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23 September 2020 | Story Nombulelo Shange | Photo Supplied
Nombulelo Shange is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology.

Heritage Day is almost here; it’s time to celebrate all the ‘fluffy’, less threatening to whiteness parts of African culture, braai, and sample weird and wonderful traditional food we’ve never tried before. For one day, we go to work in beautiful colourful traditional attires, put on cultural dance and singing performances, and share it on social media. We will have dialogues on ubuntu and how we should use it to ‘turn the other cheek’ and ignore structural oppression in an attempt to save the failed rainbow nation. What will be missing, and what is always missing, is serious discourse on how side-lined indigenous knowledge can and should be used to address poverty, developmental and ecological challenges, our struggling health-care system, and many other modern and historical challenges that South Africa is faced with. 

Decolonising knowledge systems

#FeesMustFall protests in 2015 and 2016 briefly brought the issue of decolonising knowledge systems and, well … everything to the fore. But since the end of the FMF protests, these discussions have been confined to the university space and are not being heard in other important spaces such as workplaces, churches, healthcare structures, schools, etc. Even within universities, students have the sense that their decolonial agenda has been hijacked and turned into a PR activity that pushes reform and minimal systematic change instead of revolution and a total dismantling. And so, indigenous knowledge ends up being manipulated and moulded to fit the Western context rather than being the foundation of the curriculum. 

The COVID-19 global pandemic has forced us into a precarious space, where we have to rethink almost everything about life, our work environment, how we use technology, how we socialise and interact with each other, how we run schools, how we show caring, and so much more. We have an opportunity here to rethink how we can use this disruption and those that will come in future to advance our cultural and traditional medical practices. So much of Western/modern medicine is already based on the cultural appropriation of African knowledge systems, which we as Africans at times look down upon. The appropriation of African ideas is a manipulation that involves stealing African ideas, presenting them as Western, while convincing Africans that the same practices are inferior. One example of this is the story of Onesimus, the African slave who cured smallpox.

Onesimus’ role in curing smallpox

Onesimus lived during the smallpox pandemic of the early 1700s, which claimed 30% of the lives of those infected. Onesimus was sold to Cotton Mather, a New England minister and author. During the pandemic, Onesimus advised Mather that smallpox was preventable. Onesimus shared the details of a common surgical procedure, which helped to prevent smallpox and many other contagious illnesses in Africa. The procedure involved making an incision on a patient’s arm and exposing them to a small amount of the disease to allow the body to build immunity to the disease in a controlled environment while still under the care of the healthcare provider. In the case of smallpox, it was a small amount of pus from an infected person that was rubbed on the incision of the patient being immunised. Mather then ran human trials on slaves and found this vaccine to be successful. The slaves who formed part of his trials were less likely to contract smallpox, and those who did were more likely to recover.

Just like most important black contributions in history, Onesimus’ role was written from the history books, and the credit was given to Mather. Eventually, scientists researched and explored this method, and their discoveries led to modern-day vaccination medicine and technology that saves millions of lives every year. This and other violent historical erasures has contributed to the systemic racist ways in which we undermine African indigenous knowledge and always opt for Western solutions to health challenges, even in instances where the African solution might be cheaper, more accessible, and more effective. 

Traditional healers possess a wealth of knowledge

Fast forward more than 300 years to 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak and global lockdown. Countries such as China, Russia, the UK, and many others involved in trying to develop a vaccine for the Coronavirus are still exploring similar methodologies to what Onesimus shared with Mather to fight the spread of smallpox. Locally, traditional healers are frustrated because they are being left out of interventions to tackle the spread of the Coronavirus. In an interview with Sunday Independent, traditional healer Zama Ndebele expressed his disappointment over government’s lack of engagement with traditional healers. Ndebele added that their collaboration in creating a cure or vaccine would be useful and that they possess a wealth of knowledge about different herbs and their uses. Traditional healers are still interested in collaboration despite running the risk of experiencing erasure and exclusion from historical and scientific records, in a similar way to how Onesimus’s contribution was undermined.

