Yakubu, Joseph Mbawine; (1990) Integration of indigenous thought and practice with science and technology in Ghana: Implications for appropriate science policy. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D.), University College London.

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Abstract

The central theme of this thesis is the integration of indigenous thought and practice with science and technology. Philosophy of science provides the valid framework for critically evaluating the methods by which the process of integration can be realised since it is concerned with the analysis of explanatory frameworks and the identification of interfaces between science and other cultural activities. Philosophy of science also provides a spectrum of views of the nature of science, from the narrow to the broad. It is the broad view of science that is adopted in this thesis rather than the narrow and exclusivist view of science. A broad view of science allows an interdisciplinary approach to the problem. Anthropological, historical, as well as policy aspects of the theme have been discussed. The results of the fieldwork in Ghana have been used to illustrate the proposition that integration of indigenous thought and practice with science and technology is not only possible but feasible and even inevitable. The discussion of the results of the fieldwork on indigenous thought and practice at Walewale indicates that the explanatory frameworks of science and indigenous thought are functionally similar, because they both attempt to "save the phenomena". They differ in their contents: the natural categories which characterise scientific explanatory frameworks are very different from the cosmological categories of indigenous thought, although the interface between technology and indigenous practice is broader. The research institutes show a range of levels of integration from very low, in the sophisticated science and technology-based Onchocerciasis Control Programme, to the very high level, at the Plant and Herbal Medicine Research Centre at Mampong-Akwapim. There is an awareness of and a desire for integration in the universities but there is no deliberate policy to further the process. Moderate efforts are made at the school level to promote integration but powerful motivating forces are still lacking. The underlying causes of stagnation in the development of science and technology arise from problems of low morale, poor communication and lack of funds in all the educational and research institutes. A case is argued for a transformational development rather than a transferential one. An appropriate science policy is therefore one which will alter the role of the research and educational institutions from the present transferential to a transformational or integrating one. It is argued that as integrating institutions they may experience fewer problems than in their present transferential and stagnant st

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