Becoming indigenous in Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Becoming indigenous in Africa
Author:	Hodgson, Dorothy L.
Year:	2009
Periodical:	African Studies Review (ISSN 1555-2462)
Volume:	52
Issue:	3
Pages:	1-32
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	indigenous peoples interest groups group rights UN
External link:	http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/african_studies_review/v052/52.3.hodgson.pdf
Abstract:	This article traces the history of how and why certain African groups became involved in the transnational indigenous rights movement starting with a speech in 1989 by Moringe ole Parkipuny, a long-time Maasai activist and member of the Tanzanian Parliament, before the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva. Over the next twenty years, Maasai, Kung San, Batwa, Amazigh and other African groups became actively involved in the international indigenous peoples' movement with the support of certain transnational advocacy groups. The article examines how the concept of the indigenous has been imagined, understood, and employed by African activists, donors, advocates, and States; the participation of Africans in the UN Working Group and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; and the opportunities and obstacles this has posed for the ongoing struggles for recognition, resources, and the rights of historically marginalized people like the Maasai. App., bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited]