Embedding Indigenous Knowledge in Library and Information Science Education in Anglophone Eastern and Southern Africa

Introduction

Indigenous knowledge (IK) should be valued, preserved, revitalised and protected. Higher education has a clear leadership responsibility with regard to the protection and preservation of IK. Higher education should take a lead in its preservation and protection because it is the hub of knowledge production and generator of the leaders of tomorrow (Moahi, 2012; Ngulube, Dube, & Mhlongo, 2015). Higher education must legitimise and validate IK as a pedagogic strategy (Dei, 2000) in order to transform the higher education landscape which has hitherto been dominated by hegemonic Western pedagogic ontologies and epistemologies. Higher education in SSA has failed to generate knowledge to solve the problems confronting society because it lacks appreciation of indigenous ways of knowing (Ndhlovu & Masuku, 2004).

Contrary to the assertion by Maile and Loubser (2003), higher education institutions in Africa have made limited progress in incorporating IK (Ndhlovu & Masuku, 2004; Ngulube, Dube, & Mhlongo, 2013; Ngulube, Dube, & Mhlongo, 2015; Schaffer, Ezirim, Gamurorwa, Ntsonyane, Phiri, & Sagnia, 2004; Tumuhairwe, 2013). The situation is not peculiar to countries in sub Saharan Africa (SSA) as countries such as Australia (Gunstone, 2008) and Peru (Sumida Huaman & Valdiviezo, 2014) once neglected to mainstream IK in their educational institutions.

There is “a growing discourse that demands the acknowledgement and inclusion of indigenous knowledge systems” in education (Higgs, 2010, p. 2414). Consequently, there is a need for universities to rethink indigenous presence and aspiration in designing and interpreting the curriculum (Ma Rhea, 2013). Sumida Huaman and Valdiviezo (2014) strongly recommended the inclusion of IK in education “as epistemological transformation towards social justice” (p. 66). The inclusion of IK in the curriculum of higher education may also expose students, who are bound to be instrumental in shaping a sustainable developmental agenda, to valuable intergenerational experiential knowledge which has been passed down from one generation to another within local communities in a given traditional geographical context. Kaya and Seleti (2013) are of the view that its inclusion in the curriculum may improve its relevance in society. It may also affirm the knowledge of the previously disadvantaged indigenous people and bring about transformation in the higher education system.

Apart from enabling IK to assume its rightful place in the fast-evolving information society and the knowledge economy, the legitimation of indigenous perspectives is a role that higher education in SSA should unquestionably play. The embracing of IK holds hope for the rebranding of universities in the continent to be uniquely African. It provides an opportunity to rehabilitate and reclaim the underutilised, neglected and devalued knowledge base and perspective of the indigenous communities (Yishak & Gumbo, 2012). Professionals in all disciplines including those in library and information science (LIS) have a role to play in revitalising IK in general, and in higher education in particular.