| Abstrakt: |
Despite the decolonization of Africa and the acclaimed huge potential of globalization, post-colonial African states are still engrossed in the quest for development, while the scourge of poverty prevails. Globalization presents ‘Westernization’ as the only history, the universal epistemology and the road-map to development, and relegates African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS) to the background. This article contends with these assertions, argues for a rethinking of African developmental initiatives, and intellectually contests the denial of African ways of knowing in science and scholarship. We engage with African history and explore how globalization of knowledge has impacted on Africa’s quest to retain its traditional knowledge systems and to instigate sustainable development in the continent.Before colonialism in Africa, there was an evolving pattern of innovations through socialisation that would have instigated different modes of development relative to the ‘Western’ developmental paradigm. The waves of globalization that engulfed Africa, their distortive effects, and the coercive Westernization of African value systems, have created an impediment to the resurgence of AIKS.In conclusion, the article reiterates the need for Africa to invest in the promotion and retention of its indigenous knowledge systems to offer‘African Solutions to African Problems’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
