Ancestral Science and Technology for Modern Development, By Toyin Falola

[Adebayo Ajadi]

Ancestral Science and Technology for Modern Development, By Toyin Falola
https://toyinfalolanetwork.org/ancestral-science-and-technology-for-modern-development/

Adebayo Ajadi (ND Business Administration )

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Its great that Falola is adding science and technology studies to his broad ranging and before now near comprehensive study of Africa. With the addition of science and technology, he possibly  reaches comprehensiveness in his coverage.

I would like to add something to what he has stated in this lecture but I wonder how able I am to do that.

I am inspired by his efforts and would like to contribute something.

What could I contribute?

Perhaps I could add something on science and technology in classical African thought- my own preferred style of naming the phenomenon- as both practical and speculative in its foundations, intellectual and related to  spirituality, though not identical with it,   as science has been in its development in various parts of the world, including in the emergence of modern science in 17th century Europe.

As in other parts of the world, from Asia to Europe to the Arab and Persian worlds, the development of science and technology in classical Africa emerged in the context of people trying to make meaning of their existence through exploring the universe as well as trying to address practical issues.

Yoruba Mathematics and Ifa

Yoruba mathematics, for example, is speculative, philosophical, spiritual and practical, roles played by mathematics in various cultures to the present day, with those more abstract origins foundational to the character of modern mathematics.

Yoruba mathematics functions as a means of counting material things but it also functions as a means of organizing information and mapping relationships between an information system and the structure of reality, at the intersection of the human self and the spiritual forces understood as contributory to shaping the course of human life, as the mathematical structure of odu ifa in the Ifa knowledge and divination system may be described.

Akan and Gyaman Adinkra 

The mathematical shapes of Akan and Gyaman Adinkra visual symbols enable navigation of philosophical concepts ranging from the nature of the creator of the universe to ideas on how to live as well as being forms used for their aesthetic value on surfaces such as the human body, clothes and architectural structures, an adaptation from their original use on clothes at funerals in signalling the message the departing soul takes with it from Earth to the world beyond death.

The Luba Lukasa 

The Lukasa instrument of the Luba of the Congo enabled the mapping of relationships between physical space, and the religious and political structure and history of the Luba.

Benin Olokun Geometries 

Geometric forms are central to Benin Olokun symbols used as a means of communication between the material and the spiritual worlds, at times evoking such philosophical concepts as infinity.

Nkanu Geometries 

The art of the Nkanu of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola demonstrates a range of geometric shapes, from the circle to the square to the triangle,along with other shapes, all depicting their cosmology, their view of the universe.

Questions of Contemporary Significance 

Of what value are these in the modern world, a question central to Falola's essay which is centred on the idea of contemporary relevance?

I see them as strategic to exploring philosophical and spiritual questions, inquiries which may or may not result in scientific outcomes as currently understood.

Why then, would I consider them worth considering in a discussion of science and  technology?

Beyond Instrumentality in Science

I consider them worth discussing in  such a context beceause I see the significance of science and technology as not limited to the current focus on their instrumentalist understanding in Western culture.

"Instrumentalist" in the sense that science and technology in Western culture, the globally  dominant culture in relation to those aspects of human endeavor, are understood principally as means of improving material well being through practical applications.

A good degree of the foundations of what is now known as modern science and technology, however, are not in the quest for practical outcomes.

A good degree of these foundations are actually philosophical, with science understandable as an approach to philosophical questions about the nature of reality, efforts others built upon, at times, centuries later, in developing practical, technological outcomes from these enquires.

Aristotle, a foundational figure in scientific history, was a philosopher seeking to understand the structure, dynamism and logic of the universe, employing logic in pursuit of his goals, this logic being directed at abstract and social  subjects as well as the material world, such material study using tools relevant to it being what is now known as science.

At the heart of science is mathematics, but such a foundational figures in mathematics as Pythagoras sought to understand how the cosmos is structured in mathematical terms,  a quest fundamental to shaping the role of mathematics in scientific cosmology to the present day. 

The scientific cosmologists who created the modern scientific world picture, from Galileo, to Kepler to Newton in the 17th century, to Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger and others in the 20th century, were not seekers of anything practical, to the best of my knowledge.

