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BUILDING AN ONLINE INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE LIBRARY ON CULTURE,
ENVIRONMENT AND HISTORY: CASE STUDY OF ELIMU ASILIA
by
Ashah Owano
Resource Centre Manager
National Museums of Kenya
P.O. Box 40658 – 00100, Nairobi
Email: aowano@museums.or.ke
Paper for the 3rd International Conference on African Digital Libraries and Archives (ICADLA-3)
27th-29th May 2013, Ifrane, Morocco
Abstract
Kenyan libraries and information centres are inadequately equipped with local indigenous knowledge (IK)
content to contribute to global digital knowledge economy. Scarcity of community stories and
information on the web undermines the role of librarians and other information workers, denying local
communities opportunity to participate in the development of local content about their communities and
encourage them to use and appreciate local library services. All over the world, indigenous knowledge
has been recognized as distinct, legitimate, valuable and vulnerable system of knowledge that requires
appropriate skills to handle and manage. In Kenya, like most African countries, events and accounts were
transmitted orally from one generation to another. The data/information was hardly documented. This
paper presents a case study of ‘Elimu Asilia’, a participatory platform for developing local content where
National Museums of Kenya librarians working with researchers and volunteers interact with local
communities including children in the collection, preparation, preservation, sharing, exchange and
dissemination of IK on culture, environment and history for memory, national sustainability and eco-
social development using information communication technologies. It is envisaged that this platform will
contribute towards the reduction of digital divide, sharing of community IK and promote global online
communities for indigenous knowledge.
Introduction
Kenyan libraries and information centres are not well equipped with local indigenous knowledge (IK)
content to contribute to global digital knowledge economy. Scarcity of community information on the
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web especially IK stories and information undermines the role of librarians and other information workers
in Kenya and denies local communities a chance to participate in the development of local data/content
about their communities and encourage them to use and appreciate online library services (via the
internet). Greyling and Zulu (2010: 33) share the same sentiments that web 2.0 is about community
collaboration and usability. This situation is changing thanks to improved internet connectivity and
decreasing connectivity costs in Kenya brought about by increased mobile phone usage, broadening the
role of librarians in the preservation of community memory in the post modern or current digital age.
On the African content, Greyling (2012: 400) states that one reason for scarcity of African content on the
web is lack of capacity to record, transfer and disseminate African community stories and information. A
browse through the web established that only few libraries and information centres hold IK in their
collection. A web search conducted to establish how many libraries or information centres hold
Indigenous knowledge in Kenya showed that the Kenya Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge
(KENRIK) based at the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) was the only outstanding centre that popped
up on the screen, in addition to the ‘Elimu Asilia’ blog page. This was a clear indication that local IK
content in Kenya is very low, retarding the dissemination of indigenous knowledge among Kenyans.
'Elimu Asilia' is the Swahili equivalent for indigenous knowledge (IK). It refers to the knowledge
acquired through accumulation of experiences, experiments and intimate understanding of the
environment by the local Kenyan people. Part of this knowledge may have been published in print/hard
copies and available in libraries. This knowledge is derived from direct handing over from generation to
generation, gained and modified by community members through the daily experience in their diverse
native environments. There is need to transform orally transmitted knowledge into other formats for
preservation and ease of access to a wider audience. Elimu Asilia which is still at its pilot stage will act as
a common platform where NMK librarians, information technology (IT) specialists, NMK researchers
and volunteers interact with local communities and children in the collection, preparation, preservation,
sharing, exchange and dissemination of IK on culture, environment and history for the memory of our
nation for sustainable and eco-social development. IK is driven by community dependence on traditional
knowledge and practices in sustainable exploitation of their environment, preserving their culture and
reconstructing their history, through time and across generations. The practice of preserving community
memory involves collecting orally transmitted local content (indigenous), processing and making it
available and accessible for free online. Advancement in technology has revolutionized the process which
was previously done through traditions, customs, stories, myths among others. Story telling was the most
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common way of transmitting and preserving knowledge about society (such as history, nature and others)
to young children by elders.
