All Knowledge Is first of all Local Knowledge: An Introduction
Theophilus Okere, Chukwudi Anthony Njoku, &
René Devisch
Abstract
Against a monolithic view of knowledge production and the
tendency to universalize science, this article calls attention
to the unique genius and distinctive creativity and originality
which underlines production of knowledge in any given cultural
context. It takes seriously, the fact that, at its roots,
knowledge production is context bound. Hence the authors
emphasize the fact that all knowledge is first of all local
knowledge. From this fundamental understanding of the true
wellsprings of the production of knowledge, it argues against a
mythic veil, which reformist modernity, especially, tended to
place on the process of producing and transmitting knowledge.
This deceptive myth about knowledge production, it opines, has
had the negative impact of stereotyping, blackmailing,
inferiorizing and derailing the production and sharing of
knowledge and its artefacts in cultures other than the West. The
colonial encounter, with its assumptions and presumptions,
helped to rub in this vision of reformist modernity and to
muffle the voices of colonised cultures. Hence such labels as
‘indigenous’ knowledge. In recognition, therefore, of the
creative and genuine originality latent in every culture, this
article seeks to empower cultures to realise, work on and
appropriate the riches embedded in their own local knowledge
tracts and trajectories. This appropriation by cultures, of
their own rich genius, is, for the authors, the gateway to
re-acquiring cultural dignity and self-confidence and indeed an
opportunity for each cultural node to positively contribute to
the commonwealth of world knowledge. Such variegated approach to
mining the wisdom and ecological advantages of various cultural
groups will enhance the sharing of knowledge in a spirit of both
vertical and horizontal border-linking exchanges of riches found
in different cultural contexts and knowledge fields. The ancient
wisdom of the Igbo of south eastern Nigeria is used in the
article as an illustration of this latent, culture specific
genius. The article also highlights the mission of Whelan
Research Academy for Religion, Culture and Society, Owerri,
Nigeria, in creating awareness, space and forum for paying
closer attention to indigenous knowledge tracts endangered in
this derailment of a wider spectrum of cultural nodes of
knowledge.
Is There One Science, Western Science
Theophilus Okere
Abstract
All
humans by nature desire to know and humans are distinguished
from the rest of creation by the miracle of knowledge. If all
cultures have developed their own forms of knowledge, the
spectacular success of a certain form of knowledge, science,
notably in the west, has frequently led to its being exclusively
attributed to the west. Yet science remains only one of many
forms of knowledge and the west only one of its producers. The
success of the west has tended to marginalize other forms of
knowledge and other contributions to knowledge and, thus to
impoverish an otherwise potentially rich and complex world
knowledge landscape. It has tended to inhibit or even prevent
the development of a really universal, human-knowledge project.
Its very success, due essentially to its sustained application
to technology, has enabled the development of a false
superiority over other forms of knowledge and a real power
hegemony of the west over other peoples. The future of lasting
peaceful co-existence in the world may depend, in part, on the
emancipation of other knowledge modes and forms.
Traditional Igbo Numbering System:
A Reconstruction
Patrick Mathias Chukwuaku Ogomaka
Abstract
This article presents the properties of the traditional and
decimalized Igbo number systems and the principles governing
their formulation. It looks at the cultural and religious uses
of Igbo traditional number system and their implications for the
development of curricular in not just mathematics and
ethno-mathematics in tertiary level education, but also in
arithmetic for primary and secondary school levels.
Ethnomathematics, Geometry and Educational Experiences in Africa
Paulus Gerdes
Abstract
The
paper traces historically reflections about mathematics,
education and culture in Africa, that culminated in the
emergence of ethnomathematics as a research field. A brief
overview of ethnomathematical research in Mozambique and of
historical research related to mathematics in Africa is
presented, followed by examples of the integration of
ethnomathematics into teacher education to stimulate the
development of social—and cultural—mathematical awareness. The
paper concludes with some trends in using ideas from
ethnomathematics in education in Africa.
