THE AFRICAN CULTURE AND HERITAGE

THIN Information Line / March 18, 2009

THE AFRICAN RELIGIOUS HERITAGE.

As far back as the second century after Christ, Tertullian the African Christian theologist, maintained that the human soul is by nature Christian; in that it seeks a relationship with God. To know God and to know how we were created.

A good example here is that of the concept of God, who is seen as Supreme and One. There are many names of God, many stories and myths about his qualities. Through the ways of describing God and his many qualities may differ from one community to another, the experience behind these different approaches is the same.

Stories and myths told about God express a peoples’ experience of his might, his love for those he created, his anger, his power to forgive. He owns everything and it is to him that we owe life. Also oral literature – the songs, stories, myths and febles of African peoples incorporates their beliefs and values.

Different myths emphasize different aspects of social and individual life, and they illustrate the nature of different kinds of the relationship and the traditional attitudes towards these relationships, and there are also common views which are held in African traditions in general.

African traditional myths are important because they help to show the African traditional views on the hopes and fears that people have about the world in which they live. The people who live near the mountains, for example, have many myths which are connected with life near the mountains, whereas those who live in grassland plains have myths which are connected with life in the plains.

Most African Communities recognize the dependence of human beings on a Supreme God. The power of a Supreme God may be under the direction of the divinity or under many divinities. God is the creator and granter of all things-and there are many similarities in African religious beliefs and practices concerning mans’ relationship to God. For example:

Man must obey the regulations which God has laid down for man to follow;
Failure to obey these regulations leads to punishment:
o Man must offer sacrifices and perform certain ceremonies in order to maintain a good relationship with God;
o If anything goes wrong with the individual, family or society, man must have offended God, and he may set things right by offering sacrifices to God;
o If an individual violates one of the major regulations about mans’ relationship to God, he may be severely punished by the whole society, because he is believed to be endangering the life of the community;
o Irregular natural happenings, such as drought, famine, locust invasions, epidemics and earthquakes are believed to be caused by the disobedience of the society as a whole;

However, there is no community which knows only one aspect of mans relationship to God. All of them show the two forms of relationship – one which indicates the punishment or taboos which people must not violate and another which shows the blessing and the privileges which god has given them.

Man according to the African thought and belief is not an isolated creature. He is only on part of the universe which is full of animals, plants, and inanimate objects. All these components are related to each other in various ways, and all these are dependant on the Supreme God for their appearance and their continued existence. The relationship between man and the things around him are of different categories, depending on the use to which he puts them, and on the beliefs which developed in the criteria myths.

Cattle sheep and goats are used for sacrifices and other religious purposes. All people of Africa have religious practices often binding oaths or purification rites, which involves the use of certain animals. The religious significance of a particular animal or plant may differ from one community to another. Hens and cocks may be used as sacrifices to God or mediators between God and Man, including the ancestors. Burnt offerings are widely considered to be essential.
……..Burnt offerings are considered necessary in establishing communication with God.

In African religious thought generally, heavenly bodies such as sun, moon, and stars tell without words the magnificence of God. The regularly of day and night, and the constant rhythm of the seasons, illustrate the unfailing sustenance of Gods providence.

It s important to note that mountains and hills are not thought to be God. They are manifestation of Gods power and presence. Rivers and streams are often accorded religions significance, especially when they are believed to be dwelling places of spirits.

Huge rocks are also believed to be of religious significance. Some Kamba (a community in eastern Kenya), for example, say that the first couple on earth was brought by God out of a huge rock , which can be seen – to – day. Such rocks are therefore regarded with awe.

Colours are also accorded religious significance, but different colours are sacred for different peoples. Whereas black is a sacred colour to the Luo and Luhya communities in western Kenya, white is sacred to the Buganda community of central Uganda.

In religious ceremonies particular numbers are of special importance to different people. For example, four is sacred number to the Nandi community in Kenya, whereas six is sacred to the Jie, seven was a sacred number to the Jews.

Note that counting people and livestock is forbidden in many African communities. One of the reason for such prohibition is the fear that misfortune might befall those who are pointed at during the counting. Another reason may be that people generally prefer to be considered as members of several units, such as the family, the clan, or age group, rather than as individuals.
All these examples show that African People attach a great deal of religious significance to all the natural phenomena around them, both in the sky and on the surface of the earth. Gods presence is realized in and behind all the aspects of the earth. Gods presence is realized in and behind all the objects and phenomena in mans environment. The invisible world is made manifest or clear, by these physical things. Africans comprehend their inward experience of God through their outward perception of the physical world.

This is one of the most important aspects of the African religious heritage. Africans do not worship physical objects: through them they realize the symbolic manifestation of their inward experience of God. Thus the inward and non-material experience is directly related to the outward and material universe, and the two are inseparable.

African traditional cultures, lifestyles, and attitudes towards life are essentially religious, and this is used to explain his relationship to other men, the environment and to God. First of all, we must realize that many elements of African religious traditions cannot therefore be dismissed as “satanic” or the works of the devil. If the soul seeks to reach God to know Him, then his ultimate goal is not in opposition to Christianity, through which we seek a personal knowledge of God. God is a father of all mankind. The essential message of Christianity cannot be compromised. African cultures, just like European or Asian cultures are subject to the judgment of Christ.