Aim and Objectives of Elimu Asilia
The NMK librarians countrywide have experienced the desire and demand to use ICT based information
resources by their clients comprising of local community in addition to other information seekers and IK
gap in the collections. This necessitated the creation of Elimu Asilia whose aim is to raise awareness and
promote appreciation of all aspects of indigenous knowledge covering culture, environment and history
and enhance its collective acquisition, preservation and availability, access and use in digital format.
Objectives
The main objective of Elimu Asilia is to create an electronic platform for accessing Kenyan Indigenous
Knowledge (IK) on culture, environment and history for the memory of the nation. The platform will
endeavour to:
Capture, collect and disseminate community memory on culture, environment and history for the
memory of our nation, for sustainability and socio-economic development through community
participation
Process the knowledge and make it available digitally online through the museum libraries and
websites
Encourage community participation and ownership of digitized resources and promote knowledge
sharing; and
Increase community IK full presence on-line and community exposure to the online tools for
creating and retrieving their own knowledge
Vision
The vision the ‘Elimu Asilia’ is to be the best online platform for the preservation of indigenous
knowledge on culture, environment and history including data collection, processing, archiving,
publishing, sharing, management and dissemination.
Methodology
Elimu Asilia platform uses a participatory approach to reach the local communities through the already
established NMK regional libraries and information centres countrywide which directly link up with local
communities and cultural groups. The librarians, volunteers and NMK researchers who are in constant
contact with the various local communities make arrangement to talk to the elders and collect stories.
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Where the elders cannot be reached, children and volunteers who come to the library or visit museum are
asked to tell a story or a memorable natural structure near their home. Traditionally in some communities,
young people especially ladies do not directly talk to the elderly people, the volunteers who are trusted
and known to them have to accompany the librarians and do the talking. However, it is explained in
advance to the volunteer how to interview the elders while collecting the stories. At times the community
members are invited to the library to develop the story on a computer. The communities work with the
librarians to edit the stories. The stories are collected as hand written scripts, and with the assistance of
the librarians, communities are assisted on the computer to type. The voice recorded stories are
transcribed onto CDs/DVD by NMK audiovisual personnel. The scripts are sent via email to the project
coordinator in Nairobi where they are further edited before being uploaded to the blog page by the IT
specialist. Illustrations are captured using mobile phones and digital cameras and either sent with the text
or separate via mobile phone, smart phones or by email or on CDs/DVD to the coordinator and IT
specialist.
Contributors
The contributions so far collected are voluntarily given by community members and they comprise
personal experience and community history of customary practices. In their methodology, Greyling and
McNaulty (2012:402) had contributors ranging from personal and community histories to customary
practices, living experiences and historical environments and people voluntarily submitted information for
web publishing. Articles are released on the web with the owners’ consent. It is expected that the use of
Contributors’ articles on the web is within Nagoya protocol and the Creative Commons License. Of
interest is the push by the communities to have their contributions uploaded on the web, and the continual
follow-up on the status of their contribution ensures that they are uploaded appropriately.
Data Management
Stories are uploaded and preserved online on a blog page by IT specialist working at NMK. The content
of this blog will be migrated to a website once the pilot phase is over. The choice of a blog during the
pilot phase was informed from the need of an open source digital medium that is cost effective (free) for
hosting content and widely acceptable and accessible.
Technology
The advancement in technology in the recent past has enabled and eased digital content/or collection
development. According to Rowley (2003) this has prompted a shift from collection development to
collection management in libraries. Elimu Asilia uses Google+ 1 Open Source software for archiving of
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information using cloud computing. The information is captured using different mediums and digitized
using a computer system.
Embracing new technology has aided Elimu Asilia to generate exchange, share and disseminate IK easily
and faster as anybody in any location in the world can easily access the blog space and indulge in its
captivating content. Access is not limited to physical location or equipment, but thanks to technology, any
internet enabled device such as mobile phones and palmtops can easily and practically access the blog
from any location, irrespective of equipments or physical investments.
