The infusion of indigenous knowledge systems in the teaching and learning of South African history in the further education and training phase

Abstract

This article sets out to examine IKS as historical sources that can be used to re-enact the history of South Africa as a school subject for the Further Education and Training (FET) phase. It analyses the nature and forms of IKS in relation to how and why IKS can add value and new perspectives in the reliving of the past. It looks at how apartheid history, its distortions, myths and inaccuracies, can be rewritten and given a new face by critically employing IKS in closing gaps, or adding new aspects and modifying the existing historical perceptions. It argues that IKS can provide solutions for current historical inaccuracies, discrepancies, omissions, bias and prejudice. It also warns against rejecting apartheid history without due regard to available evidence. It insists that written evidence, in the form of textbooks and other historical sources, be critically examined using historical methods, and weighing them against IKS. Songs and izibongo (praise poems) are explored and evaluated as vehicles of assessing school history and bringing new dimensions in the teaching of South African history.

Keywords: IKS, history, izibongo, prejudice, myths, Further Education Training, genealogies, apartheid.