Ubuntugogy: Hope for African Rural Entrepreneurship Training

• In Event: Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Ubuntugogy: Hope for African Rural Entrepreneurship Training

Proposal

According to the World Bank (2022), women's entrepreneurship contributes significantly to economic growth in low-to-medium-income (LMI) economies such as Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, women's entrepreneurship development programs, particularly for rural women, are falling short because of exclusionary norms imposed by socially constructed categories such as gender, resulting in little economic growth. Entrepreneurship development programs must address gender-related cultural, psychological, and social skills constraints coupled with access to capital and human resources (Siba, 2019).
Local knowledge that informs daily life and culture is critical when addressing gender-related constraints since society and culture influences gender understanding. Indigenous knowledge has produced solutions in agriculture, health, natural resources, and other areas. The purpose of the review of literature is to investigate how Indigenous knowledge can improve the outcomes of entrepreneurship training for rural women in Zimbabwe.
A journey through Zimbabwe's formal education history revealed that in pre-colonial times, being educated was proficiency in your own culture instead of foreign culture (Wiredu, 2004). Cultural education was provided by siblings, mothers, fathers, peers, and community-based systems. Colonialism introduced a new kind of education that was discriminatory, de-culturalized, individualized, capitalist, eurocentric, exclusionary, and devalued indigenous people (Chung & Ngara, 1985; Gomba, 2017). Due to cultural limitations, only a small percentage of rural women attended formal school during the colonial period (Gordon, 1994). During the colonial and postcolonial periods, indigenous knowledge was not transmitted through formal education but by lived experience (Kira, 2013).
The indigenous value system known as ubuntu, associated with Southern African Nguni languages (isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele, isiSwati) survived colonial rule and continues to underpin Zimbabwean culture. It translates to 'I am because we are, and because we are, I am' (Mbiti,1969),. When ubuntu is utilized to support the science of teaching and learning, it is known as ubuntogogy, which supersedes pedagogy and andragogy (Bangura, 2005). Rural women in Zimbabwe live in contexts where they must apply what they have learned in practical situations rather than academic disciplines. Ubuntogogy is relevant for rural women's entrepreneurship training because it promotes active learning by involving learners in the community where they live.
Ubuntu tenets such as collaboration, democracy, and shared values are visible in business and other socioeconomic issues in Zimbabwe. Savings and lending groups formed through the use of ubuntugogy have created solutions for financing rural entrepreneurship for women. Thus, because the women are knowledge contributors rather than passive learners, ubuntogogy has the potential to incorporate indigenous knowledge into ET to improve the outcomes of rural women's entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe to create equitable societies.

Author

• Enet Mukurazita, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities - Minneapolis, MN