The blog page is made interactive and encourages comments which positively act as a feedback providing
authentication of the blog content. This is a very useful interactive tool for information generation,
validation, dissemination and feedback. The response is used to increase the quality and relevance of the
blog.
Results
The pilot phase has collected and archived 33-articles on culture, history and environment, with most
articles being focused on culture and history. Child naming is captured more than once from stories of the
Mijikenda (especially the Digo and Giriama), Luo, Kamba and Taita, while, traditional marriage and
wedding knowledge has been collected from the Kamba, Giriama and Nandi. Results on environment are
reflected in three articles including the Ol Doinyo iigoon - the unique breast Mountain Mount Elgon and
wood carving in Ukambani among others. The following are some of the stories on the blog about culture:
Figure 1. (source: www.elimuasilia1.blogspot.com)
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Page Views
Google+ software gives statics for Today, Previous day, Last month and All time. A comparison of page
views statistics and audience of Elimu Asilia on 25th March 2013 and 31st March 2013 were as follows:
Table 1. Statistics on Page Views
Page Views on 25th March 2013 Number Page Views on 31st January 2013 Number
Today (25th March 2013) 10 Today ( 31st January 2013) 6
Yesterday (24th March 2013) 40 Yesterday (30th January 2013) 18
Last Month (February) 660 Last month (December) 466
All time history 3,591 All time history 2,520
After a period of almost two months statics show growth in visitor numbers who consult the blog for
information. At the end of January 2013 the number of visits to the blog was 2,520, while on 25th March
2013 the number shot up-to 3,591. When the two figures are compared then it is clear that people are in
dire need of indigenous knowledge. This is an indication of user interest in indigenous knowledge, and
the gap that exists in access to IK.
Page Views Worldwide
It was established that indeed Elimu Asilia blog is viewed by information seekers from various countries
all over the world as shown in the following map in green.
Figure 2. Worldwide Page Views
Source: http://www.blogger.com/blogger: Elimu Asilia – Overviewstats
http://www.blogger.com/blogger
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Another approach was done to test whether Elimu Asilia blog page can give statistics on page views by
country. The result again showed that indeed Elimu Asilia blog is viewed by information seekers from
various countries. A comparison of page views statistics was done to establish which countries visited
Elimu Asilia on 25th March 2013 and 31st March 2013. It was found that there was some variance in the
visits from various countries as shown below for a period of two months:
Table 2. Page Views by Country
25th March 2013 31st January 2013
Country Number Country Number
United States 43 United States 28
Kenya 109 Kenya 14
Tanzania 5 Tanzania 11
Italy 4 Russia 6
France 3 Ukrain 4
Switzerland 2 South Africa 4
Cameroun 2 Canada 3
China 2 Chile 2
India 2
The Netherlands 2
Towards the end of March 2013, there was growth and variance in visits to the blog. Kenya had 109-visits
followed by United States 43-visits. This was an indication that even Kenyans were curious to read local
content on the internet and it was also noted that there was shift in usage where Kenya surpassed United
States in the number of hit on the site. The number of hits from Tanzania dropped from 11 in January to 5
in March. There were new visits from Italy, France, Switzerland, Cameroun and China. It was noted there
were no hits from the countries that had visited the site in January 2013.
In January 2013, four months after setting up the blog, most page visits were from the United States
where twenty eight visits were recorded. This was followed by Kenya, and 14-visits were recorded; while
Tanzania had 11-visits followed by Russia with 6-visits. South Africa and Ukrain each had 4-visits; while
3-visists were recorded from Canada. Chile, India and The Netherlands each had 2-visits to the blog.
