To paraphrase the late Binyavanga Wainaina: why do animals in Africa bear names, but people don’t? Much indeed has been said and written about ‘nature’ in Africa (to paraphrase an – unfortunately anonymous – colleague: nature is where Bambi lives); the same is true for the (macro-)economic determinants of life on the continent. Obviously, these circumstances are beyond any individual’s control (or even beyond the power of individual states); nevertheless, they are the consequence of decisions made in the past, and will have an enormous bearing on those of tomorrow.
The five contributions in this second section adopt a helicopter view on some of the ecological and economic challenges that confront Africa. In the first chapter, Ian Scoones turns his attention to what he refers to as convivial development, as an alternative to dominant approaches that depart from a crisis narrative and that invariably reach for solutions aimed at preserving the status quo, or securing an uncertain situation. He argues that Africa is, in many regards, ahead of the rest of the world and that a truly decolonial approach should be based on learning from.
Next is Michael Bollig’s contribution. He asks the pertinent question for whom conservation efforts are intended as he explores the often contradictory approaches that have recently emerged. His starting point is that the current ecological crisis is also a social crisis.
Bollig’s remark that ecology is intertwined with the global economy is further corroborated by Eric Kioko, who scrutinizes the mechanisms and impact of the illegal exploitation of Africa’s flora – a less mediatized and often disregarded environmental crime that, in terms of revenue, leaves the illegal trade in wildlife far behind and fuels a network of loggers, smugglers, transporters and buyers that spans the globe.
In the fourth contribution Thomas Widlok and Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete, too, take a stance against the prevailing assumption that Africa ‘lags behind’. In many regards, including ecology management and policy, Africa is foreshadowing the future. Crucial to their argument is the importance they attach to time-framing and its impact on the process of decision-making.
Finally, Romie Nghitevelekwa discusses the dynamics of land commodification and contends that land reform is the most obvious way to reduce inequality and prevent further dispossession of, among others, communal lands. Focusing on Namibia, hers is the case of the ‘new’ scramble for the last African frontiers by foreign investors, and she raises important questions on the effects and sustainability of market penetration.