Professor Dani Wadada Nabudere, a respected academic and educator from
Uganda, dedicated his life to applying and spreading the notion of
'community sites of knowledge', which simply means using indigenous
tools of knowledge to revitalise the lives of Africa's people. He
staunchly believed that the liberation of Africans depended largely on
self-reliance, and that any dependence on imported knowledge and
material instruments could only lead to the entrenchment of colonial
stereotypes, which dictated that ideas and knowledge that emanate from
the West are superior to those that originate from the continent.
His commitment to life-long learning and to finding African solutions to
historical and structural African problems, underlined his faith in the
value of indigenous knowledge. He understood that African indigenous
knowledge carries in its DNA the roots of 'complex ecosystems' that
require the inputs of a diversity of expertise and experiences and that
it seemed counterproductive to maintain the language of inclusion and
exclusion inherited from colonialism.
This work explores Nabudere's strong belief that we can reclaim the
future by producing knowledge that is relevant for society, and for the
continued participation in civic causes designed to assist the wretched
of the earth.
This monograph is an expanded version of a paper written for
presentation at an agricultural conference at the Walter Sisulu
University in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, South Africa in 2011.
