Indigenization is the act of making something more native; transformation of some service, idea, etc. to suit a local culture, especially through the use of more

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

in public administration, employment and other fields. The term is primarily used by

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and v ...

s to describe what happens when locals take something from the outside and make it their own (such as: Africanization or

Americanization Americanization or Americanisation (see spelling differences) is the influence of American culture and business on other countries outside the United States of America, including their media, cuisine, business practices, popular culture, tech ...

History

History of the word

The first use of the word ''indigenization'' recorded by the

OED The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

is in a 1951 paper about studies conducted in India about

Christian missionaries A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as ...

. The word was used to describe the process of making churches indigenous in southern India. It was used in ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' in 1962 to describe managerial positions and in the 1971 book ''English Language in West Africa'' by John Spencer, where it was used to describe the adoption of English. Indigenization is often used to describe the adoption of colonial culture in Africa because of the effects of colonialism by Europe in the 19th and the early 20th centuries.

History of the use

Throughout history, the process of making something indigenous has taken different forms. Other words that describe similar processes of making something local are Africanization, localization,

glocalization Glocalization or Glocalisation (a portmanteau of ''globalization'' and '' localism'') is the "simultaneous occurrence of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies in contemporary social, political, and economic systems." The notion of gloca ...

, and

. However, those terms describe a specific case of the process of making something indigenous. The terms may be rejected in favor of the more general term of indigenization because the others may have too narrow of a scope. For example,

christianization Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...

was a form of indigenization by converting areas and groups to follow Christianity.

Types

Linguistics

In this context, indigenization is used to refer to how a language is adopted in a certain area such as French in Africa. The term is used to describe the process of conveying a certain region's culture and concepts in terms of the language that is being introduced. A common case where a language needed to be indigenized was in Africa where the ex-colonizer's language required some references to African religion and culture, even though in the original language there was no vocabulary for this. As this process is being carried out, there is usually a

metalanguage In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to describe another language, often called the ''object language''. Expressions in a metalanguage are often distinguished from those in the object language by the use of italics, quot ...

created that is some combination of the original language and the introduced language. This language shares cultural aspects from both cultures, making it distinct and usually done in order to understand the foreign language in the context of the local region. Sometimes the term indigenization is preferred over other terms such as Africanization because it carries no negative connotations and does not imply any underlying meaning.

Economy

Indigenization is seen as the process of changing someone to a person of more corroboration towards their surroundings. A large part of that process is the economy of said surroundings. Indigenization has played an important part in the economic roles of society. Thanks to The Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act, black people were offered a more distinguished position in the economy, with foreigners having to give up 51% of their business to black people. China's Open Door Policy is seen as a big step of indigenization for their economy, as it is opening its doors to the western world. This allowed different cultures to experience one another and opened up China's businesses to the western world as well, which set China forth in a sort of

economic reform Microeconomic reform (or often just economic reform) comprises policies directed to achieve improvements in economic efficiency, either by eliminating or reducing distortions in individual sectors of the economy or by reforming economy-wide polic ...

Social work

Another big part of indigenization is social work, although it is unknown what the actual process is when social forces come into place. Indigenization is seen by some as less of a process of naturalization and more of a process of culturally relevant social work. Indigenization was not the standard, but it was a way to accustom others to a surrounding point of view but also to help understand where the people came from and their heritage. However, some argue that the indigenization of social work may work when it comes to foreigners being brought into Western cultures, it would not work as well in non-Western cultures. They also argue that Western cultures seem to exaggerate the similarities and the differences between Western and foreign cultures.

Indigenization and the Economic Empowerment Act

The Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act was passed by Zimbabwe Parliament in 2008. It is a set of regulations meant to regulate businesses, compelling foreign-owned firms to sell 51-percent of their business to blacks over the following years. Five-year jail terms are assigned to foreigners who do not submit an indigenisation plan or use locals as fronts for their businesses. The intent of the law is to ensure the country's black members fulfill a more prominent role in the economy. Controversy rose over this intent, with opponents stating that the law will scare away foreign investors. Indigenous

Zimbabweans This article is about the demographic features of the population of Zimbabwe, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Populatio ...

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