Towards a Regional Policy and Legal Instrument for the Protection of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Southern Africa

2017 ◽  
pp. 16-35
Author(s):  
Amos Saurombe
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
Member States ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Regional Approach ◽  
Slow Pace ◽  
Legal Instrument ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems

This study was conceived as a result of growing frustration at the slow pace of development for a harmonised policy and legal instrument for the protection of IKS in SADC. The problems related to the protection of IKS will remain unless there is a clear policy and legal basis to address it. SADC consists of 15 countries whose main mandate is to harmonise their social, political and economic policies for the benefit of the citizens of Southern Africa. This chapter argues that the exercise of harmonisation is long overdue. Member states like South Africa have proven that if there is political will on the part of member states, the protection of IKS is possible through the development of relevant policies and legal instruments. This study was done through a desktop analysis of Treaty provisions, policy documents and country specific legislation. The main findings of the study indicated that the lack of protection of IKS is a major challenge that requires a regional approach. These findings led to the proposition for an urgent harmonised regional approach to the protection of IKS in SADC.

scholarly journals Policy Documents of Nepali Technical and Vocational Education and Training: A Critical Discourse Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Tikaram Poudel
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Vocational Education ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
And Training

This study critically examines the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) policy documents of Nepal, not only to understand the specific plans of the government agencies in designing, implementing and expanding TVET programmes but also to problematise discursive practices of TVET programmes in the existing socioeconomic and power hierarchy of Nepali society. More specifically, it aims at understanding the ineffectiveness of these training programmes concerning the target groups. This study makes use of Fairclough’s (1995) model of Critical Discourse Analysis of three inter-related dimensions of description, interpretation and explanation within the theoretical framework of capabilities approach (Sen, 2009).  The findings indicate that the policy documents of Nepali TVET prioritise the development of semi-skilled human resources for the low-paid international labour market but ignore the conservation and development of indigenous knowledge systems of diverse ethnic communities of Nepal. The study initiates the discourse that integrating indigenous knowledge systems in TVET programmes provides a sustainable model of development.

scholarly journals The mnemonic oral tradition with special reference to the management and expression of conflict in Zulu-speaking communities

Literator ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
N.S. Turner
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Group Behaviour ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
The Impact

The identification of features of oral studies and especially the issue of conflict and their terms of reference, have recently become a topic of increasing interest among researchers in Southern Africa. The National Research Foundation is nowadays encouraging academics to focus on the area of indigenous knowledge systems. Included in that focus area is the recommendation that research should be done on the impact that indigenous knowledge has on lifestyles and the ways in which societies operate. The study of ways in which specific societies articulate issues of conflict is inextricably linked with the way in which language is used in particular communities. This study deals with African and specifically Zulu communities, and how the mnemonic oral tradition plays an essential role in the oral strategies used as a means of dealing with issues of conflict. These strategies are based on an age-old mnemonic oral tradition which is socialised and used as an acceptable norm of group behaviour. Furthermore it is an acceptable way of managing and expressing conflict in social situations where direct verbal confrontation is frowned upon and deemed unacceptable.

Colonizing Innovation:

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhinav CHATURVEDI ◽  
Alf REHN
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Frugal Innovation ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Management Literature

Innovation is one of the most popular concepts and desired phenomena of contemporary Western capitalism. As such, there is a perennial drive to capture said phenomena, and particularly to find new ways to incite and drive the same. In this text, we analyze one specific tactic through which this is done, namely by the culturally colonial appropriation of indigenous knowledge systems. By looking to how jugaad, a system   of   frugal   innovation   in   India,   has been   made   into   fodder   for   Western management literature, we argue for the need of a more developed innovation critique, e.g., by looking to postcolonial theory.

Indigenous Environmental Justice, Knowledge, and Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Worldviews ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Innovative Approaches

This article aims to introduce a distinct conception of Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) based on Indigenous legal orders, knowledge systems, and conceptions of justice. This is not to suggest in any way that the existing environmental justice (EJ) scholarship is flawed; in fact, the scholarship and activism around EJ have been central in diagnosing and drawing attention to injustices that occur on a systematic basis everywhere in the world. This article argues instead that such discussions can be expanded by acknowledging that concepts of environmental justice, including distinct legal orders informed by Indigenous knowledge systems, already existed on Turtle Island for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. It also suggests that environmental justice framed within Indigenous worldviews, ontologies, and epistemologies may make significant contributions to broader EJ scholarship, particularly in relation to extending justice to other beings and entities in Creation. This approach acknowledges ongoing colonialism and emphasizes the need to decolonize in order to advance innovative approaches to IEJ. 

scholarly journals Indigenous Relationality: Women, Kinship and the Law

Genealogy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dudgeon ◽  
Bray
Keyword(s):  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Reproductive Justice ◽  
Emotional Wellbeing ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Community Culture ◽  
Kinship Networks ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
Social And Emotional Wellbeing

Strong female governance has always been central to one of the world’s oldest existing culturally diverse, harmonious, sustainable, and democratic societies. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women’s governance of a country twice the size of Europe is based on complex laws which regulate relationships to country, family, community, culture and spirituality. These laws are passed down through generations and describe kinship systems which encompass sophisticated relations to the more-than-human. This article explores Indigenous kinship as an expression of relationality, culturally specific and complex Indigenous knowledge systems which are founded on a connection to the land. Although Indigenous Australian women’s kinships have been disrupted through dispossession from the lands they belong to, the forced removal of their children across generations, and the destruction of their culture, community and kinship networks, the survival of Indigenous women’s knowledge systems have supported the restoration of Indigenous relationality. The strengthening of Indigenous women’s kinship is explored as a source of social and emotional wellbeing and an emerging politics of environmental reproductive justice.

The Clinton Administration and Africa: A View from Gaborone, Botswana

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-69
Author(s):  
Larry A. Swatuk
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Clinton Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Crisis Response ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Material World ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
The World

With fanfare befitting the arrival of a god of the Western material world, U.S. President Bill Clinton toured Southern Africa imparting “words of wisdom” along the way. His aim, we were told, was to see that the United States becomes Africa’s “true partner.” The reason being, according to Clinton, “[a]s Africa grows strong, America grows stronger ... Yes, Africa needs the world, but more than ever it is equally true that the world needs Africa.” To this end, the United States would pursue a mix of political and economic policies that included the African Crisis Response Initiative and the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, both designed to foster “stability” and “prosperity” on the continent. Lofty goals, to be sure, but ends whose means are badly in need of interrogation. This article does just that: To wit, does Clinton, on behalf of U.S. policymakers, mean what he says? If so, in naming “peace” and “prosperity,” can he make them? Put differently, does the Clinton administration have the power to introduce order where there was chaos? Or will it only compound existing problems and visit new ones upon those who had few to begin with?

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