Uariaike Mbinge

Mr Mbinge is an Omuhimba community elder and leader from Otjisa, a remote ovaHimba village in the Kunene region, Northern Namibia. Amongst his community, and across the Kunene region, he is known as a wise and considerate bearer and bestower of knowledge, and has since 2011 collaborated with the Indigenous Knowledge (IK) research cluster at Namibia University of Science and Technology.

He has contributed invaluably to concepts, methodologies and technological advances, and is a proponent of IK preservation and dissemination, actively collecting and digitising IK about various indigenous customs and practices across a range of domains such as plants, wildlife and rituals. With his background and affiliations to the research cluster, Mr Mbinge has actively engaged in various research and community-based technology design projects, facilitating and coordinating research activities. Even though he only speaks Otjherero (the local ovaHimba language), through translators, Mr Mbinge has co-authored and joined the research team with joint research publications and conference presentations in various notable international journals and conferences.

In 2019 and 2020, he led several design and technology sessions with ovaHimba communities in Namibia and Angola, demonstrating the use of technology for IK collection and preservation.

In 2021, he co-facilitated workshops at the Epupa Knowledge Fair with communities from all over the Kunene region and researchers exploring and exchanging indigenous knowledge and experiences.

Whilst, in 2023, in addition to attending the 2018 edition, he co-facilitated a community-researcher protocol workshop at the AfriCHI 2023 conference in South Africa. He continuously advocates for intergenerational and transcultural knowledge sharing and has over the past decade guided and supported a large number of students at all levels of tertiary education, with about 20 national and international postgraduate students benefiting from his stewardship.

He passionately shares his expertise on co-designing technologies from ovaHimba perspectives with other community members and academia. Due to his continued and active role in community-based technology design projects, Mr Mbinge is currently a co-chair, for the Community Track at the Participatory Design Conference (PDC) 2024, to be held in Malaysia from the 10th to 17th of August 2024.