Sankofa- Letlhaku le legologolo : a meshed framework for centring Indigenous knowledge in higher education teaching and learning

Abstract

This literature study explains how teaching and learning for African higher education students can be framed within a meshed Sankofa-Letlhaku le legologolo (Sankofa-Ll) theoretical lens. Indigenous people’s adages offer rich knowledge, teaching and learning resources, yet they are underplayed in higher education institutions due to the colonial education system’s influence. In the article, I discuss the colonial influence on African epistemologies. I describe Sankofa and Letlhaku le legologolo, showing how they mesh to form a powerful teaching and learning framework in higher education. I focus on undergraduate and postgraduate supervision. I further discuss the fundamental principles for Indigenous education, methods and jegnaship for postgraduate supervision, and zoom into how teaching and learning can be framed in Sankofa-Ll. Finally, I provide implications and a conclusion. The framework will help strengthen the indigenisation of higher education teaching and learning to ensure that they relate to the African students’ culture.

Introduction

My name suggests that I do not know much about the Tswana culture. This is true; I cannot claim that I know Setswana like a Tswana native. My late father hailed from Zimbabwe and worked and started a family in South Africa. My mother’s parents were also from Zimbabwe. However, she was raised among Batswana. As it is said, puo e anywa letseleng (language is sucked from the mother’s breast), my siblings and I were raised speaking Setswana. I went to school in the former Bophuthatswana, which emphasised the Setswana education policy. Also, during my university education, I did Setswana up to the second level, and its teaching methodology. I taught Setswana at secondary school in Bophuthatswana, which became Northwest Province at the dawn of democracy in 1994. But the treatment by the apartheid education system was demeaning. As a result, I conduct my research as a Black African scholar who has been subjected to the racial tensions of the former apartheid South Africa, whose lens of higher educational experience, including doctoral education, was a battle against racial and cultural oppression. This is how I connect with this article.

This is a literature-based study. Relevant literature was searched, which helped to present the topic and respond to the issue raised. The central concepts, Sankofa and Letlhaku, were described and applied in the article, supported by the consulted literature sources. The study explains how African higher education students’ teaching and learning can be framed within a meshed Sankofa-Letlhaku le legologolo (Sankofa-Ll) theoretical lens. The full Tswana proverb is Letlhaku le lešwa le agelwa mo go le legologolo (a new branch is built onto the very old branch). The rich knowledge and practices framed in Sankofa-Ll characterise the African philosophical traditions, cultural systems, idiomatic expressions and so on. However, the colonial education systems have ostracised this knowledge and practices over centuries (Adomako & Dai-Kosi, 2016; Deterville, 2020; Slater, 2019). Ezeanya-Esiobu (2019) states that Africans’ environment, experiences, way of life and so forth were considered uncivilised and unscientific. Exploring the disjuncture between western education implanted in African and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), she reveals that the overarching western system aims to superimpose Europeanisation over the Africans’ persona. So do the teaching and learning approaches in higher education institutions. In imposing the western system, education is employed as an essential tool for teaching African students how to escape their culture. This approach has and continues to underplay the rich African knowledge, risking its existence and role in education. African students in higher educational institutions are not taught in line with their cultural knowledge, part of which is the rich adages. This article tackles this problem.

The effects of the colonial influence and conditioning of African people (Ezeanya-Esiobu, 2019), as well as their resilience to cling to their worldview, motivated this study. African Indigenous education systems have always sought to develop and preserve the culture of African Indigenous people. This article argues for the reclaiming of IK and practices using the Sankofa-Ll framework. The article focuses on the philosophy of Sankofa, augmented by Letlhaku le lešwa le agelwa mo go le legologolo. The significance of this work is that it will recultivate and reaffirm the value of African adages and their role in the education of students within the higher education context.

IK is a product of the very lived experiences of Africans and their interaction with the environment, which must be profusely claimed and accorded the dignity they deserve. Sankofa-Ll contributes to frameworks that help anchor (higher) education on African IKS. It also helps strengthen the indigenisation of education and the curriculum to ensure their relevance to the culture of the African student. The research question aligned with the aim of the study is: How can the African higher education students’ teaching and learning be framed within Sankofa-Ll theoretical lens?

