The world may have missed Africa
Intro
Hello, my friend. It’s nice to have you back. I hope you’ve been good. I have been occupied by some personal concerns that kept me from writing for a while. But I’m here, right? And I’m happy to have you here. This time we’ll look at how events have robbed the world of the beauty of Africa. Africa could have been a whole lot more to the world had colonization of the major parts of it not happened.
The loss of African Technology
I drove a Japanese made vehicle today (the Honda). I used soap detergents whose chemical composition may have been imported from some country outside Africa but there’s a production factory here on the continent. The refrigerator is also imported. The television, telephony, emailing, radio and electricity technologies amongst others are all from different continents, perhaps not one continent, but none originated from Africa. Does this mean Africa could- or can- not produce unique technologies for export? I disagree. I believe Africa could and can contribute a whole lot more to the world than it does currently.
Colonization
Colonization is often perceived from the perspectives of oppression, unfair treatment, cultural alteration, and dominance by a foreign power. Not only Africa experienced this, but the Americas did also. However, I believe the biggest drawback of colonization in Africa is that it deprived the world of what Africa could have contributed should we have been left to grow naturally. Religions, western education, technologies, and cultures were imported into Africa, rapidly. The redefinition of the thought process of the Africans to accept that which came from the outside as superior is what crippled the ingenuity of the continent.
The drift and the rift
It is difficult to pin novel inventions to Africa, not even an educational system. The farther she studies, the farther she is detached from the African reality. We learn English, French, Spanish, Portuguese to the letter. Sometimes we speak these languages better than the owners. Africans master the art of the foreigner better than their own, we just excel, most times at things that are not ours. Is it a bad thing to know about foreign cultures? No, Africa only needs to be conscious that it also needs to contribute too and not just receive.
We may never know
Africa may have produced a wooden vehicle that could have run on the extracts of some plants as fuel, possibly ten times more efficient than the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). Africa may have brought the cure to cancer to the Table, perhaps the citadel of medicine in the world. Africa may have evolved a system of preserving foods for many years without electricity, maybe dug the ground with some material coating around it. Africa may have birth other fields of study that could compete with those available from other continents. But no thanks to colonization, we may never know. We may never because the African reality has been redefined. Her progress is judged based on foreign metrics; hence, it must further detach from herself to be approved as successful. However, we never know, perhaps I and my children could redefine this. I hope so. Africa will contribute, now and later.
Cheers.
