By Toyin Falola
In listening to the papers presented at the conference on waterways and the mobility assets and access in Dakar, I offer in this piece my final reflections on a successful conference. The study of African waterbodies continues to evolve, especially in the contemporary era, as a reflection of the urgency of environmental challenges and the rising reorientation of African intellectualism. In this context, waterbodies are viewed as unique repositories of knowledge, mediums for technological advancements, terrain for political contestation, and archives for social memory. This evolution is propelled by an interdisciplinary approach that combines history, anthropology, environmental science, hydrology, and digital technology, and it results in the comprehension of African waterbodies as modes of transport (of goods, ideas, and people) that can play key roles in the evolution of a productive Africa in the future.
Due to their importance for the establishment and sustenance of many African states and due to their position as mediums of interaction between different African regions over centuries, waterbodies have been regarded with importance in Africa. Many years ago, Jan Vansina, for example, recorded the connection between the Ubangi, Sangha, and Kongo basins as a vital route for the spread of different cultures and the circulation of important goods like salt, copper, and raffia in his Equatorial Africa and Angola: Migrations and the Emergence of the First States.
From evidence like the aforementioned, the role of African waterbodies on the establishment and development of African societies alongside connections between them across different regions becomes glaring to the point that the development of modern water knowledge institutions upon the foundations of ancient ideologies and recognitions – for instance, the integration of ancestral knowledge into contemporary hydrological research – does not seem out of place. The future of the study of African waters is now rooted in technological advancements as much as it is connected to ancestral knowledge. Scholars like McCann supported this claim in his Africa’s High Modernism: Historical Ecologies of Climate Change and Hydrologies of Watersheds (Blue Nile and Zambezi). The use of modern-day equipment like satellite imagery, geographic information systems, and Artificial Intelligence is thus needed to complement the ancestral methods of monitoring and managing water resources.
The integration of new tools can provide precise mapping of rivers across seasons to reveal fluctuations, urban water stress, and coastal erosion. I recommend the creation of a Pan-African Digital Water Observatory body to serve as an African agency for the elimination of problems of access to technology and data ownership issues that could arise during research processes. The result from these implementations can include democratized access to hydrological information and the enhancement of early warning systems that could protect African states from water hazards like floods and droughts.
The integration of ancestral knowledge and technological advancement for the study of African waterbodies becomes extremely urgent, as it is important due to the amplification of climate change and its effects on waterbodies. The shift in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, and prolonged droughts have all become problems for African states to solve as a matter of necessity. For example, one of Africa’s most popular waterbodies, the Lake Chad, used to be one of the continent’s largest but, from the 1960s, its size has continued to decline with the most severe decline recorded in the 1970s due to combined issues like deforestation, irrigation practices and climate issues, as stated by Ikusemoran et al., in, Geospatial Assessments of the Shrinking Lake Chad.
Environmental transformations of this magnitude often have drastic effects on African societies, such as their ecology systems, source of livelihoods, migration patterns, and regional stability. The decline of Lake Chad, for instance, creates a stiff competition for scarce resources, often leading to economic repressions and social tensions, which may create exploitation opportunities for armed, non-governmental actors, as stated by Shamaki et al., in Water Scarcity and Conflict in Lake Chad: Issues, Challenges and Prospects. To properly deal with these problems, the solutions proposed by an integrated African study of its waterbodies must emphasize community-based climate adaptation programs.
Africa’s waterbodies are now being rediscovered through initiatives like the Blue Economy as avenues to leverage economic recovery in relation to activities like eco-tourism, maritime transport, inland fisheries, aquaculture, and much more. The concept itself isn’t new, but by modernizing it we can also improve social equality and environmental consciousness. The Blue Economy has potential to create jobs (particularly for African youth), encourage technological advancement, and foster entrepreneurship (particularly with ocean-related businesses). Like African waterbody studies, this movement should also take into consideration African indigenous beliefs for even greater impact.
African societies believe that their waterbodies are domains for spiritual beings; hence, in cultures like that of the Opobo of the Niger Delta, there is a period of ritual, the Fungu, where the people temporarily suspend fishing activities in respect of supernatural beings by paying attention to the rhythm of the water. Cultures like this must not be ignored in economic activities to avoid unforeseen disasters.
The future of African waterbodies must investigate the different and complex bureaucracies connected to them. For example, rivers like the Nile, Chad, Kongo, and Niger all share boundaries with more than one country. Situations like this can always create opportunities for cooperation or become the trigger for chaos.
Plans for the sustainability of African waterbodies will need to explore the varying bureaucracies that surround them. Take for instance rivers. The Nile, Chad, Kongo, and Niger rivers all flow through the boundaries of at least two countries. Scenarios such as these have always had the ability to allow for collaboration or blossom into a recipe for disaster. The drying up of the Chad, for instance, is a reason for conflict between the people of Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon as they aim to share the insufficient resources provided by this entity for their livelihood. Thus, we must make propositions of policies that will benefit governments and people across the board and nip conflict in the bud.
Urbanization can have adverse effects on African waterways and waterbodies. Rapid urbanization has amplified the pressure on water infrastructure, which causes sanitary and flooding challenges. Informal settlements like the Makoko slum in Lagos are often most exposed to these effects, and they also play key roles in the emergence of these situations. There must be the creation of policies that would help the transformation of informal riverine settlements to smart water cities as potential solutions to housing and environmental troubles. Also, there must be the implementation of sensors and data analytics to help improve wastewater management.
The future of the study of waterbodies for the creation of a favorable future for Africa is dependent on an interdisciplinary model that incorporates ancestral ideologies and recognizes waterbodies not as boundaries or simple physical bodies but as living entities that have been shaping the path of Africa for centuries. An interdisciplinary model and networks of engaged scholars will help all concerned to combine their efforts for the creation of novel and futuristic ideas.
My knowledge of ontologies and epistemologies was enriched. Also, human endurance in crossing waterways is better appreciated. How do we move forward? We must understand the connections around space travel. We must understand further the limitless ideas connected by mobility. We all must unite as scholars and practitioners who feed on waters, via the invisible forces of a virtual world connected by cables. Stay well!
