From Agriculture to Agricology

Professor Dani Wadada Nabudere, a respected
academic and educator from Uganda, dedicated his life to applying and
spreading the notion of ‘community sites of knowledge’, which simply
means using indigenous tools of knowledge to revitalise the lives of
Africa’s people. He staunchly believed that the liberation of Africans
depended largely on self-reliance, and that any dependence on imported
knowledge and material instruments could only lead to the entrenchment
of colonial stereotypes, which dictated that ideas and knowledge that
emanate from the West are superior to those that originate from the
continent.

His commitment to life-long learning and to finding
African solutions to historical and structural African problems,
underlined his faith in the value of indigenous knowledge. He understood
that African indigenous knowledge carries in its DNA the roots of
‘complex ecosystems’ that require the inputs of a diversity of expertise
and experiences and that it seemed counterproductive to maintain the
language of inclusion and exclusion inherited from colonialism. This work explores Nabudere’s strong belief that we can reclaim the
future by producing knowledge that is relevant for society, and for the
continued participation in civic causes designed to assist the wretched
of the earth.

This monograph is an expanded version of a paper
written for presentation at an agricultural conference at the Walter
Sisulu University in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, South Africa in 2011.