As we study Christianity which has come to African in western “trappings”, we must separate the essential core of belief from Jewish, European even American cultural values. An excessive concern for the individual, for success and for a western style of life are not Christian

We can live by our faith in an African way. Just as Europeans adopted Christianity to their cultures, so can we if we keep pure the essentials. Indeed we can even impart some of our values to a larger body of believers and non-believers. Certainly a respect for elders, a desire to help our neighbors and a view of life as essentially religious are all shared values which may not be obvious to modern living in which many people have come to take its values for granted and even to lose sight of its essentials.

Traditional Healthcare Integration Network {THIN} is working closely with community groups and individuals to analyzing traditional and cultural aspects within our communities so as to add science and validate them for development.

Kenya is a country of cultural societies. It is easy to see that traditional and cultural expressions that are based on the environment are built in the health and illness of our people, and their communities. This is giving THIN a rare opportunity to develop an important but neglected area of community – based health services as well as promoting the cultural bonds that have existed for centuries. It also gives everyone a chance to compare and contrast traditional beliefs, values and practices with those of Christianity. Such an understanding, appreciation and their evolution should enrich our world beliefs, personal communities, sharing of resources stewardship and change of attitudes.

From the onset, THIN was designed to be a people focused organization {especially the rural poor}. THIN fosters harmonization of the economic interests of traditional healthcare practitioners {rural and not well recognized} and the peoples needs by having its activities oriented towards community – based primary healthcare and conservation as well as protection of natural and cultural heritages; assets which must turn over to the next generations. THIN does this by creating models of effective use of natural resources, traditional techniques, folk medicines, semantics and others. THIN is responsive to what the government, international development agencies and partners, local non –governmental {NGOS} and Community - Based Organizations {CBOS}, media and other interested groups see as issues of concern to society, with emphasis on health, food, nutrition, environment, population, poverty, famine. THIN therefore endeavours to promote alternative approaches to sustainable development, best angles of attack and contribution towards self reliance.

Can you join us in our mission? Yes you can. By contributing or giving items.
Indeed you have made a right choice. You will help us sharing the goal of taking an ambitious community-driven education, research-training and development. To make a difference, especially to the poor: to do what it takes to get research results and technologies translated into efficient prevention and control strategies.

DR. ANDREW CHAPYA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF SCIENTIST
THIN

afyasili

Immediate Needs.View Edit

………Technical support, Fundraising & Networking.

We are building into our development plan strong elements of fundraising,Capacity and institutional management, partnership and networking.

We invite assistance to achieve these goals in a reasonable time frame and to Assist us participate move effectively in education, training activities, information acquisition and documentation, data processing systems, communication, laboratory and field research costs, transportation etc.

We are requesting for your assistance in these endevours and second to become part of our vision and remain committed to help us realize our vision.

We invite assistance and fundraising from multi-national, bilateral, organization, Institutions, charitable foundation, corporate sector, global citizens and the great general public.

Thank you,

DR. ANDREN CHAPYA
Executive Director & chief scientist
Traditional Healthcare Integration Network (THIN)
P .O. Box 46665-00100, GPO Nairobi, Kenya.
E-mail:afyasili.org@live.co.uk

……….Health………..Body………. and Earth….Systems………

INFORMATION LINE: THIN 24TH Feb. 2009

……….Health………..Body………. and Earth….Systems………

…………What? ......Where ……… Are the Connections?..........

The health of our bodies are closely related to the health of the earth. Our bodies are made from the earth and are supported by her. When soil is not healthy, we are not healthy, when the air we breathe and the water we drink is polluted, we take in the poison and our bodies experiences the results. Because we are closely related to the earth, caring for the health of the earth results in our own better health.

We store and use light energy from the distant sun. Each second the sun converts four million tons of itself into light. Green plants capture this light energy and use it to grow. When we eat and digest vegetable leaves, maize or sweet potatoes, the sun’s energy stored there is transferred to our body systems and becomes part of us.

The iron circulating in our blood today was in the spinach we ate last week, which absorbed it from the soil in the field. Parts of our bones were once rock from the earth’s crust-rocks that were bombarded by wind and rain to become mixed with soil. The water we boil for tea has a strong history. We can trace it backwards from our teapot to the spring or tap, then back to the lake or water table and back to the rain and to the ocean from which is evaporated

Oxygen produced by green plants is drawn into our bodies and fuels our countless activities. In return we exhale carbon dioxide which nourishes the very same green plants. We are constantly taking from earth and giving back to earth. At death our bodies will return to the basic elements from which it was formed and become food for other life forms; in the same way that other life forms died, decayed and formed the soil that supports life from moment to moment.

The well being of our spirit is not separate from the health of our bodies and therefore is also affected by the condition of the environment. We are shaped in many ways by the created world around us as surely as by the characteristics inherited from our families. When we feel threatened by the environment, whether it is neighbours or family or famine or disease, we almost automatically hold our breath, and tighten our muscles. Such fear and about the world around us can make us sick.

