Africa must ‘win intellectual war’
AFRICA cannot achieve its full potential without investing in building a good system of knowledge production, says Christopher Zambakari, a conflict trends specialist and academic based at the School of Political Science and International Studies at Queensland University in Australia.
He says what Africa needs to do is invest in education. “Without this crucial investment, without returning the African university to the front of the intellectual battlefield, Africa will continue to have an army of lions commanded by sheep.”
Africa ranks last in terms of scientific output and investment towards research and development, according to the current affairs journal Pambazuka News. The world share of scientific output from developing countries is 5.8%, which includes 3.7% from Asia, 1.1% from Latin America, 0.6% from North Africa and the Middle East and 0.4% from sub-Saharan Africa, it says. Africa as a whole accounted for 1.2%.
Zambakari says spending on research and development in sub-Saharan Africa comes to less than 0.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). This drops to 0.3% if one omits SA, which invests nearly 1% of its GPD in research and development, he says.
“For a modern state, there is no alternative but to invest in building the infrastructure of knowledgebased production. This means good governance, better school systems, excellent universities and a deliberate effort to bolster research and development across private and public sectors.
“The challenge for Africa is that it must first take hold of the intellectual battle before it can wage a physical battle against violence and poverty and all other problems that it is currently facing. The battle against violence, underdevelopment and poverty does not begin by looking to the outside — it begins with a sustained debate on the inside. Without winning the intellectual battle, Africa cannot pull itself out of its current morass,” says Zambakari.
True independence for the Africa depends on whether it can do away with a system that reproduces mediocrity that perpetuates a vicious cycle of dependence on the outside, and replace it with a system that prioritises Africa and its people.
“This means investing in better institutions, improving systems of governance, developing technological innovation that fosters and engages with infant industries on the continent and, most importantly, knowledge that meets Africa’s own needs,” he says.