I thought I'd write a brief post to discuss a phenomena that I have seen in the literature on water and agriculture and that I am guilty of in my own blog. There is still a major focus on 'western' ideas and knowledge in discussions surrounding Africa and African water and food security issues. For example take a look at the papers and articles I have referenced in prior posts and then look at the references used by those academics, almost all of them come from European and American authors.
The true extent of this issue was made clear to me when I watched Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu's TED talk discussing African traditional knowledge. This made it clear to me that the dominance of 'western' ideas in global discussions and teachings is not simply an ethical issue consisting of theoretical problems surrounding power but a practical one that is potentially stalling development of agriculture but also more broadly.
Within this broader issue of who creates knowledge is the simple idea that may be vital for tackling the issue of food security; families who have farmed an area for generations are likely to have developed techniques to successfully and reliably produce food here. The example of traditional irrigation Chika gives in her TED talk as well as other examples of 'indigenous' knowledge are further discussed in an insightful blog post on attempts to 're-green' the Sahel in attempts to achieve food and water security. Further research into agriculture in the Sahel region after reading this blog also showed that traditional techniques here has been shown not just to improve agricultural yield but also to reduce vulnerability to climate change (Nyong et al, 2007).
Having expanded my understanding of the importance of indigenous and traditional knowledge I will endeavour to try and include and discuss more work from African academics, where it is available, as well as to include more case studies of community or locally led projects in my remaining posts.
The true extent of this issue was made clear to me when I watched Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu's TED talk discussing African traditional knowledge. This made it clear to me that the dominance of 'western' ideas in global discussions and teachings is not simply an ethical issue consisting of theoretical problems surrounding power but a practical one that is potentially stalling development of agriculture but also more broadly.
Within this broader issue of who creates knowledge is the simple idea that may be vital for tackling the issue of food security; families who have farmed an area for generations are likely to have developed techniques to successfully and reliably produce food here. The example of traditional irrigation Chika gives in her TED talk as well as other examples of 'indigenous' knowledge are further discussed in an insightful blog post on attempts to 're-green' the Sahel in attempts to achieve food and water security. Further research into agriculture in the Sahel region after reading this blog also showed that traditional techniques here has been shown not just to improve agricultural yield but also to reduce vulnerability to climate change (Nyong et al, 2007).
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| Zai pits, a traditional Ghanian technique to capture rainfall and runoff. Source |
Having expanded my understanding of the importance of indigenous and traditional knowledge I will endeavour to try and include and discuss more work from African academics, where it is available, as well as to include more case studies of community or locally led projects in my remaining posts.
wow this is very interesting. I will use this is my exam tomorrow
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