Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Africa: exclusion of students with disabilities in South African higher education

While contemporary scholarship seeks to include Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) into epistemology, to re-centre knowledge that has been placed in the periphery, in Africa largely and in South Africa specifically, construction of African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK) has shaped disability in negative ways, hence the exclusion of persons with disabilities in society. The article utilised a review of literature as a methodology to explore the ways in which negative AIK has been constructed, to frame disability negatively and to exclude students with disabilities in South African higher education. Decolonial theory informed the imperceptible underlying cause of negative AIK about disability. Ubuntu was viewed as an African philosophy that could bring back the being and humanness of those with disabilities. Incorporating African proverbs relating to tolerance of disability into the curriculum was proposed as the way in which positive AIK could be re-centred, to assist the inclusion of students with disabilities in families, communities and higher education. The article sought to contribute to the contemporary debate of placing IKS at the centre of epistemology in higher education. While a number of studies have focused on re-centering IKS in epistemology largely, few have looked at it from the perspective of re-centering the positive AIK, to include students with disabilities in higher education in the South African context.


Introduction
Contemporary scholarship in the Global South seeks to include Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) into epistemology, to re-centre knowledge that has been placed at the periphery by the dominant society.It is during such a transition that in Africa largely and in South Africa specifically, the negative African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK) which dominates epistemology has informed the negative construction of disability.Though there is also AIK that is tolerant of disability, what has featured strongly epistemologically are African beliefs and myths as negative AIK, which is intolerant to disability.The hidden invisible underlying cause for this is explained when Grech and Soldatic (2015) argued that it is for the colonisers to be portrayed as saviours who came and helped Africans from savage culture, practices, beliefs and traditions.Grech (2015, p. 6) further provides enlightenment in her words that "disabled lives in the Southern context are often simplified and generalised in a dynamic of homogenising, de-contextualised and dehistoriced discourse".In essence, positive AIK in the African context has been interfered with in favour of the negative AIK that is favourable to the powerful.Murove (2018) summed up that as the colonisers imposed themselves on the colonised, they operationalised what they considered legitimate knowledge from their own context, integrating very little from the locals.When such an understanding is unveiled, it can inform interventions that could treat the underlying causes of the challenges of the negative AIK and disability in the context of South African higher education specifically.
A number of definitions have been provided for the term Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) but common amongst them all is that it has to do with practices, experiences, cultural beliefs and traditions, values and norms, locally produced by a particular group of people and expressed in their local language.The article begins by offering a definition of the term "indigenous", which according to Higgs (2002, p. 38) means the "root of things", implying that it is about the natural and the originality of something within a specific context.Indigenous Knowledge (IK) therefore is what is known and how it is known in a specific context.Defined by Semali and Kincheloe (1999, p. 3), Indigenous Knowledge is about "the dynamic way in which the residents of an area have come to understand themselves in relationship to their environment and how they organise the folk knowledge of flora and fauna, cultural beliefs, and history to enhance their lives".In essence, IKS is about a people's knowledge of their environment and their way of knowing it.In the same view, IK is understood as the "archive of the sum total of knowledge, skills and attitudes belonging to a community over generations and expressed in the form of action, object and sign language for sharing" (Ocholla & Onyancha, 2008, p. 247).The definitions provided imply that IKS has to do with knowledge of a particular people in terms of how they understand and interpret their locality.
IKS consists of specific knowledge about and in the community, skills, attitudes, values and ways of doing things that is particular and unique to a particular community (Zonke, 2005).IKS is thus the kind of knowing that is derived from the teachings and experiences about the local environment, passed on from generation to generation (Barnhardt & Kawagley, 2005;Battista & Barman, 1995).One could argue that IKS is about the whole being of a particular group of people which includes their religion, their culture and their language.It implies that all people around the world have their own distinctive IKS, which means that though the concept could be defined differently, it has to do with a particular group's knowledge system that has been internalised as their culture and way of their life.It is in this respect that people's IKS globally need to be recognised and not inferiorised and censored because it is about the unique ways in which groups of people understand concepts and interpret meanings related to their experiences and values.Chimbala-Kalenga (2015) argues that the IKS of a particular group of people should not be contested because it is their own way of interpretation of their particular location, which could help others to know and understand that specific part of the world.
African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK) in particular refers to the same archive of experience, cultural beliefs, values and norms of the people of Africa.Again, it relates to how the people of Africa interpret their different local environments and how they make sense of it.It implies that the African people also have their own AIKS that need to be acknowledged and recognised as they define how they understand their locality.In Africa, most AIK is expressed in folktales and songs, passed on orally by the elders to the younger generation.AIK could therefore be understood as specific knowledge systems within and part of the whole system of IK that is of an African nature.
Before colonialism, the knowledge about disability was positive, hence the development of positive AIK.With specific reference to Botswana, Mosalagae and Lukusa (2016) report that inclusivity in terms of persons with disabilities existed in Tshwana culture prior to colonialism as shaped by the concept of Botho philosophy (Ubuntu).According to the Tshwana culture, the term "sehole", meaning the "disabled", embraces all disability categories (Mosalagae & Lukusa, 2016) and indicates inclusivity that avoids discriminating against persons with disabilities themselves.Again in the same country, physical disabilities and low vision were linked to spiritual insight and ability (Grech, 2015).In essence, by seeing disability from a positive perspective, there was positive AIK in the specific African country.
While so, Ocholla and Onyancha (2008, p. 248) have maintained that "Indigenous Knowledge (IK) has been neglected, vindicated, stigmatised, illegalised and suppressed among the majority of the world communities".Scholars such as Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013) and Owusu-Ansah and Mji (2013) have argued that Western knowledge has been considered universal and placed at the centre of epistemology, while other knowledges such as IKS have been considered unscientific.In essence, IKS largely and positive AIK in particular have been censored and considered inferior to what is considered legitimate knowledge, and hence relegated to the periphery of the Western epistemology, for a great length of time globally.In the article, however, it is not the case of the hegemony of Western knowledge in general but the focus is on specifically the negative AIK, which those in power propagated because of their agenda of wanting to prove that African people were savage before they "civilised" them.Having introduced the concepts of IKS, in general how the positive AIK has been decentred in epistemology and centering of the negative, the next three sections discuss the purpose, novelty and how the whole article is structured.
The purpose of the study was to explore how domination by Western epistemology and hegemony has decentred the positive AIK system that is tolerant to disability and centred the negative.This has had implications for understanding the concept of disability as a whole, and persons with disabilities in particular, consequently resulting in their exclusion, more specifically students with disabilities in the context of South African higher education.
The novelty and significance of the study are that while a number of studies have focused on re-centering IKS and AIK largely, few have looked at the issue from the disability perspective.The article further discussed how positive AIK that is tolerant to disability has been decentred and how it can be re-integrated into the curriculum largely, and in teaching and learning, and community engagement specifically.Ubuntu and pluriversality are proposed as ways that could inform the inclusion of specifically students with disabilities in the South African context of higher education.
The article is divided into three parts.The first part focuses on how AIK is perceived within Western epistemology and why the negative AIK, in terms of cultural beliefs and myths about disabilities, has been legitimised by the dominant society in specific African countries largely and in the South African context of higher education.Secondly, the article discusses how coloniality and coloniality of power and knowledge help to explain why the negative AIK, intolerant to disability, has been legitimised as a universal truth.Thirdly, the discussion then offers ways in which AIK tolerant of disability could be incorporated into the curriculum through positive disability proverbs, and how culturally responsive pedagogy could be used as an intervention to include students with disabilities in South African higher education.The two sections below discuss how the negative AIK influenced negative conception of disability and how Ubuntu can be used to dispel negative myths about disability and assist students with disabilities to be seen in a positive light in South African higher education.

