Energy Resources and Environmental Conflicts in Africa: Implications on Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Environmental Policy

摘要

Using a survey of secondary sources on energy rich countries in Africa as case studies, the study demonstrates that environmental challenges associated with energy resources create key challenges in the 21st century Africa. The arguments extended are that: despite Africa's rich endowment with wealth in energy resources including oil and gas, which could have created sustainable development and peace, the respective countries are characterised by poverty, conflicts, corruption and human rights abuses. The use of indigenous knowledge approaches to conflict transformation over these resources has not been adequately researched to inform policy. These approaches tend to be marginalised in spite of their efficacy in other cases of conflict transformation. The paper recommends that the hybrid nature of these challenges also calls for hybrid nature policy strategies combining state institutions, civil society and indigenous knowledge system-based practices and ethics.