The Institute of Indigenous Knowledge, Cultural Studies, and Climate Change (IIKCSCC) is proud to announce that Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) has been selected as one of the only nine hubs across the continent to host the 2025 Inaugural African Fellowships for Research in Indigenous and Alternative Knowledge (AFRIAK).

From 1^st March to 31^st March 2026, the University will host thirty (30) Fellows representing 11 African countries, including Lesotho, Malawi, Cameroon, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Ghana, Somalia, and Kenya.

AFRIAK is a programme offered by CODESRIA with the support of the Mastercard Foundation as part of the Foundation’s commitment to advancing education and skills development for young people in Africa. The programme is grounded in the conviction that training a new cadre of young scholars with the capacity to generate and apply knowledge derived from Indigenous and local realities will produce contextually grounded, innovative, and usable data for Africa’s development. The programme also promotes recognition, validation, and integration of Indigenous and alternative knowledge systems into mainstream research, policy, and practice.

The AFRIAK-MMUST Hub is coordinated by Dr. Lucy Mandillah (Deputy Director, IIKCSCC) and supported by two  mentors namely; Prof. Kenneth Simala,  Department of Language and Literature Education, MMUST and Prof. Workineh Kelbessa, University of Addis Ababa.

Key Activities and Thematic Areas

During their month-long residency, the Fellows will participate in a rigorous schedule of mentorship sessions, workshops with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, research-policy dialogues, and field visits. Their research  focuses on the following core clusters:

• Indigenous Pedagogies & Curriculum Transformation
• Indigenous Health & Medical Knowledge
• Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Indigenous Epistemologies
• Epistemology, Language, Arts & Ways of Knowing
• Community Engagement, Youth & Knowledge Transmission