Africa: the curious case of scientific stagnation — Rees Chikwendu

Many Africans enjoy the gains of scientific discoveries, but lack in contribution to its developments. In today’s world, Africans can drive exotic cars, travel by air, own the latest tablets and telephones, etc., of scientific progresses. Therefore, they taste the fruits of scientific labor with little contribution to its plough and sowing. Make no mistake, the potentials are there to be inventive, they have not yet materialised into scientific discoveries. For this reason Africa has continued to depend on imported benefits of science that make life much more comfortable, without serious effort to invent and contribute to its own social development and the saving of humankind.

Of course, without this aspect of social development, a society will continue to be plagued by miseries such as diseases, poverty, crime and wars, and other social ills prevalent in this 21^st century in many African societies. The key to solving and reducing these social problems lies in science and knowledge, currently no more than tiny seeds hidden deep within the ‘potentials’ of Africa. Without these necessary human strides, we cannot save humankind when faced with pandemics or frequent disasters, for example, the current Ebola virus ravaging countries in West Africa.

Still, Africa has remained a lacklustre because of its inability to evolve from its theological and metaphysical stage of human development. This desired evolution from stagnation does not happen by chance. It requires a deliberate social engineering by national elites – that is, those in its truest sense, and who can be called the light bearers of freedom of the mind, to bring about a social evolution of enlightenment. So, today’s Africa is still a cocoon, stuck between its theological and metaphysical stages of development, with little or no effort to metamorphose into a leading continent of knowledge and sciences, to unleash its potentials of development.

As it is, today, Africa still reels in myths – where knowledge is attributed to deities, priests, spiritual healers, wizards – and conjurations, often in the forms of revelation and ‘prophecies’ of ‘men of God’ as divine. This is a type of ailing knowledge, since they refer and sometimes deal with realities that cannot be perceived through senses, and cannot initiate and encourage social development. It is a type of knowledge that is conjectural and not methodological.

To establish its inventive authority, Africa needs a positive or scientific type of knowledge that is organized. This is the type of knowledge that refers and deals with realities based on observation. It is the type of knowledge that is both descriptive and explanatory. It is the type of knowledge that is valid, reliable and can be generalized. Within this type of positive knowledge there is little or no regard for myths, superstitions, spiritual healings, oracles and divinities. However, the peril here is that it will put numerous Africa’s fake pastors or ‘men of God’ (and gods) out of their businesses. But it is needed if Africa must reap the blessings of prosperity.

The necessity of this scientific type of knowledge in Africa resurfaces yet again with the dreadful Ebola virus currently destroying lives and homes. Rather than look for homemade or indigenous solutions for its problems, Africa has mostly waited for Western ready-made solutions that usually come with great costs. This was evident in the Ebola virus, first discovered more than forty years ago – enough time to invest into science and research that could have produced effective counter-measures. However, as per usual, Africa demonstrated its ability to wait (un)patiently for external help instead of relying on its own potentials to solve its own problems (through scientific measures).

No doubt, to experience a new order and change, Africa would need to break free from its tribal roots of knowledge and launch itself into a scientific ecosystem of knowledge, research and intellectual facts; and not myths and certain claims of revelations that impede progress and freedom of the mind, sometimes latent in some outdated cultures and traditions. It would also need to rid itself of unnecessary external dependency and start taking lead to contribute to progress of humankind through positive or scientific knowledge.

The future of Africa without a positive social rethink and engineering would continue to be that of a continent with the slogan of sorrows, faces starving from hopes, eyes drained from dreams, minds left on borrows, homes lost in pains, and cleaving only for survival.

Find Rees Chikwendu on twitter @reesful