The
traditional history of southern African societies is manifested in the hills, mountains,
valleys, burial grounds and in specific sacred and historical sites.
Quite often outsiders do not recognise the importance of such sites and superimpose
different values on the local people. It is believed that people's contact with nature has
never been direct, it has always been mediated through knowledge structures.
Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) refers to a body of knowledge and beliefs built by a
group of people, and handed down generations through oral tradition, about the
relationship between living beings and their environment. It includes a system of
organisation, a set of empirical observations about the local environment, and a system of
self-management that governs resource use.
Most IKS are oral-based and often revealed through stories and legends. It is therefore,
difficult to transmit ideas and concepts to those who do not share the language, tradition
and cultural experience. Hence when a language is threatened or diminished in importance,
there is a direct impact on the ability to express knowledge acquired through generations
of experience.
IKS is far more than a simple compilation of facts. It is also the basis for local-level
decision-making in areas of present life, including agriculture, health, food preparation,
natural resource management, education, community and social organisation.
The body of knowledge is inherently dynamic, constantly evolving and changing through
indigenous experimentation and innovation, fresh insight and external stimuli. Communities
are therefore, able to adapt to changing circumstances through identifying new problems
and seeking solutions to them.
Age and gender differences are common phenomena in determining the levels of indigenous
knowledge acquisition and its transmission.
Often women control specific and significant domains of local knowledge, for example, food
security. Rural people with their detailed interactive knowledge of their environments are
experts in their own right. Parent to child relationship is important in younger
generations' learning of own skills and understanding local environments.
IKS in the Zambezi Basin
IKS that characterises the Zambezi Basin traditional communities today emerged from a
historical sequence of events.
The existence of a specific set of rules and regulations relating to the environment can
be considered as evidence of an environmental ideology and ethic of the Zambezi Basin
communities.
For example, the elements of the Shona ethic in Zimbabwe include respect for nature, a
moral attitude towards nature, restraint in resource exploitation, mutual cooperation
(contribution to annual rain ceremonies), agreed exclusions, intergenerational
communication and socio-cultural continuity.
The process of developing shared traditional beliefs among ethnic groups living in the
Zambezi River Basin helped mould a sense of group solidarity, although communities view
their immediate environments differently. Group beliefs such as totems, taboos and
creation of sacred areas for worshipping ancestral spirits have an impact on the manner
the river basin was and is managed. For example, totems and taboos are associated with
restrictions on the use of certain animals, plants and habitats.
Some taboos work on bad luck and resources associated with such taboos are not exploited
as is the case with the Bisa people of the Luangwa Valley in Zambia where hippo meat is
never consumed or doing so is taboo.
Cultural beliefs have also influenced people's utilisation of the environment. The Gwembe
Tonga people in the Middle Zambezi Valley understand well that the environment imposes
severe limitations on their lifestyles and hence can predict the water regime on a
seasonal basis quite accurately.
Indigenous people's knowledge of climatic and soil factors makes it possible for them to
predict accurately the availability of rain and water sources in a particular season.
The flexibility and inclusiveness of traditional kinship and social organisation permits
the mobilisation and expansion of social support networks during times of crisis.
Of particular importance is the utilisation of networks to arrange stock associate or
stock clientage relationships, in which one's animals are cared for by other families in
better-favoured areas in exchange for animal products and a share in the offspring.
Even children may be temporarily redistributed in somewhat similar fashion during
extensive droughts or outbreak of disease epidemics.
The above examples illustrate the employment of indigenous knowledge systems by local
people in recognition of their environment's limitations and the need to reduce the
pressure on it.
Traditionally, the Tswana people used their land for hunting, settlement, collecting
various products and for pastoral and arable farming. The chief and his advisors regulated
resource management and land use.
Grazing land was located far away from the villages and croplands with resource overseers
who were responsible for monitoring the status of grazing and informed the chief when
overgrazing was a problem.
Part of the Tswana strategy for maintaining a reliable, nutritious food base even during
widespread and extensive droughts, depends on the sun drying, salting, parching and
fermenting foodstuffs.
Items such as meat, fish, caterpillars, vegetable, fruits and cereals are preserved using
these methods and stored in huts specifically built for that purpose.
Also often entirely different species of plants are exploited, ones specifically
identified as drought or famine foods, which would not be consumed during times of
adequate rainfall.
