INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND INDIGENIZED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Abstract

One of the global challenges that confront humanity today is the great divide that dichotomize peoples and countries with socioeconomic labels of developed and developing, rich and poor, Global North and Global South categories. These nomenclatures capture the social injustice that have characterized international relations in the past and which has continued to the present in a more sophisticated way as technocolonialism. Unfortunately it is the indigenous people who are, most of the times, victims of this global injustice. This study, indigenous people and indigenized artificial intelligence for sustainable development in Africa, is an attempt to explore the basis of indigenization of AI for effective development of indigenous people, and the overall realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study adopted the method of content analysis to collect data from World Bank Annual Reports from 2020 to 2025, and the data was analysed using simple percentage calculations. The theories of demystifying emerging media and participatory development provided the framework for the study. The findings of the study revealed that education and empowerment of indigenous people are key to the process of indigenization of AI, which drives the people to assume responsibility for their self-definition and development. The study recommended compulsory study of the history of indigenous people for all indigenous students, that tertiary institutions within the regions of the indigenous communities prioritize and encourage research on indigenous knowledge system and indigenization of AI, and that scholars develop local theories and paradigms for the study and development of indigenous knowledge system. The researcher concluded that indigenization is an effective means of involving indigenous people in AI and community development projects.