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Science, traditional knowledge can benefit SA

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 05 Dec 2016
Minister Naledi Pandor challenged researchers and scientists to draw on all areas of knowledge to benefit the country.
photo credit: Department of Science and Technology
Minister Naledi Pandor challenged researchers and scientists to draw on all areas of knowledge to benefit the country. photo credit: Department of Science and Technology

Science and technology minister Naledi Pandor has challenged researchers and students to find better ways to use indigenous knowledge (IK) for technology development in the country.

Speaking at the 2016 Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) conference, Pandor said technology development should take into account the many different viewpoints on science and collective learning.

IK is undocumented local knowledge that relies on the spoken word, a tradition carried over from generation to generation.

Cabinet adopted SA's IKS policy to protect and manage indigenous knowledge systems in 2004. The policy was established as a platform for the recognition, affirmation, development, promotion and protection of IKS in SA.

According to Pandor, IK is not only useful in creating value, but is also a way of being, thinking and feeling.

She said: "A technology of humility approach is similar to a sustainable development approach to emerging technologies. It's an approach to take to indigenous knowledge.

"The main challenge is that we focus on the commercialisation of indigenous knowledge rather than on a better understanding of indigenous knowledge itself.

"There are those who criticise our IKS policy as simply an offshoot of our pursuit of a knowledge economy. The knowledge economy is Western knowledge; indigenous knowledge is African knowledge," added Pandor.

Professor Peter Mbati, vice-chancellor at the University of Venda, said there was an increasing realisation among researchers, developmental agencies, policy-makers and academics that African indigenous knowledge was an under-used resource in Africa's developmental process.

Mbati said learning from what local communities already knew created an understanding of local conditions, and provided an important context for activities designed to help them.

He added the university was looking forward to seeing the first cohort of students with a bachelors' degree in IKS graduate next year.

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