We need to feel safe if we are to live a total life. A sense of safety comes when we acknowledge our relationships, both to the earth and to others. We take care of our health practices but also we need to be confident and grateful that the earth supports and maintains us. Because we are able to feel, respond from so much of nature around us, we have a sense the rains are near, or hunger is coming.

We are indeed poor, not completely well, if we lose contact with those dynamic and creative connections and systems at work throughout earth and universe and within every one of our cells. This knowledge and this communications gives us courage in hard times; we realize we are not alone. We are part of a bigger picture and a larger story.

Our elders discovered and set aside places in their midst which felt unique or powerful. It could be a grove of trees, or rocks or spring. The community protected and respected these places. Each person who went there felt a power and had a sense of something bigger than oneself. Sometimes there were restrictions about who was allowed to go there, or activities such as gathering firewood or cutting grass were forbidden. These were places set aside to pray, or offer sacrifice or to hold meetings. The land held us. We cultivated according to the needs we had for the year but also tended for those areas of land that fed our spirit and honoured the spirit.

This is the land where I was born. I don’t know how long we have lived on this land, but as far back as elders can remember. They knew this land that has fed them and held our family through the years. They tended the land and learned from it. This knowledge was passed down to each new crop of children; this is the way you till the soil, this is how to plant, never just one seed but two together, for this is how we live. We do not live alone. We live, grow and die in a community .This land is a blessing .This place holds the bones of our ancestors.

We depend on this land, not only for food to sustain us, but also for our sense of community. We understand that growing food is not a work we do ourselves without the cooperation of the weather, the sun and moon, insects for pollination and fertile soil. We would not eat, when we cultivated, planted, harvested and stored food we realized that we united our physical strength and earth, our skills and experience with other powers and forces in nature. Some of my ancestors shared the same home, the same plot of land. It is sacred for my family.



Peoples of all nationalities, languages and culture are one family. We all need corporate to create a world where each person will have basic needs met, where all feel safe and secure, where hopes and desires for enhancement of life can be actualized for every one; we were given a life and we return some of the life we were given, remaining with only what we need. If we take too much and return nothing enhancing our own lives at the expense of earth herself then the earth and her species suffer and are destroyed.

To harm and take too much from any part of it is ultimately to harm and rob from ourselves. There is a challenge to look beyond self interest, beyond immediate results and to congratulate ourselves when we do. The hope is that we can live with our natural resources without fear. Environmentalists use a metaphor of the earth as a “spaceship” in trying to persuade countries, industries and people to stop wasting and polluting our natural resources. Since we all share life on this planet, they argue person or institution has the right to destroy, waste or use more than a fair share of it’s resources.

Parents should personally teach African culture or any other culture to their children. Unfortunately because of technological advancements and changing lifestyles, this is not possible at the moment, yet the men of power and men with influence, those who command most of the country’s resources and owe so much to their traditions for their own rise do not feel the urgency of saving the catastrophes, including the environment. In this they are failing in their duty to the future generations who will one day point their fingers to their forefathers as their betrayers. The house they are building today for their kith and kin will be left without heirs if the present slide is not arrested in time.

The United Nations cluster in the country is merely a toothless tiger with little power to enforce any policy upon its bickering members. It reacts no better. Researches and educators like us are worried. We are like farmers tendering crops in the middle of a war zone. Everyday the tropical rainforests are disappearing at the rate of 30 acres a minute. Illegal settlements and agriculture are taking place at unprecedented pace. Pollution of the air, soil, water, rivers and oceans are also increasingly alarming. The rich-deep top soil utilized by teeming organisms to create fertility for farmers to grow crops or raise animals are on the down turn. In fact it may be too late to harvest the genetic diversity of the environments since the knowledge is disappearing with the environments. And the future generations will have nothing to inherit.

These facts are hard to explain to the local people, who are starving and sick. They need food now and not tomorrow. When it comes to politics, we can not handle this. It is not within our mandate and priorities, we do not know what to do.
Perhaps if enough people realize how fast our natural resources are being wasted, realistic solutions that benefit the people and save the earth could be adopted.

THIN feels the real pressure to act, to increase knowledge through education, training, communication, research and institutional development - by emphasizing institutional building programs at the national level. Strong institutions through human resource development and research training as a framework for sustainable development, especially when the country is importing food, medicines and technologies. THIN is having a multidisciplinary and a multi-sector approach to ensure that the communities and people have relevant training, knowledge and technology that stick. We are empowering many people to get involved, committed in delivery of goods and services and to contribute to addressing local needs. We need the resources and technical support to improve our institutional capacity and communication strategies. At this point we would like to extend a hand of appreciation to those who have read on our web log; http://dandoracommunity.blogspot.com about our work and our needs, who are willing to support the less visible but vital core activities of our organization. This is a confirmation of their confidence that we are moving in the right direction in addressing not only local but also international important issues. We welcome new supporters from all walks of life all over the world.