Page Views by Browsers
When a web management tool was applied on 30th January 2013, the number and percentage (%) were not
taken since the curiosity was to establish which browsers were being used. However, on 25th March 2013
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the same was repeated and it was established that pageviews of Elimu Asilia were done using the
following browsers:
Table 3. Page Views by Browsers
25th March 2013 Number ( %) 31st January 2013 Number
(%)
Internet Explorer 49 16 Internet Explorer
Not
taken
None
Chrome 49 20 Chrome " “
Opera 35 14 Opera " “
Firefox 102 41 Firefox " “
Mobile Safari 5 2
Mobile Safari and
Version "
“
NokiaBrowser 2 <1
Results show that during the month of March, most visitors (102) used Firefox browser to visit Elimu
Asilia blog; while Internet Explorer and Chrome browsers were used by 49-visitors, followed by 35-
visitors who used Opera during the same period. Less than 10-visitors used Mobile Safari and Nokia
Browsers. This is an indication that Google+ software allows the use of various ICTs to search the blog.
Page Views from Referring Sites
The following is a tabulation pageviews by referral sites:
Table 4. Site Referrals
Page Views by Site Referrals Number
www.google.com 9
www.google.co.ke 7
www.google.com.tz 4
www.google.ca 3
www.google.co.uk 3
www.search.babylon.com 2
www.google.cl 2
www.google.co.in 2
www.google.com.za 2
www.goethe.de 1
Most referrals to the blog come from google.com site and or google search engine is used by most
information seekers.
http://www.google.com/
http://www.google.co.ke/
http://www.google.com.tz/
http://www.google.ca/
http://www.google.co.uk/
http://www.search.babylon.com/
http://www.google.cl/
http://www.google.co.in/
http://www.google.com.za/
http://www.goethe.de/
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Page Views by Operating Systems
It was further established that page views were done using various operating systems as follows:
Table 5. Page Views by Operating System
on 25th March 2013 Number (%)
Windows 153 78
Linux 19 9
Android 7 3
Macintosh 6 3
iPhone 3 1
Nokia 2 1
SymbianOS/9.3 2 1
BlackBerry 1 <1
Other Mobile 1 <1
iPad 1 <1
Windows was found to be the preferred operating system, with 153 hits representing 78%. Linux and
Android were used by 19 and 7 visitors respectively.
Search Keywords
The Blog was also tested on the use of keywords to make a search on 31st January 2013 and on 25th
March 2013. The following were the findings:
Table 6. Search Keywords
on 25th March 2013 Number on 31st January 2013 Number
Mambrui (24 Mar 2013) 17 Majani ya mnazi ndio mkunazi 2
Sinendet, a Ceremonial Plant... (15
Aug 2012) 14 Sinendet plant 2
Mijikenda circumcision, Child
naming.. (1 Sept 2012) 14
How to prepare ‘mkate wa
mofa’ 1
dawa za Miti Shamba (9 Nov 2012) 9 Mapishi mkate wa tambbi 1
Kadzora, a delicacy among the
Mijikenda 21 Mar 2013 8 Matobosha 1
Mijikenda ladies 1
Nandi culture song for
circumcision 1
Omunyu musherekha 1
Unga wa mkunazi 1
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In March 2013, the most searched article was on the history of Mambrui with 17-hits, followed by
Sinendet, a Ceremonial Plant and Mijikenda circumcision, Child naming with 14-hits each. Those who
consulted the article on traditional medicine plants ‘dawa za Miti Shamba’ received 9-hits; while
Kadzora, a delicacy among the Mijikenda had 8-hits.
Bloggers Published Comments
Out of the 33-published stories, only 4-comments have been posted on the blog page directly by
information seekers who have visited the page. The comments are positive in nature, with one blogger
appreciating and being proud of the Mijikenda people without hiding his pride for the Malindi District
Cultural Association. One visitor only known as Francis was grateful for the useful knowledge on the
history and uses of the Lesso (Kanga). Another anonymous visitor who consulted the story on Mti wa
Muhina commented that the ‘information is useful knowledge that lots of people do not know’.
Challenges
During the data collection in the pilot phase, the fieldworkers (i.e. librarians, contact persons and
researchers) noted that, although communities were more than willing to provide stories that they would
like the global community to learn from, they experienced some challenges on the community expectation.
