A few weeks ago, I took to the social media and without explaining myself I said “that for the first time in history, Africa’s underdevelopment might actually be a problem” and this view point was borne out of a discussion I had with a friend earlier and during the conversation the statement but kept popping into my head. While unfortunately most people didn’t understand where I was coming from and maybe most people didn’t just have the patient to think through my statement but whatever the case maybe most people that day literally yabbed my life out – oh well I guess that’s the burden of been an upcoming intellectual giant.

But before I proceed I would like to quote Robert Reich and this is what he had to say;

“Furthermore, the approach of ‘peak oil’ marks the beginning of the end of the era of the fossil fuel energy economy. Nuclear energy, because of its horrendous safety and related cost problems is not a variable alternative. The transition to a renewable energy economy will require time and heavy investment. The short term bottom line motivation of the existing private energy industry opposes this transition and is engaged in increasing costly and risk endeavours to prolong fossil fuel era. Offshore and arctic drilling for oil, mountain top removal for coal, fracturing of rock for additional sources of oil and gas and failed effort to render nuclear energy safe are all examples of the desperate efforts being undertaken. The financial costs and the long term toll upon the environment of continuing on this unsustainable path will assure failure. The solutions depends on leadership, involving an immediate fiscal stimulus coupled with the wise long-term investment to grow the economy and to restructure for a new cleaner future”.

Ok now let me get back to the above mentioned statement. But before I proceed I would like to say while borrowing the idea from Karl Max concept of the human society. According to Max, the human society consists of two parts; the base and the superstructure. The base according to Max was the foundation upon which every other sector of the human society including businesses, economy and even the political structure was built upon. Now back to my question what do we think the “base” of human development and civilization is? The reason why I am posing this question is because unless we can think through this question and understand it, then we may not necessarily get what I am driving at. For every epoch of civilization and human development there has always been the necessary foundation upon which human society/civilization/development was built upon. If we trace it back from ancient times of the Egyptian, religious dogma was what served as the base for the development and structural arrangement of society hence the pervading knowledge base was a potpourri of religious doctrines and superstitions.

Since the industrial revolution which rearranged society to the way we know it currently, science in the form of Newtonian physics has been the base which has defined the superstructure of human society.

However since 1999 the intellectual /scientific base has gradually been changing radically so much so that it appears antithetical to present Newtonian base of societal arrangement. Now when we look at back at history there hasn’t been too many such shift in the base structure that defines the superstructure of society as a matter of fact it took thousands of years between the feudal/religious system to be replaced by the industrial revolution. Now less than a thousand year we were witnessing another earth shaking change and a redefinition and a rearrangement of society. And the thing that comes with a rearranging and restructuring of society is that there comes a new power arrangement/hierarchy.

Now when we look at the case of Africa we realise that Africa was nowhere to be found during the renaissance movement which gave raise to industrial revolution of the 19th century. While the world was busy revolutionizing we were still busy with our leaves, bows and arrows and huts and cattle. It appeared as though while the world was busy moving forward we were stuck in a different time continuum that left us stuck in the stone age. And since the colonial period up until now Africa as a continent as been playing catch up, in the sense that since independence from colonialism Africa while chasing its development remained blind to the subtle truth which was that development has always been built on and around a certain body intellectual work and body of knowledge and this time around the certain body of knowledge was science (physics) as opposed to religious dogma and superstitions. As a matter of fact even while playing catch both intellectual and developmental wise if Africa had  understood this subtle truth then maybe it would have whole heartedly thrown itself at the of feet of physics, hence investing heavily in all branches of research, experiment and development most especially application. But it refused to do this, rather Africa simply employed the copy and paste approach (catch up) towards development. Now there are 2 things wrong with this approach, first of all catch up without experiments, in regards to physics, most especially would only bring about limited development. In addition when the intellectual knowledge that servers as a base is been altered, then you would likewise have to alter yours.

Now like I said earlier, the body of knowledge for the about 500 years that has served as a base for the superstructure of human society has been Newtonian physics. However since 1999 we have been witnessing a shift from Newtonian physics for a more complex and holistic physics which is Quantum mechanics/physics which is changing our perception of ourselves, the structure of human society. And there’s also with green theory which is making us reconsider our relationship with the environment. Both body of knowledge are seeing us shift from the traditional deterministic view of life and our place in it for a more holistic and conscious view where every single thing is interrelated and connected into a single web. While this is new intellectual trend supported by years and years of research and experiment in the realm of physics because it is physics that has served as the base upon which society is built upon, however for the 1st time the western or say the developed economies of the world is finding it difficult to make not only the intellectual shift but also the structural shift from the traditional Newtonian dimension of physics which is deterministic in nature to that of quantum mechanics and the reason is simple. If they fully make the intellectual shift then they must likewise make the structural shift in society thus the cost implications of doing so. While on the one hand, the intellectual shift is inescapable because besides the fact that a lot of the great minds in physics are converging on quantum mechanics but also quantum mechanics is responsible for a handful of the technologies we use today. But even with the level of progress there seem to be a great level of resistance especially in the case of structural arrangement of human society and this is where Africa’s underdevelopment comes in handy and if seen rightly maybe an advantage.

The truth is Africa is underdeveloped, moreover if we choose to really develop then we need new thinking tools, paradigms and a heavy investment in physics. And the new thinking tools needed dictates that we begin to toy with new insights both from quantum mechanics and green theory and begin to try to build up our own society from these two very new insights because truth be told the cost of implications of doing this now is way cheaper than doing catch-up, in which when we are done catching-up we would then have to forego it all together again and be back to square one. The reason developed countries appear very antithetical to both the structural arrangement as dictated by both quantum mechanics and green theory is not that the body of knowledge isn’t sound as some would like to think because research and experiments have proven that they are actually quite sound rather the reason for their resistance lies in the cost implication of having to forego their present development pattern and with goes the present power arrangement and Africa appears to be the prefect place for a the new genesis because the body of knowledge is there and all we have to do for starters is get on the train of the Quantum Mechanics and Green Theory and create a potpourri of insight which would then form the basis for other sector of human society such as business, economy and every aspect of development.

The truth the told this is the inevitable outcome of what’s happening right now and if Africa misses it now that am afraid that the disparity which we witness now between the developed and the developing/under developed countries would be nothing compared to what is to come because if in a few years time a few countries have quantum computers, absolute energy, zero communication and achieve the conversion of light to matter then Africa can kiss its so called oil and natural resources good bye.

The views expressed above are solely that of the author and not of Omojuwa.com or its associates.