Indigenous knowledge: Africa's opportunity to contribute to global information content

Abstract

This paper argues that harnessing, repackaging and providing access to Africa's indigenous knowledge systems using the World Wide Web infrastructure will present the people of Africa with an opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of the information content on the Web. This will also ensure that information consumers in Africa will have access to information content produced on the continent. Problems associated with the documentation of indigenous knowledge are highlighted, and the role of information professionals on the continent in ensuring that Africa's indigenous knowledge systems are widely disseminated over the Web is briefly discussed.