| RECLAIMING THE FUTURE - Research Project |
Introduction This research project comes out of a collaboration arrangement between University of South Africa-UNISA and the Afrika Study Centre-ASC, Mbale, Uganda which aims at drawing in as many researchers and post-graduate students as possible to undertake a common research agenda on the burning problems of the present, but which need to be addressed as part of our continuing search for a better, peaceful world. In order to achieve this goal a minimum of two necessary conditions must be fulfilled. The first is that it is imperative to acknowledge the necessity for and work towards a distinct paradigm change in the field of research. Without this the parameters as well as the priorities of research agendas will continue to be determined and prescribed by those who hold power and benefit from the prevailing inhuman status quo. The second is indispensable to take the past and present historical experience of Africa as the point of departure for study and research and, to use the ongoing research as the basis of dialogue with other cultures of the world. During the process of discussions, two areas of research interest were identified. These were:
These research projects were discussed at workshops at UNISA during the month of April 2004 and a general agreement was reached to embark on the research and widen the scope to include other scholars, post-graduate students in other Universities, institutes, research centres, communities and civil society organisations in Africa and other parts of the world. Research Agenda The two research proposals outlined above require some elaboration for the benefit of those who did not have an opportunity to attend the workshops at which they were discussed. 1. Towards a New Global Agenda for the 21 st century and Africa's Role in it. This project seeks to address the crisis that confronts the entire humankind highlighted, among others, by the events of September 11, 2001. This crisis had been underway since the mid-1970s and has been building up into a crisis of major proportions threatening the entire world. The "war against terrorism" has been turned by president Bush into an evangelical movement for the export of "democracy made in USA" to the entire world, while the underlying causes that led to that "terrorism" have been brushed under the carpet by the neo-conservative ideologues that rule the world from the US. September 11 was a second attempt by disaffected elements from the Arab world to destroy the pillars of Western propelled modernity in a highly contested, Western dominated world order. This disaster gave the US, under president George W. Bush, the right to resume the challenge poised earlier by his father's failure to eliminate the threat to Western-Christian civilisation and Western-dominated World Order. In the event, the date has come to signify the attempt by the US to impose a new global order based on a triumphant capitalist neo-liberal ideology. This ideology presents "pre-emptive intervention" against those considered to be enemies of "civilisation" as the only way to preserve Western democracy and global order under US hegemony. The export of Western-style democracy and neo-liberal market economy has become the ideological justification for aggression under the guise of "the defence of democracy" .This "globalisation" is contested by the entire humanity. The 'enemies' of the system are metaphorically referred to in a new Bush Doctrine doublespeak as "Barbarians" and "forces of evil" to be "punished" and "brought to justice" by those on the side of "civilisation," which is the Western civilisation. This crusade is carried out under the offensive strategy of "fighting global terrorism" based on pre-emptive action, in a situation in which the UNO has been enfeebled and rendered "irrelevant" by this US unilateralist policy. This doctrine cannot be the solution to the underlying causes of the case being made by those who have been dubbed "terrorists" and those marginalised by US global hegemony. For this reason, there is need for a new political discourse that can lead to the establishment of new global institutions, policies, and arrangements that can bring the people of the world together into a new democratic, economic, social, cultural and humane relationship. This implies the need to develop a new global agenda to enable humanity to reclaim the future: to be the active agent in the construction of a humane future befitting the dignity of the human person. This requires an action plan of investigation into some of the issues raised by the crisis about the global system. Afrika is the worst affected continent from the ill effects of this system as it has, indeed, been throughout the 500 years of the European domination. Throughout these years Afrika has also made her contribution to freedom through its struggles against enslavement and colonialism. We should build on this experience to make our contribution towards the founding of a new global community based on human solidarity. Hence, the research agenda should be comprehensive as well as whole-istic and should include philosophical, religious, political, economic and cultural issues since these are built within the crisis. The idea should be to problematise and interrogate existing philosophies, religions, and ideas behind institutions at local, national, regional and global levels. The researchers should go beyond the existing situations in the world and put forward new ideas upon which a dialogue can take place aimed at arriving at some consensus to inform forms of action for change in the global system. 2. Locating Afrikan Sites of Knowledge and Wisdom The existing world order is built on the proposition that traditional indigenous systems of knowledge and wisdom are unreliable because they are built upon "superstitions, prejudices, and errors" (Max Weber). Afrikan belief systems and philosophies of life were the main targets of attack by world religions and colonial "modernity." Yet these systems of knowledge and wisdom have proved resilient and dynamic in resistance against the ill effects of modernisation and colonial exploitation. It is now increasingly being recognised that indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and the wisdom on which they are based are a valuable source of information that can, in the words of the World Bank:
The World Bank regrets that IKS is an under utilized resource in the development process and is at risk of becoming extinct. Nevertheless, it now believes that learning from IKS, by "investigating first what local communities know and have," can improve understanding of local conditions and provide a productive context for activities designed to help the communities and the global economy. Already large pharmaceutical corporations are exploiting IKS for knowledge-based medicinal plants for global business. It is in this context that a concerted research programme about indigenous knowledge and wisdom and their locations should be undertaken with a view to highlighting this knowledge so it can be used for learning in educational institutions at all levels from the kindergarten to the University. The research should also awaken the communities about the significance of their cultural heritage and the dangers they face in being deprived of such knowledge in the process of global marginalisation. The research results should also assist communities develop new forms of economic and political organisation for their self-empowerment and emancipation. Our role as scholars and researchers is to build "fields" of collaboration with the communities to put together their knowledge in an accessible manner so that other communities and learners can make use of this knowledge in a mutually beneficial way. Institutions of learning can benefit from the research through curriculum development and publications, which can bring this knowledge to the forefront of a global pool of knowledge accessible to all that need to use it. Inscribing the past and present African experience into the school and tertiary education curricula is the aim that must be achieved in the quest for paradigm change and dialogue among cultures. Prof. Paulin J. Hountondji in his contribution to the subject of IKS has pointed out that the whole modern science project has been a theory-building activity. The manner in which that activity was introduced in African colonies by European imperialism ensured that all knowledge production would be carried out in Europe. Africa was used as "data collection" outposts of research centres in different levels of life. However, the "decisive stage" of the interpretation of that raw data- the theoretical processing of the data collected- was undertaken elsewhere in the capitals of Europe and this process has now been globalised as Afrikan knowledge producers have been marginalised and cheated out of their heritages and resources. This has to stop if we are to move into a new century in which Africans' contributions can be recognised for their worth. This research effort will require a two-pronged strategy that will create a link between the intellectuals and the African masses-those that Prof. Vilakazi has called the "uncertificated man and women" in the villages in the production of knowledge for the "high culture." Vilakazi thinks that this shall be the first instance in history where "certificated intellectuals" alone shall not be the sole builders and determinants of high culture, but shall be working side by side with ordinary men and women in rural and urban life. The intellectuals shall be doing field work among the people as part of a truly great effort aimed at reconstructing Africa and preparing all of humanity for the realisation of humane solidarity Therefore to proceed, we shall have to engage in an original kind of research endeavour where researchers go to the communities where there are "culture specific" endogenous sites of knowledge. In so doing, we shall not be trying to "go back to the past" but finding out how the past has reflected itself in the present as a basis for reclaiming the future for African IKS. While we have to recognise that the past is a source of knowledge and wisdom, we have also to recognise that the present is part and parcel of the past. Thus existing African sources of knowledge will include both sources from the past and the present. Culture is dynamic and knowledge, including the process of its production, is part of a people's culture. Methodology This project should bring aboard as many people as possible from the different social science disciplines, the humanities as well as the natural sciences. It is not based on a single paradigm and its purpose is in fact to promote dialogue between the different epistemologies, paradigms, methodologies and disciplines. It also goes beyond what is normally called "interdisciplinary" or "multidisciplinary." These combinations do not add much qualitatively to the weaknesses of each of the disciplines and approaches. As Marc Auge once observed: "Interdisciplinarity is the proud title we give to the anxiety from which the different disciplines suffer." In order to avoid the intellectual confusion, which is thereby generated, it might be a good strategy for every voice to be heard and then put all of them into a dialogical relationship with other voices with a view to finding common grounds for a synthesized epistemology and methodology, if this is possible. This is the purpose of creating cross-disciplinary and cross-paradigmic dialogues aimed at producing something new and comprehensive based on understanding and not misunderstanding. This would imply adopting a hermeneutic approach, with all its openness. As the African philosopher Okonda Okolo has noted: "In Africa, the interest in