Such plants are particularly drought-resistant and hence deliberately left undisturbed as
a reserve for times of greater need. These strategies are good examples of food security
indigenous systems use in observing good environmental management.
In Malawi, IKS is still sustaining people through their knowledge of soil management, crop
protection systems and traditional medicines. Farmers have extensive knowledge in using
the tree species Msangu (Faidherbia albida) to improve and maintain soil fertility.
Despite the availability of Western medicine, villagers still use medicinal plants, herbs
and roots whose specialised knowledge is often known by a few people such as elders,
midwives and healers.
In Mozambique, some communities use ceremonies and beliefs to manage their natural
resources, particularly forests. Ceremonial rituals are carried out for rain, soil
fertility and fishing.
Among the local people are informal built-in control systems against the destruction of
important forest stock.
Huge trees are protected from individual exploitation and graft by associating them with
ghosts, shrines and important ancestors and people are brought up to respect or fear these
big trees.
The Swahili form a big indigenous community in Mozambique and Tanzania, sharing common
indigenous beliefs. Relational networks through patrimony and marriage frequently cross
ecological boundaries with supernatural means like prayer invoked to ease short-term
drought stress.
The Barotse people in Zambia are guided by a saying: "Water is life". The most
important food for the Barotse people is fish, their cattle depend on pastures that need
water and their transportation is by waterway, hence 'water is life'.
Tradition requires every Litunga (chief) to have canals dug and water management
maintained to ensure a flow of water all year round.
Fish is a staple food in Barotseland and this gave rise to strict laws for freshwater
fishing. Natural rules have also controlled marine life for centuries, for example, rivers
rise and floods occur during the fish-spawning season, giving the fish more physical space
so that they become difficult to catch at this time.
The Barotse had no taste for young fish and their fishing methods allowed very small fish
to escape during harvesting.
Under the laws, introduced by Barotse kings to conserve wildlife, game animals were best
protected. For example, under their traditional laws it is a serious offence to kill a
female beast, leading to a fine double the amount for killing a male animal without
permission.
Further examples of indigenous knowledge systems include climatic and meteorological
information, soil and geomorphological information, plant knowledge, ecological
information, wildlife, local production processes, political organisation, social networks
and religion.
IKS and Sustainable Development
The individual ethical systems constructed by indigenous communities are important because
they are built on specific experiences by a specific group of people. IKS can also be an
entry point into a community in promoting strategies for local sustainability.
The Tonga tradition has well-established and effective environmental management systems,
based on comprehensive ecological knowledge and an environmental ideology.
Much of the world's crop diversity is in the care of farmers who follow old farming and
land-use practices that provide local benefits at minimal environmental costs.
Among such benefits are the promotion of diet diversity, income generation and
maximisation of returns under low levels of technology.
Indigenous and local ecological knowledge can be used, applied and incorporated into
western medical, agricultural and resource management systems such as aquaculture,
livestock management and soil and water conservation.
The practical significance of indigenous knowledge systems and its use in various
disciplines in relation to development applications has been widely documented.
IUCN-The World Conservation Union views indigenous knowledge as valuable for biological
and ecological insights and natural resource management.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and some chapters of Agenda 21 acknowledge
that local people possess inner knowledge of their environment and recognise the
environmental benefits of using such knowledge.
The use of indigenous systems encourages the local participation and a "bottom
up" approach to development and also provides resources over which local people have
control.
Limitations of IKS
Despite the importance of IKS, there are problems within the systems. The lack of
systematic records and means of transmission to other societies makes the systems
vulnerable.
The systems are site specific and hence cannot be transferred to other sites. IKS is
easily degraded and language barriers increase the obstacles to understanding,
particularly by outsiders.
Indigenous people can also be obstacles in themselves because they view external systems
as superior and deliberately seek to replace their own.
In some cases, so many changes have
occurred that IKS is not easily identifiable and neither are they able to cope with the
increasing demands of conservation requirements.
Conclusion
IKS integrates several aspects of the communities in the Zambezi Basin who have developed
profound and detailed knowledge of local ecosystems over long periods of time.
This knowledge is acquired, stored, developed and transmitted through direct participation
within the environment and other socio-cultural processes.
However, there are degrees of erosion on indigenous systems by factors such as population
increases, industrialisation and urbanisation, external social and cultural influences and
the pressure to exploit the natural resource base.
Despite these factors, IKS has tremendous potential.
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