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Phaka and colleagues were starting fieldwork for this study in a very rural community surrounding Ndumo Nature Reserve. People from the community wondered what they were doing. These people knew about frogs and it turned out they wanted to be part of Phaka\u2019s study. There were also two park rangers from the game reserve who were interested and wanted to be part of the study. Through these simple interactions and recommendations by participants, Phaka was able to recruit 13 interviewees for the study. These participants were all administered a questionnaire at an amphibian diversity workshop in Tembe Elephant Park. Participants were shown reference photos of the species in their areas and asked about the possible isiZulu names for those species. Because there were a few instances where one name was being used for several different species in the KwaZulu-Natal region, the interviewees had to establish some new ones. When the participants disagreed on a name or the reasoning for a name, they would deliberate until they reached an agreeable conclusion. Through this method (the full guidelines can be found in Phaka\u2019s paper), new indigenous names were assigned to species previously sharing names and a new naming structure combining indigenous and modern taxonomy was put into practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Scientist in Phaka\u2019s position could easily take the credit for these new names and essentially steal this important intellectual property, but Phaka and his co-authors have been mindful to not appropriate any of this information. Phaka says, \u201cwhen dealing with cultures, you are dealing with intellectual property. I want to be very careful to not steal any ideas\/cultural knowledge. Luckily, new laws and university policies have helped make sure I\u2019m not a bio-pirate. And South Africa\u2019s department of environmental affairs is very helpful when it comes to culture and wildlife\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A lot of people appreciate this research \u201cespecially members of previously excluded communities, they love the initiative and wonder how to help\u201d says Phaka. \u201cOn the opposite side however, there are some seasoned scientists who want research to be done their way or no way.\u201d Phaka calls these people \u2018the gatekeepers of science\u2019. \u201cAccording them what I\u2019m doing is not a scientific process and the indigenous names will not be scientifically acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the critics, Phaka stands by his work as an important way to take what has been neglected and show it to the world. In doing so, this science also helps represent and preserve South African and indigenous cultures while increasing the communication essential to conservation. Hopefully, studies like this can be adapted to promote and include communication with all kinds of communities for the benefit of conservation around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Future plans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunate M. Phaka will soon finish his Joint PhD at North West University and Hasselt University. He plans to Continue Indigenous taxonomy in the 8 other South African languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Phaka and colleagues\u2019 paper can be found at: https:\/\/ethnobiomed.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s13002-019-0294-3<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n And you can read more about Phaka and colleagues\u2019 field guide here: http:\/\/youth4africanwildlife.org\/south-africas-first-frog-handbook-written-in-an-indigenous-language\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Luther Millison When we think about barriers to science, Jargon-filled technical writings and multi-level academic institutions may come to mind. But what about taxonomy? Taxonomy is the naming and classification of organisms. Scientific names are uniform to all but … Continue reading