AFRICA NEEDS SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

When it comes to investment in science, research and technology, Africa remains a backwater continent which is probably at the stage where Europe was in the 17th Century in terms of industrialization. So, we have probably another four centuries to play catch-up with the rest of the world, and certainly nobody will be foolish enough to help us through or worse wait for the struggling kid! Perhaps, the only countries that have put in some investment in this field are Egypt and South Africa because of historical and geographical reasons. Egypt is a neighbor of  Israel, the arch-fiend of the Arab world, and in the case of South Africa, the white supremacist rule by the Apartheid regime in a largely black race continent made them fortify themselves.
If you  take agriculture for instance, which forms the backbone of African economies and where one would expect sizable investment directed, there is very little research and technological investment by the governments alone without donor or foreign country co-funding, and yet we expect to compete with those same countries at the international commodities market. That's utterly ridiculous! There is need to invest in science, research and technology so that we can understand our environment better and learn how to tame it for our utilization, gain and enjoyment. As a continent located in the tropics, Africa is full  of all sorts of diseases, pathogens and vectors which we need to understand well so as to limit their negative impact on us. We need to come up with new crop cultivars and improve on the existing ones so  as to maximize our production per unit area. Most of the soils lack the necessary nutrients and enough organic matter for utilization to give good yields and it's imperative that we research on them and replenish them through fertilization and reconditioning. There is the challenge of the rapidly growing population and climate change that require immediate action before large portions of the population suffer food shortages even much more that it is at the moment. The continent is in short supply of animal proteins which calls for breeding new suitable animals to close the current huge gap. However, it's such a tragedy that even students are no longer interested in studying agriculture and veterinary sciences at the universities due to lack of career prospects. This  is probably because of  the current system of education that emphasizes education as only as an avenue for employment other than acquiring knowledge. It is a well known fact that Africa doesn't have money to import food and has to rely on donors to support the program. There is need to realize that there is such thing as donor fatigue and it's high time we learned to put our money where our mouths are.
On the other hand, if you look at the health sector, Africa is no doubt the sick man of the world. Every imaginable disease, pathogen and vector is available on the continent resulting in high morbidity and mortality rates than any where else in the world, apart from, probably, Haiti. All the medicines and medical equipment including aspirin and syringes are sourced from outside or manufactured under license. Here, as in agriculture, the students who want to join medical careers are hoping to become physicians so as to get employment other than think of how they could contribute to the overall medical knowledge for posterity. Some years ago, when Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) announced publicly that they had managed to come up with medicine to treat AIDS, it caused quite a stir but those on the know took it as a big joke, which it turned out to be, but the general public and the political class were quite excited. Obviously, it's not possible for us to discover medicines for such intricate conditions with our meagre resources and near zero investment in research. Such discoveries don't belong to conjurers but dedicated scientists in well equipped labs that have the cutting edge  facilities that only science and technology can avail. Therefore, like babies learning to walk, we need to take those first steps with whatever assistance we may get from outside but  being aware that once we fall, we are likely to hurt ourselves and it will be upon us to bear the pain and nurse our injuries! Let's wake up now as Africans and put more money in science, research and technology to secure our future.