Combating World Pandemics through Complementarity of Indigenous Knowledge with other Knowledge Systems: A Paradigm Shift in Health Care Research and Education

Using a telecommunication survey and a purposive sample of 32 African indigenous knowledge holders (IK Holders) and practitioners, from across cultures, the Centre in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (CIKS) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, investigated their views on COVID-19 pandemic and the role of IKS in combating the pandemic. They expressed the following sentiments: although the majority of marginalized Africans depend on their community-based knowledge systems for healthcare including against pandemics, these knowledge systems tend to be neglected in the search for sustainable solutions; the IK holders live in local communities with the people, understand their concerns, and assist them with preventive and treatment measures, which are local, holistic, accessible, affordable and culturally acceptable; they conceptualized IK as holistic, cultural, placedbased, spiritual, predominantly oral, multi-generational and inclusive; health and illness are not only physiological and medicinal, but physiological, emotional, psychological and spiritual phenomena;healthcare research in Africa, like formal education, is a tool of colonization and exploitation, The World Pandemics through Complementarity of IK 255 befitting outsiders; COVID-19 has revealed the significance of Ubuntu values of care and solidarity, including role of the state. In a matter of weeks, a virus, managed to challenge western liberal democracy, especially its emphasis on the private sector, individualism and minimal role of the state in healthcare. The following recommendations were made: recognition of IK as an integral part of democracy and complementarity of knowledge systems in mitigating global pandemics; since global pandemics have cultural imperatives, sustainable mitigation should not be the left to western science alone; governments should endeavour to mobilize community-based support systems through partnerships with IK holders and traditional leadership, to make interventions inclusive and locally acceptable; indigenous research and education in Africa, require new epistemologies and research methodologies as part of community self-determination; in times of pandemics, communities should be engaged in their own local languages and cultural values to build trust and acceptance of interventions.