Science, Technology, Innovation and Knowledge Systems for Uncovering Modernity in Africa through a Strategy of Subversive Ratioalization
Jacques L. Hamel
Africa
Jacques L. Hamel
jach...@gmail.com, http://jachamel.googlepages.com
"The world we have created is the product of our thinking. It cannot
be changed without changing our thinking" Albert Einstein
"Science is a way of thinking much more than a body of knowledge" Carl
Sagan
The objective of this blog is to share ideas on a strategy - a
STRATEGY OF SUBVERSIVE RATIONALIZATION - for uncovering modernity in
Africa. The strategy emphasizes the internalization of the scientific
method and rational modes of thinking as well as the assimilation of
crucial scientific knowledge, as the epistemological foundation of any
kind of modernity. It also stresses the necessity of renovating
conformist, traditionalist or totalizing belief and knowledge systems,
worldviews and cultures, that stand in the way to essential changes on
the road to modernity - a mega-project of autonomization,
individuation, rationalization, demystification and feminization
processes (less patriarchal forms). It is also a project of
democratization, liberalization, secularization, trans-
nationalization, systematization, technocratization and humanization
processes.
The strategy relies on scientific knowledge, which offers only
incomplete and patchy theories of the real but nonetheless possibly
the best models of reality, for reordering and reconstructing the
African reality and for engaging it with up to date, robust and
economically efficient technical know-how. More generally, it relies
on calculative thinking and on the scientific tradition as the most
viable civilizational horizon of a budding region, whose tortuous and
uncertain transition to modernity may necessitate an imaginative
strand of thinking and a complementary strategy. Triumphant techno-
scientific dogmas need not lead inevitably to the devastation,
excesses and wastefulness of post-industrial consumerist cultures.
They need not to be a model for an African modernity, which can avoid
being exceedingly obsessed, enframed or ordered by technology.
Humans, knowledge and technology are co-emerging, co-evolutive and
mutually co-constitutive of each other. And as soon as we are born we
enter into a corrupted reality: corrupted by ancient customary
thinking, viewpoints and taboos; corrupted by ancestors' tyrannies,
norms and ideals; corrupted by the veiling visions of pre-contemporary
cosmologies, revelations and prophecies; corrupted by inherited alien
religious canons and credos - including those of Constantinian
Christianity and Imperial Islam, which from a scientific perpective
can be assimilated to blind lotteries (confirmed by statistics) of
self-confirming systems of medieval prejudices; corrupted by lies, mis-
information and deceptions; corrupted by spirits, divinities and other
similar cultural paradigms; and, more universally, corrupted by
conventional modes of thinking, knowing, understanding and being.
The strategy of Subversive Rationalization aims at freeing,
'uncorrupting' or modernizing mentalities and mindscapes, thus opening
the way to the emergence of some brand of original modernity on the
African continent, going further than the simple ownership and display
of modernity's most visible technological signs. It aims at reforming
the technological code with key technologies: of the self, of sign, of
freedom, of change, of creativity, of power and of truth. These
technologies are fundamental for guiding the 'rebirth' of the self, or
for cultivating the 'reborn' Afro-self as a more modern self; for
enlarging the freedom necessary for the required societal
transformations; for evolving effective technological symbols and
meanings, such as those of a generous and mobilizing vision of a
modern Africa; for designing and manufacturing appropriate material
artefacts; for innovating in processes of change, including
technologically-induced socio-cultural change; for reordering power
configurations; and for uncovering, producing or reconstructing truth
- an essential technology in a sea of lies, half-truths, self-
delusions, clichés, cock-and-bull stories, and an important
constitutive element of modernity.
If 'ideas shape the course of history' (Keynes) or if 'imagination
shapes history' (Napoleon) then access to modernity entails going past
inflationary rhetorical discourse, utopian dreams and ceremonial
entertainments. It requires subversive ideas and actions and a
methodology that can engineer radical and terribly complex adjustments
in the intricate inner working of African communities. It calls for
critical thinking, dialogue, self-examination, 'self-exorcism' and
outright 'war' against the conservative supremacy of the status quo
and the authority structures that maintain it. This cannot be
achieved through somewhat academic, elitist and reductionist
policies. The basic choice facing the region is between customary
religio-mythic, idolatrous or astonishingly over-religious rules
established on pre-modern methods, on the one hand, and enlightening
development regimes substantiated by controlled experiences, on the
other hand.
The relative bottom position of most African countries in the techno-
scientific global order is beyond dispute and current STI strategies
may leave half the region as deprived as ever, blown by the fierce
winds of technologization and globalization, locked into scientific
and technical dependency and unable to meet key MDGs. In these
circumstances, a strategy of Subversive Rationalization may be helpful
for putting in place new foundational power-knowledge frameworks and
configurations, and for improving the African condition.
