According to anthropologists, any society is said to be civilized by virtue
of having a culture. Since culture is a means through which humans make
life easy and comfortable, their definition can be simply proved to be
right, since this preoccupation has be a natural hallmark of any given
society. The key point here is that the point that stresses the need or
rather the struggle to make life easier and comfortable. This challenge is
relative, which means it changes with time and place since both brings with
them a specific challenges and opportunities.
For instance, the most pressing challenges say a century ago cannot be the
same as today’s challenges. That is why the practices that were pervasive
hundred years ago are no more at this time. Hence the cultures or practice
both times could be expected to be different.
Therefore culture is dynamic that constantly changes. This change occurs
not just because it is natural, but also because it is a need if humans are
to survive and develop. To come to an under-standing, hence, culture
changes to meet the needs of a given society. So when we talk about
developing one’s culture we are saying changing it or tailoring it every
now and then in a way that will address the most pressing issues in a
society in order to make life easy and comfortable.
If we can’t keep updating our culture, our situation or reality would not
be best suited for the demand of the time. Be it as individual or community
keeping up with the demands of the day is essential. For instance in a
traditional societies where the means of living was hunting and gather-ing,
life’s demand was simple and people were leading a relaxed life. The
culture of such a society then must change if the same society was to
survive and develop in today’s world. Now development is influenced by many
factors. However, culture constitutes an important pillar in this equation.
So what is at stake now? What are the demands of today’s era and what
should be our culture that is optimum for the current reality of our world.
There is a lot we can talk about concerning this point; but for today we
are going to focus on an important issue. Needless to say life demand has
proliferated over the years, reaching its peak in our contemporary world.
Life in today’s context therefore goes far beyond fulfilling the immediate
demand of the essentials. Faring well in such a circumstance requires being
extremely competitive in the global arena, since interaction is a
pre-requisite. And competition nowadays in turn requires generating
knowledge to keep up with the demand. In this particular argument original
knowledge needs to be particularly given an emphasis.
Original knowledge is the foundation to any kind of knowledge generation.
This is to say that learning from other’s experience can only exist when
one has something of one’s own. If not it then becomes copying in which
case one will always be dependent on the body responsible for the original
knowledge creation. One other point of concern is that knowledge should be
practical and hence address real issue on ground. Foreign knowledge, though
can be important in a lot of aspects, cannot diagnose local problem and
therefore prescribe local solution effectively. In one of his recent
articles about the need to re-introduce research back in the higher
education institutions of Africa; Mahmood Mamdani has clearly put the need
to revise the overall make up of higher education practice in African
countries. He underscored that African knowledge creation mech-anism is
anachronistically based on western theoretical framework whose underpinning
is a different western historical experience. He therefore suggests the
need to put into perspective our overall education practices. That is
perhaps the reason why many suggestions that was meant to solve African
problems often don’t work and also often has a negative repercussion that
endures. The World Bank and IMF infamous Structural Adjustment Policies
epitomizes the core point of this article that alien recommendation coming
from foreign not only doesn’t work but also becomes a recipe for further
chaos.
What kind of knowledge does Eritrea need? The answer is simply the kind of
knowledge that is home grown and one that is best suited to answer,
diagnose, and prescribe our problem. Effective local solution for local
problem can only come from local knowledge. To come and think of it, who
should know more about our land, sea, culture, people and challenges than
we, the owners? Appreciating this can give us a good recipe, and firm
ground to conduct extensive research so as we can develop whatever it is we
have and address and solve our problems.
Here the role of educational institution and especially higher ones is
great. This is because knowledge creation must be institutionalized so that
a concerted and coordinated approach can be possible. In this respect the
task that is awaiting us is humongous to the point that it becomes
daunt-ing. Nonetheless it is an issue we must soon embark upon if we are to
achieve our goals as a nation. Our immediate requirement for our big
national task of nation building, which is nationalism, requires that we
take this matter seriously if the road ahead is to be smooth. It is hard to
expect to engender the national feeling when you wait on others to solve
your problem. Imagine having our own social or political theory,
technological invention, cyber breakthrough, or medicine concocted from
Eritrean herbs by Eritrean experts! Now imagine a generation of students
brought up through a school curriculum whose foundation is this native
knowledge! It is self-evident that the pride this would instill in our
students and young generations beside the actual solutions the knowledge
would bring in the different fields.
One example we should mention here is an experiment that was conducted in
our escarpment which tries to milk the fog so as to alleviate the water
shortages in the adjacent areas. Now, the escarpments have always been
there, and so is the fog. We cannot say why we didn’t think of this idea
first though it would not be completely wrong to do so. The point here is
that this is how local knowledge will help us to address local problem. Our
educational institutions should be organized in a way that would identify
such problem and give the right and timely response tailored to our
peculiar challenges and needs.
This all boils down to a simple point; and that is we need to build and
enhance a culture of research that is able to create knowledge from our
particular situation and reality in order to emerge competi-tive in our
contemporary world. And this road towards this end should be led by our
higher edu-cational institution. Eritrea future must be calculated from
this fundamental understanding as it is the most reliable way forward.
Source: Shabait
Received on Mon Mar 30 2015 - 12:38:19 EDT