African Indigenous Knowledge and disability
African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK), as it relates to the issue of disability in contemporary African societies, cannot be removed from the colonial context (Grech, 2015).Colonisation has been one of the most significant and traumatic events in the history of mankind as it has led to the exploitation, enslavement, disabling and in some cases, extermination of humanity (Grech, 2015).It is from colonialism in which subjectivities, identities and disability have been negatively socially constructed by Western domination (Grech & Soldatic, 2015).Thus, disability, as represented in African Indigenous knowledge, is negatively conceptualised because Eurocentric hegemonic thought has not been a process of emancipation of individuals but a dynamic process of oppression, subjugation and domination of those who are different (Grech, 2015;Grech & Soldatic, 2015).The Eurocentric vision which has been negatively socially constructed has been reproduced from generation to generation.Unintentionally, it has been implemented in the African context by way of cultural beliefs, traditions around disability largely and disability myths, by society including persons with disabilities themselves.Thus, though colonialism has long ended, the European hierarchical structuring and ordering have been adopted and reproduced to the detrimental effect on how disability has been conceptualised and it continues to be constructed to date.It is from this foundational background that the article discusses the issue of positive and negative AIK, and how the negative have impacted disability to the effect of exclusion of students with disabilities.

Ubuntu as the way of demystifying negative cultural beliefs and disability myths
Ubuntu has been defined in a variety of ways by different scholars but the common understanding is that it has to do with humanness or being humane, from the African worldview (Letseka, 2000;Metz, 2014;Mji et al., 2009).Ramose (2002, p. 26) argued that Ubuntu recognises that "to be a human being, one's humanity is affirmed by recognising the humanity of others and, on that basis, establish humane relations with them".It is affirmed in the African proverb (that is, Nguni, isiNdebele and isiZulu) "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu" meaning "I am because you are, you are because I am".(Gwaravanda 2019) understood that to embody ontology, which places humanness in the context of communality.Ubuntu philosophy is therefore a cultural practice that upholds Africanness, communal life and being considerate and compassionate to the needs of all human beings (Gwaravanda, 2021).
Furthermore, Ubuntu embodies ethics (Gwaravanda, 2019).The ethical aspect of Ubuntu is the manifestation of the attributes of respect, love, harmony, social justice, oneness and all moral ideals to be accorded to all humanity (Mukusha, 2014).It implies that by virtue of being humane, all persons are valuable and consequently worthy of inclusion in society, despite differences.In Ubuntu, therefore, all people including those with disabilities deserve respect and acceptance, based on the fact that they are members of the human race in communities.
Epistemically, Ubuntu demands the need for dialogue amongst all members of the community to establish truth and knowledge (Gwaravanda, 2019).In essence, all people as human beings are capable and have the capacity to produce knowledge (Ramose, 1999;Shanyanana & Waghid, 2016).It is in this respect that censoring other knowledge and considering them illegitimate is being contested in the article.Ubuntu is therefore a philosophical understanding which cannot be overlooked where it concerns disability inclusion in higher education.
When informed by Ubuntu, therefore, an educational space such as higher education may privilege positive AIK, to ensure disability inclusion because of the ontological fundament with epistemological and methodological consequences (Mungah & Tshombe, 2017).In implication, when the positive AIK is anchored on foundational background of the philosophy of Ubuntu, it also considers the positive African perspective of knowledge creation.This might impact and positively influence stakeholders' beliefs about positive AIK and disability specifically.
Ubuntu would then offer an accepting space in disability education, as other knowledges and other world realities that are appreciated and disseminated, rather than a oneworld reality as a universal fact and hegemony.In that respect, students with disabilities would be afforded the opportunity for core-producing knowledge with all other members within academia and in their communities.
South Africa higher education is still confronted by a deeply divided educational experience along racial, gender, cultural, class and ability lines (Fotim Project Report, 2011).However, if Ubuntu philosophy would be applied in dealing with all diversity, it would inform the inclusion of all diverse persons, including those with disabilities.In essence, underpinning the South African higher educational context with Ubuntu principles would inform the inclusion of students with disabilities.This is however not to romanticise that Ubuntu philosophy is the solution to all problems of exclusion of students with disabilities in the South African context of higher education.It is not everyone who subscribes to the Ubuntu philosophy in the South African context largely.Even in the context of higher education, it may not be all stakeholders who embrace the philosophy, to view students with disabilities as also belonging to the university community.For example, in the larger community context, the issue of xenophobia is an example that not all South African see other people, including Africans from other countries, as part of the South African communities on grounds of Ubuntu.It is important from the outset not to over-gloss the fact that it is the stakeholders who subscribe to the philosophy, who can apply Ubuntu principles for inclusion.Those stakeholders may understand that people may be diverse but have equal status as human beings.Understood in that way, Ubuntu might inform the inclusion of students with disabilities as they may be considered as part of the university community like their ablebodied counterparts.
While persons with disabilities largely have been largely excluded in society by way of negative AIK, the focus of the article is on students with disabilities.By virtue of getting to the university level, they have overcome many obstacles and hindrances to attain a level which could be viewed as elite and privileged positions.Thus, though they still confront disability challenges, in their position of privilege, they might re-write the disability script from lived experiences from the South African perspective specifically.The section that follows traces how disability was conceived and constructed before, during and after colonialism, resulting in the negative AIK about disability being centred in epistemology and higher education in South Africa.

