HARAMBEE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF HEALTH
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS II

Chapter Four
Indigenous Knowledge
Activity 4.1: Pre-reading questions
Instruction:
Answer the following questions in groups before you read the passage.
1. What is indigenous knowledge? -------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------
2. Do you know community knowledge in your local area which is useful for development, medicine, or any
other? Share it to your group members ---------------------------------------- ----------------------------------
3. What is your view about indigenous knowledge as compared to scientific knowledge?
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4. Different countries claim the origin of human beings is their own country. What do you say about their
claims? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------
Now, read the passage below and do the activities (both in-text and after reading all) developed
based on it.
A Local Pathway to Global Development
By Benjamin Mkapa
In Laetoli, near Olduvai Gorge, Northern Tanzania, paleontologists have found footprints of early hominids,
presumably two adults and a child, idealized as father, mother and child. We do not know where the three walkers
in the “cradle of mankind” came from, where they went and what their plans were. But it is reasonable to assume
that they were capable of speech they would have shared thoughts, ideas, knowledge, while walking along the
plain some three and a half million years ago. Ever since humans walked on earth, they have sought more
knowledge to feed their families, stay healthy, argue with their neighbors, getting a better understanding of their
environment or just have some distraction from an otherwise rather challenging life. For hundreds of millennia,
local needs and constraints and day-to-day challenges drove the quest for knowledge. Scientific approaches to
knowledge generation, as we know them today are, historically speaking, a very recent phenomenon. These
modern approaches have brought about tremendous results: we have the capacity to feed more than six billion
people satisfactorily; vaccinations protect our children from once deadly diseases, we communicate with the help
of satellites around the globe and we compete on global market places with our products. Yet, despite these
achievements, we still have crises of hunger, HIV/AIDS, illiteracy, isolation, and conflicts and abject poverty.
While the debate on the causes of poverty is not closed, we have learned that science and technology alone cannot
provide all the answers or solutions to these unsolved problems or how we can overcome living in a disparate
world characterized by unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities.

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 HARAMBEE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HEALTH
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS II

Activity 4.2:
Instruction: Answer the following questions.
1. What is the central idea of the paragraph?
-------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------
2. What is the cause for the need of knowledge development?
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3. Based on the information in the above paragraph, what do you think the author will be writing about in
the succeeding paragraphs?
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As scientists struggle to respond to global challenges, they have increasingly distanced themselves from local
ways of solving problems. Local solutions were even discriminated against as hindering progress, outdated, “old
wives tales” or simply just unfashionable. As we “modernized” our societies, a “degree” in traditional or
indigenous knowledge was not planned for. Hence, we overlooked its potential as a resource and even further
neglected the knowledge that women and men, families and communities had developed themselves for centuries.
Indigenous knowledge (IK) is a resource that can help to solve local problems, a resource to help grow more and
better food, to maintain healthy lives, to share wealth, to prevent conflict, to manage local affairs, and thus
contribute to global solutions. Indigenous knowledge has contributed to building solidarity in communities
affected by globalization and shielded them against some of its negative impacts. There is no one of the
Millennium Development Goals to whose achievement indigenous knowledge cannot contribute.
IK has helped to reduce hunger and poverty in India, it has improved primary education and enrollment by
using local language as a means of instruction in West Africa, it has enabled men in Senegal to understand the
impact of female circumcision on women and empowered women to move towards eradicating the practice, it has
helped to reduce child mortality in Eritrea and maternal mortality in Uganda, it provides primary healthcare to
millions of Africans, it has helped communities in Mozambique to manage their coastal natural resources, and it
has helped to build partnerships between the weak and the strong in Ghana to share wealth.
Sixty persuasive arguments and yet we find it difficult to convince so many scientists, politicians,
development experts and administrators to systematically use indigenous knowledge in the development process.
The plural of anecdotes is not evidence, they say; scientific proof for most of its claims has yet to be found.
However, for the communities where indigenous knowledge has worked, these cases are not anecdotes but reality.
Had they waited for the scientific proof for the treatments they received from local healers, four thousand
HIV/AIDS patients in Tanga, Tanzania without access to modern antiviral drugs would not have been alive today.
But these sixty cases provide more lessons than just the benefits of the particular practices or approaches to
development. The most pertinent ones relate to ownership of development, local capacity, self-reliance, and
empowerment. Ownership has been at the center of the development discourse over the last years. The

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 HARAMBEE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HEALTH
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS II

sustainability of many externally induced development projects hinges on the ownership by the beneficiaries.
When building on indigenous knowledge, ownership does not even arise as an issue. Indigenous knowledge is
locally managed and owned.
Studying, understanding and building on the knowledge of communities will substantially reduce the risk of
failures of the development approach and the investments by governments and bi- and multilateral donors. The
increased sustainability does not only arise from particular indigenous practices that would be included in the
context of a development project. The very process of learning from the community recognizes the community
and the bearers of indigenous knowledge as partners in development who bring as much, if not more to the
process as the providers of global knowledge.
Activity 4.3:
Instruction: Answer the following questions.
1. What are the advantages of the indigenous knowledge?
---------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------>>>.>>>>>>>
2. What are the important point’s scientists, politicians and others missed about indigenous knowledge?
------------------------------------------------------------------ -----------------------------------------------