hermeneutics also arises out of the reality of crisis: a generalized identity crisis due to the presence of a culture - a foreign and dominating tradition - and the necessity for self-affirmation in the construction of an authentic culture and tradition." The idea is tentatively to recognise the role of the different players and their disciplines and methodologies acting in collaboration. The idea is to create dialogues between the different "fields" of theory, practice and policy. In this case, as Catherine Odora Hoppers has pointed out: "Fields are taken as discursive formations that are manifestations of knowledge and power domains. Reconstruction in the framework of the dialogue between fields implies disruptions in order to create a higher level basis for action, and engender a more inclusive democratic cosmology. Disruption is regarded as essential to the contemplation of `potential realities.' This is to place "objective research" in a new interface with other approaches to knowledge production, which have epistemological and cosmological dimensions. Thus the aim is to interface academic researchers, practitioners and Afrikan knowledge producers and theoreticians in contact in an exercise that can be called "field-building," in which the knowledge, skills and expertise available to each group to be placed in a common pool accessible to all [Nabudere, 2001]. The idea is to create conditions for dialogue between the different dimensions and paradigms, as well as epistemological and cosmological interrogations aimed at self-empowerment and emancipation of the oppressed. Administration and Coordination This research proposal arises out of a Memorandum of Agreement between Afrika Study Centre-ASC and the Department of Political Sciences and Philosophy of the University of South Africa-UNISA. But as we have indicated, the research is open-ended to include individual researchers, institutions of higher learning, communities and civil society organisations. It is proposed that the two institutions UNISA and -ASC be responsible for the research organisation and administration of the project. However, any new individuals or institutions joining into the research should have someone to become a co-respondent and co-ordinator who can organise the researchers in their institution and work closely with one of these two institutions in a particular region. However, where the two institutions are not represented in a particular region a general coordinator for that region can be appointed by the researchers in that region, but correspond with the UNISA or ASC coordinators. Professors Mogobe B. Ramose of UNISA and Dani W. Nabudere of ASC will act as the Principal Investigators and Directors. The organisation will include holding of regular workshops and seminars in different regions where the scholars are located. Eventually it should be possible to organise regional and international conferences to consider the results of the research with a view to finding ways of using the product for a global agenda. Foremost, the research will work towards curriculum development and produce publications from the research in the form of newsletters, websites, papers, journals, monographs and books for use in educational institutions and for general public information. These different levels of meetings and publications will enable us to bring about dialogue between the different approaches based on the results and the implications of the findings for pedagogical, methodological and curricular development. The two initiating institutions with the coordinators will work out a timetable for the workshops, seminars, and conferences at different sites where the research is being carried out. It is also hoped that continental and regional social science and humanities involved in researches on similar themes and topics may wish to join this research so that a wider network can be established with a focus on the two themes about. For this reason, research and professional organisations such as CODESRIA, African Association of Political Science-AAPS and OSSREA will be approached to consider networking and collaboration. Financing The respective institutions taking part in the project will facilitate the financing of their respective research project. However, due to the fact that many other institutions might be involved which do not at the moment have resources, fund-raising for a common fund could be raised to facilitate such individual researchers. Moreover, expenses such as those covering regional workshops, seminars, and conferences may not be met within budgets of faculties and departments. For this reason, there will be need for a budget to cover these activities of the research. The two initiating institutions should agree on the budget after ascertaining who will take part in the research and then fund-raise to cover the project. Time Frame: The research project should last for an initial period of three years beginning in May 2004. Activities for the year shall be as follows. • May 21-23 : Research training sessions on the basis of paragraph one at page 1, paragraph two of page two and the subtitle "methodology" at page 4. • June 5 One day research training session on the bases set out in (1) above. • July : Seminar Theme African experience-based research: problems and prospects • 1 st Week September : Seminar Theme Student Perspectives on African experience-based research at UNISA • 3 rd Week September, Research Methodology Workshop at Mbale, Uganda, • November : Three days workshop to consider the publishability of papers presented in the July and September workshops. Budget : Attached separately The research project should It is suggested that the first phase of this research be three years: July 2004-June 2007. Contacts: Professor Mogobe B. Ramose, Email: ramosmb@unisa.ac.za Professor Dani W. Nabudere Email: afriscent@infocom.co.ug Date: 6 th May 2004. |