African Journals Online
The African Anthropologist

JOURNAL OF THE PAN AFRICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Number 1 Volume 9 2002

Edlyne Anugwom

Mass Poverty in Nigeria: Cultural Bases, Causes and Remedies

This paper examines the issue of poverty in contemporary Nigerian society. The new thing about poverty in Nigeria now is that it has become a large-scale affliction. Mass poverty in the country has its genesis in the oil glut of the 80's and the subsequent introduction of economic structural adjustment which, far from being a remedy, has pushed Nigerians, with the exception of the ruling class, further into poverty. Apart from these, mass poverty in Nigeria, is tacitly encouraged by the government whose various policies and programmes have been tailored to further impoverish the masses. The widespread poverty in Nigeria is webbed around a culture that situates people and their offsprings in a particular social strata and engenders certain norms and practices that ensure that they not only remain there but accept their situation as normal. The best ways out of mass poverty in Nigeria may be in the provision of good leadership, equitable distribution of resources, improvements in amenities and more importantly, a cultural revival aimed at tackling wrong norms that support poverty.

Kouadio Kouamé Alphonse

Sciences sociales, sciences humaines et sciences de l'homme: valeurs et limites de la distinction au 21e Siècle

La science est constituée par l'ensemble des connaissances et des études de valeur universelle, caractérisées par une méthode et un objet déterminés, fondées sur des relations objectives et vérifiables. C'est bien dans ce même ordre d'idées que E. Schatzmann a pu soutenir la thèse selon laquelle la science est l'ensemble de la connaissance des lois des processus naturels. (Encyclopédie universalis Vol. 14: 752). Et cela, l'auteur en le disant, se fonde sur le postulat que les phénomènes naturels obéissent à des lois qui sont connaissables. Mais ainsi libellée, cette définition de la science semble exclure l'homme et les phénomènes sociaux. Certes, à l'analyse, on peut admettre que cette thèse conçoit l'homme comme faisant partie intégrante de la nature, et que son comportement comme ses activités individuelles ou collectives, obéissent également à des lois. Or il est évident que concernant les phénomènes naturels d'une part, et les phénomènes sociaux ou humains d'autre part, on ne peut nullement aboutir aux mêmes lois. D'où la question que nous nous posons: une telle définition est-elle suffisante pour une appréhension effective du statut de la science dans toutes ses dimensions? La réponse à une telle interrogation ne peut être que négative, dans la mesure ou en réalité, il ne peut y avoir de science que de la nature ni de la vie.

Les relations de l'homme avec la nature peuvent commander et réciproquement, les relations avec ses semblables soit dans la vie en communauté, soit dans l'exercice même de l'activité de transformation, etc. C'est en cela que la définition de la science en général, et singulièrement des sciences de l'homme s'avère assez difficile, qui suscite un certain nombre d'interrogations: qu'entend-on par Sciences sociales, Sciences humaines, Sciences de l'homme? Quel sens et quelle importance peut-on accorder à ce débat terminologique de nos jours, et pour quel intérêt?

Autant de questions auxquelles nous tenterons d'apporter à travers cet article, quelques éléments de réponse. Pour ce faire, nos propos s'articuleront autour de trois points essentiels. A un premier niveau, il s'agira de situer les sciences de l'homme par rapport à I'ensemble des sciences; le deuxième point sera consacré à la caractérisation des premières. Quant au troisième et dernier point, il examinera la portée réelle de la reprécision des concepts fondateurs des sciences de l'homme de nos jours.

Tobias Haller

Common Property Resource Management, Institutional Change and Conflicts in African Floodplain Wetlands

Most contemporary discussions on African development since independence forty years ago emphasize the notion that Africa is still “mal parti”. Many show discontent for what has been achieved in this time, despite that “Africa works” as is suggested by Chabal and Daloz in their widely discussed book (1999). I will focus on the issue of sustainable development in Africa. This will be illustrated by the presentation of a common property resource management research project (on fisheries, pastures, wildlife, water for irrigation, and forests). The question of why the overuse of natural resources and conflicts over resources are occurring in modern day Africa is addressed here. This research project is called “Common Property Institutions and Power Relations: Resource Management, Change and Conflicts in African Floodplain Wetlands”. It focuses on six African floodplain wetlands in semi-arid zones (Internal Niger Delta in Mali, Hadejia-Jama'ara in Northern Nigeria, Logone Floodplain in Northern Cameroon, Pangani Floodplain in Tanzania, Okavango Delta in Botswana and Kafue Flats in Zambia (Haller 2001)). This work will be conducted by students from the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Zurich and by local students in these wetland areas, and will be under my supervision. The aim is to make a comparative analysis of these wetland areas, which should lead to a better understanding of the processes of resource use responsible for environmental problems and conflicts in these areas. The project is integrated in the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) with the title “NCCR North-South: Research Partnerships for Mitigation Syndromes of Global Change”. In this competence centre, research for mitigation of diverse problems concerning development in the Third World will be done over the next 10 years by a large group of Swiss research institutions who will conduct this research in partnership with local scientists in Third World Countries (SARPI 2000). The competence centre consists of different subprojects, one of them being the IP6 “Institutional Change and Livelihood Strategies”, in which the presented research project on African floodplain wetlands is integrated. To illustrate the aim of the project and to give some reflections on institutional change and conflicts, two cases from Northern Nigeria and Mali will be presented. These two cases show how common property resources (CPR) such as fisheries were institutionally managed in former times, and how the traditional institutions have changed over the last forty years.

