Cultures of Development and Indigenous Knowledge: The Erosion of Traditional Boundaries

In this article, I contest the view that there is a strong dichotomy between development and indigenousness and/or authenticity. From years of participation in development-related meetings and interviews in Zimbabwe, I examine how meetings and workshops have been sites for learning, argument, engagement, and planning about and doing "development." I examine two cases: the Mid-Zambezi Rural Development Project and the nationally based water-reform program. I present materials from two meetings in which the engagement in development is clear on both sides: the project and its government implementers, and proposed beneficiaries. How development can and should be achieved is at stake. These meetings are sites where governmental and ministerial directives are transmitted and translated to local populations while local populations forcefully state their understandings and desires. I suggest that the organizational structures created by donors, national governments, and nongovernmental grassroots organizations have changed the terrain of debate, discussion, and representations and practice of African cultures.