Exploring Pan-Afrikan Knowledge

On the 23.04.2020 Mareika on behalf of Isusu Ffena hosted the second part of the ‘Pan-Afrikanism Today’ series with Patrick Mpedzisi. Patrick is the founder of Mitupo.org, a platform that draws attention to Afrikan knowledge systems through creating a database of Afrikan Proverbs. The conversation was centred around the idea that Afrikan knowledge has not traditionally been institutionalised nor centralised. This was illustrated in the use of educational proverbs that were expressed in ordinary life situations across the continent, amongst for example the Kikuyu, the Chichewa and the Zulu. Patrick highlighted the Pan-Afrikan aspect of such a knowledge system in that the same proverb can be found in different languages on the continent transcending the notion of nationalized education. Throughout the conversation, and in response to the audiences questions, the idea that Afrikans should strive to teach Pan-Afrikan knowledge in formal educational institutions was challenged. It was argued that this already fundamentally goes against the spirit of Pan-Afrikan knowledge systems.

This conversation generated new ways of thinking of the systems of knowledge dissemination in Afrika in the spirit of Pan-Afrikanism and decolonisation.