Indigenous SCience
The second international conference for the Advancement of Science
in Africa (SASA) ended at Hotel Africana last week on Friday, May 9th,
2014. This SASA conference started in Polokwane in South Africa last year. The
conference draws from some of the world’s best scientists and researchers from
USA, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mauritius etc who come to share their intellectual
products with scientists in Africa. At the end of it all, SASA hopes to inspire
African scholars, Universities and Governments, to invest in science in order
to use evidence from science to influence policies and professional practices
in Africa.
This years’ international conference was hosted by Gulu University
in cahoots with Makerere University Uganda National Council of Science and
technology and Muni University in Uganda. Internationally, Pennsylvania state
University, Youth Employment and Income Enhancement project (YEIEP), Global
Knowledge Initiative and Osaka University in Japan were very supportive.
During the four days of the conference, we were treated to some
mind blowing innovations from Nabisunsa Girls School with their experiment of
water purification. Most of the ongoing researches in integrating herbal or
traditional medicines in practice being conducted around Uganda were breath
taking. We learned with much enthusiasm how Japan was working closely with Gulu
University in health research, improving diagnostic mechanisms for malaria
management and so forth.
One of the outstanding themes of the conference was the increasing
demand for indigenous (African) knowledge in science and practice in the
mainstream research. At the forefront of the advocacy for indigenous knowledge
were Prof. Njoki N. Wane and Dr Francis Akena Adyanga from the University of
Toronto. The scholars made strong cases for the conspicuous absence of
indigenous science and knowledge in the mainstream academia – either at high
school or at Universities. They argued that the main facet of the frontiers of
science in Africa lies in reinvigorating indigenous knowledge which shaped
African science and technology way before the advent of colonialism. Dr Adyanga
for instance illustrated how the modern caesarian section was first conducted
successfully in Bunyoro way before Europeans indulged in this practice and yet
today, the scalpels or tools used for that surgical intervention lies in
archives in London.
This discussion also hinted on how Europe and western colonialism
has continued to undermine and under develop African indigenous science by
archiving all artifacts associated with African science in museums in Europe,
Australia and America. Such artifacts provide references and evidence to how
African science influenced the lifeways of the people. Today, religion and
modern medicine remains the cornerstone of undermining African science and
technology. For instance, every African practice and belief systems are deemed
devilish or satanic by religious zealots who are brainwashed that the core of
life has always been associated with Jewish life story as recounted in the
Bible.
The medicine perspective rubbishes African herbal and traditional
practices as risky, unsubstantiated and backward, without recognizing that most
modern medicines are extracts from plants that are found in Africa and were
used by the indigenous tribes for centuries. Medical practitioners, like church
preachers and Reverends, do not recognize that life in Africa preceded western
religion and modern medicine. In fact, African knowledge provided the back-born
to the so-called modern western practices in science and technology. The
building of the pyramids in Egypt; the current medical signs was taken from
Nubians; the caesarian section was first conducted in Bunyoro, fire was
discovered in Africa etc. African religious beliefs were far more advanced as
it entailed holistic practices involving the dead, the living, non-living and
environment and all rituals that western religion has emulated.
The presenters concluded that instead of bedeviling African
indigenous practices, African scientists should invest in conducting research
to establish concrete evidence to support or not support them. Some of these
practices have sustained communities for a long time and yet today we see them
as inferior or backward.
The conference was one of the best that I have attended and of
course, my presentation titled “Advancing psychosocial frontiers in EMTCT: the
role of self-efficacy in Male involvement” was well received as it articulated
the challenges of achieving HIV free generation in Uganda and provided
leadership direction in this field of maternal child health.
The 3rd International SASA conference will take
place in Toronto, Canada and we look forward to receiving more research
abstracts from African Scholars, Doctoral and post-doctoral scholars in 2015. I
pass my sincere regards to the International Organizing Committee of SASA,
notably, Prof Joachim Kapalanga, Prof Elain F. Fymat, Dr. Francis Adyanga and
the National Organizing Team headed by Prof Emillio Ovuga and all the Sponsors
and Universities that hosted us. This conference could not have been possible
without your tireless efforts. See you all in our home turf, Toronto in 2015!
END
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