https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/181 2026-04-22T17:02:09Z 2026-04-22T17:02:09Z Mutongi Chipo Rigava Billy Muchuri Tinashe Chiwanza Mufaro Rindai https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/6555 2025-04-28T14:19:08Z 2025-01-29T00:00:00Z

Title: Rethinking the place of African kitchen hut as a hub for business management, marketing, education, health and strategies in the age of artificial intelligence. Paper presented at the IEEE 4th International Conference on AI in Cybersecurity (ICAIC) held on 05-07 February 2025 in Houston, TX, USA Authors: Mutongi Chipo; Rigava Billy; Muchuri Tinashe; Chiwanza Mufaro Rindai Abstract: Every African woman particularly a married woman in the African context with special reference to Zimbabwe is expected to own a kitchen hut. There is an adage which says that the place of a woman is a kitchen. Given the African kitchen hut, it shows women empowering context therefore viewing a kitchen hut as a hub for business management, marketing, strategies and education through lifelong learning and health care. The kitchen hut embodies women’s power rather than belittling them as some feminists portray it as a place for women to cook food for the family. Families sit in the kitchen planning all their business ventures and marketing strategies to expand their businesses. Women give birth and nurse the sick in the kitchen making it a referral hospital and labour ward and a constitutive space where herbalists and traditional diviners operate to remedy different illnesses. The African Kitchen Hut is an institute of business prosperity, lower and higher education. It provides practical and theoretical business tactics and education through observation, imitation, lecturing, folk tales, riddles, songs and dances to young boys and girls at a prescribed time and giving it the face of a learning institute. Hotel and catering business tactics are also passed on to young girls and young women and today the knowledge is passed on also to boys and men. The African hut is a hub for all activities giving it one of its many faces as a business centre, learning centre, referral hospital and hotel where nutritious food is cooked and dished. A kitchen hut is where a family convenes to strategize about events befalling the family, consults on the bridal prize and lobola payment, rituals to appease ancestors and the spirits of the wronged persons, giving it a double cap of being a temple and a court. It is the family’s front office, business center where marketing strategies and public relations strategies are practiced and visitors are also received and are seen off from the same kitchen hut. It is here where family and sometimes a whole community fellowship especially at night sitting around the fireplace passing critical business knowledge and education to the younger generation. The kitchen is also a mortuary where the dead lie in state before being buried. It is where memorial ceremonies are held and the life of the deceased is celebrated. Most of these roles are entrusted to women and its use for any reason is first asked for permission from women to access it. The kitchen became a space for women emancipation where their power and significance to the business world, family and society are realised. This promotes the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Goal 5: Gender equality, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and Goal 4: Quality education. The paper employs a qualitative research approach through the use of secondary data and observation. The emergency of artificial intelligence poses a threat to these many faces of the African round kitchen hut to the preservation of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)’ centre of strategic planning, education and health, in the Indigenous kitchen hut. This study focuses on how Artificial intelligence (AI) can pose a potential risk to the preservation of the role of the African kitchen hut and how Artificial intelligence could uphold the role of the African kitchen hut in its many facets which include women empowerment.

2025-01-29T00:00:00Z Mutongi Chipo Rigava Billy Muchuri Tinashe Chiwanza Mufaro Rindai Chipo Mutongi Billy Rigava https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/6060 2024-03-28T13:20:47Z 2024-02-16T00:00:00Z

Title: Robotics in Healthcare: The African Perspective: 2024 IEEE 3rd International Conference on AI in Cybersecurity (ICAIC), 07-09 February 2024, Houston, TX, USA Authors: Chipo Mutongi; Billy Rigava Abstract: Today one has to run very fast to stay on the same position. We are no longer competing with humans only, we are now also competing with robots as they are involved in learning, leading to Machine Learning (ML). Robots are increasingly being adopted in healthcare to carry out various tasks that enhance patient care. Robots in health care have revolutionized the health ecosystem. There are different types of healthcare robots which include nursing robots, surgical robots, clinical Training, Prescription Dispensing, care robots, Telepresence, Rehabilitation Robots, Health Call Centre Robots, Ambulance Robots and Physical Therapy Robots. Healthcare robots are mostly found in the developed countries. This paper seeks to establish robotics in healthcare considering the African perspectives and Zimbabwe in particular. A qualitative study was conducted whereby twenty students at a university were interviewed concerning their views on healthcare robots in the African context. It was found out that healthcare robots are still at their conception in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular, there is fear of the unknown, some indicated that robots will affect their indigenous way of life as they are used to interact with each other as human beings and not as robot to human as shown by the concept of Ubuntu, power challenges, connectivity, lack of awareness challenges, as well as cultural and religious challenges. However, some participants indicated that they greatly welcome the robots as they may cease the health professional shortages in Africa and also they consider them to be more precise and accurate as compared to humans. Some indicated that more privacy will be promoted due to the use of robots. It was recommended that there is need for immense healthcare robots conscientisation, awareness, training, robots to mimic the African way of living and language.

2024-02-16T00:00:00Z Chipo Mutongi Billy Rigava Chipo Mutongi Billy Rigava https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/6059 2024-03-28T13:20:44Z 2024-02-16T00:00:00Z

Title: The Application of the Fifth Discipline Strategies in the Learning City Concept: 2024 IEEE 3rd International Conference on AI in Cybersecurity (ICAIC), 07-09 February 2024, Houston, TX, USA Authors: Chipo Mutongi; Billy Rigava Abstract: The stone age did not end because there were no more stones, it ended because of continuous improvement, innovation, creativity and learning. Local government has always been around since time immemorial. Even in the Stone Age period there was some form of local government, leaning and continuous improvement. In this DVUCADD environment, an environment characterized by dynamic, volatile, uncertain, ambiguous, diversity and disruptive phenomena, cities should be in a position to employ Peter Senge’s fifth discipline in order to survive and be in a position to learn faster. The Local government in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular has the role of proving a range of vital learning city services delivery for residents and organisations in defined areas. Among them are well known functions such as social services like primary education, libraries, vocational training and recreational facilities. Local government administration has a great role to play in bringing citizenry’s lifelong learning, engagement and participation. This then brings in economic and social development. One of the important aspects that ever happened in our life, is when Peter Senge came up with the fifth discipline that any organisation can apply in order to achieve a learning organisation. These disciplines are personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning and systems thinking. The City of Harare is used as a case study in the application of Peter Senge’s fifth discipline to foster the learning city concept.

2024-02-16T00:00:00Z Chipo Mutongi Billy Rigava