The Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, University of Zululand invites submissions of abstracts for the 5th International Anthropology and Development Studies Conference in 2026.

Land and heritage remain central to African social life, identity formation, and systems of knowledge. Yet, across the continent, colonialism, apartheid, and postcolonial development models have systemically dispossessed communities of their access to and/or ownership of their land while marginalising indigenous heritage, epistemologies, and government systems. These processes have disrupted the endurance of cultural continuity, social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

This conference theme foregrounds the reclaiming of African land and heritage as both a material and epistemic process, emphasising indigenous narratives as legitimate foundations for development. It interrogates the role of oral histories, cultural practices, spiritual connections in reclaiming land, and indigenous knowledge systems, which offer frameworks for understanding development, sustainability, and social and environmental justice. Thus, our aim is to critically explore how the reclaiming of African land and heritage, through anthropological methodologies or knowledge systems, can serve as foundational pathways for culturally grounded, socially just, and sustainable development.

Anchored in African anthropologies, the conference seeks to centre African voices in research, policy frameworks, and community engagement initiatives. It recognises land not as a commodity but as a social, cultural, ancestral and spiritual space embedded in their everyday life experiences. Similarly, heritage is approached as a dynamic and living process that shapes governance, livelihoods, environmental stewardship, and intergenerational knowledge transmission towards building people’s legacy. The significance of the conference, therefore, is to encourage critical engagement with African and decolonial perspectives, highlighting how indigenous narratives can transcend extractive research practices and top-down development intervention. This conference intends to promote scholarships that are ethically grounded and socially responsive.

The 2026 IADSC will take stock of the contemporary and developing applications of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary indigenous perspectives and initiatives with a focus on identity and
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self-determination, belonging in natural and cultural heritage land settings across South(ern) Africa. Case studies such as the forceful Maasai displacements for game reserves, Kenya and Tanzania, the Maori protests of The Treaty Principles Bill, New Zealand; and social activism against gentrification and contestations of belonging in Cape Town, South Africa highlight the social movements that have existed for years, driven from collective insider representation.
The convening of the 2026 IADSC draws on the 8th, 10th, 11th and 15th SDGs assessing insecurities of ever rising housing costs and gentrification, ecosystem and indigenous livelihood degradation and the urgent need for sustainable development interventions that could be inspired by indigenous livelihoods and environment knowledge systems passed down through
generations.