CIKS Background
The DST-NRF Centre in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (CIKS) falls under the NRF Directorate of Research Centres and Centres of Excellence (RCCE). It is a virtual IKS Centre comprising five higher education institutions, namely: University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) as the hub, North West University (NWU), University of South Africa (UNISA) and the Universities of Limpopo (UL) and Venda (UNIVEN).
Why Was The CIKS Established?
The CIKS was established to be a strategic tool in social transformation through the advancement of a paradigm shift in knowledge production, utilisation, sharing and mitigating the disjuncture between learning and living in the education process. In this endeavour, the CIKS facilitates the building of an active citizenry through mobilization of community-based world views, epistemologies, participatory research methodologies, beliefs and value systems. In promoting community ownership and relevance there is active involvement of IK-holders and practitioners in knowledge production and sharing. This is a recognition of the impact of culture, ecosystems and the symbiotic relationship between humans and other forms of life, including spirituality in IKS.
The holistic, cultural, multi-trans-disciplinary and community-based nature of IKS facilitates the complementarity and democracy of knowledge systems for social cohesion, transformation and humanity at large; in a global knowledge economy dominated by Eurocentricism.
What is the Mandate of CIKS?
The CIKS promotes, protects and preserves IKS as a new area of enquiry in the knowledge domain through research, postgraduate training, knowledge brokerage, networking, service rendering and community engagement.
Vision and Mission of CIKS
To be a world rallying hub for the preservation, promotion and protection of IKS through multi- and trans-disciplinary collaboration among researchers, institutions, community knowledge holders and practitioners from within and outside South Africa.