Conception of disability: the Western perspective
While the focus is on AIK and disability in the African context, it is important that the Western perspective is also noted for a wider understanding of the social construction of disability.In Western society, the conception of disability has varied from one culture to the other (Stone, 1984).During the feudal system, societies' economies were based on primitive farming and though that required manual labour, it is stated that disability was not emphasised as people worked collectively as members of society (Stone, 1984).However, during the industrial revolution, disability emerged because members of society had to work in factories, and those with physical disabilities were often excluded from the workforce.Scholars like Finkelstein (1980) cast this as a historicalmaterialist conception of disability, because it was informed by the demand for production and market forces of the day.However, this ableist view has been contested, with scholars as Oliver (1990) purporting the social model view.In this view, disability is viewed as imposed by society that is not favourable to persons with disabilities, and not a tragedy suffered by those people.While both perspectives shed light on the IKS from the Western perspective, they are all reductive because they overlook the individual agency of persons with disabilities (Ndlovu, 2017).The two perspectives are not the focus of the article, however, the glimpse into the West and the construction of disability assists in tracing both the positive and negative AIK and the exclusion of students with disabilities in higher education.

Pre-colonial era and disability
During the pre-colonial era, disability was conceptualised in both positive and negative ways.On a positive note, there was a gentler approach to disability, which considered those with disabilities as innocent victims of fate and were accepted as a gift from the supernatural.This conception was recorded across a number of African countries, such as in Wapogoro in Tanzania (Aail-Jileck, 1965), in Nigeria (Onwegbu, 1977), in Zambia (Phiri, 1979) and in Shona and Ndebele communities in Zimbabwe (Devlieger, 1998).From the tolerant perspective, persons with disabilities were accepted and as Murphy (1990) argued, they were even exempted from doing chores in some African communities.It could be argued that disability was positively conceived and understood and AIK about disability was more tolerant in some communities in countries as Zambia, Botswana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Nigeria.
The negative conception recorded by Western scholars drew from the indigenous beliefs, which are said to have been held by Africans when a child with disabilities was born in a family.It is recorded that from the beliefs in witchcraft and ancestral spirits, disability was understood as punishment or a curse by ancestors, or as a result of having been bewitched for wrongdoing by parents by some communities in some African countries (Kisanji, 1995).Understood from this perspective, families into which children with disabilities were born were ostracised, discriminated against and treated with cruelty.However, this conception was derived from few small-scale studies carried in rural communities (Oliver & Barnes, 2012) but interestingly, it is the AIK that the colonisers centred in epistemology.

Banished positive AIK and the dominance of the masters' perspective
When the early African colonisers, who consisted mainly of European settlers and missionaries, first encountered Africans and their indigenous practices, they considered them barbaric and gross mainstay of darkness of any humankind (Buhrmann, 1983).Writing on colonial encounters and disability, Grech (2015) as well as Grech and Soldatic (2015) recorded that the colonisers used the weapon of banishment and domination.They banished African's own culture, knowledge and understanding of their own world and how they conceived disability in a positive way.The colonisers made Africans inherit their own negative knowledge about disability, so that they could dominate them (Buhrmann, 1983).Disability was then written by scholars from the West.As the written word has more lasting power, the cultural beliefs about disability and myths surrounding it (which have been written in the negative) have continued to be reproduced from one generation to the other.