Capacity building essentially assumes a vacuum on the side of the beneficiaries of capacity building efforts, ever
so often camouflaged by the term capacity strengthening. Undoubtedly, African farmers, communities,
administrators, engineers and politicians have much to learn to cope with an increasingly complex and ever
changing economic and political global environment. Yet, have communities and farmers not coped with an ever-
changing environment in the past? Political experiments, inadequate institutions to market their crops or failing
services have not prevented them from prevailing and adapting to find their own solutions to survive. The
communities not only have knowledge about practices, they also have knowledge of how to adapt to adverse
environments, institutions and policies. These cases tell us differently. Communities are eager to learn and share,
because their environment teaches them one lesson almost on a daily basis: only those who learn will prevail.
Self-reliance is a genuinely local approach to development—no less so in an economic sense. When the late
President Nyerere first promoted self-reliance after Tanzania’s independence, learning was a primary means for
the country’s development. If the orthodox sciences were as open to learning from indigenous knowledge, as
local communities are ready to learn from others and the outside world, both sides would benefit substantially.
Empowerment is a central icon of the development discourse. Development planners and implementers go great
lengths to help empower the poor, the women, the vulnerable. The cases in these IK Notes teach us that
empowerment cannot come from the outside. Lasting empowerment is self-empowerment. The communities,
farmers, women, innovators, teachers whose stories are presented here have all chosen to empower themselves.

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 HARAMBEE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HEALTH
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS II

Activity 4.4:
Instruction: Write a concluding paragraph to this passage in groups.

Activity 4.5
Instruction:
Answer the following questions based on the information in the passage.
1. How did the author know the three people were family members and were capable of speech?
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2. What do you say about the three people found in Tanzania compared to Lucy in Ethiopia?
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3. Why were people inspired to develop their knowledge?
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4. What is the author’s idea concerning indigenous knowledge compared to scientific knowledge?
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5. What are the advantages of indigenous knowledge to development?
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6. What is your view concerning indigenous knowledge?
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7. How do you think one can influence African farmers, communities, etc to cope with the economic and
political environment?
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8. Describe self- reliance and self- empowerment in the development discourse.
Activity 4.6:
Instruction: The following words are the opposite meanings of words used in the passage. Find the words which
have opposite meanings to the given ones below.
1) unconvincing -------------------------------------------------------------
2) discord ---------------------------------------------------------------------
3) restricted -------------------------------------------------------------------
4) increase --------------------------------------------------------------------
5) peculiar ---------------------------------------------------------------------
Part II Grammar: Reported Speech
Activity 4.7: Identifying Quoted and Reported Speech

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 HARAMBEE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HEALTH
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS II

Instruction: Read the following paragraph and underline the reported speech, and circle any
quoted speech. Then, discuss about their differences between the two in your group Maria recently returned from
a conference in Dubai and told her colleagues about her trip there. She said that the architecture of Dubai was
fascinating, with many new buildings of glass and steel. Of course, she also saw the Burj Khalifa, the world’s
tallest building. Some of her friends went up to the top, but Maria said she didn’t because she has a fear of
heights. “I don’t even like being on a second-story balcony, so the Burj Khalifa was definitely out of the question
for me!” Maria said that there were many shopping centers in Dubai, but that they were expensive. The weather
was “unbelievably hot.” On her last night in Dubai, Maria and her friends went on a dinner cruise on a small boat
in the harbor. There was music and great food, and they could see the lights of the city as the boat cruised through
the harbor. “It was the perfect ending to two weeks in Dubai,” she said.
Activity 4.8.
Instruction: Find the reported speech in the following dialogue in group.
Mum: Good morning, dear. Good morning. What’s the matter?
Mark: Dad says that he’s lost his voice.
Mum: He has lost his voice! He can’t. It must be a joke. Come on, dear. Don’t joke.
Mark: I’ll make a nice cup of tea. You’ll soon get your voice back.
Susan: How did you lose your voice, Dad?
Mark: He says he went to the football match last night.
Susan: And you shouted so much you lost your voice.
Mark: Yes, he shouted so much he lost him lost his voice.
Susan: Did you win? Mark: No, they lost.
Mum: Here is a nice cup of tea. Would you like something to eat?
Mark: He says he would like some toast with honey.
Susan: Why honey, Mum?
Mum: Because honey is good for your throat

Activity 4. 9:

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 HARAMBEE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HEALTH
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS II

