Culture Indigenous Knowledge And Development In Africa

The continent of Africa is richly endowed with diverse cultures, a body of indigenous knowledge and technologies. These bodies of knowledge and technologies that are indeed embodied in the diverse African cultures are as old as humankind. From time immemorial, they have been used to solve socio-economic, political, health, and environmental problems, and to respond to the development needs of Africans. Yet with the advent of colonialism and Western scientism, these African cultures, knowledges, and technologies have been despised and relegated to the periphery, to the detriment of the self-reliant development of Africans. It is out of this observation and realisation that this book was born. The book is an exploration of the practical problems resulting from Africa's encounter with Euro-colonialism, a reflection of the nexus between indigenous knowledge, culture, and development, and indeed a call for the revival and reinstitution of indigenous knowledge, not as a challenge to Western science, but a complementary form of knowledge necessary to steer and promote sustainable development in Africa and beyond. This is a valuable book for policy makers, institutional planners, practitioners and students of social anthropology, education, political and social ecology, and development, African and heritage studies.

This edited volume analyzes African knowledge production and alternative development paths of the region. The contributors demonstrate ways in which African-centered knowledge refutes stereotypes depicted by Euro-centric scholars and, overall, examine indigenous African contributions in global knowledge production and development. The project provides historical and contemporary evidences that challenge the dominance of Euro-centric knowledge, particularly, about Africa, across various disciplines. Each chapter engages with existing scholarship and extends it by emphasizing on Indigenous knowledge systems in addition to future indicators of African knowledge production.

This collection makes a unique contribution towards the amplification of indigenous knowledge and learning by adopting an inter/trans-disciplinary approach to the subject that considers a variety of spaces of engagement around knowledge in Asia and Africa.

African social development is often explained from outsider perspectives that are mainly European and Euro-American, leaving African indigenous discourses and ways of knowing and doing absent from discussions and debates on knowledge and development. This book is intended to present Africanist indigenous voices in current debates on economic, educational, political and social development in Africa. The authors and contributors to the volume present bold and timely ideas and scholarship for defining Africa through its challenges, possible policy formations, planning and implementation at the local, regional, and national levels. The book also reveals insightful examinations of the hype, the myths and the realities of many topics of concern with respect to dominant development discourses, and challenges the misconceptions and misrepresentations of indigenous perspectives on knowledge productions and overall social well-being or lack thereof. The volume brings together researchers who are concerned with comparative education, international development, and African development, research and practice in particular. Policy makers, institutional planners, education specialists, governmental and non-governmental managers and the wider public should all benefit from the contents and analyses of this book.

This collection derives from a conference held in Pretoria, South Africa, and discusses issues of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and the arts. It presents ideas about how to promote a deeper understanding of IKS within the arts, the development of IKS-arts research methodologies, and the protection and promotion of IKS in the arts. Knowledge, embedded in song, dance, folklore, design, architecture, theatre, and attire, and the visual arts can promote innovation and entrepreneurship, and it can improve communication. IKS, however, exists in a post-millennium, modernizing Africa. It is then the concept of post-Africanism that would induce one to think along the lines of a globalized, cosmopolitan and essentially modernized Africa. The book captures leading trends and ideas that could help to protect, promote, develop and affirm indigenous knowledge and systems, whilst also making room for ideas that do not necessarily oppose IKS, but encourage the modernization (not Westernization) of Africa.

Since time immemorial, indigenous peoples around the world have developed knowledge systems to ensure their continued survival in their respective territories. These knowledge systems have always been dynamic such that they could meet new challenges. Yet, since the so-called enlightenment period, these knowledges have been supplanted by the Western enlightenment science or colonial science hegemony and arrogance such that in many cases they were relegated to the periphery. Some Euro-centric scholars even viewed indigenous knowledge as superstitious, irrational and anti-development. This erroneous view has, since the colonial period, spread like veld fire to the extent of being internalised by some political elites and Euro-centric academics of Africa and elsewhere. However, for some time now, the potential role that indigenous peoples and their knowledge can play in addressing some of the global problems haunting humanity across the world is increasingly emerging as part of international discourse. This book presents an interesting and insightful discourse on the state and role that indigenous knowledge can play in addressing a tapestry of problems of the world and the challenges connected with the application of indigenous knowledge in enlightenment science-dominated contexts. The book is not only useful to academics and students in the fields of indigenous studies and anthropology, but also those in other fields such as environmental science, social and political ecology, development studies, policy studies, economic history, and African studies.

Master's Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Literature - Africa, , language: English, abstract: This study reveals that Fágúnwà, in his five novels, consciously adresses the issue of sustainable development through the use of indigenous knowledge. Fágúnwà, for instance, emphasises the utilisation of the Yorùbá indigenous knowledge, such as its medicine and health care, the indigenous corpus of folktales and fables, the indigenous technology among others, for sustainable development. His inclusion of the moonlight tales in his novels is a weapon for sustainable development by inculcating the right virtues in the children and ensuring the subsistence of their indigenous culture. This will help the children to become good future leaders and members of the community. He encourages subsistence farming by all households in order to reduce hunger, unemployment and to inculcate hard work in the children. This will lead to sustainable development of self-reliance in every family. Fágúnwà also espouses relationship with neighbouring and far away towns in order to acquire more knowledge for sustainable development. He supports voyage to gain knowledge on administration, management and peaceful existence. Àkàrà Ògùn, Olówó-aiyé, Ìrèké and Àdìtú all embark on expeditions to sustain their communities. These, among others, are Fágúnwà’s ways of projecting sustainable development through the Yorùbá indigenous knowledge. Hence, this study concludes that Fágúnwà’s novels, through its reflection of the Yorùbá indigenous knowledge, project sustainable development. This means the Yorùbá indigenous knowledge if well employed will aid sustainable development. Therefore, the focus of this study on the reflection of indigenous knowledge and sustainable development in Fágúnwà novels, is believed, will instigate scholars to study more on the concept of indigenous knowledge, its significance and relevance to sustainable development.

The potential of indigenous knowledge is being recognized for international development. This book argues that local people do know their environment, and that this knowledge has to be taken into account in planning and implementing accessible and effective development.