The colonial period and production of impaired bodies
During the colonial period, the colonial settlers used violence and force to control resources such as minerals, oil and other resources, such as the land and seas in the Global South.This, in the physical sense, produced disability because of causalities of impaired bodies that resulted from the violence (Grech, 2015).It could be argued that the issue of colonialism cannot be isolated from disability as impaired people were also "produced", as the North deliberately provoked wars so as to dominate the South.
Besides colonialism creating corporeality as disability, the negative AIK as it relates to disability is recognised as another result of casualty, as resulting from Eurocentrism.Explaining this causality, Gwaravanda (2021) argued that it is because of Eurocentric disability theories used in African universities that the students with disabilities are disregarded and excluded.The tendency in most African higher learning institutions is to embrace Western disability theories at the expense of their own theoretical alternatives informed by African culture (Akena, 2012).For example, the Western perspective associates disability with inability, hence the medical model that has been inherited and extended to the South African context of higher education.The medical model in consequence has shaped and influenced understanding of disability negatively resulting in low expectation of students with disabilities in higher education (Howell, 2006).
Disability inclusion has failed in higher education in South Africa because of the use of foreign lenses to conceptualise disability.Writers on disability and their stories from Southern countries, such as Africa or South America, rarely appear in books in the North (Meekosha, 2011).Nondisabled Western writers write disability books and stories from a Western perspective in their language.In essence, negative AIK relating to disability has been written by the West for the South (Meekosha, 2011).It could be argued that when disability in the African context is written for the Africans by the West, they would choose what to and what not to write about disability.
Still on the issue of writing about disability by scholars in the West, there has been exclusion of those with disabilities (who have a lived experience of disability) in knowledge production.Meekosha (2011) asked a fundamental question that since disability writing has mainly come from the West, do disabled people in the South agree with issues and idea?
The answer to the question cannot be answered by one who has no disabilities, because it would be a further perpetuation of oppression by speaking for persons with disabilities.However, as all other different regions of the world have a way of preserving their IK (Mazzocchi, 2006), Africans with disabilities too have preserved their AIK through narratives and stories passed down by word of mouth.However, the saying that "when elders die, the library is burnt" holds true, making it difficult to access knowledge, more specifically the positive AIK related to knowledge about disability in African regions, where oral tradition is powerful just as in South Africa.In this respect, it could be reiterated that the conception of the negative AIK as it relates to disability scholarship in the South African higher education context specifically is the one propagated by the West.
Further to conceptualisation of disability in colonialism, decentering of negative AIK in epistemology, exclusion of those with disabilities in knowledge production, negative perceptions about disability at large have followed.As informed by the medical model, propagated by medical professionals, the dominant view was that disability was an individual problem.It was viewed as tragedy that limited individuals with disabilities from functioning within a "normal" society.The period featured professional interventions such as rehabilitation, medical correction and institutionalisation so as to give charity, care and special education in order to "normalise" those with disabilities (Barnes & Mercer, 2010).The special care provided by the colonisers was so as justify their intent that they were saviours for barbaric acts on those with disabilities (Grech, 2015).It was at the same time that they took the opportunity to centre the negative AIK they had constructed about disability themselves, and decentre the positive AIK by the communities in the South African context.
It can be argued that this charitable understanding of disability results in the capabilities of those with disabilities being undermined.Within this paradigm, intervention is directed towards individuals rather than towards transforming the social contexts to include all (Oliver, 1990).Furthermore, individuals with disabilities are deprived of their own voice, which is subdued by those so-called "professionals" (Grech, 2015).In essence, those in power can construct disability as a tragedy on one hand and profess to provide a solution on the other.It is in this respect that colonialism has manifested differently since the ostensible "independence" gained by so many countries from their colonial rulers, including South Africa.However, at all times, negative conception of disability was constructed, resulting in exclusion of students with disabilities more specifically in South African higher education.

"Post-colonialism" and disability
During the "post-colonial" period, which Loomba (2001) argued, "…it's not a period characterised by the end of colonialism, but a period marked by new invisible forms of colonial domination and its systemic legacies", Meekosha (2011, p. 1) argued, "… production of disability has continued with the invisible dominance of the Global North and so does the universalising and totalising tendencies of writings about disability".It implies that the marginalisation of AIK that is positive about disability produced in South Africa continued even during the "post-colonial period".The production of impaired bodies has also continued during the period because of multiplicity of turmoil amongst others, civil wars, civil strife, nuclear testing, growth of arms trade and pollution (Meekosha, 2011).
In terms of knowledge about disability, Grech (2015) argued that there has been a conventional understanding of disability that has been established, in which persons with disabilities, their voice and other central elements of a conception of disability tend to be over-simplified, over-generalised, and homogeneous and de-contextualised.It could be argued that the echo of colonialism cannot be under-estimated in the South African context of higher education.Its negative implications in terms of the exclusion of positive AIK that is tolerant to disability and decentring it in epistemology cannot be over-glossed.This could be seen in the light of "epistemic violence" as propounded by Spivak (1988), whose focus on subaltern women concludes that in the production of colonial discourse, subordinates have no history and cannot speak.Thus, though South Africa had their own positive AIK on disability, it has been dominated and thus silenced.The next sections discuss the myths about disability and how they result in violation of persons with disabilities, also their exclusion in society largely and more specifically the students with disabilities in South African higher education, including the challenges they confront as a result of the negative way in which disability is being conceived.

Myths about disabilities in African societies and violence to persons with disabilities
From the negative conception of disability, myths around disability were constructed and continue to be constructed to date.In essence, myths about disability exist and new ones have continued to emerge stemming from old beliefs, superstitions and tradition about disability that are negative.There are shared common myths in some African countries such as South Africa, Eswatini and Zimbabwe because of their proximity and similar cultural beliefs by the ethnic groups as AmaZulu, AmaNdebele and AmaSwati, who share languages as isiZulu, isiNdebele and siSwati respectively.One of the commonest myths found in all three countries is that it is a bad omen for those holding a position of power to be in close proximity to a person with disabilities (Dlamini, 2017).For example, an incident was recorded of a disabled businessperson in Eswatini who was denied an opportunity to have a conversation with the King because he had physical disabilities and was in a wheelchair (Dube, 2013).Swartz and Marchetti-Mercer (2018) observed that negative deep cultural beliefs and myths about disability contribute negatively to the incapacitation of persons with disabilities in South Africa.
As myths around disabilities continue to emerge, another common myth is that of the body parts of a person with disabilities being medicinal and having great healing power (de Jong, 2015).This could be seen as the development of new myths with emergence of incurable diseases such as HIV Aids.Common are experiences of cases of men with incurable sicknesses and diseases such as HIV Aids, raping and having sexual encounters with women or young girls with disabilities (Setume, 2016), more especially those who are mentally incapacitated.It is also a popular myth shared by a number of African countries, including South Africa, that the body parts of a person with a specific disability such as albinism brings luck and can earn one a fortune (de Jong, 2015).This has resulted in ritual murders of persons who have albinism, by those aspiring to succeed as businesspersons and those vying for political positions in political parties.In eSwatini specifically, newspapers report on cases of ritual murders of persons with albinism during preparation for elections (Dlamini, 2017).It suggests that contesters believe body parts of persons with albinism could bring them luck to win elections against their opponents.
The trend of disability myths in different African countries can be historically traced from the 1960s to the present time (Aail-Jileck, 1965;Phiri, 1979;Onwegbu, 1977;Devlieger, 1998;de Jong, 2015;Dlamini, 2017).The trend could be seen as reflective of an invisible power that transcended the way in which the negative AIK on disability has been constructed.It could be argued that though there are lobbies for change by the African Governments and organisations for disability inclusion, the invisible power underlying and influencing the stereotypes, beliefs and myths is an issue that to prevail.Oliver and Barnes (2012) however argued that the Western notions of African myths and superstitions about disability in general are largely based on a small ethnographic study in some sporadic villages in few rural communities.It implies that the negative AIK conception is reductive.However, it is the one that had been centred in epistemology by the dominant society, who are the colonisers who hegemonised Eurocentric knowledge in the South African of higher education, consequentially resulting in students with disabilities being overwhelmingly excluded.