The aim of the wetlands project is to test the validity of the New Institutionalism theories on CPR Resource Management in a specific ecological and political setting. Firstly, the design principles by Elinor Ostrom on robust institutions for the sustainable use of CPR-resources (Ostrom 1990, Becker and Ostrom 1995) are compared with local CPR-institutions in the selected wetlands areas. Secondly, theories and approaches of the New Institutional Economics and Anthropology (North 1990, Ensminger 1992) will be tested. Finally, Jean Ensminger's explanations concerning institutional change and bargaining power are looked at in particular.

Benedict Nantang Jua & Paul Nchoji Nkwi

Niveler L'aire de Jeu: Combattre le Racisme, l'ethnicité et les différentes formes de discrimination en Afrique

Ce document provisoire préparé par un groupe de chercheurs membres du réseau Ethno-Net Afrique (ENA) est une réflexion sur des thèmes qui seront débattus à la Conférence Mondiale de Durban sur le Racisme, la Discrimination Raciale, la Xénophobie et l'Intolérance. ENA est un réseau de recherche multidisciplinaire créé pour identifier et analyser les causes des conflits ethniques en Afrique, pour gérer ces conflits en vue de mettre sur pied un système d'alerte rapide et pour proposer des solutions. Le réseau s'intéresse aussi à la recherche des voies et moyens pour promouvoir la convivialité ethnique en Afrique.

Un atelier s'est tenu du 18 au 19 août 2001 à l'Hôtel Equateur à Libreville au Gabon pour examiner les questions liées au racisme, à la xénophobie et d'autres formes d'intolérance en Afrique. L'objectif était d'approfondir la réflexion sur ces questions afin de mieux comprendre ses différentes manifestations et de suggérer des voies pour les combattre. Au cours de cet atelier de deux jours, les participants ont examiné les concepts et les thèmes liés à ces phénomènes ; ils ont écouté les différents rapports sur les manifestations de la discrimination dans plusieurs régions d'Afrique ; ils ont aussi examiné les dimensions nationales et internationales du phénomène ; enfin, ils ont passé en revue les activités du réseau ENA par rapport à sa mission et ont réfléchi sur les défis auxquels fait face ce réseau ainsi que sur les perspectives d'avenir.

Research Reports

Mwenda Ntarangwi

Revitalizing Anthropology in East Africa: The Birth of EAAA

East Africa is known the world over for its extensive contribution to the history of humankind especially through the work of paleontologists and other archaeologists. Yet if one asked an average East African what anthropology is one is likely to be told that it is something to do with looking at old bones or one will have no clue all together. Such responses are instructive of the way anthropology and anthropologists have operated in East Africa specifically and Africa generally. First, anthropology as a discipline is another of the Western social science disciplines that entered the region through the main channel of colonialism. It indeed, reflects a kind of duality that is most likely to have schizophrenic adherents given both the British and American influences. The former which was a major player in the development of East African social sciences as colonizer adheres to a brand of anthropology that clearly separates the discipline into archaeology (which is often seen as a unit of history) while the latter which has become a major player in world scholarship because of its increased economic and political power favors a discipline that combines anthropology into the four fields of linguistic, cultural, physical, and archaeological anthropology. Thus one is able to find an American trained anthropologist in the University of Dar es Salaam unable to use his full anthropological training because he is in an archaeology unit that was structured to augment the work of historians. Second, anthropology has had its share of bad press in Africa for many years because of its association with colonialism although the same critiques have not been extended to other disciplines that are equally guilty of promoting Western superiority over Africa. This led to many anthropologists being unable to assert themselves in their own institutions where no specific departments of anthropology were present and also because of fear of being ridiculed as products of a colonial discipline. But things have changed in the recent past and anthropology has started becoming a respected discipline in the region. Indeed, many government offices, tertiary institutions, and NGO's have realized the critical role that anthropology can play in the social, political, and economic understanding and development of our communities. Inarguably anthropology is the only discipline that can boast of a structure and history of studying and understanding the entirety of human existence which is incredibly critical in Africa today—a continent that continues to be seen as a gone case in matters of global concern. It is the realization of this critical role that anthropology can and will continue to play in Africa that a professional association that would bring together anthropologists in East Africa was deemed necessary. Having returned in the late 90's from the US armed with a doctoral degree in cultural anthropology I was keen on making a major contribution to the discipline in East Africa but was not sure if there were many other anthropologists who had the same passion for the discipline as I had. I guess much of it had to do with the freshness of my training as well as the relevance I saw for the discipline in explaining and understanding some the socio-cultural issues that were current in Kenya at that time. This passion translated into the birth of the East African Anthropological Association (EAAA) in Nairobi mid 2001.

Antoine Socpa

Le problème Arabes Choa – Kotoko au Cameroun : Essai d'analyse rétrospective à partir des affrontements de janvier 1992

The tribal diversity of Cameroon (at least 200 ethnic groups) represents a perpetual hindrance for social cohesion in the country. Behind the veil of well-shaped political speeches issuing unity and national integration, confrontations between tribal communities are taking place imperturbably. Since late 70 ties, Arabs Choa and Kotoko of the Logone and Chari division are exterminating each other in unprecedented tribal clashes in collusion with political authorities. This item attempts to point out causes of tribal exclusion which as become more effective since the advent of multiparty system in Cameroon (1990).

Announcements / Annonces

Ethno-Net Africa Workshop Report

Within the framework of Ethno-Net Africa (ENA) – a project of the Management of Social Transformations Programme (MOST) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) a seminar was held from 18-21 March 2002 in Yaounde - Cameroon on "New Information and Communication Technologies (ICT's) and their use in training and co-operation in scientific research". Jointly organized by the "International Centre for Applied Social Science Research and Training" (ICASSRT), UNESCO and the "Laboratoire d'Informatique pour la Mécanique et les Sciences de l'Ingénieur" (LIMSI) of the "Centre national de la recherche scientifique" (CNRS), France, the seminar brought together twelve of participants from five African countries (Benin, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria) and France.