Why Africa's Technology Lags Behind

In this essay, I offer a moderately researched and fair assessment of Africa's apparent stagnation in its technology. Technology has various definitions, but one that fits this essay is that which describes technology as the sum of ways in which social groups provide themselves with material objects of their civilization (dictionary.com).

People often erroneously think of technology only in terms of modern computer gadgets and star wars, but forget that technology must first and foremost address the immediate pressing needs of a society. Most importantly also, is the fact that technology, once it comes into play, acquires modification or becomes obsolete with time.

Africa has since the 3000 BC, been providing itself with material objects for its civilization. Before being annexed as part of a province of the Roman Empire in 31 BC, and its technological advancement rudely interrupted, ancient Egypt was a highly developed civilization with advanced technology that suited it. Some of Egypt's technological facilities included irrigation canals, scientific and mathematical formulae that enabled them to construct architectural designs like Pyramids that have for ages stood as testimonials of its technological capabilities.

These developments in ancient Egypt, were only possible due to a period of relative stability (3 millennia), but thanks to conquests by the Romans and then the Arabs, its prosperity began to decline, and eventually fell into stagnation. A similar scenario occurred in other African beacons of social and technological development.

The Great Zimbabwe stone ruins are evidence that the Monomotapa kingdom, founded by the Shona in 500AD, was a thriving civilization with a productive agricultural, mining and livestock economy. They mined gold and traded it at the coast for goods they lacked. The Great Zimbabwe stone monument had three parts: The Hill complex, which was a sort of temple for worship. The second part was The Great Enclosure where their king lived and the last part, The Valley Ruins had huts for its citizens.

These ruins built around 1100AD had stood the test of time, and were mistakenly thought to have been built by some European conquerors. Research by David Randal MacIvern and Gertrude Caton-Thomson (1905-1929) confirmed that these were the work of the Shonas. But thanks to the violent conquest of the Zulus in the 1800s this civilization came to a halt.

Without seeming to be apologetic to the current political, technological and economic chaos that Africa seems to offer, one has to stop and imagine where some of these civilizations would have been today, had they not been interrupted. Consider the Aztec and ancient Mexican civilization before the misguided Spanish destruction, and how that act of greed brought to a halt, once and for all, a thriving social and economic development.

Yet, these societies have had to bear the brunt of failed alien social, technological and economic blue prints which they had to learn afresh from scratch. This brings us to an important aspect of any form of technology, and that is, its suitability to the needs of its users. Bicycles are unsuitable for the hilly and rough terrains of Afghanistan just as gondolias are to the streets of Nairobi. A wise man once said that necessity is the mother of invention. Some of the technologies Africa has imported and adopted were, by and large, unsuitable for its immediate needs.

However, Africa and its leaders cannot escape a huge share of blame for a seemingly clueless lead in technology, but the big question that needs to be asked is which way they need to follow. The successive conquest of Africa by different civilizations in the last six to seven millennia brought with it a plethora of economic and technological systems hard to follow, and also stagnated any gains Africa had made.

Thus with focused leadership and time, Africa can still catch up with the rest of the world or bring its own contribution to technology in areas that matches its needs and serves the demands of the global economy.

Sources:

Encyclopaedia Britannica online (2000), Great Zimbabwe : 23 Oct 2000

Cutter, C.H (2000), Africa 2000; Harpers Ferry, West Virginia: Stryker-Post Publications.

Jacksons, J.G (1997), African Civilizations; Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing Group