Exclusion of persons with disabilities in society
The exclusion of persons with disabilities in South Africa specifically has continued since colonialism and apartheid respectively.For example, women with disabilities are discriminated against for being unable to meet the ideals of womanhood imposed by society (Gauteng Provincial Government, 2010).The attributing factor for exclusion is linked to the dominant negative AIK in specific African countries with an array of cultural beliefs, myths, stereotypes, superstitions, traditions, songs and language metaphors about disability, which have been written by scholars in the West and passed down from one generation to the other.It is the resultant force from domination in terms of negative AIK that persons with disabilities are still one of the marginalised and most stigmatised of all minority social groups in South African communities.

Exclusion of students with disabilities in South African higher education
In the context of higher education, as previously mentioned, students with disabilities are often pitied and understood as charity cases when the view is informed by negative AIK.The limitation of this stance is that it only emphasises religious and cultural factors as informing conceptualisation of disability.Thus, despite some policies and legislations to protect persons with disabilities globally, in South Africa, the negative AIK that is exclusive of disability has continued to abound, spanning from the period of colonialism to the present.In higher education in general, negative AIK feature in books written by Western scholars and in negative attitudes manifesting towards disability.When stakeholders in higher education read negative AIK about disability, it results in them seeing students with disabilities as the Other, hence their exclusion.
In the context of South African higher education, students with disabilities are still excluded in a number of ways (Matshedisho, 2007;Mutanga, 2017).During the apartheid era, the education system was segregated, where those with disabilities were placed in Special Schools with a watered-down curriculum.During the post-Apartheid period, segregation is less pronounced than before.However, it still continues in subtle ways because students with disabilities are still excluded from classroom teaching and learning.Howell (2006) reported that academics have low expectations in terms of their academic performance.Though there are comprehensive policies for inclusive education (Chataika, 2007), students with all categories of disabilities continue to be excluded from teaching and learning due to unwillingness of some staff members who see them as a burden (Mutanga, 2017;Ndlovu, 2017).Many physical structures found in higher education institutions remain inaccessible to students with physical disabilities and visual impairment as the development of the infrastructure has not been originally tailored-made to suit the needs of specific categories of students (Engelbrecht & de Beer, 2014).However, some institutions as the University of the Witwatersrand (Fitchett, 2015) and the University of Stellenbosch (Dalton et al, 2019) have become more accessible due to the Universal Design principles now applied in renovating and retrofitting the built environment.While all the challenges of exclusion in higher education could be explained from surface levels, the deep and invisible underlying reason for them can be traced to the negative AIK, as it shapes and influences disability to be conceived in a negative way.In essence, students with disabilities in the South African context of higher education are excluded in the ways that have been highlighted because they are viewed in a negative light because of the negative AIK associated with disability.The next two sections discuss the argument of the study, followed by theorisation, in which specific concepts of the decolonial theory are applied to explain the invisible underlying causes of centering of the negative AIK, resulting in negative conception of disability and exclusion of students with disabilities in the South African higher education.
The argument in the paper is that before the colonisers invaded African countries, which include South Africa, specific African countries had their AIK, in which disability was conceived in a positive way.However, during the colonial encounter, the Western scholars who wrote disability from their own perspective, writing it for the indigenous people, produced knowledge that was negative about disability.By virtue of them being powerful, it is the negative AIK that has been centred in epistemology, resulting in the negative conception of disability and hence the exclusion of students with disabilities, more specifically in the South African context of higher education.

