Africa and its peoples have for centuries been prone to biased ‘scientific’ research. Some pre-colonial and post-colonial research projects thrived on the insatiable zeal to justify Western prejudices toward Africa and Africans rather than the objective desire for indigenous knowledge and mutual development.
“San people of Africa draft code of ethics for researchers,” by Linda Nordling, posted in Science Magazine, highlights the agency of one of Africa’s indigenous communities to reclaim its epistemological identity and to reap from the benefits of research. The San community of South Africa has initiated an ethics code to govern and control the modus operandi for scientific research targeting their communities (to include the San in Namibia and Botswana). This code draws from the historical lessons of epistemological exploitation to safeguard the San communities from selfish researchers and the effects of offensive research.