Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development in Africa

Critiques the Eurocentric framing of entrepreneurship in Africa and advocates for embracing Indigenous philosophies and practices to foster inclusive, sustainable socio-economic development.

Indigenous entrepreneurship involves the use of Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) to establish enterprises whose target is not only profit but also socio-economic development of communities, and that differentiates it from mainstream economic activities. Based on this, it is then possible to bring into the conversation the issue of IKS and entrepreneurship in Africa in terms of how the conceptualization and praxis of Indigenous entrepreneurship can be decolonized to unlock and unleash socio-economic development in Africa. For this reason, it matters that Indigenous entrepreneurship does not continue to be subjected to or governed by mainstream economic principles. It should be remembered that before colonial conquest, Indigenous entrepreneurship flourished and led to authentic and inclusive socio-economic development. It was colonialism and settler Eurocentric institutions that subjected Indigenous entrepreneurship to mainstream economic governance regimes leading to its marginalization and in some cases relative demise.

Nonetheless, given on one hand the resilience of Indigenous entrepreneurship in terms of surviving the colonial encounter, onslaught, and institutions that should have suffocated and buried it and on the other its potential to spur inclusive socio-economic development, it is now time to revisit and recover it without subjecting it to or seeing it through mainstream economic lenses and the Eurocentric frame. Consequently, this raises three critical but related questions which the book tackles; first, how is entrepreneurship understood and practiced by Indigenous communities in Africa? Second, why is there a need to decolonize the conceptualization and praxis of entrepreneurship in Africa through the logic of IKS and how can this be done? Third, how and to what extent can IKS be leveraged and/or mobilized and unleashed to contribute to socio-economic development in Africa? Against this backdrop, the main goal of the book project therefore is to decolonize within the prism of IKS how Indigenous entrepreneurship is conceptualized, understood, and implemented in Africa.

This task should show the poverty of the current understanding and implementation of entrepreneurship in Africa which is couched within a Eurocentric frame. It is now time to transcend the Eurocentric monologue of entrepreneurship to an understanding of how Indigenous communities in various parts of Africa conceptualize and practice entrepreneurship leading to socio-economic development. It is important to amplify the point that since it is the cornerstone of the contemporary Indigenous economy, Indigenous entrepreneurship is both the answer and the path forward for the development and cultural survival of African communities.

Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba is Assistant Professor, Principal Investigator of the intercontinental research project on Indigenous Knowledge and Entrepreneurship in Africa and founder of the Africa Indigenous Knowledge Research Network, at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University

Inocent Moyo is SARCHi Research Chair in Borders and the African Continental Free Trade Area and Full Professor of Geography in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, at the University of Zululand, South Africa. He researches borders, migration, and the political economy of the informal economy in the Southern African region.

Zainab Monisola Olaitan is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University, Canada. She is a political scientist with expertise in gender and politics, political theory, international politics, African studies, and peace and conflict studies.

Jabulile H Mzimela is a lecturer in Human Geography, in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Zululand, South Africa.