Re: Ecological Protest: Karura Forest Violence (fwd)

At 11:45 AM 2/3/99 -0800, K.P. Moseley wrote:

>	In my experience, the notion we have from Amerindian cultures, of
>indigenous ideologies & practices favorable to conservation and so on,
>did not hold in tropical Africa. Rather, the mindset tends to be quite
>ambivalent and certainly unsentimental about "nature," and positively
>hostile towards forests, the site of  both physical and ritual danger.
>This no doubt reflects the relatively recent settlement of the West (and
>Central?) African forests (the Pygmies aside), and the challenge such
>primary forests presented  to slash-and-burn 
>agriculturalists.
>

It might be of interest to you that Jules Nyerere's writings (I'm not able
to provide a citation now unfortunately, since I got this information years
ago in a conversation) make the argument that the nation-state based upon
territory is an idea foreign to African culture.  This, he argues, is so
because of the nomadic ways of life of Africa's indigenous peoples.
Communities would simply relocate to new areas when resources in a
particular area became sparse.  Such practices as these don't seem likely
to conduce to great respect for nature.

This might be consistent with your suggestion above.  In any event,
Nyerere's writings are a potential source of African discussion of the
issue you raise.


--
Jeffrey L. Beatty
Doctoral Student
Department of Political Science
The Ohio State University
2140 Derby Hall
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Email:  Beatty.4@osu.edu
___________________________________________________
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