How Africans can embrace ‘juju or jazz’ for the continent’s development
If Africa wants to develop, we should stop depending on just education from the West. China and the East have developed knowledge that is as good as, and sometimes even better than, Western education. So what must we do?
We do not have the military-industrial complex to compete with either West or East. Neither are our research and development capacities up to scale. The solution is this. We must steal, beg for, or borrow technology. How?
READ ALSO: Why you shouldn’t compromise your virginity over societal pressure
Do your first degree in the West and do your Masters in China. Or do your first degree in China and your Masters in the West. Then, return to Africa with your oriental and occidental knowledge and create an African version. If we cannot beat them, let us join them and then imitate them until we can innovate and build upon our own indigenous technologies.
And in building our own technology, let us not criminalise or make controversial juju or jazz. That is a misnomer. Juju, jazz, sangoma, marabout, etc., are just names for technology that we don’t yet fully understand. Let us understand what we have in our hands.
READ ALSO: Reno Omokri: Why I support Nigeria’s fight against Binance
Technology is just magic, wizardry, sorcery, enchantment and juju simplified and codified. Let us stop killing so-called witches and wizards. Instead, interrogate them and get them to reveal the ancient secrets and give them to our scientists to simplify and then codify.
If a person can fly at night, that is not jazz. That is advanced quantum physics that defies the laws of aerodynamics. Don’t kill such persons. Give them pen and paper and force them to write how they violated the law of gravity. That, right there, is a science textbook!
By Reno Omokri
