Language and Power. The Implications of Language for Peace and Development: The Implications of Language for Peace and Development

Education, Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Development in an African Context

- 232 EDUCATION , INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AN AFRICAN CONTEXT By Anders Breidlid Introduction The rationale for the focus on the relationship between indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable development in this article is the overall low success rate of earlier Western-based development strategies in assisting the poor to escape their dismal conditions. Particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa a real developmental take off does not seem to have materialised. Clearly the reasons for this are multiple, but arguably one reason is related to the modernist development paradigm which both aid agencies and governments in the South have uncritically adhered to. Western knowledge and science have played a hegemonic role in the developmental efforts in the South, whereas indigenous knowledge has been characterised as inefficient, old-fashioned and not scientific, and relegated to the realm of insignificance. Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Sustainable Development Western science and knowledge systems have during the last decade been questioned and critiqued by a number of scholars and politicians in both Africa and Asia as well as in the West. Inspired by the African Renaissance in particular, interest in and focus on world-views and indigenous cultures and knowledge systems in Africa as a supplement to what some call reductionist science and knowledge systems, have led to an exploration of “the role of the social and natural sciences in supporting the development of indigenous knowledge systems” (Odora Hoppers 2002: vii). Indigenous knowledge The important contributions of philosophers and theologians like Mbiti (1969) and Idowo (1982), have exposed the importance of metaphysics and religion in African epistemology, whereas the Ghanaian philosopher Gyekye (1997) has analysed African world-views and cultures in terms of a tradition- modernity dichotomy. CrossmanandDevisch(2002),emphasisethisinterrelatednessintheirunderstanding of indigenous, or as they prefer to call it, endogenous knowledge systems and world-views, and characterise them in terms such as holistic and organic, non- - 233 dominating , non-manipulative, non-mechanical (social and people-centred and relational. While Crossman and Devisch can be criticised for being normative and idealising indigenous knowledge systems, Odora Hoppers and Makhale-Mahlangu, in their definition of indigenous knowledge systems, may seem to tone down the metaphysical aspects of such systems by referring to them as: the combination of knowledge systems encompassing technology, social, economic and philosophical learning, or educational, legal and governance systems. It is knowledge relating to the technological, social, institutional, scientific and developmental, including those used in the liberation struggles (Odora Hoppers and Makhale-Mahlangu 1998 quoted in Odora Hoppers 2002, pp. 8-9). It is, however, imperative that African indigenous knowledge systems are understood in relation to a world-view which is to a large extent realised in religious ceremonies, rituals and other practices. Our fieldwork among the Xhosas in South Africa confirms such a view (for a comprehensive discussion of this fieldwork, see Breidlid 2002). Even though there are aspects linked to indigenous, cultural practices other than religion, religion and religious practices are central to Xhosa epistemology. A very similar picture is painted by both Mbiti and Idowu of other ethnic groups across the African continent (Mbiti 1969, Idowu, 1982). A definition of indigenous knowledge must therefore both account for the holistic, metaphysical foundation (world-views) of indigenous knowledge systems and their various ramifications. Consequently indigenous knowledge systems encompass, I argue, world-views, cultural values and practices and knowledge systems derived from these world-views and practices and related to metaphysical, ecological, economic and scientific fields. This holism was in Europe undermined by the Protestant reformation (Delanty 2000), which played an important role in the rise of modern science (and the separation between the secular and the spiritual) and thus in the advent of modernity (Breidlid 2002). Indigenous knowledge is delimited geographically and culturally in the sense that the emphasis is on place, e.g the homestead. Moreover, indigenous knowledge is, as Sillitoe argues, as “much skill as knowledge, and its learning across generations is characterised by oral transmission and learning through experience and repetitive practice” (Sillitoe 2000: 4). Indigenous knowledge poses an alternative to narrowly - focused scientific disciplines which may neglect the interconnections of natural phenomena, for example in agriculture, that may promote sustainable development. Sustainable Development The lack of respect for local or indigenous knowledge and the assumption by many Western scientists about the superiority of Western epistemology and scientific - 234 discourse is a serious obstacle to sustainable development in...