They were driven simply by the need to understand the universe, with some of the phycists I referenced above being deeply grounded in religious and philosophical systems that inspired their work, from Newton's Christian and Hermetic grounding to the Indian philosophies that inspired Schrodinger, even as they recognized that scientific method and religious and philosophical method are very different, as Newton forcefully states in the conclusion of his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, presenting his unified allegiance to scientific quest and religious vision.

Convergence and Divergence Between Science, Spirituality and Philosophy in African Contexts  

Can any substantive claim be made, therefore, that a discussion of science and technology in the African context, particularly in terms of its contemporary significance, should include the idea of appreciating the full spectrum of these cultural forms and encouraging their discussion within this comprehensive framework while cultivating strict sensitivity to the differences in method and scope between science and its philosophical and spiritual contexts and historical foundations, divisions fruitfully developed in modern science?

Adinkra 

In their paper announcing a new graphical method in exploring the field of supersymmetry in mathematical physics, Sylvester James Gates and Michael Faux referenced Akan Adinkra as a demonstration of the use of symbols in evoking ideas that are beyond full verbalization or conceptualization- not sure which of the two terms they used - and in recognition of the power of one such symbol  system, the Adinkra of the Akan of Ghana, they named their own graphical system "Adinkras".

The supersymmetric Adinkras began as simple but at times elegant shapes, some identical with or similar to Akan Adinkra, new creativities  which Gates and Faux later developed into a more expansive and more sophisticated suite of visual forms in subsequent papes, as they later modified the name of their system to "Adinkrammatics".

Wikipedia on "Adinkra(Supersymmetry)" is likely to give a good overview of these developments. 

A number of papers have been written  using Adinkra as a means of teaching mathematics.

Faux and Gates stated in a personal communication that they did not draw on Akan Adinkra in creating their own symbols.

The identical character of some of their symbols to Akan Adinkra and similarity between them in other instances suggests, however, that for the adequately equipped mind, Akan Adinkra can inspire  achievement of the kind demonstrated by Gates and Faux in developing Adinkrammatics.

The Luba Lukasa 

Modern adaptation of the Luba lukasa has been developed, taking the lukasa beyond the framework of Luba culture in using it as a mapping system in other contexts

May similar developments not occur in other contexts of science, building on existing embeddings of forms with evident or potential scientific value in African philosophical and spiritual contexts?

Science as a Universal Cognitive Category 

In this context, I don't advocate for the idea of "African science" an idea that needs to be handled with great caution so it does not spiral into pseudo - intellectualism and pseudoscience.

One of humanity's great achievements is the construction of science as an enterprise that transcends  cultural and geographical specificities.

The science practiced by Ibn Sina in laying foundations in medical research in the  centuries ago Persian world, is, in essence, constituted by logical systems that made his work influential for centuries in Europe, I expect.

The principles behind the invention of rockets in centuries ago China would be the same as those employed by Germany in developing its rocketry program in the early to mid 2Oth century and the same employed by the US and Russia in taking rocketry  forward in the same century.

Newton's Laws of Motion and theory of gravity and Einstein's work on space and time have validity everywhere, even in outer space, unless new conditions are discovered.

Any effort to describe reality needs to meet specific criteria for it to be valued as  science and one of those criteria is universal verifiability under the same conditions, using techniques that can be logically assessed by people with the right knowledge and skill.

I have observed someone in a forest in Benin-City pick a scorpion from a hole in the ground and place it on his head and cover the scorpion with a cap, while he remained unharmed, a feat he describes as enabled by a herb he pointed out to me and invited me to chew and test for its scorpion protecting properties.

Medicine and even herbalogy  in classical African contexts at times involve elements of the spiritual.

Until the totality of factors involved in such procedures can be logically analyzed and replicated with a significant success rate by anyone with the same cognitive competence in similar conditions anywhere, can it be called science or should be described as something else?

Disentangling Spirituality and Philosophy from Science 

Ifa and Adinkra mathematics need to be appreciated in their full philosophical and spiritual contexts but those contexts can't be described as scientific even though the mathematical structures may  perhaps be describable as scientific.

Thus, it would be dangerous to insist on an "African science" distinct from "Western science"   because that idea risks creating uncritical ethnocentrism in place of the hard won victories of the human intellect in carving a zone for itself amidst the perplexities of the universe.

Spirituality is real but it's not science.

It can inspire science but that science needs to be distinguished from that inspirational parent.

Philosophy is fundamental and science can be an aspect of philosophy, but neither science nor philosophy can be fully described in terms of each other.

Great thanks 

Toyin 

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