[Must Watch] How Africa can use its traditional knowledge to make progress

“A is for Apple.”

This is one of the first sentences every African child (in an Anglophone country) learns at school in early life.

But how many children across Sub-Saharan Africa have actually seen a real apple?

Not many.

Apples are not native to Africa and they are very unlikely to feature in the day-to-day realities of growing children on the continent.

So, if education is supposed to help people understand, explore and master their reality, how come Africa continues to borrow and apply imported ideas and concepts that have very little relevance to the continent’s environment?

Before the Europeans arrived, Africans had developed their own traditional and indigenous knowledge in several fields of human endeavor — from agriculture and justice, to medicine and philosophy.

But with Westernisation, a lot of Africans now look down on their heritage and indigenous knowledge.

In this powerful TED Talk, Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu reveals how Africa can use its traditional knowledge to make progress and transform itself.

In this talk, she shares examples of untapped, traditional African knowledge in agriculture and policy-making, calling on Africans to make progress by validating and dignifying their reality.

Here’s the video, enjoy!

Let’s go, Africa!