Often when the discussion around mainstreaming African knowledge systems comes up, some worry that the quality of knowledge will be weakened. But French philosopher Michael Foucault, whose contributions have been instrumental in feminist and revolutionary discourse, reminds us that knowledge is about power. Foucault says even scientific knowledge is socially constructed. Those who dominate use their power to present their cultural ideas as the only objective scientific truth. 

Prioritise and value own knowledge systems

One positive reflection we should gain from the current global pandemic is that we should prioritise and value our own knowledge systems. We need to do better in investing in our cultural identity and indigenous knowledge. We need to ensure that it can be used as more than just gimmicks to attract Western tourists who expect us to ‘perform Africanness’ for their entertainment. African knowledge systems should be built into the way knowledge is produced, the way we run our healthcare systems, how we build new technologies. We can learn a lot from Asian countries such as South Korea who have done this successfully in many social structures, but more noticeably, in their healthcare systems that surpass even some of the best Western healthcare systems. Doing this can also potentially restore black identity and create a sense of pride as we start to see our practices represented in the mainstream and being labelled as important scientific contributions instead of an alternative. This reclaiming can drive us to juxtapose our knowledge systems with other cultures in ways that uplift and advance humanity. With ecological degradation looming and unknown public health crises lurking in our future, African knowledge systems that often encourage sustainability have the potential to save our lives in various ways.

Opinion article by Nombulelo Shange, Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of the Free State

 

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News Archive

Researcher wins prize for her work to reduce environmental pollution
2016-12-26

Description: Josepha Zielke Tags: Josepha Zielke 

Prof Danie Vermeulen, Dean of the Faculty of Natural
and Agricultural Sciences, and Josepha Zielke, a
PhD student at the Institute for Groundwater studies at the
University of the Free State.
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Josepha Zielke, a PhD student at the Institute for Groundwater Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS), received the prize for the best student presentation at the International Mine Water Association (IMWA) symposium in Leipzig, Germany, this year. Her paper was titled Fine Ash Leaching in Tailings Dams – An Impact on the Underlying Aquifers?
 
Zielke said: “It is an honour to receive this prize as a student. IMWA is a big association which allows you to establish a network with other scientists, to exchange opinions and ideas and to gain new inspiration for your own work. It was exciting and informative to hear about the research conducted around the world and to meet the researchers themselves.”
 
Born in Germany, Zielke always wanted to study overseas. During an exchange year in Grade 11, she visited South Africa. When she had to make a decision about in which country to complete her studies, South Africa was first choice as she was familiar with the people and the country.
 
Zielke joins leading institute on groundwater research in the country
She completed her BSc Hons in Geology at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. After working for a year in exploration, she decided to focus her studies on water-related problems which  has been a growing issue, not only in South Africa, but in many places around the world. Zielke heard that the UFS Institute for Groundwater Studies was the leading institute on groundwater research in the country, and decided to join the university.
 
After completing her MSc research, An analysis of the geochemical weathering profile within a fine ash tailings dam, Mpumalanga, South Africa, Zielke started the research for her PhD project on groundwater pollution along a fault system in Mpumalanga.
 
Research adding value to the environment by reducing pollution
She explains the focus of her research: “Several production plants and mine waste facilities are located on or near these geological structures which could be a possible cause of ground and surface water pollution. With the aid of geophysical ground surveys (using electromagnetics and electrical resistivity tomography), aquifer and tracer tests, we are trying to determine where the pollution is coming from, how far it has been distributed and to model the potential risks.
 
“This research will add value to the environment by preventing or at least reducing pollution leaking into the environment. Industrial sites always have a negative footprint on the environment but at least we try and contain it by finding the cause of ground and surface water pollution. Thereafter we try and solve the pollution problem or at least mitigate the damage to prevent the spreading of ground and surface water pollution in the area.”

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