Identification, Collection and Domestication of Medicinal Plants
in Southeastern Nigeria
A. E. Ibe and Martin I. Nwufo
Abstract
Field studies were conducted to investigate the medicinal
plants, through identification, collection and domestication of
these plants in southeastern Nigeria. Questionnaire, personal
interview and review of available records show that out of
forty-three plants about fifteen were undergoing domestication
in the course of this research. This study revealed that much
has not been done to domesticate these medicinal plants in
southeastern Nigeria. It was equally discovered that the
medicinal plants have other uses as some could be used as
vegetables, fruits, trees, ornamentals etc. From the results of
this study, it is believed that nature has everything we need to
exist happily on earth. But our inability to positively exploit
nature makes the difference. If the result and recommendations
of this study are strictly implemented, we hope for a better
future.
Healing Insanity: Skills and Expert Knowledge of Igbo Healers
Patrick Iroegbu
Abstract
This paper gives insight into how Igbo healers of Southern
Nigeria conceive of insanity and apply endogenous knowledge and
expertise to heal it, contrary to the belief that cosmopolitan
orthodox medicine only can provide efficacious cure for
insanity. Resort to community support and culture remains
people’s widely shared way of dealing with insanity and related
disturbances. While pharmaceutical drugs are being made
available to health seekers, local herbal and ritual resources
as well as communicational and bodily skills do constitute the
asset for holistic healing. Although research shows tensions
between the local, Christian and biomedical views, the paper
argues that effective healing tends to be successful when the
etiology and treatment include due ancestral compliance work in
harmony with people’s views, emotions and life-worlds. The paper
offers an endogenous theory of symbolic release underlying a
genuinely Igbo cosmological and epistemological strategy, side
by side with the ritual of tying and untying for releasing the
forces hampered by intrusion, and for achieving treatment based
on culturally meaningful herbal and animal resources. To rescue
the help-seeking individual and kin-group, as a first principle,
the forces that tie the afflicted need to be rusticated before
effective results can be obtained with treatment.
Cultural Modes of Comprehending and Healing Insanity: The Yaka of
DR Congo
René Devisch
Abstract
This paper looks at a particular autochthonous medical knowledge
and practice of Yaka healers in peri-urban Kinshasa and rural
southwestern Congo. It first presents a sequential analysis of
the well-known mbwoolu healing cult, directed at types of
affliction most of which I would characterize as deep depression
and related insanity. The mbwoolu patient is first led into a
state of fusion with the group, with the aid of rhythmic
movement and music culminating in a trance-possession. Following
this, the initiate undergoes a therapeutic seclusion lasting
from one month to some nine months in an initiatory space in
which a dozen or so statuettes or figurines are laid on a bed
parallel to the patient’s. In a play of mirrors between the
figurines and the patient, the latter’s sensory perceptions and
body movements are redirected and rejuvenated. The figurines
thus function as doubles that the patient incorporates or
inscribes in his or her own bodily envelope, which now
constitutes a new interface with others. In the course of a
verbal liturgy that unfolds to the rhythm of the initiatory
rite, the initiate is gradually enabled to decode and
incorporate traces of the collective imaginary conveyed by these
figurines and liturgy. The statuettes enact a cosmogony in which
the patient is intimately involved throughout. In this, the
patient is led into an ontogenetic passage from a fusional and
primal state towards a particular and sexualised identity, one
with precise contours and situated within a social hierarchy and
a historicity of generations and of roles.
Subjectivity in Servitude:
The Servant and Indigenous Family Arrangement in Written Igbo
Drama
Frances N. Chukwukere
Abstract
Membership into the African family may be on the basis of
natural (birth) or social (marriage, adoption, apprenticeship,
etc) selection. The present paper examines the roles of eleven
servants in eight plays written in Igbo language by six authors.
The work considers the perception of the servant by other
characters in these works of art, the way in which each of these
servants perceives him/herself, and the roles of the servant in
the development of the entire fictional enterprise. Finally, the
theory of subjectivity: the conscious and unconscious thoughts
and emotions that largely account for the relationship between
the individual and the society, is used in the present work to
explain the authors’ presentations of the servants in these
dramatic works of fiction.
