Indigenous Knowledge and Local Power : Negotiating Change in West Africa
Though the development, articulation, and systematization of indigenous knowledge in Africa are most often seen as issues of culture and local epistemology, they have at the same time critical power dimensions. The relation between local knowledge...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/01/1089546/indigenous-knowledge-local-power-negotiating-change-west-africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10810 |
| Summary: | Though the development, articulation,
and systematization of indigenous knowledge in Africa are
most often seen as issues of culture and local epistemology,
they have at the same time critical power dimensions. The
relation between local knowledge bases - and practitioners -
on the one hand and central or Westernized ones on the other
is manifestly a high-power/low-power situation, a matter
most often quite acutely and accurately perceived by local
people themselves. Until and unless the 'terms of
trade" between these two spheres are significantly
altered, or at least cast in a framework that promises some
renegotiation, it is entirely understandable that the
repositories of indigenous science would choose to keep it
"off the market." |
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