The following section discusses the colonial influence on African epistemologies.

Colonial influence on African epistemologies

In this section, I contest African epistemologies against the western influence. Adomako and Dai-Kosi (2016) argue that African scholars and researchers suffer acculturation by western systems because they continue to perpetuate and mimic western values and epistemologies at their own expense. Slater (2019) advises that Africans must reclaim their past wisdom to resolve contemporary problems. Elders have been and still are sources of such wisdom. However, the educational systems have favoured and flourished western epistemologies and pushed them aside. This is expressed by Slater’s (2019) claim that the universalist-particularist tension imposes westernism on Africanism and undermines the continent’s soul. According to Slater (2019), knowing the past is the sin qua non for the meaning of humanness in Africa. Africans thrive on their past epistemologies, experiences and wisdom to shape their present and future. Indigenous African Knowledge Systems are profound; even the Catholic missionary groups’ leaders in Africa always advised learning from Africans’ culture and habits (Slater, 2019). Reverend Father Daniel Comboni (cited in Slater, 2019, p. 3) states that ‘the regeneration of Africa by means of Africa, seems to me the only possible way to Christianise the continent’. The author insists: ‘Become African with Africans’ (Slater, 2019, p. 3). The Africanisation of education, decolonial clarion and transformation mission of the current study are invitational to this realising Comboni’s advice. Proverbs are part of the learning that can be gained in this regard – they provide powerful educational tools and frameworks for teaching and learning. Non-Indigenous students could also learn alternative knowledge systems, which they were denied by socialising them only in their set cultural beliefs.

Western education can be understood through its capitalist system, which has planted individualism and disturbed African communalism and collectivism. Adomako and Dai-Kosi (2016) attest that the breakdown in communal/collective living in Ghana has led to psychological problems, accounting for decreased social support for individuals. These authors also blame the economic conditions that force individuals to constantly chase after wealth instead of investing in time with family and friends. This goes against the social aspect; the essence of humanity anchoring all humans as God’s children, who equally deserve honour and respect; human fellowship is crucial for society’s effective functioning – the human being is worth far more than materialism (Adomako & Dai-Kosi, 2016). Social justice and equality, which can liberate African worldviews, are critically echoed in the worth that must be accorded to every human. The dignity and worth of African people must be upheld, and one crucial way to do this is for students to receive an education relevant to their cultural contexts. Such education will even make them develop their communities without eroding their cultural fabric. Hence, there is a need for education that is Sankofa-Ll-informed.

Sankofa and Letlhaku le legologolo

Sankofa can be broken into the san (to return), ko (to go) and fa (to fetch or to seek) – go back and get/take it (Deterville, 2020). According to Deterville (2020), Sankofa is represented by two proverbs. ‘The first proverb states thus: 1) One should not be ashamed to go back and claim what is forgotten; and 2) One should go back and fetch what is forgotten to move forward’ (Deterville, 2020, p. 6). The symbol of a ‘bird carrying an egg in its mouth, and its head facing backwards while walking or flying forward represents the second proverb’ (Deterville, 2020, p. 6).

Sankofa stems from Adinkra (Temple, 2010), a tribe of the Akan people of Ghana. It expresses the philosophy of their cultural heritage system and epistemologies (Temple, 2010 in Felder, 2019). Asante (2016) refers to it as the philosophical mechanism that allows self-examination and monitoring of the present and the future against the past. As a Ghanaian concept, Sankofa encourages a solid engagement with the past to ensure informed and sustained progress into the future (School for International Training, 2024). Sankofa invokes the past, present and future (Deterville, 2020). In this light, Sankofa strengthens the Renaissance to reclaim the African worldview in Africa. This is premised on the idea that Africans cling to the legacy of natural, cultural behaviour, defining their worldview. The call for Renaissance means being critical of and resisting European worldviews and going back to reclaim the African worldviews, given the colonial influence the continent has been subjected to for centuries.

