Abstract
As the Africanization and decolonization of the curriculum gain momentum in higher the education, care must be given to social cohesion and balanced collaboration with African knowledge holders. This paper argues that relegating African knowledge holders to the periphery of the debates and policies weakens decolonial agenda. To ensure the relevance of the envisaged Africanized and decolonized curriculum, an honest, extensive and people-driven interface between academia and the holders of indigenous knowledge is indispensable. The paper deploys the critical social theory to advance the argument that African knowledge holders should play a primary role in these endeavors; since an Africanized higher education without their input renders these efforts rootless, directionless and complicit with the status quo. Therefore, traditional healers, village elders, storytellers, village women and traditional leaders have a critical role in Africanizing and decolonizing the curriculum. Researchers and scholars must recognize rural setting as hubs of knowledge to deepen their understanding of and unearth forgotten knowledges. Without the voices of traditional practitioners, policy makers are bound to delay or even thwart these noble efforts. Universities are better placed to spearhead these processes to harvest indigenous knowledges and inculcate them into the curricula. Finally, the paper contends that African cultural heritages such as storytelling contain the values, histories and identities that should be infused into the curricula to heal it. As such, storytellers should form the backbone of that indigenous knowledge production without which generations of African students will continue to suffer the indignity of invisibility in their own continent.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Organizations as Knowledge Makers
KEYWORDS
Africanization, Cultural, Decolonialization, Indigenous knowledge holders, Storytelling, Matriarchive