The African problematic of low exploitation of science and technology
is well known in details and is often understood as the main reason
behind the region's poor socio-economic performance. In this low
techno-scientific environment, attempts to give substance to the idea
of an African Renaissance and comparable initiatives, such as Nyerre's
Ujamaa, Mobutu's Authenticité, Sengor's Négritude, Nkruma's
Conciencism, Kenyata's Harambee, Wade's Omega, Bouteflika's Ennahda
Movement, Mbeki's 'Call to Rebellion' (1998) - let alone the vision of
the Commission for Africa and other similar initiatives - have mostly
been successful at developing, justifying and communicating specific
ideas of modernization. But they also all have been failures because
they have not only under-estimated the colossal effort required for
achieving the necessary makeovers but they also ignored the most
important changes to bring about: the painful modernization of the
mythological landscape, including pre-modern Abrahamic, Shamanic and
Animist mythologies. That means a shift toward scientific ways of
observing, questioning, analyzing and knowing or toward science as the
latest myth or the new religion of the time that can propel the
continent into some kind of modernity.
Rationalization refers to a maturation process guided by the
scientific method and by instrumental reason, more than by fairy tale
legacies, superstitions, revealed or divine knowledge, as historically
envisioned by prominent Enlightenment philosophers and scientists of
the 16th and 17th centuries. This rationalization enables better
control and more accurate calculation of means to achieve precise
ends, resulting in superior technological or technical effectiveness
and flexibility, and in greater industrial advance. Modernizing
nations are more ideologically open or keener to mathematize and
channel the forces of nature for their own benefit. And they are more
oriented toward the corrosion of doubt - believing in things that
can be empirically supported -- and toward improving lives in this
world (rather than in the after-life). In these mindsets, there are
no place for Jonas-in-the-whale type of spellbound stories, amazing
archangels, absurd limbos, far-fetched miracles, occult forces and
providential intrusions. Reality is what is perceived through
technological means. This results in developing societies being
progressively subverted into essentially more 'advanced', enlightened
or disenchanted ones.
Subversion refers to a process of overthrowing or overturning systems
of principles and convictions as well as forms of dominance, control
and power that are incompatible with or are not sustained by
instrumental rationality and renovation processes. These processes
result in the uprooting of totalizing, oppressive or terror structures
that obstruct the way to modern manners of grasping reality - from
terrorizing gods and demons, authoritative governments, phallocratic
ecclesiasts, polygamous masters, mystifying medicine men to cloistered
women, domestic slaves, mutilated girls and abducted brides. A
strategy of Subversive Rationalization, therefore, means clearing the
way toward more pragmatic, empirical and mechanical worldviews and at
critically challenging pre-modern systems from un-enabling governance
structures, including commanding husbands, as well as from
constraining cosmological and ideological formations, whether home-
grown or alien.
The strategy of Subversive Rationalization intends to probe the
knowledge-power-technology gaps with modern / scientific modes of
perceiving. Filling this gap necessitates not only acquiring new
types of information, such as scientific, technical and business, but
also abandoning some habitual or pre-scientific types of knowledge
that stands in the way to progress and modernity. As much endeavour
may be required to unlearn or deconstruct a pre-modern reality
acquired through acculturation and socialization, than to learn new
scientific and technical knowledge and a new version of reality.
Scientific proficiency is by far the trickiest to achieve since it
often comes in conflict with long-established traditional knowledge
edifices, which may not be seriously altered without social and
political struggles. Undeniably, pre-modern spiritual constructions,
including those originating from the Middle-East and ancient Arabia,
tend to mesmerize, domesticate or subjugate African societies, leaving
little room for true scientific ways of viewing, judging, behaving,
existing and living. These scientific ways must gain ground over non-
scientific ways.
In a strategy of Subversive Rationalization, medieval faith-based
representations, infrastructures and institutions, such as the
institution of Heaven / Hell - amongst the most powerful establishment
regulating the lives of Africans - are superseded or supplanted by new
thinking, unleashing the power of efficient systems, such as
successful innovation systems. Indeed, Evangelical and Qur'anic
models, although of relatively recent human construction, may lack
decisive values for accessing modernity, such as democratic
governance; the complete utilization of feminine talents and
aptitudes; affection and care for nature; a concern for the future;
superiority of scientific methods and hypotheses over 'gaseous' or
prophetic knowledge; a strong focus on life before death and a less
fatalistic attitude toward the lifeworld and poverty - all
indispensable preconditions for uncovering modernity. In many
circumstances mytho-religious texts and documents - promoted by a
pervasive and expanding physical and human infrastructure (not exactly
a hotspring of fresh worldviews) - may constitute a virtual owner's
manual for one's life. This is especially so for Africans-of-one-
book, which under certain conditions may not be conducive to
paradigmatic innovation. Only techno-scientific knowledge can sustain
the deep transformations to modernity.
