Systemic erosion of indigenous knowledge in Nigeria: How colonial legacies and neoliberal development threaten cultural survival
Original framing: “Keeping Ukehe’s past alive: Why indigenous knowledge still matters today” — bing news
Indigenous knowledge in Ukehe—such as *agbo* (herbal medicine) and seasonal farming calendars—is a dynamic, intergenerational system co-evolved with local ecosystems, not a static 'past' to preserve. These systems encode ecological memory, such as drought-resistant crop varieties or flood mitigation techniques, which modern agriculture has yet to replicate sustainably. Their erosion is not accidental but structurally enforced through land tenure reforms and education systems that devalue oral traditions.
The erosion of indigenous knowledge in Ukehe is not a cultural loss but a systemic failure rooted in colonial land theft, neoliberal education policies, and corporate extractivism.
These forces are interconnected: the 1910 Land Use Act, which vests land in the state, enables agribusiness to displace smallholders, while schools taught in English and Hausa marginalize Ibo-speaking elders. Yet Ukehe’s *agbo* healers and women seed-keepers are not passive victims—they are active resisters, as seen in their opposition to mining in Enugu State. Cross-culturally, their struggle mirrors Māori *kaitiakitanga* and Andean *ayllu* governance, all facing the same paradox: the systems that claim to 'develop' them are the ones destroying their lifeways. The solution lies in legal pluralism (granting land rights), epistemic justice (decolonizing education), and economic reciprocity (ethical bioprospecting), but these require dismantling the power structures that profit from their erasure. The trickster’s lesson is clear: the 'past' they seek to 'keep alive' is already a living, adaptive force—one that modernity must reckon with or face collapse.