A Review  conducted   in 2009  by  a team of  external and internal  experts on African Indigenous  Knowledge  Systems (AIKS)  capacity  at the University  of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN), revealed that  the university  has  great  capacity and potential  in terms  of active   researchers and publications on  AIKS   in its  various  units.  In-line with the institutional  vision  “  to be a  Premier University of  African  Scholarship” and  promoting  Africa led  -globalization, UKZN has identified   AIKS as a strategic  focus   area for  research, teaching and community engagement. Taking  into consideration  the  holistic and multi-disciplinary  nature  of  AIKS, the  scope  of  research undertaken  in the  field  is  quite  comprehensive. Researchers  are  engaged in  collaborative research  work  locally, nationally  and continentally in  areas  of  :

1. African Indigenous  Agriculture and Food Security including use of  Wild food resources  and   Postharvest Technologies in  the  context  of  natural  resource and disaster management systems  for climate  change  adaptation and mitigation. Researchers  in these  areas   investigate  the  behaviours of  living  organisms as early warning  systems,  taboos and  totemic systems as  indigenous environmental protection mechanisms;
2. African Traditional medicine involving working with  traditional healers  in the  identification and screening  of  medicinal plants for the  treatment  of various  community ailments; smoke research for   conservation, cultivation and  improving  chemical  constituents  of  indigenous  medicinal plants;
3. African Indigenous Approaches to conflict management and   transformation. This  includes investigation  into actors, principles,  mechanisms and  their  applicability in  modern times within  the  context  of  culture, gender and  human rights;
4. African Traditional Leadership and Governance  Systems. Researchers  investigate  the  nature and characteristics of  African traditional institutions; issues  of  legitimacy, democracy and  accountability; traditional  African institutions  and modernity  (challenges and prospects);
5. Indigenous  Knowledge  Systems  and Creative/ cultural   Industries, especially with  regard to promoting  indigenous  community enterprises  for   employment  creation and income generation among vulnerable   social groups (women, youth and people  living  with disability);
6. African Indigenous  Languages  where  researchers  investigate  issues  on the diversity  of African Indigenous languages  and its impact on  development  policy,  language  demographics, linguistic features of   African Indigenous  languages, etc.

The issue  of gender and language  is crucial  in  all  these  AIKS  research  areas at UKZN  due to the  centrality  of  African  women and language  in  sustainable  community livelihood in  African  communities.