Digitizing IKS: Epistemic complexity, datadiversity & cognitive justice

SummaryIn contemporary African societies where multiple systems of knowledge coexist, and the use of informatics is becoming increasingly widespread, conventional perspectives drawn from cultural anthropology, environmentalism, development studies and intellectual property rights are insufficient guides to thinking about the digitization of indigenous knowledge. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, three moments in South African knowledge dynamics are used to probe some of the ontological, epistemological, and performative implications of science/IKS interaction in the design and construction of archives and databases of local plants. Twenty-first century databases of indigenous African medico-botanical knowledge need to assure that it is recontextualized historically and socially; that its multiplicity, visuality, and orality are retained; and that “articulation work” is done to make sure that design choices and use are cognitively just.