We recognize the role of business as a corporate citizen [that supports local communities and credible projects in our country]. Contributions to community livelihood can change their attitudes and motivate them to conserve what they have and what they know. However, there is another fundamental problem with the donor community’s requests regarding fund and resource generation by research and development institution based in developing countries like THIN It has been suggested a good share of the funding requirements should be raised from the local private sector, as do the research institutes in the industrialized countries One major drawback has escaped the attention of the architects of this approach; however,

The industrialized countries have along-standing experience with investing in research and consequently place a high value on it. In the developing countries, there is on one hand virtually no private sector capable or willing to fund ‘research endeavors’ and on the other hand, very minimal appreciation of the values of the assets they use and the people who keep them. They appear ignorant or insensitive to the environmental health and dangers of global warming and its consequences. Indeed of them have charitable giving schemes but these are mostly meant to benefit the elites or themselves or their friends and relatives. The time lag until there is genuine and substantial support to community projects by the private sector in this country is estimated at best 30 years from now. (See our next publication)

There is, therefore no alternative to a continued strong support to community development oriented organizations like THIN. This should be done in the spirit that this will stimulate, support and accelerate the true examples of making developing countries independent.

Give us the means and we will do the job. We trust you will give us a sympathetic and understanding ear to our challenges. History proves that when traditional values and knowledge flourished, the countries were overflowing with wealth, prosperity, peace, literature, music, art and humanity. The concept of preservation of cows and granary, which were deep rooted in the African continents agricultural structure were products of thousands of years of locale-specific wisdom passed down through generations by word of mouth. Understanding how traditional practitioners and providers acquire, store and use information and knowledge and enabling them to do so more effectively in a rapidly changing world is crucial to development and the future. Investigating indigenous knowledge may be a powerful and efficient means of filling gaps in scientific understanding about production systems.

DR. ANDREW CHAPYA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CHIEF SCIENTIST
THIN.

* Please see THINs encounter and fundraising experiences in the forthcoming information line of THIN.

Healing In Two Worlds

Information line: THIN. February 9, 2009

Healing In Two Worlds

…Outside the different features and into the true heart of being.

What the traditional world offers to the modern world centers around the understanding of concepts of healing, ritual and community. Indigenous communities have since time immemorial focused their lives and their existence on these issues.

Healing is central, because it was learned very early that human beings are vulnerable to physiological and biological breakdown, and that all this general instability touches all aspects of their existence. They have also learnt that the natural environment in which they live is made up of crafty invisible things that, if manipulated in certain ways, can affect the conditions that they intend to heal. Ritual technology is the technology that allows the manipulation of these subtle energies. Community is important because there is an understanding that human beings are collectively oriented. The general health and well-being of an individual are connected to community and are not something that can be maintained alone or in a vacuum. The Concepts of Healing, ritual and community are virtually linked.

Healing, ritual, and community, the goods that the indigenous world can offer to the west are the very things that the modern world is struggling with. Ritual in the indigenous world is aimed at producing a healing, and the loss of such healing in the modern world might be responsible for the loss of community that we see. Perhaps, the problems experienced in the west, from the pain of isolation to the stress of hyper activity, are brought on by the loss of community.

The west is struggling with a confusing notion of ritual, for the world usually refers to some sort of dark, pagan, and archaic practice that has no place in the modern society. Although the problems that come from the loss of ritual are less clear, but, it is the absence of ritual that the west are struggling with, the loss of connection with the unseen aspects of the natural world that have the ability to bring the needed healing. The only accepted rituals are ceremonial practices with clearly predictable content and outcome, such as what can be seen in the Sunday Church Service of one of the organized religions. When we talk of ritual here we are talking about something much deeper. We are talking about WEAVING of individual persons and gifts into a community that interacts with the forces of the natural. We are talking about a gathering of people with a clear healing vision and a trusting intent towards the forces of the invisible world.

What villagers bring to a ritual are trust that the invisible forces will heal and knowledge of what needs healing. These are the only things they know a head of time, the rest, shape and outcome of the ritual, is put in the hands of the Great ones. The road from the felt need for healing to the healing itself is proved with gestures, touch, sound, melody, and cadence, and most of these are spontaneous activities, unpredictable in their outcomes. When villagers act together on their need for healing and engage in such spontaneous gestures, they are requesting the presence of the invisible forces and are participating with those forces in creating a harmony of symbiosis. This partnership replenishes each person by restoring his or her relationship to nature, for among indigenous people the natural world and the spirit world are closely related. Ritual is an art, an art that weaves and dances with symbols, and helping to create that art rejuvenates participants. Everyone comes a way from a ritual feeling deeply transformed. This restoration is the healing that ritual is meant to provide. Ritual is the principal tool used to approach that unseen world and bring about material transformation.

That we connect with unseen realities, the realities made visible in our symbols, is crucial to the well being of our psyches. A person who walks through a ritual and ends up feeling changed and invigorated is a blessed recipient of healing waves of energy that no one can see but everyone can benefit from. The full heart of a person blessed in this manner overflows into the needy souls, igniting the healing fire most wanted for self-replenishment. Ritual is central in village life, for it provides the focus and energy that holds the community together, and it provides the kind of healing that the community needs to survive.

Nature is the foundation of indigenous life. Without nature, concepts of community, purpose, and healing would be meaningless. The idea of a person born with a purpose, a purpose that needs to be supported by an active community presence, and the idea of working with subtle energies for balance and healing would be only grandiose notions in the absence of nature as the playground, as the school where children can play and study.

