Establishing Indigeneity in African Pluralities using PRO169 Parameters and a Case Study for Measuring their Inclusivity

The concept of the indigenous person or group in Africa is a contentious one. The current argument is that there exist no indigenous people in Africa because all Africans are indigenous. The obverse considers those Africans who have not been touched by colonialism and lost their pre-nation state social structures commensurate with attachments to the lands or a distinguishable lifestyle to be indigenous. This paper argues in favour of the latter. People who live in the global telos and do not participate in a distinct social structure that has been attached to the land before the advent of nation-states are not indigenous. It is argued that this cultural divergence between global consumerism and indigenous pre-nation state social structures is the major identifying point to settle the indigenous/non indigenous African debate. Finally, the paper looks at inclusive development and provides a new political analysis model for quantifying inclusivity so as to measure the inclusivity of indigenous peoples.