Upon entering secondary school, Enoch Ndoli knew science subjects were impossible subjects. “Only the bright can manage doing maths, chemistry or physics”, he was always told. Ndoli knew he stood very minimal chances of passing these subjects, if he ever bothered studying them; therefore as he entered advanced secondary he opted to study social sciences. Today a graduate of Education, Ndoli has difficulties using a computer. Before he read this article, Ndoli never knew that Albert Einstein is the person of the century from 1900-2000 neither did he know about the Einstein’s theory of relative mass E=mc, and the wonders those fickle letters have created in the world since the 1920s. One can hardly blame Ndoli, probably even you; were discouraged and scared stiff from studying chemistry and physics. Africa’s technological development was killed by colonisation and the bible; no one wanted an innovative African native. In South Africa up to the late 90s blacks were not allowed to study nuclear science. Africa was deliberately kept out of the field of sciences; the first colonial scholarships granted to Africans to study in Europe excluded physical sciences. Europeans wanted Africans only as clerks and guards-against fellow Africans. That is why even in 2007, it is possible to go to any African country and meet “Africa’s first black architect or bones specialty-they are recent! Africa’s first crop of modern leaders and elites were basically fighting to access state power, rather than mobilising the populace towards development. Because the European colonialist made political power the centre of everything, the African was duped. Today even a crude African rebel could be a graduate of a prestigious US or European university. Instead of creating development oriented instruments, African intellectuals preoccupy themselves with killing by way of civil wars or by stealing from the poor by way of corruption among public offices. The socialization and education system in a society has a direct bearing to the level of development to that society. Specifically, the rate of development of any country on earth is a direct reflection of that society’s education system. The most important pillar of development in a country is the creativity, innovation and use of technology suiting that area. Africans had a properly instituted educational structure in their societies. The spear, knives and axes from stone, remember Stone Age man? They also had tobacco pipes, and for my grand father, a scented gourd, replacing the modern flask and a fireplace in the house for warmth. The European missionaries made all this look black magic-witchcraft. The notion that physical sciences were hard was a ploy to subconsciously discourage many Africans from studying and learning about the secrets of the white man. The colonial education system emphasised obedience and law enforcement, it is by no coincidence that most of Africa’s first elites were lawyers or teachers. It is certainly harder to study the behaviour of human beings than to master the theory of relative mass. Physical science is based on time tested principles and facts, they are constant. Social sciences is based on human behaviour, they are variables. Harder to keep track of! The study of physics or chemistry is not complex; there is no explanation why today African education experts are promoting the study of sciences with the zeal of affirmative action politics. A scientific fact is a fact period. Variations in human behaviour change very often, therefore the field of social sciences is instead very complex. Why is it then that Europeans enforced a system of education that killed African creativity? The colonial system introduced the school, which was conducted by missionaries. Its objective was to evangelise and to train the administrators of the colonial power. Education remained discriminatory and was not relevant to African society, culture and values, which resulted in the people losing their creativeness, initiative and sense of pride. Physical sciences like physics, chemistry, astronomy and geology is the study of natural laws-which never change. It is the academic field concerned with the development of products that we can use to understand physical reality, allowing man to have open honest, simple and logical discussions of his surroundings-the source of wisdom. African nationalists were- and still are concerned with acquiring and retaining political power rather than changing the mindset of Africans-like Gandhi did for the Indians. Less surprising therefore that today India-with as much poverty as Africa is the second fastest growing economy. If the rules of sciences were introduced to children at a tender age, they would not find difficulty understanding chemistry as they reach secondary school level like Ndoli. This would provide our societies with absolute foundation for solving our problems technologically and scientifically while avoiding the deception of cultural myths of the white race. The Asian Tigers left Africa in the development backwaters and joined the technology race by emphasising the study of physical science- and managed to pirate western science. The classic African tools mentioned earlier are proof that Africa has always had abundant technology but lost the science-the natural principles of motion, fluids, heat magnetism, nuclear technology as well as optics to be able to produce commodities for our societies and the economic advantage of reduced expenditure on imports. After the Hiroshima bombings Japan’s industrial growth was destroyed but the country embarked on physical sciences to rebuild its economy and by the 1950s every household in Japan had a small cottage, which later developed through linkages to other industries. The challenge to education policy makers today is to revise the education syllabuses to ensure a steady supply of graduates in mathematics, biology, and chemistry so they can deal with African problems of disease and poor communication. The trend whereby the public sector has more managers than agriculturalists should be discouraged. Ends
