The Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Socio-Economic Development

Communities, urban or rural have diverse challenges. Societies are the owners of the challenges that befall them, they are the subject of the challenges and have the solutions for those challenges. Recognition of endogenous management of Indigenous knowledge becomes an enhancing solution to the seemingly mega challenges of community development. Indigenous knowledge is a more secure foundation for sustainable solutions to challenges in developmental issues in Africa. It calls for listening to other voices of participation and engagement. Advanced technology in IK usage and preservation empowers users to improve on pre-existing solutions to a problem, achieve a goal, and most of all improve on the standards of living. IK is a preferred mode used at the local levels by communities as more tacit than explicit. All communities have their own accumulation of knowledge which is easily decoded in IK and expressed easily by use of first language/mother tongue. IK provides a bottom-up approach against the convectional top-down approach. The concept of indigenous knowledge calls for the inclusion of local voices and priorities, and promises empowerment through ownership of the process by harnessing synergized skills from the objects of use.