The management and preservation of indigenous knowledge in Dlangubo village in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Zimu-Biyela, Acquinatta Nomusa
The objectives of this study were to establish various practices of indigenous
knowledge (IK) commonly used in the Dlangubo village, and methods and tools used
in managing IK; to determine ownership protocols and what they know about the
South African (SA) intellectual property (IP) laws; to explore the role of libraries and
information and communication technologies (ICTs) in managing IK and, lastly, what
model can be developed for the management of IK in the Dlangubo village, in
KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. In order to gain more insight about the
problem studied, the socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation
(SECI) model of knowledge management and the diffusion of innovation (DoI) model
were adopted. The SECI model helped in understanding the modes of knowledge
creation and transfer that were used in managing IK in the area of study. The DoI
model was important in understanding the perceptions of the community about the
South African intellectual property (IP) laws, the libraries and the ICTs in managing
IK.
This study used the constructivist theoretical underpinning and adopted the
qualitative approach in order to inquire in depth and explore the studied
phenomenon in the natural setting of the Dlangubo village. This approach allowed
the researcher to engage in an in-depth interviewing process with the participants in
order to explore IK management challenges and then get empirical evidence about
the area studied. Flowing from the qualitative approach, the grounded theory (GT)
was adopted because it uses the systematic inductive approach to inquiry followed
by a constant comparison of categories in order to generate theory, which is
grounded in data of the sampled participants of the Dlangubo village
The findings of the study indicated that the practices that were predominantly used in
the area of study included agricultural crop farming and livestock keeping, the
initiation of girls into adulthood and beadwork. The in-situ preservation strategies
were more common than the ex-situ preservation strategies. Most of the respondents
indicated that they acquired IK through apprenticeship of family line. The majority did
not have knowledge or had insufficient knowledge about the South African IP laws.
In addition, they were not using the libraries and the ICTs in managing their IK. The
model that was recommended was to have the cultural information centre where
they can sit together and share their IK and skills, and market their finished products.
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