The Management and Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge at Kwa-Khaya Lendaba cultural village in Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Abstract

For many years, cultural villages have existed in Africa, primarily for tourist attraction and economic benefit. Many cultural villages deteriorate due to human activities, and these cultural villages, as well as the indigenous knowledge found in these cultural villages, are not adequately protected by the indigenous people. Indigenous knowledge has been recognized for its pivotal role as a strategic tool in the development of the lives of people in the world. Indigenous knowledge (IK) management and preservation are critical in academia. This thesis aimed to explore and document the indigenous knowledge and practices and knowledge management methods and tools used to preserve and manage IK at Kwa-Khaya Lendaba cultural village because this knowledge is lost due to oral transmission, lack of documentation, and the deterioration of his cultural villages. The data was generated using face-to-face, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and the Knowledge Attitude and Perception (KAP) Likert scale, to know about the perception of the local people regarding IK, Cultural Villages, and knowledge management of IK in cultural villages. The data generated was analysed using thematic analysis to identify the IK practiced in the cultural villages and the knowledge management approaches that should be used to preserve and manage IK in the cultural villages and statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) was used for quantitative data, to get descriptive data, to calculate and get percentages. The study's findings revealed that cultural villages play a vital role in the community and that cultural villages depict diverse cultures. However, the knowledge behind the Cultural Villages is not documented, preserved, and managed. IK Activities that practiced at KKL cultural village demonstrated that there is a need to preserve and disseminate information to the local people. As a result, there is a need to document and disseminate this knowledge to local people, particularly to the youth, in schools. The communities need to be educated about the advantages of using knowledge management tools for preserving and managing their knowledge. It has been concluded that the extent to which` IK is preserved in the cultural villages is poor and the best way to preserve, disseminate, and share indigenous knowledge by using Information and Communication Technology and libraries. The study's goal was to document Indigenous Knowledge found in Kwa-Khaya Lendaba cultural village and to investigate various methods for preserving and managing IK. This is the first study conducted on IK at Kwa-Khaya Lendaba cultural village. Therefore, this research study contributes to the advancement of knowledge on IK within the context of cultural villages. The study further contributes to new insight of the role that tourism can play in the preservation of IK, of which is often overlooked in scientific research