Cooperation to development in rural Africa is often a matter of handling with technologically archaic societies, in which tradition has still a very high cultural value. In such societies things must be done, “as they have always been done”, because “the forefathers knew it was good to behave like that”. Shifting from a traditional way of doing things to a more modern and adequate one is many times a struggle which involves very deep feelings and touches the very core of a people’s identity. What to do then? How to handle with this identity matter, bringing people to open themselves to the new, often necessary, perspectives and opportunities of modernity without infringing upon their traditions, their values, their self-consciousness and their right to choose their own way of life? The author is convinced that only a true reciprocal knowledge can result in true reciprocal confidence and therefore no project of cooperation to development can be successful if it does not consider the context in which (western) highly educated volunteers are called to operate. Human sciences like anthropology, history, archaeology and linguistics, with their multifaceted views of the context, represent a precious key for accessing an often remote world, and the only means to get in touch and at the same time obtaining and showing respect to the communities living in a territory which is going to be subject to a project of development. Only reciprocal confidence and a real tentative of empowerment of the local people, adapting the new technologies and modern ways of doing things to the traditional methods can bring indigenous people to feel part and actors of the project and not only subjects having to cope with it without really understanding its meaning. As an object of discussion on the methodology of intervention proposed in the paper, the author presents a real case-study, which demonstrates the positive evolution of a sustainable agroforestal project aimed at the implementation of beekeeping in the Okiek region of Mariashoni, Mau forest complex, Kenya, pursuant to the introduction of an ethnolinguistic study linked to the technical part of the project and aimed at facilitating the mutual comprehension of local Okiek and technicians in the domain of beekeeping. The study revealed itself not only functional to the correct execution of the technical parts of the project, but also , and above all, fundamental to the constitution of a strengthened consciousness of the Okiek community as the bearer of a proper, valuable, identity and of proper important cultural values, stimulating the ideation, by the Okiek themselves, of other, new possibilities of cooperation on the field for the future.
Safeguarding the Past to Guarantee a Better Future. The Role of Ethnolinguistics in the NECOFA projects among the Mariashoni Okiek Community
MICHELI, ILARIA
2014-01-01
Abstract
Cooperation to development in rural Africa is often a matter of handling with technologically archaic societies, in which tradition has still a very high cultural value. In such societies things must be done, “as they have always been done”, because “the forefathers knew it was good to behave like that”. Shifting from a traditional way of doing things to a more modern and adequate one is many times a struggle which involves very deep feelings and touches the very core of a people’s identity. What to do then? How to handle with this identity matter, bringing people to open themselves to the new, often necessary, perspectives and opportunities of modernity without infringing upon their traditions, their values, their self-consciousness and their right to choose their own way of life? The author is convinced that only a true reciprocal knowledge can result in true reciprocal confidence and therefore no project of cooperation to development can be successful if it does not consider the context in which (western) highly educated volunteers are called to operate. Human sciences like anthropology, history, archaeology and linguistics, with their multifaceted views of the context, represent a precious key for accessing an often remote world, and the only means to get in touch and at the same time obtaining and showing respect to the communities living in a territory which is going to be subject to a project of development. Only reciprocal confidence and a real tentative of empowerment of the local people, adapting the new technologies and modern ways of doing things to the traditional methods can bring indigenous people to feel part and actors of the project and not only subjects having to cope with it without really understanding its meaning. As an object of discussion on the methodology of intervention proposed in the paper, the author presents a real case-study, which demonstrates the positive evolution of a sustainable agroforestal project aimed at the implementation of beekeeping in the Okiek region of Mariashoni, Mau forest complex, Kenya, pursuant to the introduction of an ethnolinguistic study linked to the technical part of the project and aimed at facilitating the mutual comprehension of local Okiek and technicians in the domain of beekeeping. The study revealed itself not only functional to the correct execution of the technical parts of the project, but also , and above all, fundamental to the constitution of a strengthened consciousness of the Okiek community as the bearer of a proper, valuable, identity and of proper important cultural values, stimulating the ideation, by the Okiek themselves, of other, new possibilities of cooperation on the field for the future.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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