Indigenous knowledge and innovation among the Tonga and Toka-leya people of Southern Zambia

Abstract

This study sought to examine how the Tonga and Toka-Leya people of Southern Zambia use their indigenous knowledge and employ innovations in this knowledge in Monze, Choma, Kazungula and Livingstone districts. A sample of chiefs and their cultural gatekeepers, head headmen/women, District Cultural Officers and a Provincial Cultural Officer were sampled purposively. Being a qualitative research, case study design was used. Data were collected through face-to-face unstructured interviews and focus group discussions. Data were analysed using the thematic approach and reference to the theoretical framework. The study found that a lot of indigenous knowledge, indigenous system and their technologies have since been lost. The paper argues that documentation of IK of Zambia in this case and Africa in general is a sure way of preserving the future of Africa. It was also established that many adults, especially chiefs, headmen, headwomen and the gatekeepers (senior citizens), were very concerned with the rate at which the loss of cultural and indigenous knowledge was taking place. The major concern was the aspect of how children are raised in homes, how they are taught and what they are taught in schools and the lack of political will to make indigenous education core in the curricular and as key components of tertiary education and research. The study recommended that the Ministry of Education should directly and practically address indigenous knowledge issues by documenting, teaching, disseminating and also be seen to safeguard IK through the formal education from early childhood to tertiary level.