African science speaks many languages

Lazarus Sauti

Charles Dhewa, Director of the Harare-based Knowledge Transfer Africa Trust (KTA) believes that there has never been a more important time for a general scientific culture in Africa which seeks to empower Africans through local languages.

Zimbabwean Dhewa also believes a wealth of traditional agricultural knowledge exists across Africa but contributes less to the development of the continent due to language barriers.

“African science speaks many languages and this is contributing to disparities in the dynamic environments of the global knowledge economy,” Dhewa says.

This means Africa needs the informative achievements of modern science and the strengths of indigenous knowledge systems, and both need to be African.

He adds: “Africans do not appreciate African languages. Without doubt, the diversity of Africa makes it a suitable laboratory for science, but there is a glaring lack of indigenous African languages, theories and conceptual models.

“Despite centuries of scientific undertakings on the continent, there is still no vernacular word for ‘science’.”

Africa should copy countries like China and Japan.

“China and Japan managed to localise their products using their local languages and it is amazing,” Dhewa remarks.

This means Africans must think hard. They should gather and document all kind of content.