Theorisation: decolonial theory
A theoretical framework that better explains how the issues of IKS largely and how the negative AIK influence the negative disability conception and exclusion of students with disabilities in South African higher education in particular is the decolonial theory (DT).An example of negative AIK the article is focussed on is the knowledge in which disability is conceived as a result of witchcraft or a curse from God, depicting disability in a negative way.The decolonial theory thus unmasks and exposes the ills of negative AIK as constructed in coloniality.It is in that way in which it is a theory that exposes the ills of coloniality and Western modernity, to provide methods of self-liberation for its social ills (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013).The theory explains what is invisible and not seen at the surface level as the underlying cause of the oppression of some social groups in society.
Critical disability theory (CDT) is a theory whose main features critique dichotomies of individual versus society, impairment versus disability, social norms and conditions that produce stigma around disability, as conceived in the mainstream disability (Meekosha & Shuttleworth, 2009).It would also have been used to underpin the phenomena in the article as it can also explain the exclusion of students with disabilities in higher education, resulting from the negative AIK.However, though CDT would also explain issues raised in the article, DT was more relevant because it delves deep into revealing the invisible underlying causes for positive IKS being censored, devalued, decentred and placed at the periphery of epistemology (Murove, 2018), while the negative is centred.DT would also provide an insight into the hidden underlying reasons why the myths, social constructions and mysteries held by society in South Africa further transcend to higher education as influenced by the negative AIK, which CDT would not adequately capture.
By virtue of its power in revealing the hidden, DT further explains why the individual (medicalised) model of disability has continued to be used, where it concerns students with disabilities in South African higher education.The medical model is a deficit view that emanates from using the ablebodied "normality" as the yardstick for judging people, and in which disability is understood as a tragedy and a limitation within an individual associated with mental challenges, impaired bodies and sensory impairments (Barnes & Mercer, 2003;Oliver, 1990).As further explained by the respective scholars, where a medical model is used, disability is understood in a negative light.The overarching factor is that the medical model is indirectly influenced by the negative AIK, which is one of the underlying reasons why disability is conceived negatively and so are students with disabilities.
The medical model is also captured in the article and linked with DT largely and coloniality of power specifically, because it illuminates how medicalisation of disability gives the medical professionals power to first construct disability as a pathology, then profess to remedy it (Grech, 2015).In the context of the South African context, this is evident as already highlighted that before independence those with disabilities were placed in special institutions and provided special education in schooling.The kind of segregatory placement however would result in exclusion of students with disabilities in higher education by way of not meeting legibility requirements for entry.
Coloniality, decoloniality and decolonial doing have also been drawn from decolonial theory as theoretical tools to inform understanding of misconceptions about AIK in general and what could be done to dismantle them, respectively.By way of definition, coloniality refers to a situation in which oppression continues unhindered, despite the fact that the former colonial rule has ended; however, its effects and influence remain encapsulated and invisibly hidden in the Eurocentric hegemony (Quijano, 1989).Decoloniality is a way of decolonial thinking meant to liberate the oppressed from oppression by the dominant society (Dastile & Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013).Decolonial doing refers to the actual actions, involving doing or undoing in practical terms to change the situation of oppression (Quijano, 2000).
In specific terms, the connection between the three concepts is that coloniality exposes how the issue of negative AIK has been used to inform the exclusion of students with disabilities in higher education.Decoloniality and decolonial doing respectively inform the understanding of what approaches can be adopted for possibly liberating persons with disabilities, demystifying cultural beliefs and myths surrounding disability and providing a practical intervention that may be used for students with disabilities inclusion in higher education and their acceptance in society.
Scholars such as Cross and Ndofirepi (2017) argue that the issue of coloniality could be addressed by hospitality of ideas, which means sharing African and Western knowledges.However, Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013) has a different view that though there are efforts of global power transformation and de-Westernisation, the modern world system has not changed, to ensure genuine decolonisation and deimperialisation.It means that though efforts of decolonisation are being made, to ensure also centering other IKS as the positive AIK in epistemology, coloniality is still ongoing in subtle and invisible ways.The notion is confirmed by Maldonaldo-Torres (2007, p. 243) that "as modern subjects we breathe coloniality all the time and everyday".It implies that as coloniality is still ongoing in a hidden way, it is still the negative AIK that continues to be perpetuated and reproduced, thereby resulting in students with disabilities also continuing to be excluded in the context of South African higher education.
In the context of higher education, coloniality is evident in forms of knowledge, in which there is knowledge that is considered legitimate and is centred, while the other is censored and decentred.For example, the negative AIK about disability is centred, while the positive is placed in the periphery.Thus, consciously or unconsciously, coloniality is reproduced and evident in the content of written work portraying what the "invisible government" determines what is valuable (Bernays, 2007).Coloniality is also evident in the context of higher education in the placement of students with disabilities in the lower hierarchy by virtue that they deviate from what is considered "normal" in the categorisation process of people in society by the powerful (Quijano, 2000;Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013).Martinot (n. d) summarised coloniality as the structure of control that speaks for the powerless forcefully, that it is only reproduced to represent it, uphold it and sustain it.Thus, coloniality is important for the article as it explains the invisible cause for exclusion of students with disabilities in South African higher education.
Besides coloniality and decoloniality as tools to understand the phenomena in the paper, the tools of coloniality of power and of knowledge respectively were found relevant to further illuminate more specifically the issue of AIK and exclusion of students with disabilities in South African higher education.Coloniality of power is evident in higher education when it is the knowledge of the powerful that is placed at the centre and IKS broadly has been placed at the periphery until very late, that it has also started to be considered as legitimate the structure of power, control and hegemony.Furthermore, in terms of AIK specifically, coloniality of power is evident when African history has been re-written by those who stole their power, history and culture, and manipulated it, so as to dominate and control them (Grech & Soldatic, 2015).Goody (2006, p. 1) had earlier described the coloniality of power as "a theft of the history of Africans".In the article, the concept therefore explains why the positive AIK on disability as part of African history was stolen and manipulated, to suit the agenda of those in power.
The other conceptual pillar in the article is coloniality of knowledge.It illuminates the hidden underlying cause for the hegemony in knowledge production, in which the Western forms of knowledge and ways of knowing are considered to be universal and legitimate, in contrast to knowledge generated in the South, which is undermined and considered to be inferior (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013;Sithole, 2014).Of interest is that the higher education institutions such as universities are the ones perpetuating coloniality of knowledge (Dastile and Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2013).In the article, coloniality of knowledge would expose how the positive AIK, tolerant to disability as produced by Africans, is being placed on the periphery by different institutions of higher education and how students with disabilities are excluded in the process in South Africa.The method on how relevant literature for review was obtained followed below.

Method
A systematic literature review was used as a methodological approach relevant to source data on IKS, AIK and disability in international and South African literature, in published books, journal articles, online sources and book chapters.The online databases, which include ProQuest, EBSCO, ERIC, JSTOR, PsycInfo, SAGE, SpringerLINK and Taylor and Francis Online, were used in the search process for relevant literature.Terms such as Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), African Indigenous Knowledge (AIK), epistemology, disability, students with disabilities, South African higher education, colonialism and disability, decolonial theory and their combination were used as search terms for sourcing relevant literature.

