The Long Road Back to Selfhood

The development and formalisation of peoples’ own systems of knowledge were disrupted by slavery, imposed religions, colonialism and the structures of neocolonialism. This has contributed to people undervaluing their own knowledge. Yet, long before their subjugation and the imposition of foreign worldviews, societies relied on their own systems of knowledge and on drawing upon their historical experiences to meet the challenges of life and shape their own development. It is time to turn our attention once again to these indigenous foundations. Development must grow from within – like a tree from its roots, rather than from imported Western ideas.