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Thematic Article

Challenges for expanding inventories of climate possibilities through indigenous and local knowledges in rural Zambia

orcid-imageSimon Manda*†email-imageSimon Manda*††

Simon Manda is a Lecturer at the University of Leeds, School of Politics and International Studies. He is also a Research Associate at the Institute for the Future Knowledge, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. He researches on politics of global development, climate change politics, mitigation, and adaptation. His current research examines policy and legal mechanisms, and related adaptation possibilities for individuals, neighbourhoods, and communities who are faced with climate risks, particularly repetitive flooding.

orcid-imagehttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6064-114X

email-image S.Manda@leeds.ac.uk

,
Chrispin Matenga‡email-imageChrispin Matenga‡‡

Chrispin Matenga is a Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Zambia. His research touches on rural livelihoods and land politics in Zambia.

email-image mmatenga@yahoo.com

,
orcid-imageAnna Mdee§email-imageAnna Mdee§§

Anna Mdee is a Professor in the Politics of Global Development at the University of Leeds. Mdee’s research focuses on the politics of global development and development practice: how the aid system works (or does not work), how to improve local service delivery and governance; how to manage natural resources (primarily water), and how to reduce vulnerability through improved livelihoods. She is an anthropologist and thus interested in aid and development as a political and cultural practice.

orcid-imagehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8260-1840

email-image a.l.mdee@leeds.ac.uk

,
Ruth Smithemail-imageRuth Smith

Ruth Smith is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Leeds, UK. Her research focuses on the nexus of gender, agricultural development, and climate change. Taking an intersectional approach to her research, Ruth examines the power and influence of external donors on how agricultural development policies and projects are designed and implemented in sub-Saharan Africa, and how mainstream framings of gender are manifested.

email-image ee15srs@leeds.ac.uk

,
orcid-imageElias Nkiaka♠email-imageElias Nkiaka♠♠

Elias Nkiaka is a lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of Lincoln, UK. He holds an MSc degree in water resources engineering from KU Leuven and VU Brussels, Belgium and a PhD in hydrology and water resources management from the University of Leeds, UK. His specific research interests include hydrology, ecohydrology, hydrometeorological risk, water footprint concept, climate impacts and adaptation, water security, and climate services.

orcid-imagehttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-7362-9430

email-image enkiaka@lincoln.ac.uk

Abstract

This article explores the integration (or marginality) of indigenous and local knowledge (IKL) in donor-driven community climate adaptation (CDCA) projects and the extent to which this helps expand inventories of adaptation possibilities for host communities and strengthen climate adaptation resilience in Zambia. Through multi-level qualitative research design, this study reveals that, even where climate interventions are intentional about being inclusive of community knowledge, they are likely to promote policy-centric knowledges and interventions that invisibilises ILK. Empirical evidence shows the application of CDCA expresses top-down assumptions of livelihood resilience and embeds uncritical views of what community is, including what might be socially and culturally appropriate forms of adaptation. CDCA implementation strategy is exclusionary and misaligned with ILK, affecting possibilities of knowledge intersection. This article elucidates how climate adaptation that marginalises ILK fails to expand inventories of climate adaptation possibilities for communities supposed to be adapting and proposes how this gap could be bridged. (This article is published in the thematic collection ‘African ecologies: the value and politics of indigenous knowledges’, edited by Adriaan van Klinken, Simon Manda, Damaris Parsitau and Abel Ugba.)

Keywords

community-driven climate adaptationindigenous and local knowledgeclimate adaptation resilienceinventories of adaptation possibilitiesZambia
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Published on: 4 September 2024
Volume: 12
Issue: Issue 3
Article ID: a31
Article view count: 80
Article download count: 1
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© The author(s) 2024. This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License
Cite this article
Manda, S., Matenga, C., Mdee, A., Smith, R. & Nkiaka, E. (2024), ‘Challenges for expanding inventories of climate possibilities through indigenous and local knowledges in rural Zambia’, Journal of the British Academy, 12(3): a31 https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/012.a31

Thematic article

Normal View Dyslexic View

Challenges for expanding inventories of climate possibilities through indigenous and local knowledges in rural Zambia

orcid-imageSimon Manda*†email-imageSimon Manda*††

Simon Manda is a Lecturer at the University of Leeds, School of Politics and International Studies. He is also a Research Associate at the Institute for the Future Knowledge, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. He researches on politics of global development, climate change politics, mitigation, and adaptation. His current research examines policy and legal mechanisms, and related adaptation possibilities for individuals, neighbourhoods, and communities who are faced with climate risks, particularly repetitive flooding.

orcid-imagehttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6064-114X

email-image S.Manda@leeds.ac.uk

,
Chrispin Matenga‡email-imageChrispin Matenga‡‡

Chrispin Matenga is a Lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Zambia. His research touches on rural livelihoods and land politics in Zambia.

email-image mmatenga@yahoo.com

,
orcid-imageAnna Mdee§email-imageAnna Mdee§§

Anna Mdee is a Professor in the Politics of Global Development at the University of Leeds. Mdee’s research focuses on the politics of global development and development practice: how the aid system works (or does not work), how to improve local service delivery and governance; how to manage natural resources (primarily water), and how to reduce vulnerability through improved livelihoods. She is an anthropologist and thus interested in aid and development as a political and cultural practice.

orcid-imagehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8260-1840

email-image a.l.mdee@leeds.ac.uk

,
Ruth Smithemail-imageRuth Smith

Ruth Smith is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Leeds, UK. Her research focuses on the nexus of gender, agricultural development, and climate change. Taking an intersectional approach to her research, Ruth examines the power and influence of external donors on how agricultural development policies and projects are designed and implemented in sub-Saharan Africa, and how mainstream framings of gender are manifested.

email-image ee15srs@leeds.ac.uk

,
orcid-imageElias Nkiaka♠email-imageElias Nkiaka♠♠

Elias Nkiaka is a lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of Lincoln, UK. He holds an MSc degree in water resources engineering from KU Leuven and VU Brussels, Belgium and a PhD in hydrology and water resources management from the University of Leeds, UK. His specific research interests include hydrology, ecohydrology, hydrometeorological risk, water footprint concept, climate impacts and adaptation, water security, and climate services.

orcid-imagehttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-7362-9430

email-image enkiaka@lincoln.ac.uk