All in all there were positive comments on the initiative; however, the following are the experience so far
encountered:
1. People interviewed including the contacts to the local communities expect to be given incentives
or paid for their time when the project in its pilot phase does not have a budget of its own
2. Most of the local content generators want to be visited during weekend, whereas the only
available time to the librarian is during the week (working hours) not during weekend which the
communities prefer.
3. Lack of training on technologies especially on the use of computers, phones and cameras
4. Language barrier which is overcome by contact people. A number of contributors needed
language assistance for communication as they were only fluent in their local dialect, which was
overcome by the assistance from the community contacts.
5. Content on the blog is organized by date, month and year. The information cannot be classified
under history, culture and environment.
6. The blog has low interaction capabilities with various media formats for example in dealing with
longer multimedia clips
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Lessons Learnt
In this pilot phase, the communities have been very proactive in the generation of IK and are eager to
have their stories online. Within this pilot the collected period 33-stories have been archived. The
communities have willingly given the stories because they want their names to appear on the web as
contributors and to be cited. Immediately a member gave their community story, s/he would start
pestering the librarian to have the stories uploaded. This is indicative of communities deferred publishing
endeavours, and lack of opportunities to preserve their IK. It is evident that there is a lot of IK out there
with communities that is not yet tapped, much as communities are willing to contribute and share their
experience with the rest of the world online.
Conclusion
Communities’ willingness to preserve their IK in digital format should be encouraged at all costs.
Although monetary incentives are not easy to account for in public institutions, other means of incentives
like invitation of contributors to workshops can be reverted to so as to encourage or boost morale of
would be generators of IK stories to do so. Mobile telephony has the potential to revolutionize the
preservation of community stories, and therefore since community members are willingly giving stories,
some incentive should be put aside for them.
Way Forward
The results of the pilot phase are an indicative of the thirst for IK worldwide as it is evident that Elimu
Asilia blog page is viewed by clients throughout the world. The willingness of communities to contribute
stories should not be over-looked. It is therefore, only prudent that the project be scaled-up to cover all
communities in Kenya in order to continue collecting, processing and digitally preserving IK for current
and future generation. A workshop planned for May 2013 is a worthwhile forum for story contributors to
meet each other for purposes of validating their stories, sharing and exchanging ideas as well as giving an
input to the project on what and how communities would like to see their stories on the web.
Acknowledgement
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Director General, National Museums of Kenya and the
Director of Research and Collection for their support and encouragement during the launch of Elimu
Asilia initiative. The Goethe Institut in Nairobi financially supported the post-SCECSAL workshop for
the planning of Elimu Asilia initiative and has since continued to partner with NMK to give useful
support. Sincere appreciation is due to the Elimu Asilia secretariat comprising Agnes Lusweti, Gilbert
Busolo, Ruth Adeka, Philemon Ochieng, Brenda Monchari Onyancha, Esther Bosibori Omosa and Albert
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Otieno. Mr. Busolo (IT specialist) tirelessly uploaded all the articles as they were received. Many thanks
to Mr. Ochieng, a research scientist at the National Museums of Kenya, Department of Cultural Heritage
for editing this paper.
References
Elimu Asilia. Available: www.elimuasilia1.blogspot.com/
Elimu Asilia - Overviewstats. Available: https://www.blogger.com/ Accessed:31st January 2013
Greyling, Elizabeth and McNulty, Niall 2012. How to build an Indigenous Digital Library Through
Community Participation: the Case of the Ulwazi Programme. Proceedings of the XX Standing
Conference of Eastern, Central & Southern African Library & Information Association (SCECSAL),
Nairobi, 4th-8th June 2012, p.400-410
Greyling, Elizabeth and Zulu, Sipho 2010. Content Development in an Indigenous Digital Library. A
Case Study in Community Participation. IFLA Journal, 36(1), 30-39
Kenya Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (KENRIK) Section. Available: www.museums.or.ke
Accessed: 25 January 2013
Rowley, J. 2003. Knowledge Management – the New Librarianship? From Custodians of History to
Gatekeepers to the Future. Library Management, 24, (8/9)
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https://www.blogger.com/
http://www.museums.or.ke/