Leseyane’s (1969) book titled Letlhaku le legologolo is a novel about the Tswana proverbs. It was prescribed during my high school days. It is a ‘fountain’ of the Batswana wisdom contained in their proverbs. Letlhaku le legologolo, in its complete form, is Letlhaku le lešwa le agelwa mo go le legologolo. A telephonic conversation with Rre (Mr) Mosala William Huma on 20 March 2024 deepened my understanding of this proverb as he unpacked its original meaning and function. The function and symbolic meaning of letlhaku are thus described.

The concept of letlhaku comes from legora – a fence for lesaka (kraal) (see Figure 1), lelapa (lapa) or setlagana (where articles such as pots, dishes and water can be stored during functions) which is built with tree branches. Setlagana is mainly built with branches of a mokwerekwere tree (Ximenia caffra). Mokwerekwere is strong; its branches do not break easily. Matlhaku, especially those of mokwerekwere, are used to sweep lebala (the place around the house). Following this logic, Letlhaku le lešwa le agelwa mo go le legologolo can be divided into Letlhaku le legologolo and Letlhaku le lešwa. Letlhaku le legologolo means a very old branch. In this sense, Letlhaku le legologolo is a symbol of protection, strength and support. Le legologolo does not necessarily refer to size (very big), but to age in the sense of bogolo (very old). Mogologolo is a very old person who can be relied on in terms of imparting knowledge and wisdom, especially to the youth. Hence, Letlhaku le lešwa means a new branch that is built or leans onto (le agelwa mo go) the very old branch.

Figure 1.

Lesaka la matlhaku (kraal made of tree branches).

In this article, therefore, Letlhaku le legologolo refers to the language, knowledge, wisdom, philosophy, practices, education, tradition, norms, beliefs and so forth, from antiquity to the present (Tedla, 1995), that a morafe (ethnic community) maintains and passes down to the next generation.

Using the analogy of the letlhaku-based kraal and lelapa that protect animals and people, respectively, Letlhaku le legologolo (an equivalent of Sankofa in this article) insulates and protects the language, knowledge, wisdom, philosophy, practices, tradition, norms and beliefs of Indigenous people. Sankofa and Letlhaku le lešwa le agelwa mo go le legologolo are used as a meshed theoretical lens in this article (refer to the illustration in Figure 2); hence, the framework Sankofa-Ll.

Figure 2.

A meshed Sankofa-Li teaching and learning framework.

In Figure 2, the past, present and future are presented as key tenets of Sankofa-LI (Sankofa combined with Letlhaku le lešwa le agelwa mo go le legologolo). The three are not, and must not be, divorced from one another. Both the present and the future are guided by and find meaning in the past as the bedrock of knowledge and wisdom. Elders (bagolo) are the key sources from whom knowledge and wisdom can be asked – indlela ibuzwa kwabaphambili (Zulu for the path forward is to enquire from those who have preceded us) (Shabalala & Gumbo, n.d. – draft article).

Viewed from the Sankofa-Ll perspective, elders (matlhaku a magologolo) are the primary sources of language, knowledge, wisdom, philosophy, practices, education, tradition, norms and beliefs that protect, strengthen and support matlhaku a mešwa (youth or students in the context of this article) and frame their present and future. The new branches are, therefore, the younger ones (students) who learn knowledge, skills, wisdom and practices from the elders (very old branches).

I use my tour of the Matenga cultural village in the Kingdom of Eswatini to illustrate this intergenerational knowledge impartation. On 11 April 2024, I attended the Teacher Education and Interdisciplinary Research Conference held in the Kingdom of Eswatini. A tour of the above-mentioned village was part of the conference’s social activities. The tour guide related the moral and educational insulated system of raising the young ones, such as their protection by the elders, gender restrictions to curb misbehaviour, and the teaching of boys by elderly men and girls by elderly women. This is one of the perfect demonstrations of Letlhaku le lešwa – letlhaku le legologolo synergy from an educational perspective – the preservation of the cultural traditions intergenerationally, wherein the present and the future must not be divorced from the good knowledge and practices of the past.

