Climate Change Adaptation in Southern Africa: Universalistic Science or Indigenous Knowledge or Hybrid

Abstract

AbstractThe aims of this chapter are to seek answer, through a document review, case studies, and thematic content analysis, to which direction Southern Africa should take in the face of climate change and to suggest a framework for adaptations by communities experiencing climatic events. Acknowledging that the fundamental set of ideas provided by indigenous knowledge (IK) works best at a small scale, the chapter argues for the need to seriously value IK-based response practices in the knowledge hybridization agenda. The worsening vulnerability potentiated by the increasing magnitude and severity of climate change impacts is a reminder that local-based indigenous response practices in Africa need to be complemented. Adaptation to climate change calls for real and surreal measures all being applied in combination. Across Africa, these measures have, at times, included the preservation of forest resources which increased carbon sinking and enhanced community resilience against climate change. Universalistic and orthodox sciences have punctuated and amplified these efforts by speaking of such initiatives as mitigation and adaptation through programs, e.g., Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA). The merits of the two approaches have resulted in increasing call among scholars for the merging of these programs with IK. However, it remains to be fully understood how such a hybrid approach could be operationalized without treating the latter as an inferior element in climate science discourses.