Seminar on Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in Africa

The United Nations Working Groups on Minorities and Indigenous Populations in association with the Ford Foundation and the International Centre for Ethnic Studies held an expert seminar on the topic "Multiculturalism in Africa: Peaceful and constructive group accommodation in situations involving minorities and indigenous peoples", in Arusha, Tanzania, on 13-15 May 2000. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda based in Arusha helped to organise the seminar. The participants were experts from universities and other research institutes, human rights organisations, minority organisations and indigenous peoples organisations, and commu-nity representatives. WIMSA was represented by WIMSA/BOT board member Moronga Tanago, who produced a comprehensive report on the seminar.

A representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights indicated that the outcome of the seminar deliberations was likely to interest the organi-sers of the World Conference Against Racism to be held in South Africa in September 2001. He hoped that the seminar would lead to:

a better understanding of concepts such as 'minority', 'ethnicity', 'tribe' and 'indigenous people' and whether such terms are helpful in identifying rights or if they might give rise to divisions;

a better understanding of collective rights of minority and indigenous peoples in Africa and how they relate to the protection of language, culture and land;

an exchange of information on traditional or informal mechanisms in Africa for maintaining good relations among the continent's diverse peoples, especially ideas on customary rights, reciprocity, sharing and tolerance;

an exchange of views on existing formal/state measures to protect indigenous and minority rights in Africa; and

guidance for the two UN working groups and the High Commissioner on Human Rights on what they might do next to promote the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities in Africa.
The representative expressed the hope that more African NGOs would take part in the UN's work.

The participants shared information about their peoples and situations. Moronga spoke about the San situation generally and the primary purpose, main objectives, methods and projects of WIMSA specifically. The seminar addressed numerous issues relating to African indigenous and minority peoples, and the meaning of terms like 'indigenous', 'minorities', 'tribalism' and 'ethnicity'. A question raised was whether Africa has groups of indigenous people or whether all peoples of Africa are indigenous. The participants agreed that indigenous peoples have limited access to basic services like education and health care, and to decision-making fora. It was also noted that governments and dominant groups often accuse indigenous people of reviving tribalism when they claim rights or identify themselves as indigenous. Generally there was agreement that indigenous peoples and minorities are disadvantaged and margin-alised and face discrimination in African states. It was also generally felt that the terms 'indigenous' etc. are useful in Africa particularly because they are based on the principle of self-identification, but such terms are acknowledged to be complex and misunderstood in the region, often being seen as threatening to state integrity. It was suggested that indigenous and minority peoples could be regarded as peoples having specific identities, histories and cultures, and characterised as non-dominant, vulnerable and disadvantaged. In seeking to define the difference between 'indigenous' and 'minority' peoples, it was suggested that indigenous peoples have an attachment to a particular land or territory and/or have a way of life (e.g. pastoralist, hunter-gatherer or nomadic) that is threatened by state policy and/or a shrinking traditional resource base. It was generally recognised that one legacy of colonialism was to divide indigenous peoples so that some of them lived in more than one country, making them minorities in one or more countries. It was also noted that the customary laws and lands of indigenous peoples were not recognised by colonial governments, and newly independent African countries had not always reinstated customary rights.

The seminar recommendations included, among many others:

recognising indigenous or minority identity as a first step in seeking to protect the rights of indigenous and minority peoples;

ensuring that they have equal access to health care, education and other basic services;

consulting indigenous and minority peoples when development policies affecting them are formulated and implemented; and ensuring equal access for these peoples to political structures and processes, and public institutions.

Moronga concluded his report by noting some of the many things he had learnt at the seminar, one being that on the whole, African governments consider all Africans to be indigenous people.