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Africa Indigenous Womens Regional Workshop on Biodiversity, Traditional Knowledge and Women's Rights in Africa

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When the African Biodiversity Network and the Gaia Foundation came to AWDF with the idea of a report on Africanwomen and seed, our team was intrigued and delighted. As African women, many of us had seen our grandmothers, mothers, aunts and others at work or at home, in rural or in urban settings, growing foods, cultivating plants, exchanging seed, ideas and knowledge about farming and nutrition. We had also seen how much of this knowledge had been steadily undermined, as new views of ‘modernity’ and the pushing of our social understandings of ‘knowledge’ led many to value academic study above lived experience that was shared in different ways. One of the lessons from this report was the discovery of how little research and documentation has been done on African women’s knowledge and use of seed. In its documentation of the roles and achievements of rural African women, this report spotlights their remarkable relationship with seed - in economic and food security, in taking care of household nutrition, in spiritual practice, and in developing the resilience in crops for coping with our changing climate. At the heart of this relationship between Africa’s women farmers and seed is a legacy of traditional knowledge that we cannot afford to lose. It is a legacy that has been and continues to be undermined by issues including land grabbing and disempowering seed ‘harmonisation’ laws. This report highlights the violations of women’s rights and the distortion and shrinking of women’s roles and decision-making access as one result of such losses. As is so often the case, the voices and views of African women featured in this report chart a way forward through the challenges presented, while the innovative strategies being pioneered by organisations like the African Biodiversity Network and the Gaia Foundation give hope that this knowledge of seed, agriculture and nutrition can be revived, documented and once again celebrated. The Women’s Voices from the Fields section provides personal accounts of steps that women are taking to revive their traditional seed and knowledge, within a framework of peaceful community-building.

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Availability

KP.1.00060

KP 1 MUL a

My Library

Available

Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

KP 1 MUL a

Publisher

Nairobi : Indigenous., 2007

Collation

177 hlm; 25 cm

Language

Indonesia

ISBN/ISSN

1605-2102-2

Classification

KP.1

Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

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Subject(s)

indigenous
Africa
Women Regional

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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