Community-Governed Digital Preservation of Zambezi Indigenous Knowledge: Transitioning Oral Traditions to Sustainable Learning Documentation in Namibia

This study investigates the epistemological, ethical, and technological constraints of transitioning the oral traditions of the Mafwe, Masubia, Mayeyi, and Mashi communities in Namibia's Zambezi region into sustainable digital learning documentation without compromising cultural integrity, localized data sovereignty, or traditional protocols. Positioned at the intersection of decolonial education and heritage preservation, the research employs a qualitative participatory case study design engaging 28 purposively sampled key stakeholders, including Traditional Authority elders, youth cultural stewards, formal educators, institutional ICT officers, and senior traditional leaders. Data collection was executed through semi-structured interviews and document analysis, analyzed through the analytical lens of reflexive thematic analysis. The findings indicate that while oral narratives, proverbs, and rituals function as living epistemic archives, they are vulnerable to rapid intergenerational erosion caused by urban migration, Westernized pedagogical dominance, and severe local infrastructural deficits. To resolve the tension between digital accessibility and cultural expropriation, this paper proposes a formalized Community-Governed Integrated Digital Indigenous Knowledge Documentation Model. This framework operationalizes Indigenous Data Sovereignty through Traditional Authority governance structures that regulate ownership, access permissions, stewardship responsibilities, and intellectual property rights relating to digitized knowledge. It further applies the principle of technauriture by preserving oral narratives, rituals, songs, and storytelling traditions through multimedia documentation that retains their performative and cultural context. While the model offers a theoretically grounded and community-driven framework for digital preservation, future pilot implementation is required to evaluate its practical feasibility, scalability, and long-term sustainability. This research conclude that sustainable digital preservation is achievable only when structural data governance is operationalized under the control of traditional structures rather than external institutional repositories.