[Re]claiming Indigenous Knowledge: Challenges, Resistance, and Opportunities

In May 1994, I arrived in Kenya to carry out my research on Africa and, more specifically, rural Kenyan women’s Indigenous ways of knowing. My interest in this research was sparked by the lack of textual knowledge of African Indigenous knowledges during my tenure in three North American universities. As a young scholar, I “ran” away from Kenya because, all through my education, there was a great emphasis on western education, lifestyle, and culture. I longed for it, hungered for it, and worked hard to acquire it. I was convinced that, once I enrolled in a University outside my country, the curriculum would in some way touch on African ways. In this regard, I was mistaken. The paper has four parts: 1) the introduction and a brief background to my interest in Indigenous knowledges; 2) the method employed; 3) a discussion of two knowledge claims. The two knowledge claims represent part of my research findings; 4) a pseudo-conclusion, given that this work involves my search for self, a process which has been ongoing since the nineties