The development chasm between Africa and the West is too big to go unnoticed. Contemporary Africa is now synonymous with perpetual, devastating armed conflicts, high levels of poverty and lagging far behind its Western partners in modern research and technology. But when did things start to tail off? The criminal neglect of innovation and innovators is at toxic levels; the continent’s technological development is a far cry from even its past self; if anything, we have regressed, at present Africa contributes just 2 percent of world research output, accounts for only 1.3 percent of research spending, and produces 0.1 percent of all patents.
Poverty as it occurs in Africa today is unjustifiable. It is a serious indictment to the African leadership that a continent boasting of 60 percent of the world’s arable land, vast forests, 30 percent of the world’s reserves of minerals turns out to be the poorest continent on earth struggling to feed its people and unable to create jobs for its citizens. Africa produces only 3 percent of global GDP, accounts for less than 3 percent of international trade which mainly constitutes primary goods and natural resources.
Devasting as it is, the war in Ukraine is highlighting important issues for Africa – war is changing. Watching the Ukrainians defend their territory from the invading Russian forces has shown us a glimpse of modern warfare and an idea of how future wars would be fought and raises questions of Africa’s positioning. Technology comes to the fore! Naturally, questions of Africa’s scientific and technological preparedness for such a world shift must follow. What has been of note in the Ukraine existential war is the widespread use of First Person View (FPV) drones for both reconnaissance missions and striking enemy targets in the frontline and beyond.
There is no reason to believe that the technological lag in Africa is down to lack of creative minds in the continent; history is awash with evidence of an African past endowed with innovation, the continent has the world’s oldest record of human technological achievement: the oldest stone tools in the world have been found in eastern Africa, and later evidence for tool production by humans’ hominin ancestors has been found across West, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.
It is no secret why Africa’s technological development is lagging far behind the Western world. There is no denying that slavery and colonialism – the most heinous crimes in human history – had an impact on development in Africa but to use them as an explanation of today’s realities in the science and technological incapacities would be irresponsible victimhood mentality. This is a clear case of poor leadership and misplaced priorities.
Endemic corruption within public entities has often been highlighted in the chronic lack of investment in science and research fields. Ideas need funding if they are to reach their maturation to tangible applications or tools to be used for the betterment of the continent and its people.
Financial investment in the creation of new knowledge has been fundamental in the growth of the West and China; if you do not invest in the creation of new knowledge you will struggle to be technologically competitive and fail to effectively adapt to an ever-changing world.
Looking in the mirror is vital; another major internal problem is that contemporary Africa has not changed the economic model and is still reliant on the colonial fundamentals with an extractive emphasis and trade in low value raw materials to the Western market only to buy back the same products from the same West after they have been processed and transformed to high value products. That set up is clearly wrong, yet the continent’s leaders seem more satisfied to offset the impact of trade deficit with aid funds from the same West.
Education systems have been frequently identified as the major weak point of African development; the systems are geared towards creating employees more than creating employers, uncovering, promoting innovators of new products and services. A deliberate shift towards prioritising investment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is important to build and retain science skills on the continent.
Developing and introducing scientific enquiry skills from early-stage education will be the first step. Let us teach our children and society to engage with information – primary and secondary – in a structured manner and build new knowledge and solutions in a coherent, systemic way that can be replicated to address internal needs and help in our global interactions.
Conditions must exist for progress to be made in the science and technology fields in Africa. We need to address the socio-political incompetence that enables disinvestment in science and technology and affect our capabilities to produce and retain brilliant scientists in the continent; absence of checks and balances mean corruption is allowed to drain funding resources away from research, science, and technology. To stop the brain drain, Africa must put in place systems to promote and protect research and researchers.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 