The selection criteria and relevant literature
The selection criteria used referred to a specific period during which journal articles, books, online resources, reports and conference papers were published and presented.The initial search yielded vast amount of literature around IKS, AIK related to disability in Africa, colonialism and disability and coloniality and decoloniality issues.The search terms and their combination yielded over hundred publications.Duplicates were deleted, and the remaining publications were reviewed.The limitation of the review was however on the search terms that were used to search for literature in the search engine, which only yielded more publications that framed disability as a problem/illness, while there is also literature that frame disability in a positive way.

Discussion
The whole issue of the banishment of AIK that tolerated disability in specific countries in Africa, decentering it in epistemology and centering cultural beliefs and myths that denigrate people with disabilities, could be explained in the light of coloniality largely, and coloniality of power specifically.That is, it is those in power who determine what knowledge should be valued and centred in epistemology.In terms of students with disabilities, they are excluded in higher education because of having a disability, which is a concept negatively conceived in the negative AIK.The negative conception of AIK transcends from society to higher education, resulting in exclusion of students with disabilities, who are powerless and placed in the lower levels of the hierarchical structure of higher education.
Initially, the AIK was tolerant of disability, but as illuminated in the coloniality of knowledge, intolerance of disability in the negative AIK became dominant.As Escobar (2007) explained, discourses, categories and imaginations help in the construction of Eurocentric hegemony, resulting from the Euro-North American social constructions of disability that are negative, but centred in epistemology.It could be argued then that the negative AIK about disability preferred by the dominant society was an issue of power.The powerful universalised the negative AIK and passed it from one generation to another as the truth.Consequentially, students with disabilities are excluded in communities, including higher education contexts.Higher education institutions are fertile grounds for the dominant IKS about disability to be centred and universalised as truth.Dastile and Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013) explained that universities in particular are epistemic sites which largely contribute to the universalisation of Western knowledge and ways of knowing, naturalising the dominant powers to become universal, while censoring other knowledges.Colonisers would not write against themselves but would offload the blame of negative conceptions of disability to the very Africans they colonised (Grech, 2015;Grech & Soldatic, 2015), and all this reflects in coloniality, of power and of knowledge.The next sections are on interventions, as informed by pluriversality that can assist re-centering of the positive AIK and inclusion of students with disabilities in the South African context of higher education.

Way-forward
As the AIK that is tolerant and inclusive to disability has not been recognised and given priority in Western epistemology, it means there should be a call for "resurgence" without censoring other knowledge and interiorising it.Re-assertion of IK and indigenous practices as some kind of indigenous "resurgence" to regenerate and fortify that knowledge that is threatened by extinction has been proposed by amongst others Simpson (2017).It could be argued that consideration of pluriversality might assist the resurgence of AIK tolerant to disability and re-centering it in epistemology in South Africa in particular.Mji et al. (2017) argue that as IK and AIK lie dormant in African rural communities, the first step is to acknowledge their existence and secondly, to work on their resurgence.This in Marshall and Rossman's (1995) view could enable the minority group, including students with disabilities, to have a voice, which is what is necessary in the South African higher education context.Students with disabilities need to be heard, as Mji (2012) revealed that the positive AIK is being practised behind the scenes but has no place in Western epistemology because it has not been validated in modernity.It is in this respect that Grosfoguel (2011) asserted that the global view must be thought about in plurality, taking into account many worldviews, and not only the universalised truths of the mainstream.One would argue that the inconsideration of pluriverse has influenced the censoring of positive beliefs about disability, which has led to the exclusion of persons with disabilities.
Pluriverse refers to multiple cosmologies and epistemologies from the understanding that the world is perceived from different perspectives (Mignolo, 2011).It is an idea that is against universalisation of knowledge and ways of knowing from one worldview.In pluriversality, all dimensions of all cultures are considered in knowledge production."Pluriversality respects both multiplicity and diversity.It picks the best elements from each culture and tradition" (Gwaravanda, 2021, p. 4).In implication, Ubuntu principles can assist pluriversality, in which all knowledge systems are shared, without centering or decentering other knowledge systems, resulting in the positive AIK that has been previously decentred and also considered in epistemology.It could be argued that centering of the negative AIK by the colonisers was a result of over-glossing pluriversality.Thus, with Ubuntu as an organising principle informing the structures and practices of higher education, a conducive environment could be developed in which all students, including those with disabilities, are included even in knowledge production.Furthermore, when Ubuntu is combined with pluriversality they both can inform disability inclusion in the South African context of higher education.
Decolonial thinking in the way of considering pluriversality as discussed above can inform the re-centering of positive AIK, and consequently bring back the dignity of students with disabilities in the South African context of higher education.Use of positive disability proverbs, more specifically the South African ones, could be adopted, as a way of changing negative perceptions about disabilities.That might transform both higher education and communities, to include all diverse students, including those with disabilities.When guided by the principles of Ubuntu, and also informed by decolonial thinking and pluriversality, all people including those with disabilities would be viewed as equal on the grounds of being humane and capable of knowledge production, which none should be censored and decentred in epistemology.
Decolonial thinking can start with all stakeholders in higher education (university authorities, administrators, academic staff and students) upholding the spirit of Ubuntu, to understand that people including those with disabilities are all humane and need to be included.Then, using Ubuntu as a guiding principle, the programme designers and academics in institutions of higher education should work together to incorporate positive disability proverbs into the curriculum.When those proverbs have been included in the official curriculum, academics would be compelled to include them in their respective modules and teach them as courses to all students at all levels of study.By virtue of being taught as courses in their different programmes, knowledge production in which all people, including those with disabilities, are valued and esteemed could be produced and disseminated.It could be argued that the resurgence of AIK tolerant to disability by way of South African proverbs could be one of the ways of re-centering positive AIK in epistemology, from the pluriversality perspective.
Decolonial doing could start by adopting and using Ubuntu pedagogy, to teach positive disability proverbs to all students with and without disabilities.Ubuntu pedagogy combines methods of teaching that draws from the philosophy of Ubuntu, in which there is respect for all students from different cultural backgrounds, and what they bring, to value all different cultures and beings in order to co-exist in mutual respect (Ukpokodu, 2016).By implication, in the teaching and learning context where Ubuntu pedagogy is applied, there could be promotion of respect for all diversity, cooperation and co-existence with everyone including those with disabilities.Implementing Ubuntu pedagogy in classroom teaching and learning with multi-cultural students has the potential of bringing together students so that they view each other as not only unique but also significant and that they are not complete without each other (Ngubane & Makua, 2021).It could be argued that such a pedagogy could enable the inclusion of students with disabilities as they come to be esteemed and also valued through positive South African disability proverbs.
Furthermore, through community engagement, the knowledge of positive disability proverbs could be taken to the community by all students, in which those proverbs are shared with community members, to also assist community members to understand disability in a positive manner.
Community engagement with students at higher education level could assist in the acceptance of persons with disabilities by able-bodied community members.In exchanging ideas, more positive proverbs could be learnt by the students from the community members as well.As students with disabilities belong to both the community and higher education, there is a need for positive disability proverbs to be shared both in higher education and in the communities.
By virtue of being South African, community members would understand the philosophy of Ubuntu that all people are humane, including those with disabilities.Sharing knowledge of positive proverbs on disability could be a way of provoking and reinforcing the idea already existent in South African communities.In that respect, there could be mental transformation, in which raping persons with disabilities for ritual purposes could be viewed in a negative light and condemned collectively by all community members.Collective condemnation could yield change as people would be speaking out in one voice against the act.