Our relationship to the natural world and its natural laws determines whether or not we are healed. Nature therefore is the foundation of healing, and the type of nature that surrounds a community at the time of doing a ritual determines the types of ritual that are appropriate and the content of these rituals. We are talking about a way of dealing with an energetic world and energetic issues that borrows from what already exists, not what has been invented, manufactured or created by humans to satisfy some material purpose. In other words, every tree, plant, hill, mountain, rock, and each thing that was here before us emanates or vibrates at a subtle energy that has healing power whether we know it or not. So if something in us must change, spending time in and with nature provides a good beginning. That means that within nature, within the natural world, are all of the materials and tenets needed for healing human beings. Nature is the textbook for those who care to study it and the storehouse for remedies for human ills. Nature is still the greatest chemist.

The cycle of conflict, ill health, drought, hunger can be broken with application on cutting-edge science and technology. THIN and partners are exploring and testing peoples science and natures’ libraries to ensure the latter’s sustainability, environmental health, medicines, nutritional and food security.

DR. ANDREW CHAPYA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CHIEF SCIENTIST
THIN.

Information line: THIN / February 4, 2009

Information line: THIN / February 4, 2009

Gathering Data.

Researcher as Witness and Instrument

Qualitative field study differs from other research methods in that it features researchers themselves as observers and participants in the lives of the people being studied. The researcher strives to be a participant in and a witness to the lives of others. This is quite different from other kinds of research on which the investigator is not her – or himself a sustained presence in a naturally occurring situation or setting. Other researchers rely instead on documents, structured interviews, experimental simulations, and other sources that are one or more levels removed from direct observation of and participation in on going natural settings.

The central reason for observing and / or participating in the lives of others is that a great many aspects of social life can be seen, felt, and analytically articulated only in this manner. In subjecting him – or herself to the life’s of others and living and feeling those lives along with them, the researcher becomes the primary instrument or medium through which the research is conducted. The researcher seeks to witness how those studied perceive, feel and act in order to understand their perceptions, feelings, and behaviour more fully and intimately. The epistemological foundation of field studies is indeed the proposition that only through direct observation and / or participation can one get close to apprehending those studied and the character of their social worlds and lives.

Social science is the study of a society, or the social life of the human being. It has two branches: Social Anthropology and sociology. Social Anthropology studies small-scale social relationships, with an emphasis on ideas. Sociology studies large-scale social relationships, with an emphasis on behaviour. The two disciplines have a common origin, but have developed in different, but complementary ways.

The object of sociology is the large-scale, industrialized or complex society, while the object of Social Anthropology is the small-scale society, community or network. The interest of sociology is chiefly in behavioural while the interest in Social Anthropology is chiefly in ideas. In human society ideas and behaviour interact. Sociology uses field work or participant observation. This involves vernacular language learning, living and participating in everyday life, interrogation of informant, systematic recording and qualification. A descriptive account of a small-scale human society is called“ethnography”.

Social-Cultural Anthropology has two branches: the science of culture and Social science (or the science of society). The science of Culture studies “the learned” aspects of human behaviour- that is to say, form of behaviour that are not due to hereditary. It has also two branches:

Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology. Cultural Anthropology started in the U.S.A; with such scholars as Franz Boas. It studies whole cultures, with an emphasis on material culture and language (of museum studies of Native American cultures by Boas and others). It also studies learning theory, the processes by which human beings are socialized and acquire their culture. Ethnology started in Europe, as the study of material Culture; human artifacts, technology, economy, habitat. There is sometimes confusion when the word “Ethnology” is used for social Anthropology.

Obviously, the human sciences interact and overlap, but social anthropology does not restrict itself to material culture, nor is it primarily interested in material culture. “Ethnology” is not to be confused with “Ethology” (or sociobiology), the study of the “social life” of animals. It is based on external observation and conjecture, and is often used to comment adversely on human society and behaviour.

Physical Anthropology studies human biology, the organisms and workings of the human body. As such it is really part of the study of medicine. It includes a variety of disciplines. Human morphology (or somatology),for example studies and classifies the human forms, according to such criteria as height and build, pigmentation, brain size, shape of head and facial features. It notes the advantages of certain forms in relation to climate and environment. Dark pigmentation is an advantage as a protection against solar radiation. A heavy build conserves heat in a cold climate ( cf the inuit of the Arctic circle). A higher ratio of body surface to body weight helps to conduct heat in a hot climate (cf the Nilotic peoples of equatorial Sudan)

Genetics is the discipline which studies variations in human organisms due to heredity and the processes by which they occur.

It can identify gene pools, or human groupings with common genetic traits. The discipline also studies twinning rates (Monozygotic and dizygotic) in diverse populations. Haemotology is the study of blood groups and their geographic distribution. In conjunction with paleontology (the study of fossil remains) physical anthropology studies human evolutions.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries anthropologists believed that human physical characteristics had extensive cultural implications. We now know that such implications are limited. The concept of “face” for example, is notoriously subjective, being based on the visual impact of physical difference. The blood group is a more Scientific category, but it does not correspond to the notion of race. Perceived physical differences may have an impact on human behaviour, e.g. social discrimination and racism.

