Problem Statement
African education and scientific research systems remain largely shaped by colonial legacies that marginalize local realities, indigenous knowledge systems, and African scientific traditions.
Learners are trained almost exclusively through imported epistemologies, while ancestral African sciences—embedded in languages, myths, symbols, arts, and interactions with nature—remain undocumented, underutilized, or dismissed as non-scientific.
As a result:
- African youth grow up disconnected from their own intellectual heritage
- They are unaware of mathematical, biological, and cosmological knowledge historically developed in civilizations such as ancient Egypt and Nubia
- Indigenous languages, which encode sophisticated scientific concepts, are rapidly disappearing from formal education and research
The loss of the archetypal approach—a knowledge framework grounded in recurring natural patterns such as spirals, fractals, symmetries, and networks—has weakened Africa’s ability to innovate from its own epistemological foundations.
Without tools to decode and reactivate these ancestral systems of inquiry, scientific innovation remains externally driven, culturally disconnected, and poorly aligned with African environments, values, and worldviews.
Proposed Solution
“Dschang, la recherche du futur” proposes an innovative mobile application called Yéé, designed to revive and operationalize African endogenous science by reconnecting modern research, education, and innovation with ancestral knowledge systems.
The solution combines indigenous epistemologies, African linguistics, archetypal science, and artificial intelligence into a unified digital research and learning platform.
It introduces users to the archetypal method—an interdisciplinary framework at the intersection of:
- Biomimicry
- Symbolic anthropology
- Life sciences
- Complexity theory
…and provides tools to explore how African myths, symbols, languages, and artistic patterns encode scientific principles.
Core Elements of the Solution
-
Structured Repository of African Myths and Legends
Archives of cosmogonies and traditional stories as scientific knowledge bases -
Advanced Linguistic Tools for African Languages
Tools for languages such as Wolof, Fulfulde, Ewondo, enabling etymological analysis and conceptual decoding -
AI System for Archetypal Symbol Analysis
Trained to detect, interpret, and correlate symbols like spirals and fractals across texts, images, languages, and modern scientific concepts -
Digital Library of Afrocentric Scientific Research
Foundational works by African scholars and culturally grounded research -
Gamified Learning Experiences for Children
Playful, interactive storytelling and visual exploration of archetypal science
Impact
By transforming African cultural and symbolic heritage into a living scientific research infrastructure, Yéé empowers:
- Students, researchers, and innovators to generate knowledge rooted in African values and ecosystems
- The restoration of epistemic sovereignty
- Culturally grounded scientific innovation
- A future where African science evolves from its own foundations, not external frameworks