Instruction: Read the following dialogue and change the sentences into reported speech developing a paragraph.
Discuss the paragraph you have developed in a group. Explain how you changed the direct speech into indirect
speech to your group members.
Dialogue
‘Ma’am? …. You’re needed, Ma’am.
’ ‘Wh "Where are you?" - My friend asked me.
"What will you choose?" - They asked me.
"Are you flying soon?" - He wanted to know soon.
"May I help you?" - The porter asked me.
"Have you set your alarm clock?" - He asked me alarm clock.
"Is Prague the capital?" - We needed to know whether the capital.
"Would you rather dance?" - Peter asked me rather dance.
"How long have you been standing here?" - He wanted to know how long.
"What do you do?" - She wondered.
"Do you want it?" - Joe asked me it.
"Where did you live?" – They wanted to know.
"Why are you reading this magazine?" - He was curious to know magazine at?’
Reluctant to move, Senait opened her eyes and saw Ayele enter the room. ‘Welcome, Ayele.
‘What brings you?’ inquired Senait.
‘Magic, of the strangest kind,’ replied Ayele, his voice shaking.
‘Oh?’ said Senait, wanting to know more.
‘Do you remember the babe that Eragon blessed?’ he asked.
‘Senait didn’t answer. She just nodded.
‘I’ve been asked to take you to her’, Ayele explained.
‘Asked? By whom? And why?’ she demanded.
‘A boy on the practice field told me that you should visit the child.
‘He said that you would find it interesting. He refused to give me his name.
Well, I thought you should know.’ Ayele looked embarrassed. ‘I asked my men questions about the girl, and I
heard things… that she’s different. (Adapted from Paolini, 2005)

Activity 4.10

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 HARAMBEE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HEALTH
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS II

Instruction: Read the following story and change the direct speech sentences into reported speech developing a
paragraph. Discuss the paragraph you have developed in a group. When you discuss each of the group members’
paragraphs, explain how you changed the direct speech into indirect (reported) speech to your group members
Merhawit had told us that it was easy to ‘acquire’ the monkeys. I reached very slowly very gently for one
particular monkey. He looked at my hand, considering it. Then I scratched the little monkey’s back. And as I did I
closed my eyes and focused my thoughts on the monkey. He became quiet, like he was in a trance. That’s how
animals usually are when they’re being acquired.
I absorbed the monkey DNA into me.
‘This should be especially easy’, Rahel commented as she finished acquiring a different monkey. ‘These
monkeys aren’t direct relatives of Homo Sapiens, but still, most of our DNA will be identical’.
‘Or in Natanym’s case, ninety-nine point nine percent,’ Rahel interjected.
‘Yes, it’s like the fact that Rahel’s DNA is actually ninety-nine percent identical to Malibu Barbie’ Natanym
shot back.
‘Could we concentrate here?’ I said impatiently.
‘Merhawit, did you have any problems with the monkey?
‘s mind when you morphed?’ Rahel asked
‘No. Except….. Well they are very much excitable.’
I concentrated on a mental image of the monkey. And very quickly, I began to feel the changes. I shrank and
brown fur sprouted from my arms and legs. My lips puffed out to form a big muzzle. The largest change was the
tail. It came shooting out from the base of my spine.
‘Hey, the tail is neat,’ Rahel said. ‘Try moving it. Just like an extra hand.’
‘That was an easy morph,’ Merhawit replied.
(Adapted from Animorphs, 1997)

Note: When you change the direct speech into indirect speech, you will change verb tenses, pronouns,
adverbs of time and place.
Activity 4.12: Read about direct and indirect speech from books, make notes and present your notes to
your group members about:
a) How statements, questions, and other types of sentences are changed from direct to indirect speech; and
b) The tense, pronoun and adverb changes to your group members.
Part III Speaking
Activity 4.13
Instruction: Discuss the following points in groups.
1) How do you justify that human life began in Ethiopia, and Lucy’s remnants are acceptable?

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 HARAMBEE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HEALTH
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS II

2) Debate on: Indigenous knowledge is more important than scientific knowledge vs scientific knowledge is
more important than indigenous knowledge.
3) Tell your friends about a herbal medicine people in your community use. Do you appreciate the people using
it? What is your opinion about herbal medicines?
Part IV Writing
Activity 4.14
Instruction: Write a paragraph on the following point.
1) Write a paragraph on the points you agree and disagree with the author of the above text. Give reasons for
your agreement and disagreement.
2) Write a paragraph about the advantages or disadvantages of using herbal medicines.

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 HARAMBEE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HEALTH
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS II

Name ________________________________ ID _______________Dept. __________________

Instruction: Change the direct speech into indirect speech in the following dialogue, and write it in a paragraph.
Betru: "What are you doing here, Tedla? I haven't seen you since June."
Tedla: "I've just come back from my holiday in Nekemte.
" Betru: "Did you enjoy it?"
Tedla: "I love Ireland. And the people in Nekemte were so friendly."
Betru: "Did you go to Shambu?"
Tedla: "It was my first trip. I can show you some pictures. Are you doing anything tomorrow?"
Betru: "I must arrange a couple of things. But I am free tonight."
Tedla: "You might come to my place. What time shall we meet?"
Betru: "I'll be there at eight. Is it all right?"
Betru asked Tedla ________________________________________________________________
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