Culture, indigenous knowledge systems and sustainable development: A critical view of education in an African context (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Management studies and Social Science Research 2020 VOLUME- 2 ISSUE - 4 JULY - AUGUST, 2020
In discussing African Development and its attendant food security question, it is important to examine critically what sustainable development means in the African context in relation to United Nations championed sustainable development goals. Such a definition will open our horizon in an attempt to search for alternative approaches and solutions to African developmental problems with the hope to improve the lives of the local peoples. The idea here is that any new alternative approaches to development must touch the social, spiritual, cultural, economic, political, and cosmological aspects of the indigenous people. Therefore, if the current wave of UN driven theory of sustainable development issues in Africa is to be understood and applied it must address the local people's problem of hunger. It must be situated in the appropriate anthropological context that provides practical and social meaning to the African actors as the real subjects of a developmental discourse and not as passengers. The current approach of defining and operational zing sustainable development agenda from the perspective of the world capitalist economy and the associated globalization processes at the same time does not make sense to an average hungry local African. The rapid social change and transformation of indigenous societies require a different methodology to the problem of social development and existentialism. Hence the need for re-theorization and re-conceptualization of the issues associated with poverty and food security like urbanization, demography trend, and agriculture, etc. It is against this background that this work examined the United Nations' sustainable development goals, African development, and the question of food security using secondary data such as books, newspapers, journals, and the internet.
Knowledge for a Sustainable World
2015
Preface A S , after a long process of consultation and debate, the United Nations general assembly replaced the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the High-Level Panel appointed by UN to initiate debate about a new set of goals, the MDGs had neither focused su ciently on the most marginalised people, nor addressed important aspects of development with regard to democracy and inclusive growth. But most importantly, the MDGs had fallen short in relation to sustainable development, the most fundamental challenge facing us all. e High-Level Panel proposed that the world's post-2015 agenda be driven by the following ve key transformative shifts: 1 Leave no one behind. is is crucial for ending extreme poverty and ensuring that no one is denied universal human rights, including the right of every individual to education. 2 Put sustainable development at the core. is points to the importance of social inclusion and of meeting the aspirations of all people by 2030. 3 Transform economies for jobs and inclusive growth. Part of this shift also includes access to quality education and skills. 4 Build peace and e ective open and accountable institutions for all. is implies that all of humanity should live in freedom from fear and enjoy fundamental human rights. 5 Forge a new global partnership. is is directed towards good governance and civic participation. P with authors from so many di erent disciplines is not easy. erefore strong praise is due to the anonymous reviewer who accepted this di cult task, and whose comments contributed immeasurably to improving the rigour and focus of many of the chapters. We would like to thank the many authors who contributed to the book, and worked hard to meet tight deadlines amid all their other responsibilities. And, of course, many thanks are due to the SANORD board and to the sta at the SANORD o ce at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa for support and funding. e assistance of Mary Ralphs, freelance editorial manager, as well as Peter Bosman our designer and typesetter, and Francois van Schalkwyk our publisher at African Minds, helped to make this book a reality. Frequently used acronyms and abbreviations AIDS acquired immune de ciency syndrome BEE black economic empowerment BRICS Brazil,
Indigenous Knowledge and Africa’s Quest for Sustainable Development
Ghana Journal of Religion and Theology
In Africa’s quest for sustainable development, it is important to consider the various factors that make African societies unique and different from others. As a people with special interests, beliefs, and social and political organizations which are culturally transient, Africa cannot develop outside the scope of its cultural ties. Since the gap between indigenous or cultural knowledge and sustainable development is so closely knitted, no society can progress by neglecting its values and bonds. Every development comes with the need to improve the existing condition, and where there is an absolute lack of knowledge of the existing condition of things, every effort directed toward the development of such a society will inevitably fail because the system will only be working on a trial-and-error basis. Hence, Africa’s sustainable development must be construed within the ambience of African society taking cognizance of her communal way of life. In this paper, therefore, we shall argue ...
