Dissertation: Afrocentric Knowledge Reframes Climate Adaptation (Tirivangasi)

As climate change accelerates worldwide, responses are often framed as technical fixes designed far from the communities they are meant to serve. Tirivangasi challenges this approach, showing that effective and just climate adaptation must be rooted in Indigenous knowledge.

Tirivangasi examines climate change adaptation among the Ndau Indigenous people of Chimanimani District in eastern Zimbabwe. Grounded in Afrocentric theory and methodology, the dissertation is based on close collaboration with Ndau communities. Using culturally resonant methods such as talking circles, transect walks, and reflexive data analysis, Tirivangasi co-produced knowledge with community members, drawing on Ubuntu—an Afrocentric ethic that emphasises relationality, mutual respect, and shared responsibility. Similar principles guide Indigenous research ethics internationally, including those promoted by the Sámi Council and the Inuit Circumpolar Council.

The empirical findings identify six interrelated themes shaping Indigenous adaptation: Indigenous knowledge as epistemic sovereignty; spiritual and religious syncretism; communal resilience; knowledge hybridisation; transformative adaptation; and collaborative partnerships. Together, these themes show that adaptation in Indigenous contexts is not simply a technical response to climatic stress. Instead, it is a lived practice grounded in relationships with land, ancestral memory, and collective agency, where resilience emerges through shared decision-making and cultural continuity.

A key contribution of the dissertation is the Afrocentric Indigenous Knowledge Climate Change Adaptation (AIK-CCA) Model. The model supports the scaling up of Indigenous adaptation practices by recognising Indigenous knowledge specifically the Ndau knowledge body as a knowledge system. Rather than imposing externally designed solutions, it emphasises continuous consultation with communities and engagement of all stakeholders.

“By recognising that vulnerability is dynamic and that past adaptation efforts offer critical lessons for future action, the AIK-CCA model provides a pathway through which community-led Indigenous adaptation can inform national climate policy, including the formulation and revision of Nationally Determined Contributions,” says Tirivangasi.

While the study focuses on Ndau communities in Zimbabwe, its insights speak to global debates on decolonising climate adaptation and development policy, challenging technocratic frameworks that overlook culture and power.

“Climate adaptation cannot be imported or imposed,” Tirivangasisays. “It must grow from the cultural logics and lived realities of the communities who have always known how to live with the land.”

The public defence of Happy Mathew Tirivangasi’s doctoral dissertation “An Afrocentric analysis of climate change adaptation practices in rural Zimbabwe: A case study of the Ndau Indigenous People in Chimanimani, Zimbabwe” will take place on Friday, 9 January 2026 at 12:00 in room H320, Historica building, University of Jyväskylä. Opponent is Professor Marja Spierenburg (Radboud University) and custos Professor Tiina Kontinen, (University of Jyväskylä).

The dissertation can be read in the JYX archive.