Cannabis Africana: Drugs and Development in Africa

Cannabis is ubiquitous in sub-Saharan Africa, with a long history interwoven with numerous groups' cultural practices, and increasingly a valuable economic commodity. Despite this, little is known of these roles, the predominant source of knowledge about the substance and its various uses being drawn from police and state sources. As a result, there is a lack of understanding about how cannabis is used and perceived - beyond its status as an 'illegal drug' - and what roles it plays in the lives of people in sub-Saharan Africa. The proposed research project will develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of cannabis in Africa, focusing not only on its 'traditional' uses, but on its contemporary growth as an economic cash crop and source of livelihoods, in a global context where drug policy is in flux. To do this, the project focuses attention on four interrelated areas, all of which draw on newly gathered empirical data in 3 chosen sites: South-Western Nigeria, Western Kenya; South Africa's Eastern Cape.

First, an historical account serves as the foundation of the project, exploring the roles that cannabis has played in Africa's history, both in terms of governance and in the daily livelihoods of many of the continent's people. Drawing on fresh archival research and oral histories, the project aims to highlight the long history that cannabis has had and the lessons that can be drawn for current debates and perceptions of the substance. These debates and perceptions, it should be noted, are shifting in many countries in Africa today, with the submission of this proposal coming at a time at which South Africa is officially considering the legal status of cannabis in the courts.

Following on from this historical point of departure, the second focus of the proposed project aims to understand the contemporary socioeconomic roles of cannabis, its uses, the practices associated with it, and indeed, the meaning it holds for farmers, traders and consumers. This area of the project will explicitly explore cannabis' links to rural and urban livelihoods and so-called 'development' by drawing on evidence gathered through interviews and small scale surveys, which will be collected in 3 case study sites across the continent. The study will, for instance, gather the unheard voices of cannabis farmers who live in the remote Transkei area of South Africa or Nigeria's Cocoa Belt.

The third area that our research will focus on are the various cultures of consumption that exist around the substance. While the existing literature has hinted at these, they remain largely unexplored despite varying greatly between, for instance, the urban and rural contexts of the continent. As such, this part not only draws on the data of the above two, but also explores a wider corpus of cultural practices, discourses and products, such as music and fiction, in order to shed light on the meanings that cannabis has taken on, aside from being an 'illegal drug' over time in the 3 study sites.

Finally, the fourth area highlights the role of drug policy, focusing on the impact that regulatory environments have on the production, distribution and use of cannabis in the case-study sites. It will reveal how regulation and prohibition has impacted on the lives of people and their ability to enact their economic and cultural practices. The project provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between cannabis and policy towards it, probing the history of cannabis policy, with the aim of understanding and developing more effective and more just governance strategies today.

With its focus on cannabis and its illicit economies and cultures of consumption, the project will illuminate a substance of critical importance for the continent, filling a vast lacuna in our knowledge of drugs in Africa, and will tackle a key case-study of drugs and development, one made all the more important given the liberalisation of cannabis policies elsewhere in the world.

Our research has a wide range of beneficiaries and a broad audience, especially as drug policy is much debated at present and various governments are now trialing alternative approaches. Given the interest in the nexus of drugs and development in Africa, a project exploring this link will offer a foundation for a better understanding of the drugs-development nexus as well as for devising better policy towards cannabis and other drugs in Africa and beyond.

(1) The project will be of immense interest to drug policy makers. We have planned in close links with relevant agencies from across Africa and particularly in the three case study countries, such as Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, South African Police, UK Home Office and National Crime Agency. Regional and international organisations with a strong policy interest in drugs in Africa will also be direct beneficiaries of our project, such as the West African Commission on Drugs (WACD) and the African Union's commissioners' dealing with crime and social policy, as well as the UNODC, Interpol and the WHO.

(2) Our project is of relevance to legal professionals, particularly in South Africa where the legality of cannabis consumption is currently debated at court and this has begun to heighten debate and concern in the country. Our research will be ideally poised to play a leading role in these legal and public debates, as one of the project members (CoI-Howell) has acted as an expert witness in this seminal court case and has been asked to be involved in the subsequent discussions on reform of laws and policies.

(3) Activists, workers in the charity and NGO sectors involved in drug policy, development and harm reduction, as well as health practitioners working with drug users, will benefit from our research. The NGO Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA) is a key actor in this field of NGOs and activists in Africa and closely linked into this project. The Open Society Foundation's Drug Policy Programme, the International Drug Policy Consortium and the Global Drug Policy Observatory will also be key beneficiaries.

(4) There is also a significant interest in drug policy and reform among the wider public, and our project on the most commonly used illicit drug within Africa promises to further spark increased debate on policy and the role of drugs in Africa. The project will seek the widest platforms for engaging this public through working with media and disseminating its findings online and through key social media.

Our project has a three-pronged strategy designed to ensure maximum engagement with the widest possible number of beneficiaries. First, the project will be guided by an advisory board constituted not just by academics, but also by policy makers and activists, for instance by Isidore Obot, head of the NGO CRISA and one of Africa's foremost drug policy experts working closely with key organisations, such as UNODC and the African Union.

Second, three workshops will be held over the course of the project, which will recruit widely from among our key audiences and beneficiaries, such as a methodology workshop on illicit markets at UCT in the first phase of the project, a second drug policy workshop as part of the prestigious CRISA conference on drugs in Africa, as well as our final Bristol conference on cannabis and drug policy.

Third, we will disseminate the research findings through four policy papers, which will be designed with the direct input of key beneficiaries and tailored to their policy needs. They will be made available at the CRISA workshop and Bristol conference, on our project website and widely disseminated through social media and drugs mailing lists. In addition to the methods mentioned above, we will offer opportunities for stakeholders to directly engage with our project through our project team's presence in Cape Town - one of Africa's key media and civil society hubs.