SOUTH African higher educational institutions were founded during the pre-apartheid and apartheid era. The majority of our 26 state universities were established during the colonial period. Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher Education, clearly articulated in his address at the University of Zululand’s Inaugural Conference on African Thought that the era that these institutions were established mostly determined curriculums, teaching pedagogies and knowledge production. During this time, there was no room for developing indigenous African knowledge, and the colonial and apartheid education model presided.
Indigenous African knowledge systems are inclusive of our worldview and cultural influences. It allows us to comprehend, analyse and interpret knowledge, life and circumstances with an African lens.
It's about being able to locally contextualise and reflect on global perspectives and challenges with an African influence. This shift can only enhance our understanding of who we are as South Africans, despite our ethnic and racial variances, but also teach us about our country, our continent, its peoples, and our lives.
During this period of our lives, 27 years post democracy; we also have to question whether these traditional intellectual foundations serve us as they should. Are they relevant to the post-modern era in Africa, which is ever-evolving on a daily basis? If educational institutions are to serve us, should they not be pertinent to our history, surroundings, political and socio-economic circumstances, and influences?
The conference, which took place for three days in November, attracted representatives from the national Department of Higher Education and renowned scholars from the University of Johannesburg, the University of the West Indies, the Centre of Advanced Studies of African Society, the Pan-African Society and Foundation and the Pennsylvania State University, USA.
These scholars have had headway into incorporating African perspectives into their educational institutions through their scholarly publications, ideologies and teachings. The University of Zululand has made many similar strides. Before the event, this ideology was not previously identified as a component of a strategic plan to prioritise African knowledge systems from the Global South so that an authentic African university could be developed.
The University of Zululand identified the need to prioritise African knowledge systems and their national and international awareness.
Minister Blade Nzimande stated that despite South Africa's progress concerning equity, access, financial aid and infrastructure development within our education sectors, the transformation of our intellectual foundations is still challenged.
For instance, Afrikaans' Christian nationalist intellectual traditions were still rife just before democracy in 1994, despite their rise to power in 1948. Students at The University of Port Elizabeth (now Known as the Nelson Mandela University) were forced to study certain law subjects in Afrikaans, despite their ethnicity, vernaculars, and racial identities.
The lack of cognisance of the cultural, ethnic and racial characteristics of the students was permissible. Simultaneously, African nationalism and its ideologies developed throughout the 1930s and 1940s and were enacted at the University of Fort Hare during these decades. Scholars and writers brought awareness to black consciousness in later years.
The move towards prioritising an African knowledge system is representative of emancipation for all African people worldwide and the injustices that we, South Africans, have historically experienced. The former intellectual foundations we have had access to in the past should be reassessed in relation to their purpose and relevance to life in Africa. One cannot completely devalue earlier teachings, but the time has arrived for modifications in curriculum and scholarly development.
With years of effort and contestation of the dominant English and European curriculums at our institutions, we can also achieve a global presence in knowledge production. The responsibility begins at home to support our homegrown knowledge producers and educators so that we can also become global players in knowledge production. Many of us forget that there are numerous African diasporas around the globe, which also add additional value to this initiative.
The need to realise, accept and identify that we are both unique and similar to the rest of the world allows us to clearly define our space in global knowledge production. Historically, we cannot just eradicate our non-African foundations. Still, we are positioned to develop and build new literature that includes our African spaces and perspectives. We are in a place to recognise and support our own through new approaches within our educational sector.
In addition to the world of knowledge production, the drive to prioritise African indigenous knowledge can minimise racism, enhance gender equality and create social justice within our societies in the long term.
Through widespread awareness, as a society, we can learn to resonate and identify with African-influenced teachings, and in turn, this can also highlight the commonality among us. The common thread amidst us will also enable us to be far more accepting and respectful towards cultural, ethnic and racial diversity in South Africa.
Dr Sheetal Bhoola has a PhD and two Master’s degrees in the social sciences. She is a lecturer, researcher and a freelance writer. Bhoola has been the recipient of awards and academic scholarships throughout her career. Visit www.sheetalbhoola.com