Considering Sankofa-Ll, language, knowledge, wisdom, philosophy, practices, education, tradition, norms, beliefs and so forth are the philosophical traditions of the community’s cultural heritage system and a way of knowing. Sankofa-Ll plays a vital role in informing the present and future directions. All this speaks of the resilience of African traditions, values and beliefs upon which their educational systems must be built. Thus, students can be taught values and norms that shape their moral upbringing and not only qualify them for various careers. They can be prevented from developing them as professional giants, who are moral dwarfs. The Sankofa-Ll must inform attempts to make education relevant to the students’ culture. The discussion in the next section focuses on this matter.

Sankofa-Ll-framed education in higher education

This section accounts for Indigenous education in African universities, as framed in Sankofa-Ll. This covers the undergraduate education and postgraduate teaching and learning.

Africans have been literate even before Europeans set foot on the African continent (Achi, 2021). African Indigenous education is based on the African tradition, which is anchored in beliefs, practices, customs and so forth from generation to generation, unwritten or written (Achi, 2021; Wells, 1990). Thus, building such education on Sankofa-Ll is critical and restorative of its dignity. This will ensure the preservation of African cultural heritage, wherein the family is the first school, with the mother being the first teacher, followed by uncles, father and the community (Achi, 2021). University students have been groomed by these role-players from their childhood. It is, therefore, critical that education is aligned to their worldview.

African cultural heritage is part of Sankofa-Ll, with the family and community enacting the fetching of (past) African traditions to shape the education and future of their members. Because of the African cultural heritage, culture-preservation must be sustained and balanced on the old branches (elders). It was (is) a primarily locally developed, lifelong learning process (Tedla, 1995). The old branch may die, but it does not fade away, based on the spiritual beliefs of African Indigenous people (Gumbo et al., 2024), accounting for the preservation of lifelong education.

African Indigenous education had, and still has to some extent, well-defined goals, structure, content and methods (Achi, 2021; Gumbo, 2003). Gumbo (2003) extensively outlines this education according to its foundation, aims and core values, period of teaching, subjects, teaching and learning methods and those responsible for teaching. He also contrasts this education with western education. Graduates never wrote the final exams and were not awarded, but they graduated ceremoniously and were recognised by their societies for showing the ability to do what they graduated in (Achi, 2021). It was life-bound, not time-bound, allowing the fluidity of past-present-future enshrined in Sankofa-Ll. This suggests a relook into the examinations and graduations: a continuous assessment based more on practical work, lifelong and experiential learning should be considered; graduations must not end in certification but be balanced with what graduates can do practically. This would offset the high unemployment rate that discredits Africa for what it is capable of. Considering this view, African Indigenous education is properly aligned with life because it is not a means to life but life itself, mainly due to its practical nature. Achi (2021) declares that it is a lifelong learning process, with the learner graduating from one stage of life to the next, from the cot to the grave or from womb to tomb. Lifelong learning is corded with the past-present-future analogy (Figure 2).

Principles of African Indigenous education

Different settings where mankind is dispersed across the earth, such as in Africa, have produced valid knowledge defined in those settings – environmental factors, language, and biological and cultural dispositions (Ezeanya-Esiobu, 2019). Hence, knowledge is and cannot be neutral (Foucault, 1969). In this sense, therefore, knowledge produced from varied contexts deserves to be acknowledged and respected. This will confront western scientific knowledge, which has been universalised over IK – Indigenous knowledge seeks significance and recognition (Ezeanya-Esiobu, 2019). The creative use of proverbial frameworks, such Sankofa-Ll framework, can help achieve this mission as it will premise African Indigenous education on the fundamental principles that support the people’s worldviews. Drawing from Achi (2021, pp. 2–5), such education is undergirded by these principles:

• Communalism: It aims to solve the community’s problems and thus prepares students to fit into their community – new branches (students) are taught to balance with old branches (elders). Elders are the fountains of knowledge. Using Sankofa-Ll, elders harbour the traditions that must be fetched (from the past) to inform the present learnings that would shape the students’ future. Teachers are carefully selected from the family or clan to teach the knowledge, skills and attitudes, balancing the didactic (through stories, legends, riddles, songs and so forth) and the practical (through enacting what is learned). Teachers employed by education authorities must plan lessons and employ pedagogies that respect the students’ cultural knowledge – the 2015–2016 #FeesMustFall student campaigns in South Africa were accompanied by a clarion call to be taught in tandem with their worldviews. They must also consider using elders or community-based experts to deepen the knowledge and skills taught to students.

