Effects of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism on Indigenous Knowledge for Digital Technology in Africa

Introduction

Over time, Indigenous Knowledge has preserved distinctive understandings rooted in cultural experience and creativities that guide relations among human, non-human, and other-than-human beings in specific ecosystems. These understandings and relations constitute a system broadly identified as Indigenous knowledge, also called traditional or Aboriginal knowledge. Archaeologists conducting excavations in Indigenous locales may uncover physical evidence of Indigenous knowledge (e.g., artifacts, landscape modifications, ritual markers, stone carvings, faunal remains). Still, the meaning of this evidence may not be evident to non-Indigenous or non-local investigators. Researchers can gain information and insight by consulting Indigenous traditions; this localized knowledge contains crucial information that can explain and contextualize scientific data. Archaeologists should, however, strive to avoid interference with esoteric pieces of knowledge, sacred sites, ritual landscapes, and cultural property. Research consultation with local Indigenous knowledge bearers is recommended to ensure ethical practice and avoid unnecessary harm to sensitive sites and practices.

This chapter aims to investigate and analyze the effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism events on the development of indigenous knowledge and explain how these effects have prevented the contributions of Africa to the wave of digital technology in the global system. The chapter seeks to explain how these two events that occurred in Africa demolished and buried indigenous knowledge to death and erased some of the technological advancement the continent has achieved, and how the legacies of these events are still rampant in Africa, thus preventing any contributions of the continent to be remarkable in the world of digital technology. The chapter argues that while trans-Atlantic demolished local ideology and traditional knowledge that were the basis of technological advancement, colonialism erased all the evidence that justified the history of digital technology in Africa, led to colonial education and governance that kept in the darkness Africans as far the continent contributions to the wave of digital technology in the world. This has led Africans and the rest of the world to fail to see that digital technology has its origins in Africa, and its advancement depends on Africa’s raw materials, natural resources, and indigenous knowledge that served as a starting principle. This is because scholars have not yet understood that Africa, as the mother of all civilizations (Ben-Jochannan, 1997), the mother of science, technology, mathematics, education, and the origin of mankind, has much to contribute to the world of digital technology. The argument is that Africa, the origin of mankind, automatically becomes the origin of technology and its advancement because you cannot separate mankind and technology. To understand these realities, one needs to assess the effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism and the prevalence of their legacies on digital technology in Africa. Africa suffered more than any other continent because, after the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, another deadly event called colonialism was imposed that inhibited any efforts to address the effects and legacies of the previous event on the technology. The introduction of colonialism, which was eviler than the trans-Atlantic slave trade, buried to the grave the contributions of the African continent to the wave of digital technology such that through proxy governance, all the contributions are attributed to the colonial masters. Hence, the main research question the chapter seeks to answer is how the effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism on Africa’s indigenous knowledge affected the continent's contributions to digital technology.