Author : Jan Grundling
IntroductionAt the Africa Leadership Awards Ceremony held in South Africa the former president of Zambia, dr. Kenneth Kaunda pleaded for a Green Revolution in Africa in order to meet hunger and poverty by working together as a people of one continent. This plea was made in the belief that "in unity there is strength" (Eze, 2006). This amongst other, demands a rethinking of how synergism can be established between the knowledge systems available in the global village and the available indigenous knowledge systems in Africa to develop appropriate knowledge and processes to address the particular problems and opportunities of this rich endowed continent. Too date, little interact has happen between indigenous knowledge production in Africa and global knowledge production.Neglecting proper integration of these two important knowledge systems may over the long term have a detrimental effect on the development efforts of Africa. In this regard Hart (2006) remarked that both forms of knowledge are evidence of dynamic processes of observation, investigation and experimentation, that both can include and adapt external innovations and should therefore be treated as equal to contributing to scientific knowledge and only differs with regard to resources at its disposal.PurposeThe purpose of this article is to indicate that the establishment of sector specific user co-operatives in Africa that source on the knowledge systems of both the global village and the indigenous knowledge systems may support and facilitate a Green Revolution in Africa to defeat hunger and stimulate development. Pursuing this objective will ensure that proposed improvements and development plans account for the specific and particular cultural foundations - on which the behaviour and values of each society on the content is based - in all development initiatives. The result of this could certainly lead to better contextualised innovations and development approaches. An integrated approach could ensure in the words of Albrow (1999) that change in society "… does not occur independent of particular types of society".Establishing indigenous –scientific knowledge co-operative movements to merge knowledge systemsIt can thus be deducted that the integration of scientific knowledge with indigenous knowledge (In this article indigenous knowledge refers to the knowledge created by a particular community at a particular location on the African continent that was not influenced by the global knowledge system.) would enable societies to develop according to the needs, aspirations, particularities and heritage of specific types of societies. An instrument available to society to facilitate such a process is through the establishment of co-operative movements in specific sectors of community life.At the highest level, a tertiary co-operative should be established whose objective should be to advocate and engage organs of state, the private sector and stakeholders on behalf of its members to merge, harness and grow the integration of indigenous and scientific knowledge in order to develop societies in a contextualised manner. The principle aim of this co-operative should be to understand what contributions indigenous knowledge has contributed to the present state and how it can be used in conjunction with scientific knowledge for innovation purposes and to make new knowledge useful within a specific social environment.Although many types of co-operatives can be established like agricultural co-operatives, housing co-operatives, marketing and supply co-operatives and consumer co-operatives each having its own set of objectives, all share the same features described by the Government Gazette (2005) namely:" A co-operative means an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic and social needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise organized and operated on co-operative principles"The specific type of co-operation of interest is labeled the user co-operative. Philip (2003) defines a user co-operative as a co-operative in which the members are users of the services of the co-operation, without any necessary employment relationship with the enterprise. This type of co-operation is in contrast to the worker co-operation, in which workers in an enterprise own and control the enterprise. The user co-operative model is preferred as a model to merge indigenous knowledge systems with scientific knowledge systems as it carries with it the ability to mobilize wide participation from local communities and from researchers operating in the scientific domain creating huge potential for innovative but context specific discoveries across many spectrums of life. By following such an approach a development strategy and competitive advantage can be formulated suitable to the particularities of a specific environment.In order to synergised meaningful participation between the scientific community and people possessing indigenous knowledge it is imperative that the functioning of the user co-operatives are founded on sound principles. Ximiya (2004) identified the following universal principles and values on which and co-operative should be founded:· Membership should be open and voluntarily;
· Democratic member control should be established;
· Members should be able to accept the responsibilities of membership;
· Member economic participation and equity;
· Autonomy and independence;
· The co-operative shouldt provides education and training to its members and employees"; and
· The co-operative should behave in a social responsible manner.However, to bridge the big gap that exists between the creators of the two knowledge systems interventions like drawing in other role players like financial institutions, governments and development agencies may be required to overcome mental model bottlenecks between those involved, to map out a way forward in overcoming these bottlenecks and to ensure productive and fruitful participation by all. By so doing the user co-operative chooses to be an integral part of the social sector in which it operates with distinct legal and development values with the primary aim of fulfilling the needs of their members coming from different knowledge systems and the particular community.ConclusionThrough the development of a strong user-co-operative movement, embedded in indigenous and scientific knowledge systems, the energies, resources and skills of all people in communities can be mobilized and harnessed to contribute to the development and organisation of Africa.BibliographyAlbrow, M. 1999. Sciology: The basics. London: Routledge.
De Beer, F. & Swanepoel, H. 2000. Introduction to development studies. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Eze, M.A. 2006. Kick poverty out of Africa – Kaunda. AU Magazine. 1(6). 18-19.
Hart, T. 2005. Returning to African Tradition the way forward for small farmers? HSRC Review. 3(2). 10-11.
Philip, K. 2003. Co-operatives in South Africa: their role in job creation and poverty reduction. South African Foundation. October. 1-6.
Ximiya, W. 2004. Co-operative development. Sakhbukumkani Co-Op Ltd.Jan Grundling is the Head of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa.
Keyword : Indigenous knowledge, scientific knowledge, user co-operatives
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