Genetic phenomena such as twinning may also have social repercussions. Dizygotic twinning (the occurance of non identical twins) is more common in African and African- American populations than among caucasoids. Twin – rituals are a social reaction to this phenomena and are more common in Africa than in other countries. Modern social-cultural anthropologists are seldom interested in the physical characteristics of the peoples they study.

Physiology studies the conscious and unconciousness of the mind of a human being. It developed as an experimental science, being based on observed clinical cases. Generalizations were drawn from individual instances without explicit references to socio-cultural factors. Problems arise with socio-cultural application of psychological theory. For this reason, social psychology was developed was developed as a corrective. It studies human psychological responses to varied socio-cultural stimuli ( cf the work of Margaret Maede in New Guinea and Samoa.

Techniques for collecting indigenous knowledge should document what people do and why, within the larger framework of what they know and think (Brookfield 1996), PRA methods can reveal the hidden complexity of ik systems but it is important to have a good sequencing of activities and an overall relaxed approach.
The quality and quality of information resulting from a particular research activity depend on the trust established between the researchers and the participants. Villagers may need time to assess the researcher as a person, the researcher may need time to change his or her attitudes and behaviour to match that of villagers (Emiry 1997)

The techniques can yield an excessive amount of information, not all of it useful. Although the task of documentation is perceived as technically the easiest, it can be laborious, time consuming, costly, and sometimes disappointing (Adugne 1996). It is important to have clear research objectives (that is good questions) and some knowledge of the subject area. Johannes (1993) explained that the researcher should be able to determine whether the information is new, already well known, or implausible and, most impartially, be able to highlight the potentially significant points.

The THINS vision for the next decades is to assist in promoting greater reliance in tropical developing countries of East Africa on a mission oriented Scientific and technological research, leading directly to the generation of low-cost and viable health management technologies relevant to the locale-specific socio-economic situations, which will help increase food production and improve the health of the rural communities. Social scientists working in cooperation with biological scientists will ensure the development of culturally acceptable and cost-effective health management techniques, strategies, tactics, pathways. This assures that the adoption of improved technological innovations are facilitated by taking into account the needs and constraints of the end-users.

This vision further assures that a growing community of indigenous scientists, technicians, extension, practitioners with expertise and knowledge in health and health research is produced, who can join this pan –tropical efforts to generate, disseminate and apply new knowledge and to develop new technologies. This strongly calls for intensified research and training, effective partnerships and networking, as well as institutional development more conducive for research and development. THIN, because of its Non-Governmental countrywide status and base in a developing country has a significant role to play in these processes.

DR. ANDREW CHAPYA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CHIEF SCIENTIST,
THIN.

Information line: THIN: February 1, 2009

Traditional and Cultural Knowledge Systems
Relevant Research Agenda (RRA)
Indigenous and Cultural knowledge as a development imperative requires sensitive design management and evaluation decisions about practices on the basis of understanding that is already available.

The inadequacy of scientific understanding about Traditional and Cultural Knowledge systems hampers development initiatives, attempting to make full use of the potential benefits of indigenous and cultural knowledge in sustainable development; for example in Primary Healthcare (PHC). Useful knowledge comprises both operational knowledge (indigenous technical knowledge) and explanatory knowledge (indigenous ecological knowledge).

Many local communities in many parts of Kenya, and also Africa, benefit from generations of experiences of management of complex ecological and health systems that take advantage associated with that complexity. However, there are serious gaps in understanding about many of the components and interactions in established systems.

An expedient means of filling the gap between what is currently known and what is needed, in order to make sensible decisions is urgently required. The knowledge is worthy of investigations as a valuable resource in understanding the ecological functioning and management of the system.

We see human action as conditioned by the value of system and attitudes found within a given society and by the amount and type of available resources at a given time and space. It has become customary and common to analyse situations and plan actions for a society in terms of human and material resources. However, the importance of value systems is too often neglected in planning for social and economic developments.
The term is understood in a broad sense, covering not only cultural aspects and human traits, but also interactions with the environments, both physical and behavioural.

The challenge is to improve / develop solutions and technologies based on resources and management systems that are adaptable by both rural and sub – urban people in a multitude of diverse environments and circumstances, and to produce results that are valid irrespective of prevailing ideologies because they are derived from fundamental human behaviour patterns.

The approach is interdisciplinary and combines the study of people, crops, plants, livestock, environment and their interactions with one another in the ecosystems. It embraces on ecosystems focus considering the stability, sustainability and equity of land use systems, in addition to their productivity. Social aspects are considered as thoroughly as ecological and economic aspects.
Understanding existing knowledge can help determine whether alternatives from outside are appropriate, how they might be adopted and how best to introduce them. New technologies should usually build upon existing practices and knowledge. Thus, whenever technological solutions are proposed for the developing world, we should keep in mind the attendant risks, i.e. we should ensure that technology is congruent with man.

