Jennifer Hays

Educational rights for indigenous communities in Botswana and Namibia

The indigenous peoples of Botswana and Namibia, the San, have the lowest educational attainment rates of any population in both countries, despite various efforts to incorporate them into mainstream education systems. Both countries are signatories of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which includes several references to education. This document, and other rights mechanisms, address both the right to access mainstream educational institutions that respect and accommodate the languages and cultures of indigenous children, and the right to ‘establish and control their own educational systems and institutions, providing education in their own languages in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning’ (Article 14). This article provides an overview of the current state of both of these aspects of educational rights for indigenous peoples in Botswana and Namibia. What is the best way to improve educational options for San communities in southern Africa? Can a rights-based approach be effective? Does an indigenous rights perspective have anything to add to the debate? This paper examines these questions, and links rights-based arguments with other approaches to education. It argues that a variety of approaches are needed to fully address the complex issues confronting San communities today. A sophisticated understanding of indigenous rights acknowledges this, and if used strategically, could provide a comprehensive and productive approach to educational issues for San communities.

Steps forward and new challenges: indigenous communities and mother-tongue education in southern Africa

Abstract Two international conferences held in southern Africa in 2005 gathered education and language experts to discuss practical, theoretical, and political aspects of the development of African languages for education. Despite the diversity of the participants, there was unanimous agreement that the economic and social benefits of providing mother-tongue education far outweigh the costs. Furthermore, the predominant view was that mother-tongue education in minority languages should be seen as valuable in its own right, and not merely as a bridge to the dominant language, and that it should continue beyond the first few years of schooling. These meetings represent a major step forwards, ushering the movement toward mother-tongue education into a new phase of priority and collaboration. However, with this new phase come new challenges. As the movement toward mother-tongue education gains steam, and as national governments, local and global non-government organizations, and international donors get on board, we must remain attuned to the need for projects that are flexible, process-oriented, and firmly embedded in the communities they aim to serve. Using an innovative mother-tongue education project in Namibia as a case study, this paper highlights some important considerations and potential pitfalls.

Indigenous rights in southern Africa: international mechanisms and local contexts

The San are the indigenous peoples of southern Africa, numbering approximately 100,000 and representing three linguistic families. Once living throughout the southern part of the continent, today the San live primarily in Botswana and Namibia, to a lesser extent in Angola and South Africa, with very small numbers also residing in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Like indigenous peoples worldwide, San communities are currently facing drastic social change, extreme marginalisation and poverty. Hitchcock and Garcia-Alex emphasise the starkness of indigenous peoples’ deprivation, noting that ‘they tend to have the lowest health and nutritional standards, the highest rates of unemployment, illiteracy, and mortality, the shortest life spans, the lowest incomes, and the lowest degrees of political participation of the various categories of people in the countries in which they reside’. This description fits for the San of southern Africa, who have played an important role in the collective global imagination about human ancestry, and have been a prime focus of much anthropological research. Despite all this attention, the standards of living have continued to deteriorate. Can a rights-based approach help? Will the signing of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have any impact? How do local, national and regional contexts come into play? What do anthropologists have to contribute to a discussion of indigenous rights in southern Africa? The papers included in this volume were presented at the American Anthropological Association conference held in San Francisco in 2008, in a panel entitled: Southern Africa and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: How Can International Mechanisms Work in Local Communities and Contexts? This conference was held the year after the signing of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (September 2007), and there was much interest at the conference in this historic event. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (referred to in this volume also as UNDRIP, or in some places simply The Declaration) is one of the most deliberated and consultative documents in the history of the UN; it is also the only declaration which the rights-holders themselves – represented by leaders of indigenous organisations – helped to draft. The Declaration is thorough, comprehensive, and addresses the concerns of indigenous peoples and governments. Despite the time and care taken in constructing it, implementation of the UNDRIP poses many challenges stemming from political, economic, legal, social and cultural differences and barriers; the shape that these challenges take varies greatly from place to place.

Local languages, national contexts, global concerns: case studies in multilingual education for speakers of ethnic minority languages

Abstract The present volume contains an introduction and six papers written by a total of eight authors who presented papers at a session of the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association sponsored by the Council on Anthropology and Education held at San Jose, California in November 2006. The session was entitled ‘Mother tongue education for speakers of ethnic minority languages.’ In their papers, the authors put forward the analysis of their research and experience in presenting case studies of mother-tongue education in eight countries on four continents.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Indigenous Education in Southern Africa: Research and Action

The eighth triennial World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education (WIPC:E) was held in Melbourne, Australia on the traditional lands of the Kulin Nation from December 7–11, 2008. Over 3,000 delegates, representing hundreds of Indigenous nations, travelled from 23 countries to attend the conference and discuss their experiences under the umbrella theme, Respecting Tradition, Shaping the Future. With the support of a number of organizations and individuals, seven people from southern Africa were able to attend this important conference. This was the first time that Khoe and San peoples were represented at a WIPC:E conference. Making this happen was not easy, either in terms of securing funding or organizing the logistics of travel and visas, and both participants and supporters worked hard to ensure that they were able to attend. Some of the speakers in the southern African delegation were academics, or international activists, accustomed to presenting at conferences. Others had primarily local experience and had never presented to such a large group before. Still, even those who were nervous at first gave excellent presentations, speaking clearly and passionately about the issues that their communities confront. One of our delegation, Laurentius Davids, was invited to be a keynote speaker, and he gave a dynamic presentation about the experience of Indigenous peoples in Namibian education systems to an audience of 1,500 conference participants. Audiences showed great interest in how Indigenous education issues play out in southern Africa. In particular, Aboriginal Australians, and those who work with them, were very intrigued and inspired by learning about the situation in southern Africa.

Ingjerd Hoëm: Languages of Governance in Conflict. Negotiating Democracy in Tokelau

Jennifer Hays Jennifer Hays er førsteamanuensis i sosialantropologi ved UiT, Norges arktiske universitet. Hennes fokus ligger på forholdet mellom urfolksminoriteter, staten, og globale aktører, spesielt i det sørlige Afrika. Hun har utgitt en bok og flere artikler som fokuserer på utdanning som et område hvor ujevne maktrelasjoner både forsterkes og utfordres, og på rollen som bruken av språk har i disse prosessene.