Indigenous discourses on knowledge and development in Africa

Abstract

Edward Shizha and Ali A. Abdi stress in their introduction to this edited volume that ‘Africa has to rethink and re-engage development partners on its own terms’ (p. 5). Much has been written on the need to rethink the notion of development, yet it is a far greater challenge to write what that particular ‘African’ perspective entails. My review explores to what extent the authors manage to live up to their ambitious promise to present ‘an African indigenous discourse-centred approach to expanded notations of knowledge, education, political governance, social development and overall prospects of meaning making and acting on those meanings in ways that can finally benefit the extensively marginalized African public’ (p. 7). Part One, Indigenous Knowledge and Development, reflects on what ‘development’ means in relation to indigenous knowledge (IK). Its chapters provide ample arguments that invite reflection on the topic. George J. Sefa Dei, for example, argues that ‘we must decolonize our theorization through the application of African indigenous discourses’ (p. 22) or that ‘we must scrutinize power and resistance to dominant development paradigms, models and initiatives that continually subjugate or marginalize local voices and intellectual agencies’ (p. 27). Similarly, Gloria T. Emeagwali stresses that ‘self-sustained growth essentially must come from within, in the context of participatory action that rejects the marginalization and disempowerment of indigenous people’ (p. 42). The call for reflection and action is both clear and necessary. But the argument stalls at the contention that something needs to be done, which leaves many questions as to how this can be done.