Yirenkyi, M. S. (2013). INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS: The Use of Indigenous Entertainment Forms for Participatory and Sustainable Development in Rural Communities.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems are the local knowledge systems that are unique to a given culture.  The information base of a society which facilitates communication and decision making are all areas that help in developing a community. Some development strategists in Africa and elsewhere in the developing countries are now paying attention to indigenous culture which they hitherto believed hindered development and therefore must be ignored in contemporary development programmes.  The same critics of indigenous knowledge systems are now calling for modifications within the cultural systems to support modern development and change. Cultural variables are now perceived as very important tool in any attempt to generate behavioral change among people and therefore must receive attention. This paper considers especially the communicative potency of folk media for participatory and sustainable development as against the sometimes cynical reference to popular art-forms as conduits for mere entertainment. It will also seek to explore the pessimism with which Indigenous Knowledge and Communication Systems in Africa are viewed.  It further contends that, even in a media environment saturated with Western approaches to technology practices, traditional media still have a role to play. Attention is also paid to the importance of combining the traditional African and Western media systems in producing and delivering development communication, and projects, that the two systems can be complementary and indeed can accomplish much more in cohesion than either on its own.