalahari, se recabó información con este cometido a través de la realización de entrevistas y observaciones participativas. El primer sitio en que se realizó la investigación fue ¡Xaus Lodge, una instalación turística construida por el gobierno de Sudáfrica y orientada al alivio de la pobreza, propiedad de las comunidades ǂKhomani y Mier. En el segundo sitio, Biejse Poort, se desarrolló un proyecto intercultural de registro de grabados en piedra. Partiendo de estas experiencias, el artículo examina cómo se cuestionan los dualismos que a menudo se presentan en los proyectos de desarrollo.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil society – Participation, Partnership
• Environment (built and natural)
• Methods
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgements

The opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and not attributed to the NHC or NRF.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Lauren Dyll is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Communication, Media and Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, teaching graduate modules in research methodology, media theory, and social change communication. Her research interests include development partnerships and participatory development communication, issues of identity and cultural tourism, and critical indigenous qualitative research. She has been a key contributor to Keyan Tomaselli’s Rethinking Indigeneity project since 2002.

Notes

1. The Mier are a neighbouring community who also reside in the southern Kalahari. They were also previously dispossessed and via the 1999 land claim were restituted 25,000 hectares of land within the KTP. Currently, their political economy is primarily founded on hunting, as well as farming.

2. The article subscribes to the United Nations (2009, 4) definition borrowed from Martínez Cobo (1986/7):

“Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system.”

3. Three essentialised myths about indigenous peoples are of the exotic other, the intruding wastrel, and the noble savage (Berkes 1999). In particular reference to the Bushman, this is the idea that they are isolated and timeless, ignoring their integration into modern capitalist societies (Dove 2006).

4. Back stage is the area where staff members and cultural performers retire, live, and socialise between performances/shifts to relax, and the front stage is the meeting place of hosts and guests or customers and service persons (Goffman 1959; MacCannell 1973).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the South African National Heritage Council (NHC), who funded the Biesje Poort Rock engraving project. The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF): Social Sciences and Humanities toward this research is also acknowledged.