Program Description: African universities are currently grappling with finding transformative pathways that make them relevant, useful and productive. In this effort, incorporating and integrating indigenous knowledge systems has not been sufficiently explored.  African knowledge systems have not been systematically studied. Neither is their value and relevance to current African society examined. This talk presents the nature and problems associated with studying African knowledge systems. In particular, it tackles the broader Africana issue by way of examining the case of the merits, features and stages of the Ethiopian traditional education system. The benefits lost when modern, i.e., Western style education was solely adopted in Ethiopia, disregarding the traditional education system, is discussed. This brief talk recommends that systematically studying African knowledge systems is important for African universities to forge their identity, and to appreciate the continent’s needs and the direction of its social, economic, political, and personal development.

Masresha Fetene is an Emeritus Professor of Plant Ecophysiology, at Addis Ababa University. Heis currently a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Boston University, African Studies Center.

Co-Sponsored by: the Fulbright Outreach Lecturing Fund, Ramapo International, Ramapo’s School of Social Sciences & Human Services, Ramapo’s Multicultural Center and Boston University.

More details: https://www.ramapo.edu/international/fulbright/olf/