Towards Interconnectedness: African Indigenous Knowledge Systems as fertile ground for collective knowing and resistance

• In Event: Building Coalitions of Solidarity: Humanizing Praxis, Indigenous Epistemologies and Education for Transformation

Abstract

Collective peoples have always engaged in resistance against state sanctioned violence and oppression. From individual acts of dissent exemplified by participating in protests and opposing unjust governmental policies, to establishing active, sustained revolutions, marginalized groups have organized to counter the capitalist suprastructure, build inclusive communities, and cultivate a conscious hope working to preserve human dignity (Fanon, 1963; hooks, 1981). The Oppressed have continuously fought for the fundamentals of liberation. While the struggle is ongoing, so is its toll on cultural and individual well-being. Tabensky (2025) acknowledging the brutality of colonial ‘epistemicide’ (Patin, 2021) notes, “there is the psychological dimension of the loss through violence of a way of life. There is also a political dimension. And, of course, the two interact” (p.4). Intertwined with this psychosocial anxiety is an existential torment. Tabensky (2025) continues, “those whose ways of life have been obliterated live in an ontological limbo… The space of meanings – indeed, of being – that defines them as a people has been vanquished” (p.4, 2025). Beyond sense-making, which reifies rationality, this torment encompasses an ever-present awareness of one’s fight to maintain her full humanity, her unapologetic existence.
Given this current moment where the state is explicitly disassembling even the appearance of moral, ethical, and practical aspirations toward democratic principles, the Oppressed continue to resist. This paper draws upon African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS) as fertile ground for solidifying coalition building. We utilize a theoretical methodology including the systematic review of foundational texts and contemporary works, centered on communal epistemologies. We assert that only through communal activism can we collapse entrenched power structures.
Our focus on AIKS is not meant to be prescriptive, nor are we seeking to essentialize these communal ways of knowing. Fanon (1961/1963) reminds us that our understanding of culture must be complex, dynamic, and instrumental in the struggle for liberation. Rather, we suggest that a review of ancestral knowing as posited by AIKS provides actionable counter-narratives to the hyperbolic rhetoric the state utilizes to alienate and divide oppressed groups. We contend that community building practices based on reciprocity and interconnectedness demonstrate effective intergenerational systems for strategizing contextualized ways of collectivizing. We argue that discourse highlighting the pragmatic ways in which praxis and theory are holistically intertwined in the daily processes of life -and as articulated by AIKS- serves as models for disrupting formalized modes of oppression. Finally, we posit that the tangible practice of ecological sustainability grounds resistance in both place and space-ensuring that opposition is rooted in the realistic needs of people.
In undertaking a conscientious contemplation of AIKS, we seek to re-imagine our patterns and processes for coalition building. Manji (2017) reminds us, “the cult of the individual, fundamental to neoliberalism, has grown... It is accompanied by attempts to break up the collective – especially organized forms…” AIKS reminds us that only through community can we develop authentic, nuanced, and localized modes for sustainable resistance.

Author

• Charlotte Achieng-Evensen, Chapman University