• Practice: Students learn by watching, participating and enacting what has been learned, for example, carving, masonry and clay working. For example, Kimbell (2008), in Gumbo (2015), relates the old men’s impartation of dhow-making knowledge and skills to young men in Zambia as they engaged on-site. This illustrates Letlhaku le lešwa le agelwa mo go le legolo, as young men were shown how it is done. The young need the wisdom, knowledge and skills of the elderly to survive in the present and future.

• Functionalism: Education is practical and participatory through observation, imitation and initiation ceremonies. It makes acquired knowledge and skills useful and needed in the individual’s socioeconomic activities. As elders practically teach them, young people master their environment so that they can meaningfully engage in socioeconomic activities locally, thus making graduates value their Local culture, instead of aspiring to western culture, isolating them from their societies, despising the creative industries (Moalosi et al., 2017) in rural areas. The rich knowledge learners acquire, shaped by their cultural environment, must inform curricula and teaching.

• No-paper word-testing and certificates: Students graduate ceremoniously. No-paper word-testing must be considered instead of sticking to word-testing only. Students should be recognised for what they can do, especially informed by their cultural contexts – their learning does not start at ‘formal’ institutions.

• Preparationism: Students are trained to be equipped with skills to fulfil certain roles in the family or society, for example, boys are trained in hunting, farming, carving, clay, fishing and so forth, while girls are trained in cooking, homemaking, sewing, cloth-making and so forth. As they learn, students are expected to advance the aspirations of their society. Thus, proper education enculturates the student instead of acculturating them. This means integrating careers that are indigenously informed into the education system. Such education strives to preserve and maintain the values encapsulated in Sankofa-Ll.

• Holisticism: Training is balanced into specialisation and multidisciplinarity/interdisciplinarity/trans-disciplinarity. A student could be trained as a hunter, farmer, butcher and so on. Human beings are multi-talented; education must, therefore, nurture them instead of emphasising specialisation too much. Graduates could then fit well into jobs that require multi-skilled people.

• Perennialism: It teaches students to stick to certain absolute principles, resolutely upholding a cultural heritage. Hence, it promotes the ideals of Sankofa-Ll.

The above principles attract the teaching and learning that promote the ideals of Sankofa-Ll.

Framing the teaching-learning of undergraduate students in Sankofa-Ll in higher education

Though teaching and learning directly imply curriculum and content being taught and learned by students, this article focuses on teaching and learning. African Indigenous education develops the student’s intellectual and physical skills, character, respect for elders and authorities, vocation, sense of belonging, active participation in the family and community, and appreciation and promotion of the community’s cultural heritage (Achi, 2021). A student acquires knowledge (i.e. information, facts, ideas, skills, expertise, and awareness or familiarity) to understand the subject theoretically and practically (Simpson & Weiner, 2017). Therefore, teaching students is a methodological matter. Indigenous methods often include, but are not limited to, storytelling, place-based learning and collaborative activities, fostering a deeper understanding of culture, history and the environment. These methods emphasise the anchors of African Indigenous education discussed earlier in this article.

Storytelling

Lecturers can use storytelling and narratives in their teaching to convey history, cultural values and knowledge. Elders (matlhaku a magologolo – very old branches) are the main sources of storytelling in African communities. They use storytelling to preserve their history and culture, thus using the past to inform the present and the future. The past is treated as a resource of language expressed through folktales, myths, legendary stories, proverbial expressions and riddles (Friday & Oghenerioborne, 2022). It can be used to develop students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills (Sulastri & Septiani, 2019). I argue that Indigenous students harbour rich stories that can be better narrated through their languages. At weddings, funerals and other social events, elders can often be heard eulogising while expressing their creativity in language use. Such gatherings instil the love for language and present learning opportunities, as the younger ones can be introduced to eulogise. Language is a powerful culture-preservation tool; hence, Wahyudi (2014) coined ‘glocalisation’, a term used to give primacy to Local languages, adaptive technology and social practices.

