Science and technology minister Derek Hanekom last week launched the National Recordal System (NRS) in the North West province, as SA aims to store its indigenous knowledge using a multimedia digital repository.
The repository, called the National Indigenous Knowledge Management System (NIKMAS), is an ICT platform central to the success of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) policy adopted by Cabinet in 2004.
The policy established a platform for the recognition, affirmation, development, promotion and protection of IKS in SA. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) created the National Indigenous Knowledge Systems Office (NIKSO) as a result of this policy.
Lost over time
According to a statement issued by the department, SA's indigenous knowledge (IK) is largely undocumented and relies on the spoken word, a tradition carried over from generation to generation. As communities become more sophisticated and urbanised, much of this IK is lost, misappropriated or misused.
The NRS project was launched by Hanekom on Friday in Moruleng in the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela community. The traditional leader of the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela tribal authority, Kgosi Nyalala Pilane, said it is committed to ensuring shared cultural heritage, traditions and value systems were conserved for the benefit of current and future generations.
According to Ri"ette Pretorius, project manager at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Meraka Institute, NIKMAS supports the NRS processes, which includes IK holder cataloguing, recording, verification, classification and authentication.
"The system is unique in that it records African indigenous knowledge in its original oral format, links it to a complex metadata schema, and provides the necessary mechanisms for both positive and defensive protection - the first of its kind internationally," she said.
According to DST, the system comprises a number of subsystems that are combined in an overarching integration architecture supporting a number of features. These include a geographic-positioning systems (to document the locations of IK holders, communities and plants), a sophisticated security model to preserve and protect IK, and an advanced semantic search engine to aid intelligent searching across a number of possibly related IK entries. An IK holder cataloguing facility also forms part of the system.
The system, at present, supports IK on African traditional medicine and indigenous foods, and will be developed at a later stage to include arts, crafts and farming practices.
Currently, 21 community members have been equipped with computers and cameras, and are being trained to facilitate the NRS recording activities in their communities. The data is verified by community elders before being submitted to the central NIKMAS mechanism, where it will be classified and the necessary security access levels set according to strict criteria.
IKS documentation centres have been established at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Vuwani Science Centre in Limpopo, Tsengiwe in the Eastern Cape, Thaba Nchu in the Free State, and Tshwane in Gauteng. The plan is to have documentation centres in all the nine provinces by 2015.
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