Indigenous Knowledge and Its Uses in SA

This publication consists of edited contributions to a conference (indaba) on indigenous knowledge and practice in 1994 with themes of traditional medicine and its uses, indigenous knowledge and environmental management and indigenous values in human service practice. The literature survey and the conference (indaba) revealed that the major focus of work and interest in indigenous knowledge in South Africa was traditional healing and medicinal plant use. The major needs were facilities and recognition for traditional healers, the protection of traditional healers' ownership to their knowledge against commercial undertakings such as pharmaceutical companies, education on non-destructive plant use, and facilitation of a forum for the descendants of the oldest indigenous inhabitants, the Khoisan, to discuss the co-operative preservation of their indigenous culture and knowledge.