African Indigenous Knowledge and Practices to Combat Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge and practices suffer marginalisation when it comes to seeking solutions to social problems. The world misses out on the richness of this knowledge and practices and role that they can play. This qualitative existential phenomenological study explored experiences of African indigenous knowledge holders and practitioners on their views regarding solutions towards COVID-19 pandemic. Interviews were conducted through WhatsApp and face-to-face with ten participants and data were analysed thematically. The findings show African knowledge and practices that could combat COVID-19 in terms of restrictions, heat related remedies and plant related remedies, and how these knowledge and practices can be applied through ancestral, environmental, metaphysical and generational modes. Africa and the world could benefit from how indigenous people respond to diseases such as COVID-19 and adopt/adapt some of these knowledge and practices; indigenous knowledge and practices have a role to play by contributing solutions to the world’s problems.