Place-based learning

Learning anchors on the specific cultural, historical and environmental context of the students (Etkin, 2024). This fosters a connection to their land and community from which they receive their first education, handed down by elders and other specialists. Sankofa-Ll is crucial as they learn about their Local environment, history and value their culture. The past is the cultural bedrock that will not only impart knowledge but also preserve their cultural identity in the present and the future.

Collaborative learning

This method, also known as active learning (Duku et al., 2024), enables students to work together in groups and learn from each other, as well as build on their knowledge and skills collectively. The method connects well with the Ubuntu principle of a community working together (Duku et al., 2024). Hence, students’ education must be aligned with the ideals of teaching they received from elders, covering the three periods – past, present and future (see Figure 2).

Reciprocity

This method builds strong teaching-learning ties between students and their communities – it must synergise community-based teaching and learning and university-based teaching and learning. It strongly emphasises giving back to the community – students ‘fetched’ knowledge from their communities, now they must ‘go back’ and build on and promote it. This can happen through sharing knowledge or participating in cultural activities. This needs a commitment to culturally responsive teaching, which is established on five pillars: cultural consciousness, resources, moral responsibility, cultural bridging and the higher education curriculum (Jabbar & Mirza, 2017).

Yarning circles

Yarning circles offer environments in which participants engage in structured discussions and share stories and perspectives, fostering open communication and shared learning. Informed by their cultures (Cumming-Potvin et al., 2022), students will thrive in yarning circles for their learning. According to Cumming-Potvin et al (2022), this method helps decolonise knowledge – students carry the learning received from the elders (from the past to the present) to their study programmes for meaningful learning. This calls for lecturers to allow space for students to express themselves and respect the knowledge they bring from their cultural contexts (Makokotlela & Gumbo, 2025).

Visualisations and mapping

Visual aids and mapping techniques are used to represent knowledge, relationships and learning processes, for example, textiles that are designed with ladders, flowers, aquatic, wild animals and plants (Friday & Oghenerioborne, 2022). Materials of various kinds can be used in teaching and learning. For example, in Technology Education, the design of these visual aids can be used to teach and learn about design specifications (designing for Indigenous end-users), design aspects, design principles, materials used, colouring techniques and so on.

Experiential activities

This is about engaging students in activities that allow them to learn by doing, mostly outdoors, such as field trips, cultural workshops or community projects. These are activities that express tacit and explicit knowledge that is highly contextualised, which can facilitate the development of subject concepts from the context (Mandikonza, 2019). Indigenous teaching mostly takes place outdoors because it is more reality-based; using the natural resources; there is less to no spending on the resources needed. Elders excel in the use of natural resources to teach.

On postgraduate education: jegnaship for a Sankofa-Ll-framed supervision

Though postgraduate education covers honours, master’s and doctoral degrees, I focus on the doctoral degree due to its influence in terms of the depth of research and contribution. Currently, doctoral education is framed within western methodologies, theories and paradigms (Gumbo et al., 2024), which in turn frames supervision. Felder (2019) argues that oppression has influenced systems of education policies and practices and marginalised students’ experiences of academic processes within doctoral education. I have noticed the effects of this occurrence on Indigenous students during numerous seminars I have presented on decolonisation of the curriculum and research in South African universities. I noticed that some students feel that there are no supervisors to supervise studies on IKS; this gatekeeps them from advancing their education in their field of interest. Some students are concerned that supervisors do not want to supervise IKS-based studies. Sankofa-Ll can be applied as a lens to understand the contributions and experiences of historically marginalised students (Felder, 2019), so that supervisors and universities can respond well to their proposed research. Applying Sankofa-Ll, African students can ‘go and fetch’ Indigenous epistemologies and reignite their passion for engaging in relevant research.

I use the concept jegnaship to frame supervision in Sankofa-Ll. According to Deterville (2020, p. 54), jegnaship is a jegna-jegnee mutual relationship propelled by its dynamic function. The concept differs from the conventional pedagogue (from the Greek paidagōgos) with the master-slave connotation – a pedantic teacher (Merriam-Webster, 2011). Deterville (2020) describes jegnaship from an African perspective, as a guided development process for interpersonal knowing and knowledge transfer (Deterville, 2020, p. 54). This description befits the supervisor-supervisee work in which the supervisor (as the ‘academic’ elder) guides the student, but he or she (supervisor) is also open to learn from the student. A jegnee models what they have learned in their scholarly development.