Subversive Rationalization requires pushing back fabulous or pre-
scientific beliefs formations in order to clear a space or a pathway
for more scientific views and practices. The central tussle is being
played between various categories of knowledge - from scientifically
founded to unfounded. This could be the crucible where a meaningful
African modernity could emerge, through a redefinition of cultural,
social, economic, ideological, mythological and political
relationships with science and technology.
Technology is more than a tool or an instrument at our disposal. It is
also an organizing activity in which humans themselves are organized.
The more technologies evolve and become ubiquitous the more humans are
themselves transformed into resources, raw material, system
components, toys, cogs and devices (if not sex organs) and optimized
for the sake of system efficiency - the essence of technology. The
outcome is easier and more secure and prosperous ways of life, but
dominated and regulated by the rigorous disciplinary order of
technical systems. In this framework, the African youth struggles to
become 'efficient' resource in the global job market, while technology
mainly reveals Africa as collection of folkloric curiosities, and an
immense fuel station coveted for powering the global technological
engine.
A techno-scientific renewal through a strategy of Subversive
Rationalization could be helpful in promoting Pan-African integration
and in responding to the special needs of the region. It could be
supportive in revitalizing, refreshing, unifying and integrating
knowledge systems in African territories. These systems are greatly
fractured, compartmented, 'medievalized' and largely unscientifically
founded (Muslim / Christian division and exclusive possession),
balkanized (by six colonizing powers), fragmented (+ 1000 idioms and
worldviews), and mythologized (with indigenous and foreign
superstitions). Knowledge is also sometimes monopolized (non-sharing
knowledge practices and ethos), atomized (not part of advanced
international knowledge networks), decontextualized (uprooted,
transplanted from the technologically-advanced areas), unused or
underused (scientists as taxi drivers), misappropriated (by power
hungry sources), under or mis-professionalized (shamanic knowledge),
misapplied (ecocidal), misinterpreted or ignored (disregarding
scientific revolutions). African knowledge is also somewhat being
eroded (extinct or dying knowledge), canned (ready-made shipped in a
pre-packaged fashion), drained (brains seeking greener pasture),
rarely rented (against royalty payments) and always plagued with
Western and phallo-centricity. A strategy of Subversive
Rationalization would provide an enhanced ordering of knowledge and
reality.
Current science, technology, innovation and knowledge policy
approaches remain hopelessly naïve and basically adjunct to the actual
working of knowledge economies. They do not address the issues
specifically related to a region a bit 'stained' with pre-modern
habits of mind, languages and views of the universe and life. They do
not put enough emphasis on the structural-constitutional issues that
have stabilized many African spaces into pre-modern technological ways
of life (with some growing islands of imitative modernization). These
spaces can graduate into some sort of modernity through a more
intensive, rational, unfettered and popular use of avant-garde
science, technology and knowledge and with the requisite mental or
intellectual costumes of modern times.
Free-thinkers, scientists, policymakers and stakeholders could be
influential in contextualizing and supporting a strategy of Subversive
Rationalization in the African region. In line and in full support of
NEPAD, they could commit themselves to building competences for
acquiring and incorporating vital techno-scientific knowledge in
strategic areas and to encouraging and utilizing science as a way of
thinking, which fortunately or unfortunately, is highly injurious and
detrimental to time-honoured traditional or pre-modern myths,
prejudices, doctrines, tenets, precepts, credos, faiths or fantasies.
A strategy of Subversive Rationalization could entrust opinion makers
and the scientific and entrepreneurial communities to sound courses of
action such as strengthening capacities for converting or revamping
existing traditional knowledge systems, including faith-based systems,
and for restructuring or recreating reality. These could include
Africanizing, decolonizing, indigenizing, liberating, re-
cosmologizing, re-mythologizing, re-charlatanizing, re-prophetizing,
re-sacralizing and re-deifying processes for a different African
adventure, driven by thriving methodical ways of thinking and
scientific practices.
.
In summary the strategy of Subversive Rationalization uses the power
of scientific thought to launch a counter hegemonic offensive for
subverting disabling traditional and repressive knowledge-power orders
that stand in the way to a new realism, or to the rejuvenation and
reconstruction of reality. The strategy may be valuable for bringing
about a post-totemic, post-enchanted, post-Abrahamic, post-
phallocratic, post-colonial and post-fragmented regional space and in
moving Africa forward into a distinctive, creative, secular and
authentic form of modernity.
Details regarding the strategy can be found in a draft website -
http://jachamel.googlepages.com - (600 pages).