African Indigenous Worldviews and Ancient Wisdom: A Conceptual Framework for Development in southern Africa

Abstract

This chapter explores the Eurocentric philosophies and models of development employed by what the African scholar Chinweizu describes as 'Europhiliac' Africans. It argues that our own Indigenous worldviews and models of development will set us free from dehumanization and the barbarism of oppression because our models have the interests of Africans and the humanity of Africans at heart. The central concern for us in southern Africa is to assume full responsibility for our own development. The importance of balance in African human development and worldview is clearly explained by Mazisi Kunene in his introduction to Anthem of the Decades. African knowledge systems are the sources of the African worldview. Development in the African worldview has two aspects. One is social. The other is technical. True development for us can only occur within the context of our own African culture, using Indigenous knowledge systems and worldviews as the conceptual framework.