Abstract
In ancient and precolonial Afrika, wisdom, or knowledge, was the domain of Afrikan women. This study focuses on the role of women as epistemological agents in the production of knowledge and knowledge systems. We argue that matriarchy is a central organising principle in indigenous/precolonial Afrika. Matriarchy in this case, is contextualised through the Igbo case study to show the pervasiveness and significance of matrifocality as a typical cultural product of the Afrikan asili or cultural DNA. The historical and contemporary prevalence of Afrikan women and their historical silencing necessitates ongoing research uniquely focused on developing a restorative intellectual Afrikan-centred space expressly concerned with restoring, archiving, documenting and celebrating Afrikan women’s histories, of old and new. Above and beyond this, at the core of the survival and revival of Afrikan consciousness, institutional development and epistemic self-determination is the recovery, restoration and re-implementation of these matriarchal principles.
The Igbo’s ugolochomma for example, represents an Afrikan matriarchal tradition observed across the continent. Despite the attention on femininity, womanhood and motherhood, matriarchy represents the relational ideals of balance, complementarity, interdependence and holism. Matriarchy, therefore, is not the opposite of patriarchy and does not need to enforce itself by domination because it is the beginning of both biological and cultural life. Importantly, this study proposes matriarchy (through the conceptual ‘ceremonial pedagogy’) as a necessary and useful educational/pedagogical paradigm.