Learning from Indigenous Communities: The Case of Esihlengeni in Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

Indigenous communities have preserved knowledges that can address modern challenges. However, these knowledges are often misunderstood and misinterpreted because of the Western methods that are employed when indigenous communities are studied. It is in this context that we can appreciate the call to decolonise these methodologies. This article discusses experiences from the field to show other ways of studying indigenous communities so that their knowledges are understood in their own accord. More salient is the role of indigenous researchers who have innate skills that are critical in making sense of these knowledges. This article argues that decolonising methodologies requires a decolonial turn where researchers move away from Western methods and pay serious attention to indigenous systems that are central to the preservation of knowledges, namely languages, cultural practices, and belief systems.

Keywords:

• indigenous knowledges
• African epistemology
• remembering
• language
• spirituality
• decoloniality