ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the struggle by indigenous peoples in Africa for recognition and protection of their human and peoples’ rights. Indigenous peoples’ attempts to vindicate their rights in Africa, like elsewhere globally, are fraught with numerous challenges. These include discrimination and exclusion from national policy and development initiatives; lack of information and illiteracy; severe poverty; and the fact that they often reside in remote and inaccessible regions. The experiences shared in the chapter do not comprehensively represent the entire continent and indeed are biased towards those practices in East, Central and Southern Africa, with which the authors are more familiar. However, they generally represent comparable practices that can be found across Africa among indigenous peoples’ efforts to promote and protect their rights.
