Abstract:
This chapter, partly informed by the author’s experiences, argues for
the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in the higher education
curriculum in institutions of the Global South. It points out that despite
robust debates on it, it has hardly been made part of the curricula in
most institutions of the Global South; remaining more of a borderline
case. The chapter further asserts that there is lip-service to the cultural
diversity of humanity because as relates to knowledge generation and
dissemination, the epistemologies of the formerly colonized are
peripherized; in most cases not even accepted and acknowledged. One
would ask why the world celebrates the diversity of human cultures but
fails to embrace the diversity of the globe’s knowledges yet the same
cultures in their plurality are products of varied epistemologies. The
chapter is therefore a call to all across the disciplines to embrace an
epistemic and cognitive or thought shift by accepting that IK is
important to curriculum development. It consequently has to be
included through curriculum review as part of the academic diet of both
instructors and learners. It further asserts that a cognitive shift is
possible if there is a deliberate policy to empower faculty and students
to appreciate the value of IK that is overshadowed by the epistemic
lancer of the Global North that was bequeathed to the former colonies
and has up to this day been retained and promoted as the only and real
universal knowledge. The chapter concludes that an epistemic and
thought shift is only possible if IK itself is made part of the research
agenda as well as one of the research methods and methodologies