Rethinking Education for Sustainable Development in Africa
World Journal of Education, 2013
This paper makes a case for a revalorization of all indigenous knowledges in general and African indigenous knowledges in particular. It invites African policy makers and intellectuals to do a little more to bring indigenous knowledges within African educational stream with the view to increasing the potentials of development in Africa. Since there exists a variety of educational theories, including the functionalist, the conflict, the critical, the pragmatic and the afrocentric educational theories, the paper advises that the adoption of the pragmatic and afrocentric educational theories will integrate African indigenous knowledges and current educational systems and thereby promote the development of a holistic African educational system. Consequently, three recommendations have been proffered that will enhance the development of indigenous knowledges and integration of same within the current African educational system.
Journal of Humanities and Education Development (JHED) , 2019
Sustainable development goals are resolutions born out of the need to create a people-centered development projects design to address the unfinished agendas of the Millennium development goals and also a framework aimed at achieving global sustainability agendas. It is a project that is designed against failure through various tracking indicators and visualization measures. Various researches, however, have suggested Indigenous Knowledge as a fundamental indicator in the realization of these g oals. This short piece of work visualized the concept of sustainable development in the light of Indigenous k nowledge systems and analyse its roles and potentials in contributing to the realization of global sustainability by exploring its values and merits. The paper focuses on the SDG 4 and 17 highlighting the need for a radical exploration of Indigenous knowledge practices for a more quality education that is inclusive and indigenously informed. It explores the interrelatedness in the values of Indigenous knowledge systems, openness in education/knowledge sharing and sustainable development in the context of Africa settings. It identifies this interrelatedness as a mechanism for the realization of Indigenous knowledge expansion that could help in achievin g partnership among world communities as a pathway for international developmental projects sustainability and suggests the need for the birth of theoretical models for data collection towards the realization of documenting and codifying indigenous practices despite its complexities and tactical nature.
Centring the peripherised systems: Zimbabwean indigenous knowledge systems for food security
2011
In spite of the abundance of large tracks of fertile land, Zimbabwe still finds itself faced with acute food shortages and, subsequently, among the nations that needs food relief from interventions such as the World Food Programmes. Initiatives to ensure food security have been put in place but the questions that remain worrisome are: Are the food security initiatives incompatible within the realities in Zimbabwe? Whose initiatives are the food security innovations championing? Whose life philosophy is giving impetus to the Zimbabwean food security innovation drive? What is apparent here is that initiatives to completely insure food stability and poverty alleviation in Zimbabwe are not completely hitting the target as in most cases the tools that are used to achieve this goal are usually borrowed ones. It is, thus, against this background that this paper attempts to interrogate the Zimbabwean local systems in search for solutions to food security. The assumption is that initiatives that are devoid of the input from a society's philosophy of life lack the concrete base and the humus that is intended to nourish and nurture it. For how do we explain a situation where in spite of the abundance of rich natural resources, large tracks of land, Zimbabwe is being found on the peripheries of the global food security? It is the aim of this paper to explore the area of indigenous language systems, in the case, the indigenous conflict resolution systems, and their contribution to conflict resolution, peace building, societal reconciliation which are essential requisites to economic growth and development. Definition of terms Food security implies a situation where all people at all times have access to nutritionally adequate food and safe water. The World Food Summit (WFS) of 996 viewed food security in the context of access to safe and nutritious food. On the other hand the World Forum on food and sovereignty of 200 focussed the concept of food security on people's rights to define their own policies and strategies for sustainable production, distribution and consumption of food. However, it has to be noted that a range of interrelated factors determine whether food security is achieved. For the World Food Forum (200) the four key factors that must be simultaneously present for food security to be protected are) availability of food, 2) access to the food, 3) stability of supplies, and 4) utilisation of food (dietary needs of the individuals must be met).