Jegna and jegnee derive from jegnaship. Nobles (2002) describes the term jegna from an Ethiopian context, which means special people who have been tested in the struggle or battle and demonstrated unusual fearlessness, were determined and courageous to protect their people, land and culture, and were diligent and dedicated to them. In the context of this article, special people refer to those who are determined to confront the western ideology of education that marginalises the Indigenous alternatives. This definition emphasises the jegna’s (in this instance, the supervisor’s) commitment to aligning their teaching to the jegnee’s worldview. In this sense, Sankofa-Ll is central to jegnaship. Within jegnaship, is the exhibition of the attributes, wisdom, courage, commitment, determination, excellence and perseverance sourced from Sankofa-Ll (from past to present).

Jegnee means a developing scholar (student) who must be guided by the jegna (supervisor). A jegnee deserves respect in their scholarly development to increase and produce their knowledge.

By emphasising the jegna-jegnee relationship, jegnaship accounts for the reciprocity that must occur through the dynamics of being a jegna (supervisor) and jegnee (student) (Deterville, 2020). There is, therefore, a need not only to transform the postgraduate programme but also how it is conducted, so that the student can participate actively and be interested in the study.

In postgraduate supervision, there is a lot to learn from the investigative wisdom of Indigenous people – inquiring about the past and treasuring it. The past is the framework for understanding the present and future. Thinking about cultural knowledge, Akans critically search for knowledge through their intelligent and patient inquiry into the past (Slater, 2019). They apply Sankofa-Ll as a framework for centring the past as a guide to plan the future. The present is hardly fathomable without mapping it on the past, for the past is a reality that cannot be divorced or ignored in shaping the present and the future (Asante, 2016). Asante uses the expression, Tete wo bi ka to emphasise that the past contributes to the present.

In an IKS-based doctoral education, therefore, Sankofa-Ll enables students to understand and critique educational experiences; they can interrogate systems, contexts, perspectives and spaces that have ignored racial and cultural aspects of academic contribution (Felder, 2019, p. 786). Sankofa-Ll creates a space for the ‘contributions of historically marginalised students and their academic participation in multiple contexts’ (Felder, 2019, p. 786). The students’ subjective experiences, attested to by Creswell (2013), which are informed by their lived experiences, must find expression in doctoral education – researcher positionality regarding their role and relationship to the context. This calls upon supervisors to create environments that can nurture the cultural ideals of Indigenous students in research.

While the representation of Indigenous students in racial-numerical terms is essential in higher education and has been widely researched (Felder, 2019), the paradigmatic, epistemological and methodological representations are the most important. They can be critically applied to understand the impact of racial and cultural perspectives on students’ research and practice agendas and their incorporation into supervision. To restore a Sankofa-Ll-informed postgraduate education and supervision, a robust inquiry into the philosophy of life of Indigenous people is needed, so that the research agendas of Indigenous students can be understood. There are rich resources in the students’ lived environments to make Indigenous studies and research thrive, such as proverbs used as a framework in this article.

Traditional cultural ideas, practices and resources are the bedrock of Indigenous people. They are contained in the calabash of Sankofa-Ll. Slater (2019) claims that the egg that the African mythical bird carries represents treasure in the form of historical wisdom. Culture is groomed in the family and ramifies into the community. It is encapsulated in Matlhaku a magologolo (very old people). Hence, a family is a critical and esteemed institution (Adomako & Dai-Kosi, 2016). Africans live within extended family ties that are insulated by values coded in love, caring, cohesion, solidarity, mutual respect and responsibility (Adomako & Dai-Kosi, 2016). For this reason, African cultures value morality, which is a package of rules and norms laid down by society to guide behaviour (Adomako & Dai-Kosi, 2016).

