ILLUMINATING AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS: THE NEED FOR A CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT AGENDA.

Despite obvious differences between the regions and ethnic groups on the vast African continent, one can identify common elements in the way African people see themselves (cultural universalis), the way they know and organise themselves: their religions, worldviews, relationships to nature, their notion of time, artistic expressions, leadership, and ethnic organizations, their ethics and values. In contemporary Africa, traditional knowledge, ethics and values still are an important driving force in a rural peoples’ decisions making (action or inaction) and development activities in general. Of recent times there is the debate as to the degree of cultural erosion. Some argue that the erosion (enculturation/ inculturation/ cross-culturaliness) has debased the values associated with African knowledges. In-place of joining this debate the choice here is to establish as far as we can WHAT WAS and WHAT IS with respect to the Dagaaba of Northern Ghana. This being a Case Study has its limitations but the reward/ motivation is an attempt at documenting a people’s knowledge for today and for posterity.