scholarly journals Transforming Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation Systems for African Intellectual Decolonization and Renaissance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel B. Babalola ◽  
Adesoji A. Oni
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Knowledge Economy ◽  
Innovation System ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Access To Education ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems

The application of knowledge (measured in term of entrepreneurship and innovations, research and development, and software and product design) has become one of the spring boards of economic growth. The paper highlights six hindrances to renaissance explosion in knowledge in Africa with special emphasis on inefficiency in indigenous knowledge systems following colonialism. It further highlighted major challenges such as low capacity to invest in advanced human capital, low scientific and analytical capacity, low level of access to education, low digital capacity, low public interest in knowledge systems and low strategic aspiration facing Africa in developing efficient indigenous knowledge systems. The authors, drawing on existing literature and expert consultations, clearly identified and established major challenges being faced by African countries in leveraging on intellectual advances and suggest ways to transform the knowledge and innovation system in moving the continent towards the knowledge economy.

Interfacing Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Access to Healthcare in SADC through the Millennium Development Goals

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amos Saurombe
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Millennium Development Goals ◽  
Access To Healthcare ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Sub Saharan

There are eight health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the mandate of which is to ensure access to affordable healthcare for poor countries, especially in Africa. These MDGs were supposed to be reached by 2015, but six years have now passed with little success being realised. The cost of affordable medicines remains the main predicament for poor African countries. The focus of this paper is limited to the poor countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a part of sub-Saharan Africa. I have previously written on other measures that have been employed to improve access to medicine, for example pooled procurement used by a number of SADC countries. Unfortunately the vast rural nature of SADC member states makes it prohibitively impossible to reach every citizen, let alone convince them of the usefulness of Western healthcare. A number of scholars have written about southern Africa’s riches in the area of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) that directly relate to healthcare. It is thus the objective of this paper to argue that both efforts of using IKS and the modern healthcare system can complement each other in the quest for the realisation of better healthcare and quality of life for the citizens of southern Africa. This paper starts with a motivation to indicate why IKS and access to healthcare are related. An analysis of the eight related MDGs follows as a way of measuring how far these have been realised post the anticipated date in 2015. In this analysis, it is critical to unearth how IKS can be used in the realisation of solutions to these shortcomings.

Colonizing Innovation:

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhinav CHATURVEDI ◽  
Alf REHN
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Frugal Innovation ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Management Literature

Innovation is one of the most popular concepts and desired phenomena of contemporary Western capitalism. As such, there is a perennial drive to capture said phenomena, and particularly to find new ways to incite and drive the same. In this text, we analyze one specific tactic through which this is done, namely by the culturally colonial appropriation of indigenous knowledge systems. By looking to how jugaad, a system   of   frugal   innovation   in   India,   has been   made   into   fodder   for   Western management literature, we argue for the need of a more developed innovation critique, e.g., by looking to postcolonial theory.

Indigenous Environmental Justice, Knowledge, and Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Worldviews ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Innovative Approaches

This article aims to introduce a distinct conception of Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) based on Indigenous legal orders, knowledge systems, and conceptions of justice. This is not to suggest in any way that the existing environmental justice (EJ) scholarship is flawed; in fact, the scholarship and activism around EJ have been central in diagnosing and drawing attention to injustices that occur on a systematic basis everywhere in the world. This article argues instead that such discussions can be expanded by acknowledging that concepts of environmental justice, including distinct legal orders informed by Indigenous knowledge systems, already existed on Turtle Island for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. It also suggests that environmental justice framed within Indigenous worldviews, ontologies, and epistemologies may make significant contributions to broader EJ scholarship, particularly in relation to extending justice to other beings and entities in Creation. This approach acknowledges ongoing colonialism and emphasizes the need to decolonize in order to advance innovative approaches to IEJ. 

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