Constructing climate coloniality: Histories, knowledges and materialities of climate adaptation in southern Africa

Climate change and related extremes represent one of the most significant challenges of the twenty-first century. Yet lived experiences of climate change vary, with negative impacts disproportionately felt by marginalised populations who have historically contributed the least per capita emissions. The proposed study advances understanding of an under-researched topic within this urgent context: the role of colonial power and knowledge in shaping climate adaptation and vulnerability past and present. Current analyses and practices of adaptation rarely investigate deep histories of colonialism and repeated disaster, but a historical lens is particularly vital here as there is now mounting concern that today's adaptation strategies are resurrecting ideas and initiatives propagated through colonialism, for example by undermining local adaptation strategies (Eriksen et al. 2021; Gengenbach et al. 2022). At worst, this risks reproducing rather than reducing the vulnerability of populations that are already on the frontline of the climate crisis (Schipper 2020).

This research aims to build new, usable pasts of climate and society in three regions of southern Africa (southern Mozambique, western Zimbabwe, southern Malawi), where the imperative of climate change adaptation has been underscored by recent cyclone and drought disasters. Specifically, it will draw upon diverse archival collections to examine the origins and transformation of climate knowledges and adaptation practices during the 19th and early-20th centuries, when colonial rule intensified. Together with project partners and local stakeholders, it further aims to elevate this historical knowledge of climate coloniality into new interaction with climate foresight to drive equitable and sustainable adaptation.

The data and findings generated from these historical deep dives will be interrogated through fresh theoretical and empirical lenses, addressing the following research questions:
1) How did climate coloniality emerge in different settings via the (re)construction of climate knowledges and imposition of material practices?
2) What was the multidirectional nature of interaction between climate knowledges, adaptation strategies and recurring climatic extremes?
3) How did Africans resist or influence climate thinking amongst Westerners despite colonial relations of power?
4) How can these climate histories be integrated into climate foresight planning and scenarios to drive equitable and sustainable climate change adaptation?

The study is transdisciplinary in scope, spanning environmental and climate history, historical geography, climate foresight, African studies, historical climatology, disaster studies, climate science and the history of science; fields that will be drawn upon and integrated. The scale of the research will yield the place-based insights needed to develop geographically and culturally specific climate histories, but also the comparative understanding required to develop a theoretical framework of the emergence of climate coloniality. This mixture of approaches will create innovation in the environmental humanities, and - through its impact - help place the SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy/Environment) disciplines at the fore of efforts to address climate change. The working practices and theoretical framework developed through the project will have wider transferability across former colonial contexts, boosted through the project's partnerships with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and leading foresight planners.