Possibility of change
There is a possibility of change if all stakeholders in higher education could uphold the principles of Ubuntu to create an inclusive environment not only for students with disabilities but all students, to see value in each other through positive disability proverbs.The proverbs in some African countries as Zimbabwe, South Africa and eSwatini, which share similar cultures, traditions and beliefs, for example, reveal that persons with disabilities in communities in those specific African countries are considered human and treated with dignity.Tolerance and acceptance of disabilities in those African countries are depicted in having common proverbial sayings that speak to disability in a kind and tolerable way that cautions against ill-treating persons with disabilities.In the countries outlined above which include South Africa, common proverbs such as "Akusilima sindlebende kwaso" (A disabled is not despised in his own people) portray persons with disabilities as valued members of their families and communities.
In Shona culture in Zimbabwe, the proverbial saying "Seka wurema wafa" (Laugh at the disabled when you are dead) cautions against despising persons with disabilities (Gwaravanda, 2021).It is in this respect that Gwaravanda (2021) argues that it is unfair to dismiss non-European systems of knowledge as mere opinions but, "There is need to go even further than the simple tolerance of difference according to the one world rule; we need to consider how these different worlds can coexist…" (Gwaravanda, 2021, p. 10).It is in this respect the AIK that does not discredit disability largely, and students with disabilities specifically could be considered.Accepting pluriversality as another alternative can humanise students with disabilities in South African higher education and ensure their inclusion.
The most successful inclusive strategies that have a larger impact on South African higher education, as Mosalagae and Lukusa (2016) have argued, are those tailor-made and context-specific.This implies that the African proverbs that have the potential power to shift underlying cultural values and beliefs as well as disability myths of exclusion are the South African ones.Thus, by incorporating proverbs that speak kindly of disability in the curriculum and adopting Ubuntu pedagogy, when teaching about AIK and disability in the South African context of higher education, persons with disabilities could be seen from a different perspective and better understood.In essence, by first accepting the existence of other worlds in terms of AIK, rich conceptions of disability could be shared as decolonial thinking and doing goes beyond restrictive categories and traditional concepts of thinking about disability, written from universalised truths of the Western canon, but practical engaging the South African AIK that is positive.
In summary, as the liberation of those with disabilities is being sought, it should start by dismantling the view and perception of disability, which evolved from the colonial period continues to perpetuate the exclusion of students with disabilities in South African higher education to date.It would take the philosophy of Ubuntu, decolonial thinking and decolonial doing and informed by pluriversality for AIK tolerant of disability to be re-centred.Stakeholders in higher education in South Africa are conscious that there is a need for a system that is pluri-versal.Of importance is to implement the strategies that would include even the positive AIKS that has been previously excluded in epistemology, to also include students with disabilities.How the study contributes to scholarship and the concluding remarks end the study.

Concluding remarks
Western discourses on disability, which have been largely influenced by westernised rhetoric of AIK in Africa largely and in the South African context of higher education in particular, have resulted in exclusion of students with disabilities.There has, however, been a gradual shift in the discourse, as de-colonial thinking continues to challenge the Western canon of conceptualisation of disability to also consider AIK from a pluriversality perspective.Incorporating African proverbs that speak positively about disability into the official curriculum, and using Ubuntu pedagogy to teach all students with and without disabilities in different courses throughout their programmes, could assist in developing the tolerance and acceptance of those with disabilities and consequently, the inclusion of students with disabilities in higher education.Furthermore, community engagement by students with disabilities, in which they have the opportunity to share the knowledge of positive African proverbs with community members, could assist the inclusion of the larger population of persons with disabilities in communities and in society at large in the South African context and the larger African continent.
The issue of also considering IK largely and AIK in epistemology has become a topical subject in contemporary scholarship, as scholars grapple with decentering Eurocentric knowledge in epistemology, to also centering other knowledges.While so, much attention has not been paid to the exclusion of students with disabilities in higher education due to centering of the negative AIK by the powerful.The study contributes uniquely to scholarship by discussing the issue from the unique angle of centering the positive AIK in the South content of higher education, as informed by Ubuntu, pluriversality and decolonial doing, in which positive disability proverbs are utilised in higher education and in the community.
Funding Open access funding provided by University of Johannesburg.