{"id":20435,"date":"2025-09-09T14:04:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T18:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/africanstudies\/?p=20435"},"modified":"2025-09-09T14:04:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T18:04:24","slug":"the-transformative-power-of-african-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/africanstudies\/2025\/the-transformative-power-of-african-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Transformative Power of African Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dan Rubinstein<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photos by Brenna Mackay<\/strong><\/p>\n

Carleton University\u2019s new partnership with South Africa\u2019s University of Zululand is much more than a formal agreement to work on research projects together.<\/p>\n

The two universities, whose leaders signed a memorandum of understanding in a ceremony on the Carleton campus on Sept. 3, are unlocking the transformative potential of African Indigenous knowledge systems \u2014 the traditional knowledge, practices and beliefs held by Indigenous communities on the continent, which can help people throughout Africa, Canada and around the world navigate some of the most pressing challenges on the planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if this knowledge wasn\u2019t written down, it has shaped how people live for thousands of years,\u201d said\u00a0Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba<\/a>, a professor in Carleton\u2019s unique, standalone\u00a0Institute of African Studies<\/a>\u00a0and the principal investigator of the Mastercard Foundation-supported\u00a0African Indigenous Knowledge Research Network<\/a>\u00a0(AIKRN), which is dedicated to re-centring African knowledge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/em><\/strong>Left to right: Carleton Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President (Academic) David Hornsby, African Studies researcher and AIKRN principal investigator Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba and Institute of African Studies director Nduka Otiono<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just mapping this knowledge,\u201d Oloruntoba continued. \u201cWe\u2019re going back to our roots and applying it toward sustainable livelihoods. It is something to build upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to shift the ecosystem of knowledge production in Africa and contest Eurocentricity,\u201d added Oloruntoba\u2019s collaborator Inocent Moyo, a human geography researcher at the University of Zululand and Deputy Dean of Research and Internationalization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re doing involves both natural and social sciences and is directly related to the strategic focus of both our universities. We have engaged people in our communities on projects that will foreground Indigenous knowledge systems. We\u2019re moving forward together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\n\t

\n\t\tRead more<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dan Rubinstein Photos by Brenna Mackay Carleton University\u2019s new partnership with South Africa\u2019s University of Zululand is much more than a formal agreement to work on research projects together. The two universities, whose leaders signed a memorandum of understanding in a ceremony on the Carleton campus on Sept. 3, are unlocking the transformative potential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[234,80,1,81,277,236],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Transformative Power of 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