Elevate Africa's indigenous knowledge to achieve sustainable development

Kabon Chirchir sells medicinal herbs at Nginyang Market in Tiaty, Baringo county. [File, Standard]

UNESCO defines indigenous knowledge as the knowledge, innovations, and practices of indigenous and local communities that have been developed over generations and passed down either orally or through practice. Indigenous knowledge (IK) presents an enormous opportunity for Africa to address development challenges across sectors by applying home-grown, relevant, and time-tested approaches. The World Bank predicts that integrating indigenous knowledge systems would provide a much-needed paradigm shift in development planning.  

The debate on the merits of IK in development has often fallen into two camps; those who believe that it should be incorporated fully into infrastructural development, and those who believe it needs to be understood further before such action is taken. This debate notwithstanding, a significant amount of indigenous knowledge is already being robustly utilised in many ways by millions of Africans in their everyday lives. Therefore, though the conversation is centred on indigenous knowledge, by ignoring the realities of the present-day Africans, the perspective is emphatically Eurocentric and colonial.  

The problem begins in the conflicting definition of the term indigenous peoples. There is no globally agreed definition, with most broadly agreeing that it refers to a group of people bound by social cultural norms with ancestral ties to the land that they inhabit or have been displaced from. But the World Bank goes further to define indigenous peoples as having a distinct culture that is inextricably linked to their land and natural resources.

This definition is especially important to the “Indigenous Movement” a global movement attempting to amplify the systemic struggles of smaller communities who often stand apart from the wider cultural context of their countries. In Kenya, for example, peoples identifying with the Indigenous Movement include hunter gatherers such as the Ogiek people, and pastoralists such as the Maasai or Turkana.  

When defining indigenous people as a means of exploring the potential for indigenous knowledge, our definition must be broadened. Indigenous African knowledge systems were the norm in solving societal issues – from rule of law to public health pre-colonisation. Colonial powers imposed Western systems of governance, law, education, and medicine, dismissing African practices as backward or superstitious. Therefore, in this context, we are defining African indigenous people as all ethnic groups who have called this continent home prior to modern-day colonialisation.

Despite the repression of our knowledge systems through colonialism, we have seen a resurgence of their use in post-colonial Africa. A 2022 Ghanaian study of how Indigenous Knowledge is being employed in rural communities as well as urban settings, found that far from dying out, IK has actually been incorporated in many aspects of a modern Ghanaian’s life. This is a strong indicator that colonising influences of Western cultures have not effectively ended the presence of African culture, but we have simply adapted and incorporated both into our way of life today. 

Indigenous knowledge has the ability to change and influence Africa’s development goals for the better. Among some of the most remarkable indigenous knowledge systems in use are sustainable management of marine resources, and sustainable agriculture and farming practices. Estimates indicate that traditional medicine may be providing healthcare to nearly 80 per cent of the total African population. 

In Kenya, after years of advocacy on the use of indigenous knowledge systems, the county government of Narok, in consultation with indigenous communities, is developing a resilience strategy incorporating indigenous knowledge systems. Much more could be achieved in other regions.  A 2022 survey conducted by the Mawazo Institute on research trends in Africa, placed IK as one of the critical emerging areas of research, pointing to renewed efforts of re-imagining aspirations in African development. 

Above all, it is imperative that IK is made part of our curriculums to orient our learning and research with the real needs of the citizenry. We are well past the debate of whether or not it can be incorporated into systems. Instead, let us begin to plan how it can be. It is time to recentre indigenous knowledge and people in development planning across Africa, with local solutions for local problems, in harmony with the needs of communities.