Neglect of value systems in pursuit of technological progress can be harmful and the maladaptation found to-day should remind us that physiological tensions and the excess of nationalism often arise as a result of a divorce between spiritual and material development. In other words, the salient problems of development are characterized by the difficulties not only in finding enough material resources but also matching them with specific cultural patters in given communities. For example, a project which aims to change the lifestyle of the nomadic Turkana tribe in Kenya by convincing them to take up the sedentary fishing industry will fail precisely because it does not build on the traditions and culture of the people. What they know and what they want to retain because every society is held by its own cultures and traditions.

The gap between the scientific understanding of Primary Healthcare (PHC) practices and other systems, and the site-specific understanding needed for the purposes of practical development might be effectively filled by making use of the knowledge already held by the communities themselves, as a result of managing their own health, their crops and animals.

However, it has been found that where indigenous and external knowledge systems come together, they may be assimilated into each other or practically isolated, but more commonly the indigenous knowledge is required and squeezed out. There is evidence that in many areas external aid has tended to shiffle local innovativeness and understanding to produce dependant cultures, and under many circumstances this has led to the loss of useful understanding. However, even where no useful information is lost, replacing the one with the other fails to appreciate the cultural significance of much of indigenous knowledge.

To minister in another culture one must enter the culture-culture is a basic concept of sociology because it is what makes humans unique. Some people think of culture as the fine arts: music, operas, ballets, theatre. To the sociologist culture is used in amore encompassing way to include the entire way of life of people. All members of society are cultured – having distinctive language, food, dress, beliefs, customs and behaviour patterns –yet, within this large country with (forty three) different ethnic groups, there are different distinctive and unique ways of people in their groups in which ther exhibit their own language, food, dress, beliefs, religion, customs and behaviour patterns which has made them survive

Entering Another Culture

When an individual l leaves his or her own culture with its familiar customs, traditions, social patterns and way of life, the individual quickly begins to adjust on the new culture or tossed and buffered by it until he or she finally succumbs to extinction and suffocation.

A person will respond to a new culture in one or two ways: with empathy, acceptance and identification which will result in adjustment and success or with culture, shock or ultimate failure.

Often culture shock is precipitate by the anxiety that result from losing all our familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse. These signs or cues include the thousand and one ways in which we orient ourselves to the situations of daily life; when we shake hands and what we say when we meet people, when and how to give tips, how to give orders to servants and workers, how to make purchases, when to accept and refuse invitations, when to take statements seriously and when not. Now these cues which may be words, gestures, facial expressions, customs or norms are acquired by all of us in the course of growing up and are as much part of our culture as the language we speak.

Now when an individual enters a strange culture, all or most of these familiar cues are removed………………..No matter how broadminded or full of goodwill you may be, series of props have been knocked from under you, you may be followed by a felling of frustration and anxiety.

Culture shock comes in in three stages: First is the fascination or tourist stage, which comes when the person enters the new culture.

There are new fascinating sights and sounds. There are exiting things to see and experience. There are usually friendly English (or other language) speaking People to help to see to one’s comforts. The tourist or short term visitor or enthusiast usually never goes beyond this stage before leaving the culture.

The second stage is the rejection stage. The fan and fascination of the new culture begins to fade and the newcomer meets head-on the difficulties involved in living in the new culture. But now the “rules” of living are different, and the newcomer is not “in” on most of them. The way of doing things in the persons own culture may have been neat and logical but the ways of doing things in the new culture may seem capricious, without design or purpose. The newcomer becomes frustrated in attempting to function in the new culture by applying the “rules” of his or her own culture when these “rules” do not accomplish the desired results, and he or she begins to blame the new culture.

This rejection may take several forms, such as stereotyping members of the new culture, making derogatory and joking remarks about the people, dissociating oneself as much as possible with members of ones own culture. Most people make at least a partial recovery from culture shock. Those not able to accommodate themselves to the new culture eventually withdraw from it completely.

Joint participation between outsiders and rural communities implies dialogue to establish trust and shared goals and to translate and pool knowledge. Dialogue must take place between within communities as well as between the community and outside catalysts. New knowledge should be built on existing practice and knowledge.

Sociological Enquiry

Often we draw conclusions about our world by making casual observations. For example, we ask friends for their opinion, we base our assumptions on the articles we read, we listen and watch newscasters and believe what “they” tell us. While such casual approaches seem helpful, there are more formal methods that sociologists use in research. Sociologists know that their studies are going to be scrutinized by other sociologists. Applying the philosophy of empirism, to the investigation of human group behaviour is what distinguishes sociological scientific research to gather insights about a community, say, musicians.

The social sciences comprise a variety of disciplines whose purpose is to study the behaviour of man in society, social systems and institutions. These disciplines employ different scientific methods of investigations including those ordinary associated with the natural sciences. The social sciences share the fundamental purpose of all science which is the quest for an understanding of the real world about us. Such an understanding would be incomplete and not very meaningful without the understanding of individual and social behaviour. This human dimension constitutes a fundamental aspect of the reality we seek to unravel.

The study of technology in some of it’s vital aspects; falls within the scope of social analysis basically become there can be no “technology” without a social purpose. There is no standard definition of technology – Broadly speaking it may be described as that aspect of culture which encompasses the knowledge, skills, methods and tools which are applied in the production of human necessities. One fails all too often to appreciate the social dimension because technology is commonly equated with it’s material manifestation alone. Yet, the “hardware” aspect of technology is no more than the material outcome of the cumulative discoveries and experiences of man in the struggle for survival. These underlying processes appropriately constitute subjects of social analysis. Technology moreover is not only a product of culture but become a stimulus of socio-economic changes which again constitute essential dimensions of investigation by social scientists.

