African Indigenous Knowledge Systems

African Indigenous knowledge systems (AIKS) have been a centre of digitisation in the 21st century, preserving knowledge for posterity. However, digitisation has not been a smooth process confronted with contestations deeming it unprofitable. The aim of this chapter is in twofold. Firstly, the chapter critically explores contestations of digitising AIKS Indigenous communities. Secondly, the chapter proposes a co-designed approach for digitising the AIKS. Participatory action research (PAR) was employed to establish a research team to generate qualitative data in Ga-Mamabolo in the Limpopo Province. The data was co-generated using PAR data generation stages (planning, action, and reflection) and analysed using critical discourse analysis. The analysis shows passive participation, reduced authenticity, intellectual property rights, sacred knowledge, and funds as key contestations in digitising the AIKS. The analysis further shows stakeholder collaboration, cultural considerations, feedback, knowledge sharing and benefit sharing as areas to consider in digitising the AIKS.