My name is George Sefa Dei and I am currently Professor of Sociology and Equity Studies, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT). My teaching and research interests are in the areas of Anti-Racism, Minority Schooling, International Development, Indigenous Knowledges, and Anti-Colonial Thought. Between 1996 and 2000 I served as the first Director of the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies at OISE/UT. For the 2007 – 2008 school year I have been a Visiting Professor at the Centre for School and Community Science and Technology Studies (SACOST), University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. In September 2007, I was Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Otto/Ijanikin, Lagos State, Nigeria]. In June 2007, I was installed as a traditional chief, specifically, as the Adumakwaahene of the town of Asokore, near Koforidua in the New Juaben Traditional Area of Ghana. My community responsibilities include helping to promote youth education in the town.

I want to share some of my experiences working with others in a local community to promote youth education, and also the relevance and implications of studying traditional plant medicine as an Indigenous knowledge system. On education: Within many rural communities in Ghana many youth are struggling through issues of education given the rising high cost of schooling and/or the inability to secure employment commensurate with their educational qualifications. Schools themselves are struggling through challenges of proving meaningful education that will help local communities address contemporary challenges. It is here that questions of educational and curricular relevance, trained staff, etc. come to the fore. A number of youth who have found education inaccessible have simply given up after receiving basic level education. In such cases the youth have resorted to other activities some inimical to their own well-being and future prospects. Local community leadership have become increasingly concerned. There is the realization of an important responsibility of community Elders to stir youth to a brighter future and education is generally seen as key to such success. For traditional Elders the responsibility to assist village youth in their education entails finding creative ways to get parents and the youth involved in education, organizing public forums of education and social development matters, liaising with state authorities about provision of educational resources in schools. We must use of offices in local communities to create dialogue, open doors and facilitate access to local peoples of the valued goods and services that allow all to contribute to social development. Personally functioning in my new role has meant coming up with a plan [devised with youth in schools and out of school] on ways to enhance education in the community. In later discussions I can share our initiatives with readers. But suffice it to say that as a traditional Elder I have come to appreciate how important it is for such traditional systems of authority to re-invent our offices and positions, shirk some ‘unproductive’ old roles and practices and to help create and respond to new roles and challenges that augur well for community, national and African development.
In the area of traditional medicine I have been working with faculty, staff and students at SACOST to examine local perceptions and attitudes on the practice use and importance of plant and traditional medicine in Ghana. While this area has received much attention in past studies there is not much literature of a cross-national study in Ghanaian communities on plant medicine as an aspect of Indigenous knowledge systems. Our work has involved trying to ascertain the extent and context of the knowledge, use and applications of herbal medicine in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of particular ailments in local communities. We know that throughout local communities plant herbal medicines are used for a variety of health ailments, including treatment of common colds, malaria, controlling hypertension, and cholesterol levels. But what do we know from the point of view of the users of plant medicines in terms of local understandings of the effectiveness, why the use of such medications, the epistemological and philosophical groundings of plant pharmacology as an Indigenous knowledge system, the pedagogical and instructional relevance of such knowledge, and specifically, the implications for teaching science education in schools, colleges and universities.
Over the years a central research concern of SACOST has been how to promote school and community science education in Ghana and African contexts in general. As a Centre for research and innovation in science and community education the faculty, staff and affiliated students associated with SACOST are exploring some of the challenges and possibilities of Indigenous philosophies of education.
My interests in plant medicine lie primarily in its efficacy as an Indigenous knowledge system. African Indigenous knowledge systems offer some conceptual and practical questions as to teaching about Africa with implications for schooling and education in Diasporic contexts. Among the many questions for critical intellectual engagement of ‘teaching Africa’ are how to address distorted Eurocentric views of Africa, including White racism toward Africa, its peoples, and the African Diasporas? As an educator and researcher I see an important objective in uncovering how local knowledge systems inform issues about Africa, including the development of curricula and critical instruction in schools grounded in African-centred perspectives. Understanding plant medicine as an Indigenous knowledge is looking at the myriad ways local peoples utilize their creativity and resourcefulness to address current problems (e.g., health). In responding to contemporary development and education challenges I believe we need to place emphasis on the interplay of tradition and modernity, contestations over knowledge production in 'post-colonial' Africa, politics of ‘African development’, and the roles and significance of science, culture, gender, ethnicity, language, and religion in shaping knowledge systems. Over the years I have reflected on some issues from my graduate teaching experience. I have repeatedly witnessed a particular concern that emanates from particularly the students with interests in Africa. It is the processes of [in]validation and [de]legitimating of knowledges – how knowledges are produced and disseminated nationally/globally. Students have often queried why and how is it that certain knowledges count more so than other ways of knowing. There is a realization on the part of learners that knowledge is operationalized differently given local histories, environments and contexts. Unfortunately, the processes of validating knowledges fail to take into account this multiplicity of knowings that can together comprehensive speak to the diversity of the histories of ideas and events that have shaped and continue to shape human growth and development. In questioning the hierarchy of knowledges learners also allude to the problematic position of neutral, apolitical knowledge. It is important then in our teaching of Africa we lay bare and grasp the processes through which for example, Western science knowledge positions itself as neutral, universal and non-hegemonic ways of knowing, and furthermore seeks to invalidate and devalue other ways of knowing.