Survival of the Fittest Protection of Indigenous Knowledge

This chapter reflects on numerous protections that are available for indigenous knowledge from those who misappropriate it for personal aggrandizement without regard of the holders of the knowledge. The chapter is underpinned on the Afrocentricity and Sankofa theories. A socio-legal methodology was adopted to ground the work to enable students studying indigenous knowledge systems to have a foundation and be able to follow the interdisciplinarity in the writing. As such, a doctrinal approach and qualitative design were engaged to buttress the philosophical reasoning and capture the rich and unrecorded knowledge of inorganic intellectuals. The chapter's standpoint is that the protection of indigenous knowledge requires African-tailored legislation that resonates with indigenous communities' beliefs and are pragmatic yet innovative to bring benefit sharing. In pursuing this, a normative legal framework that could be utilised in the protection of indigenous knowledge is explored.

Constitutional Provision in Protecting and Managing Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Methodologically, this study aligns with the analytical philosophy and the indigenous standpoint and cultural interface theory. This study found that the education system itself is contaminated with colonial legacy and historical ontology of ‘State'. The recommendations are the participation of indigenous people in deciding their education and making curricula. Although the location of this study is remote and rural, this phenomenon occurs in many countries. Therefore, this research would contribute to efforts in this regard over the world to merge humanity.

Community-Based Tourism and Local People's Perceptions Towards Conservation

Uganda is among the most bio-diverse countries and a competitive wildlife-based tourism destination in the world. Community-based tourism approach has been adopted in the country's conservation areas as a strategy to ensure that local communities benefit and support wildlife conservation. This chapter analyses local communities' perceptions of conservation and the benefits they get from tourism in Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area. The study reveals that local communities were concerned about loss of protected resources and support their conservation irrespective of the benefits they get from tourism in the conservation area. There is need to design conservation programmes that focus on local community-conservation-benefits nexus which take into consideration the perceived conservation values, strategies for benefit sharing and incorporation of indigenous knowledge systems.

The Role of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in Climate Change

Climate change is projected to have a negative effect towards food security and attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Africa. Its impact is expected to be extremely severe in regions of Africa that depend on rainwater agriculture and have limited resources to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Much of the climate awareness on climate change comes from models or scenarios that face certain degrees of uncertainty. The knowledge of local and indigenous peoples, commonly mentioned to as local knowledge systems (LKS) or indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), is gradually being recognized as an imperative source of information for climate mitigation and adaptation. It is essential that policymakers draw on the best available knowledge in the face of global climate change.

Strategies to Manage and Preserve Indigenous Knowledge

The knowledge society globally has made us realize that knowledge is an important resource in gaining not only a competitive advantage but also for social and economic development. Each society and country possesses some inherent information and knowledge, which is unique to its growth and development trajectory. This is ‘indigenous knowledge' or ‘local knowledge'. However, the method and approaches to preserve this ‘indigenous knowledge' or ‘local knowledge' is less known and neither understood by many, especially in the emerging economies. Hence, adopting a systematic literature review method and in-depth literature review, the aim of this chapter is to provide strategies to preserve and manage indigenous knowledge systems. Further, the chapter also provides a holistic approach to preserve and manage indigenous knowledge.

Education and Epistemicide in Africa

Epistemicide is the exclusion or elimination of indigenous knowledge systems at the expense of the imperious, domineering, and colonial knowledge systems. To combat epistemicide in Africa and liberate the minds of the current generation, the authors propose a comprehensive ubuntu based model of education. This model suggests four interrelated strategies of liberation: 1) decolonization, 2) revalorization, 3) revitalization, and 4) construction and creation (DRRC) of knowledge. This chapter examines the contextual and conceptual background of education in Africa through a historical lens, provides a detailed description of the proposed model, and outlines some potential implementation challenges.

Integrating Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Entrepreneurship: A Case of Horticulture Farmers in Mutoko District of Zimbabwe

Entrepreneurship plays a significant role in eradicating poverty and providing sustainable livelihoods for communities. Governments, non-governmental organizations, and community development agencies are on the trail to consider rural entrepreneurship as an economic empowerment strategy in the developing world. Given the shortcomings of the Western entrepreneurship skills widely employed in many communities, this study assesses the role and significance of an approach that is place-based and rooted in local cultures that are associated with long-settled communities with strong ties to their natural environments. Nevertheless, a plethora of entrepreneurial strategies employed is foreign to local communities, which makes it difficult to produce the anticipated outcome vis-à-vis sustainable development. The study employs a qualitative method and an exploratory design. The findings of this research are based on in-depth interviews conducted among horticulture farmers in the Mutoko district. The significance of embracing Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in entrepreneurship among horticulture farmers in the Mutoko district was examined. Horticulture is a popular kind of farming in the region, with farmers specializing in tomatoes, cucumbers, leafy vegetables, onions, and butternut.

Transforming Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation Systems for African Intellectual Decolonization and Renaissance

The application of knowledge (measured in term of entrepreneurship and innovations, research and development, and software and product design) has become one of the spring boards of economic growth. The paper highlights six hindrances to renaissance explosion in knowledge in Africa with special emphasis on inefficiency in indigenous knowledge systems following colonialism. It further highlighted major challenges such as low capacity to invest in advanced human capital, low scientific and analytical capacity, low level of access to education, low digital capacity, low public interest in knowledge systems and low strategic aspiration facing Africa in developing efficient indigenous knowledge systems. The authors, drawing on existing literature and expert consultations, clearly identified and established major challenges being faced by African countries in leveraging on intellectual advances and suggest ways to transform the knowledge and innovation system in moving the continent towards the knowledge economy.