The Role of Cultural Festivals in Enhancing Indigenous Knowledge for Sustainable Development in Kenya

Abstract

Culture plays a pivotal role in socioeconomic development, as captured in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution and Vision 2030. This paper employed a qualitative ethnographic approach to investigate the role of cultural festivals in enhancing indigenous knowledge for sustainable development (SDGs 4, 8, 11 and 12). The study objectives were to determine the extent to which festivals promote indigenous knowledge for sustainable development, establish factors that impede community cultural festivals, and make recommendations on the enhancement of indigenous knowledge for development. Data was collected through document analysis, participant observation, and interviews with 32 key informants who were randomly sampled from a population of 5,000. They comprised community elders and representatives from the National and County Government of Homa Bay during the Rusinga Cultural Festival. Results indicate that cultural festivals are effective in showcasing indigenous culture, creating awareness, education and lifelong learning, entertainment and heritage promotion, tourism and westernisation. They build community resources, their success is judged on profit and loss, and they provide a forum for community cohesion and celebration, as well as enhancing cultural knowledge. This paper bridges the knowledge gap by explaining how cultural festivals help generate social-economic benefits to host communities (SDG 8), inculcate the use of the Abasuba language into early childhood development (SDG 4), provide platforms for sharing indigenous knowledge and allow heritage promotion for positive returns and renewal (SDG 11).