Harnessing African Indigenous Knowledge Systems for Knowledge Production: A Redefinition of a Culture-Centric Epistemology

Abstract

Evolving an appropriate theoretical model which has the capability of exploiting the wealth in African indigenous culture-centric knowledge systems towards knowledge production is the great challenge that prompted this research. The aim of this study therefore is to re-examine the definition of culture in order to provide the interpretative criteria for understanding the foundational role African cultures play in the determination of the nature, scope and sources of Knowledge Africans appreciate and pursue, which are exploitable for effective knowledge production. This research identifies the indigenous values which yield pertinent knowledge that has historically kept Africa stable prior to the advent of slave trade, colonization and even in the face of today’s globalist agendas hence, the author projects the same for universal beneficence. However, this paper observes that the habitual reliance on Western interpretations of African realities is a gap created by Africans themselves by their over dependence on foreign epistemological structures with its strictures. The study in conclusion, suggests that Africa re-interprets her reality through a re-reading of her history, ideologies and the subsequent application of her knowledge systems through the lenses of her cultural uniqueness. The study adopts the content analysis and hermeneutical methods of enquiry.