Africa and the Stars: Indigenous Knowledge, Socio-Cultural Mythology and Storytelling with Dr. Elizabeth Rasekoala

In this presentation, Dr. Rasekoala will utilize the unique poster ’Africa and the Stars’, based on the seminal ’Cosmic Africa’ Film, to showcase sociocultural inclusion and empowering Indigenous Knowledge perspectives on how African societies/communities have over centuries, utilized their traditional knowledge of the Stars and Planets to organize and develop many aspects of communal living, well-being and sustainability, such as in Agriculture/Farming; Hunting, Fishery; nature conservation, and so on. These diverse insights posit African knowledge paradigms alongside Western notions, and create a unique opportunity for globally inclusive and transformative knowledge-sharing practices in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Furthermore, in an increasingly interconnected world, they provide a ’wide-angled’ lens through which Astronomers across the Global North and South, can co-create inclusive narratives and engender synergised ’world-views’ of how societies across the world, engage with the ’night-sky’. 

Dr. Elizabeth Rasekoala is the President of African Gong: The Pan-African Network for the Popularization of Science & Technology and Science Communication. She is a veteran science communication scholar and practitioner based in South Africa, and the editor of the influential new book, Race and Sociocultural Inclusion in Science Communication: Innovation, Decolonisation, and Transformation. 

Please RSVP by Thursday September 19.