On the Efficacy of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Unsettling Coloniality

Abstract

Indigenous groups across Africa mobilized Indigenous Knowledge (IK) practices, albeit not without challenges, to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) continue to be sidelined in formal healthcare policies and programmes. This underscores the urgency to liberate Africa’s epistemologies. Employing the decoloniality lens, this paper examined the colonial influences inherent in African responses to COVID-19 while also exploring the role of IKS in the uMkhanyakude District Municipality (UKDM). The argument is made that, in the case of the UKDM, the efficacy of IKS was demonstrated in the response to and fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the basis for the call to embrace and recognize that IKS is a legitimate body of knowledge comparable to Western science. Such recognition paves the way for more equitable, contextually relevant, and sustainable health strategies that can better address the complexities of current and future pandemics.