OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development
Open-access peer-reviewed journal
https://doi.org/10.64211/oidaijsd190614
Healing the Curriculum: Decoloniality, Africanization and Indigenization through Indigenous Knowledge Holders
Khaya Gqibitole
University of Zululand, South Africa.
Corresponding authour: gqibitholek@unizulu.ac.za
Volume 19, Issue 06, Pg. 189-196, 2026.
Abstract: As the Africanization and decolonization of the curriculum gain momentum, care must be given to social cohesion and balanced collaboration with African knowledge holders. This paper argues that relegating African knowledge holders to the periphery of the debates and policies weakens the decolonial agenda at institutions of higher learning – an agenda that the curriculum should espouse. To ensure the relevance of the envisaged Africanized and decolonized curriculum, an honest, extensive and people-driven interface between academia and the holders of indigenous knowledge is indispensable. The paper deploys the critical social theory to advance the argument that African knowledge holders should play a primary role in these endeavors; since an Africanized higher education without their input renders these efforts rootless, directionless and complicit with the status quo. Therefore, traditional healers, village elders, storytellers, traditional leaders have a critical role to lead the transformation. African women, I argue, are central in the entrenchment of indigenous ideals in iintsomi, hence the idea of matriarchive receives a special treatment in the study. Additionally, researchers and scholars must recognize rural settings as hubs of knowledge to deepen their understanding of and form synergies with authentic indigenous knowledges. Without the voices of traditional practitioners, policy makers are bound to delay or even thwart these noble efforts not only to make the curriculum relevant but also contribute to sustainable development. Universities are better placed to spearhead these processes to harvest indigenous knowledges and inculcate them into the curricula. Finally, the paper contends that African cultural heritages such as storytelling contain the values, histories and identities that should be infused into the curriculum to heal it. Using indigenous languages, storytellers should form the backbone of that indigenous knowledge production without which generations of African students will continue to suffer the indignity of invisibility in their own continent. Finally, this paper hopes to contribute to the efforts of sustainable development through the formation of partnerships between universities and African indigenous societies.
Keywords: Africanization, Curriculum, Decoloniality, Indigenous knowledge holders, Matriarchive.
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