The Africa Indigenous Knowledge Research Network was created to undertake research geared towards identifying, recentering and harnessing Indigenous knowledges in Africa. It is aimed at foregrounding the authenticity of African Indigenous knowledges through co-creation, collaboration, partnership with custodians of knowledge such as community elders, traditional leaders, rain makers, and other gatekeepers of knowledge and the youth. The Network is an intentional response to the age-long silencing and subjugation of African indigenous knowledges and ideas.

The Network will work with various community groups to recentre the authenticity of African epistemology on various issues such as traditional governance, food security, ecosystem, biodiversity, agriculture, arts, folklores, technology, climate change, human and animal health, animal reproduction, natural resource management, conservation and environmental protection. Through international collaboration on issues and challenges important to Indigenous communities globally, we aim to strengthen institutional capacities related to Indigenous-led research, community engagement, and intercultural communication, understanding, and cooperation.

The Network is also an innovative platform for fostering linkages between African indigenous knowledge systems with technology and other forms of knowledge from other regions of the world. It is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in scope and approach.We are committed to cross-cultural learning  especially on reconciliation and decolonization initiatives in Canada while promoting, centering, and contributing to decolonization practices in Africa.

The mission of the network is to engage universities in Africa and Carleton University, Indigenous community members, and organizations to align with the strategic goal of internationalisation of research and engagement with Indigenous communities. This project will contribute to strengthening the research capacity of Indigenous junior scholars, such as early career scholars, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students who will be recruited and trained in Indigenous-led and community-grounded research methodologies and practices.

Through community-based participatory research initiatives, we aim to bring together Indigenous-led consultations with prospective research hubs and Indigenous community partners in Africa and Canada to identify and recruit project partners and collaborators who will co-create and co-generate the research design, project objectives, and community-led interventions.

Join us in our effort to grow and strengthen the African and Canadian network of Indigenous scholars and contribute directly to improving Indigenous community socio-economic health and wellbeing worldwide. 

What We Do

Our community-based participatory research initiative is dedicated to promoting the socio-economic health and wellbeing of Indigenous youth and communities in Africa and Canada. Our goal is to co-create and co-generate research designs, project objectives, and community-led interventions with Indigenous youth and community partners. Our work is multifaceted and includes the following objectives:

1. Mapping and identifying existing Indigenous Knowledges in Africa, including those among marginalized groups, recovering knowledges at risk of extinction, and documenting identified knowledges in Africa.
2. Identifying gatekeepers of knowledge and co-creating knowledge on research methodology among Indigenous groups.
3. Comparing Indigenous knowledge in Africa with other Indigenous communities in the world and fostering cross-cultural learning among Indigenous groups in Africa and beyond.
4. Building capacity among Indigenous youth to conduct research on Indigenous knowledge and integrating Indigenous knowledge to improve the livelihoods of Indigenous youths.
5. Fostering linkages between African indigenous knowledge systems with technology and knowledges from elsewhere.

In addition, we aim to establish central and regional research hubs, orient researchers to community-based and Indigenous-led research methodologies and project objectives, and design custom training for project researchers focused on facilitating Indigenous-led research. We are committed to establishing trust and ethical relationships with Indigenous youth, community, and academic partners, and to developing common understandings of research objectives and ethical spaces of engagement between African and Canadian Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars.

Finally,  working with our partners, we plan to be organizing an annual International conference on Africa Indigenous Knowledge systems and Development in Africa. We also participate in and organize panels at the African Studies Association/International Studies Association/Canadian Association of African Studies to promote the network and analyze responses from Indigenous youth, leaders, and community members, reporting back to participating communities to contribute to the design of research projects. To ensure policy uptake, we plan to be organizing Policy Roundtables with policy makers to discuss our research and policy proposals on recentering Indigenous knowledges and mainstreaming the livelihoods of Indigenous communities into policies.