Morality is framed in Botho/Ubuntu, which promotes the understanding of an individual or a person through other people and/or community, unity, respect and so on (Gumbo et al., 2024). Collective engagements in daily activities guide cultural knowledge, practices and resources, be they educational, social, musical or celebratory. To illustrate this claim, I have led teams of researchers on a three-university collaborative project with Indigenous communities in Mthambotini Village in Mpumalanga Province of South Africa, Makorekore Cultural Village in Zimbabwe and Bahurutshe Cultural Lodge in Botswana. In all three contexts, the researchers, who included doctoral students, learned about collective knowledge-sharing and guided practices using artefacts processed from natural resources such as cow dung, herbs and calabashes. In Mpumalanga, for instance, my team learned about the resilience of Dr Esther Mahlangu to preserve the Ndebele culture through art and painting. She is the icon of the art displayed on the walls of Ndebele houses. The team engaged in group discussions with the participants and observed the education and training of the younger generations by the older people (Matlhaku a magologolo). The training integrated moral education, and the trainees were reminded and shown how to respect and behave in front of elders. In this light, the cultural intricacies of Indigenous people are a gold mine of research for postgraduate education to make a decolonial contribution.

Implications for teaching, learning and postgraduate supervision in higher education

The Sankofa-Ll framework presented thus far implies a relook by the higher education educators and policymakers to decolonise teaching and learning. In this section, I share how this can be done.

• Cultural resources: Indigenous cultural resources are galore to inform teaching and learning. Working closely with communities could harness existing resources for integration in teaching and learning. In this article, I present the creative use of proverbs (through Sankofa-Ll) as an example of Indigenous resources.

• Indigenous cultural worldviews: Every effort must be made, especially by lecturers and supervisors of postgraduate students, to inform themselves about the students’ worldviews. They must embrace culture as a tool for teaching and learning, instead of treating it as a barrier. The educational principles and methods shared in this article can be used to achieve this. Non-Indigenous staff must be prepared to learn along with their students.

• Decolonisation agenda: All forms of teaching and learning must be freed from colonial approaches to favour Indigenes and for non-Indigenes to learn through Indigenous approaches as alternatives.

• Educational role of elders (Matlhaku a magologolo): Working closely with Indigenous communities must prioritise the knowledge and wisdom that can be learned from the elders. This will change the narrative about viewing them as ‘illiterate’ to experts of knowledge, wisdom and practices.

• Learning through the passage of the past, present and future: Sankofa and Letlhaku le legologolo present a powerful framework that values the past as a bedrock to frame education.

• Jegnaship in postgraduate education: An investment in jegnaship enables the supervisor-student working relationship that is built on Botho.

Conclusion

This study contributes a Sankofa-Ll framework for centring IK in higher education teaching and learning, especially for Indigenous Africans. Sankofa-Ll presents one of the creative ways to confront the notion that western education and culture are supreme in developing African Indigenous students. Ezeanya-Esiobu (2019) contests that formal education must reflect life itself; it must direct, control and guide personal and social experiences. The Sankofa-Ll framework can be helpful in this exercise – students’ learning must be based on their cultural roots as they are being prepared for their present and future lives. Of course, non-Indigenous learners can benefit from learning about alternative knowledge, which they have been denied by the colonial system. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students will appreciate IK and acknowledge its contribution instead of endorsing the notion that it is primitive and demonic.

It is recommended that:

• Institutions and educators should reexamine their curriculum and pedagogical approaches to ensure that they genuinely represent the African ethos.

• Policymakers must not pay lip service to the decolonisation agenda that they have committed to for social justice and human rights, but monitor its implementation as well.

• Universities operating in Africa, especially those strongly premised on colonial systems, must operate as agents of decolonisation by promoting and integrating IK in teaching and learning activities.

• Attempts must be made to frame teaching and learning in Sankofa-Ll, with an aim to either validate or improve on it. As elders complain about the behaviour of the younger generations, Sankofa-Ll, with its ideals of education that extend to moral development, can be an antidote for unwelcome behaviour, especially in Indigenous societies. Education must not only be interested in developing career giants who are moral dwarfs.

• This study was confined to teaching and learning. Future research should consider the use of Sankofa-Ll to decolonise the curriculum, as well as the grassroots of education, that is, the schooling phase.