This conception of technology is especially important in the context of developing countries of Africa and other parts of the world. Technological change is expected to play a dynamic and pervasive role in the social and economic development of these countries. It should therefore be a basic function of the social scientist to better understand the manner and conditions under which technological change can pay a more effective role in economic development. Related to this task is also the need to analyse the economic and social consequences of technological change, because, inspite of the positive connotation which is often attached to the term, a “new technology” might turn out to be highly inappropriate and might even have deleterious effects on human welfare. Indeed, it is the necessity to present such potential negative consequences which renders the role of the social scientists all the more important in technological development.

Inspite of the basic conception expressed above, technology has for long been regarded as an “import” commodity of the developing countries of the world. It was assumed that the dominant methods of production employed in the developing countries were so backward that they would have to give way to the more modern technologies which have been developed in the economically advanced countries. Emphasis was there for placed on “technology transfer” from the industrialized to the developing countries.

It has now been realized however that the emphasis on technology transfer is a misplaced emphasis. It arises the assumption that technologies developed in and for the industrialized countries can be imported and directly applied to the production systems which prevail in the developing countries. This assumption was, of course, basically wrong. Technologies are generally developed in response to particular needs and to enhance productivity within a given socio-economic context. Each such technology therefore carries with it a “generic code” as it were, of the society within which it have evolved. It is therefore becoming difficult, if not impossible, to replicate the complex of socio-economic conditions which would permit the effective absorption of the imported technology. The most likely result of unquestioning importation and introduction of foreign technology is failure to achieve a “technological fit” with the potential negative socio-economic consequences. Perhaps the more fundamental issue has to do with the promotion of “endogenous development” of technology.

But Basic research is not sufficient by itself to achieve the mission. The results of Basic research by non-governmental organizations like THIN must be transformed into technologies that are within social acceptability framework, they must then be tested in the field for new scientific content, and finally they must be passed on to National Programmes for implementation. There is where complementary activities with partners who address the link between research and development. Research has been recognized in Kenya as an important input in National Social and Economic Development. Consequently, the Government has set up a Ministry dealing with Research, Science and Technology. Under the Ministry, there is the National Council of Science and Technology (NCST). By an amendment to the same Act, six other research institutes were established in the area of Industry, Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine resources, General medicine, Forestry and Trypanosomiasis (Sleeping sickness and Nagana). There are also a number of International Research Institutes and United Nations Agencies e.g. ILRI, ICIPE, WFR, etc. Finally there are research activities within universities’ departments, institutes of technology, some Government departments and industry.

Unfortunately none of those institutions are doing serious research and community work to develop Traditional and Cultural Knowledge (including traditional medicines and healthcare and to help individual practitioners and healers to realize their relevance in society. There is no new institutions of learning generating knowledge about African peoples and ensuring that their knowledge becomes part of the curricula, there is no course in indigenous knowledge systems – either at B.A or Masters level in indigenous knowledge systems, neither is there any students doing doctorate in the same fields to get degrees that are relevant in terms of our country’s social, economic orientations.

It is sad to find that many countries in the developing world are not making concerted efforts to ensure that development policies benefit the poorest members of society- through empowerment. This is happening because we have lost sight of the most important tenet of society – the community. Development organizations which seek to promote community development, these are charities in the real sense of the world, as they seek to empower and enable people to do things for themselves, rather than provide services and goods in a sustainable manner for the millions in need.

The fundamental and social research at THIN organization is opening new avenues and increasing the efficiency of low – cost effective, integrated health management strategies useful to the resource-poor rural and semi-urban communities, will be at hand.

THIN’S participatory learning, education and research-training priorities focuses on clarifying linkages between traditional and cultural practices, and heritages, conservation and poverty. The THINS integrated but functional programmes contribute to the development and transfer of diseases prevention, management and control and to help design appropriate technologies and policies, pathways and strategies in delivery of effective human, crop, livestock, environmental services and products in different productive systems for employment creation, incomes and profits, education, while promoting the traditional bonds of solidarity that have existed for centuries and giving science a meaning.

Indeed, these target health programmes that THIN has chosen for its priority attack are all challenges and issues that have already received considerable national, regional and international attention. Many of these have been the subject of practical control and eradication programmes on an extensive scale over the last several decades. If these were simple direct methods for the management and control of these serious dilemmas facing mankind and the increasing resistance to chemical treatment by disease causing pathogens, they would have been found in that time and put into operation.

DR. ANDREW CHAPYA
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & CHIEF SCIENTIST
THIN.

HEALTH INDEX IN KENYA

In developing countries of Africa, medical can be divided into two, the hospital services which require among other things, doctors, drugs, operating theatres, laboratories and x-ray departments. Then there are the basic health services which are staffed with auxiliaries and do not require those things – their function being to provide a family with all the services that it needs, except those that can only be provided by the hospital.