Why Africa should develop its knowledge systems — Falola

A don, and expert in African Studies, Professor Toyin Falola, has called for the development of new African knowledge systems, and ‘decolonisation’ of the existing ones, to enable scholars to extend the frontiers of African studies and knowledge.

Professor Falola, who made the call while delivering a lecture, titled, ‘Supranaturality, Supernaturality and spirituality in the Yoruba World’, at the University of Lagos, on Monday, stated that broadening the knowledge systems about African culture, customs and practices had been difficult, because such practices were always seen from the prism of the West.

He, therefore, stressed the need for the formalisation of the African knowledge systems, to enable scholars to also formulate theories about African’s unique cultural practices, and extend the frontiers of African studies.

Professor Falola explained that the essence of the lecture, organized by the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies, of theUniversity of Lagos, was to sensitise Africans and scholars of African Studies, to the need for the continent to develop its own knowledge systems in a way they could be used to teach at all levels of education.

Another reason for the seminar, he added, was to make a passionate appeal to Africans not to lose their indigenous way of gathering knowledge.

“In other words, we should not throw away our data, and that we should collect as much data as possible in relation to our own people’s cultures, ways of life and preserve them, for posterity.

“I also believe that we should balance received wisdom from abroad with what we have here, and integrate all these for the purposes of development,” the university don argued.

According to him, seeing African culture and practices from the eye of the West, alone, would only destroy the culture, since that would whittle down the originality of such knowledge.

He, therefore, charged scholars of African studies, on the need to explore the hugely untapped knowledge, that could extend the frontiers of the African knowledge systems.

“For instance, it is wrong for us as scholars to dismiss with the wave of the hand, the Yoruba belief that ‘Kanako’ enables one to cover a journey that would have lasted for hours, in few minutes. I think instead of dismissing such belief with the wave of the hand, what we can do, in this regard, is to dig deeper, and find out how the Yorubas came about the belief,” he stated.

Professor Falola also argued that some words in the Yoruba language could also lose their original meanings if translated directly into the English language.

“For instance, the word ‘oju’, in Yoruba, may not mean necessarily an ordinary eye. It may mean several things to the speakers of the language, as seen in its various usages, such as: ‘oju inu’,‘ oju buruku’, ‘oju rere’ and others. So simply referring to ‘oju’, in Yoruba, as ‘eye’ in the English Language would have destroyed most of the connotative meanings of the word.

“I believe this is a huge library for whoever wants to research into some of these words and their meanings. And, I’m throwing this challenge to scholars in the field. I believe it is through research that we can continue to push the frontiers of these knowledge systems,” Professor Falola stated.

The renowned scholar added that though western knowledge, through religion, technology and other practices had greatly influenced the African culture, he however counselled that Africans should take the positives from Western culture to develop their knowledge systems.

Speaking on the lecture, the Director, Institute of African and Diaspora Studies, Professor Muyiwa Falaiye, described it as part of the reasons the four-year-old institute was set up.

“When we have scholars who are of international repute, and who have something to contribute or offer to the African scholarship scheme, we bring them on board. This we have been doing for four years, and we are glad that we have the support of the University of Lagos,” he stated.

According to him, the institute normally publishes such lectures, while its graduate students also develop them into research proposals, with the research put in public space.

“There are many documentaries that we have done, so it’s not as if we just write technical jargons and leave them to gather dust, we always make the research findings available for you and me to see,” he added.

Research Professor of Linguistics and Language Engineering, University of Lagos, Ayo Yusuf, described the lecture as a wake-up call for Africans to ‘decolonize’ their knowledge of their indigenous cultural practices.

“The professor is saying we should be able to generate and create knowledge in Africa for Africans. He’s saying that those things that we regard as taboos, actually have originality in them. They have information in them, they have knowledge in them. But we overlook them because somehow, colonization has made us believe that, since those things are not systemized in the western sense, they don’t have originality,” Professor Yusuf stated.

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