Abstract:

Botlhale Tema dreams of the day when Africans can see tacit knowledge gained from their own context and lived experience as a valid resource for innovation and development. But, she says, three specific obstacles stand in the way. One, from the beginning, education systems on the continent have rendered local indigenous knowledge as irrelevant. Two, much like the education systems, the corporate workplace operates on the assumption that African workers bring nothing of value from their home backgrounds to the business world. And three, African societies have failed to productively harness the power and strength gained from overcoming historical subjugation and oppression.