Elevate Africa's indigenous knowledge to achieve sustainable development

Kabon Chirchir sells medicinal herbs at Nginyang Market in Tiaty, Baringo county. [File, Standard]

UNESCO defines indigenous knowledge as the knowledge, innovations, and practices of indigenous and local communities that have been developed over generations and passed down either orally or through practice. Indigenous knowledge (IK) presents an enormous opportunity for Africa to address development challenges across sectors by applying home-grown, relevant, and time-tested approaches. The World Bank predicts that integrating indigenous knowledge systems would provide a much-needed paradigm shift in development planning.

The debate on the merits of IK in development has often fallen into two camps; those who believe that it should be incorporated fully into infrastructural development, and those who believe it needs to be understood further before such action is taken. This debate notwithstanding, a significant amount of indigenous knowledge is already being robustly utilised in many ways by millions of Africans in their everyday lives. Therefore, though the conversation is centred on indigenous knowledge, by ignoring the realities of the present-day Africans, the perspective is emphatically Eurocentric and colonial.