A Note on Conspiracy Theory

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Nescience definition, lack of knowledge; ignorance.

It is no longer funny to read how so many of us find it difficult to accept death as the inevitable price we will all pay for living.

Notwithstanding the fact that Biology 101 teaches that every living thing must die, many of us refuse to accept the inevitability of transitioning and look for something or someone to blame whenever a loved one dies.

It is true that Africa remains a place that suffered the twin carnage of slavery and colonialism. I have written extensively on the subjects.

It is equally true that since they invaded us, Europeans have never shied away from looking at every opportunity to undermine us. I have written tons on that as well.

Again, the history of Europeans - my definition of a European include the ones Europe sired all over the world - abusing science to promote their White Supremacy ideology is well-documented. I have done my fair share to document some of them.

But do all these explain why we think that the death of any of our beloved leaders in Africa is caused by Western saboteurs?

It is possible. It is even probable.

What I try never to indulge in is evidence-free speculations.

It is possible, even probable, that Western agents kill the late president of Tanzania, John Magafuli.

I honestly don't know. As one of my intellectual mentors, Robert Ingersoll, famously admonished: I don't know is also an answer.

What I do know is that the late president had a history of heart problems.

What I also know was that as a scientist, a chemist, the late didn't push his country to embrace science and allow his country to join the rank of modern nations that push their development agendas through science and technology.

Of course, he was right to be very skeptical about Western intentions and even of Westerners' abuse of science for ideological purposes, but that was not enough reasons for him to tell his compatriots to substitute belief in the phantoms and goblins of the sky for science laboratories.

Instead of asking Tanzanians to take three days to pray against the coronavirus, (“Let's pray and fast for three days I am sure we will win. May I ask religious leaders just as you have been doing, keep insisting in prayers. We will win. We won last year we will win this year and years to come.” - https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/tanzania-s-magufuli-calls-for-three-day-prayers-no-lockdown-3297288). What he should have done was to press Tanzanian scientists into service to take a look at the virus and come up with their own antidote, vaccine or whatever.

That's what the Chinese, the Russians, Iranians and even tiny Cuba did.

It doesn't speak well of us to keep on embracing and adulating leaders who continue to dazzle us with personal charms, populism and such likes which fizzle away as soon as they died.

What we need to make progress in Africa is to try and jettison our stupid beliefs in superstitions and join rest of the world to pry secrets from nature in our research laboratories.

We need also to shed our exaggerated sense of entitlement. No one owe us a free lunch in the form of fruits of arduous labor in scientific laboratories.

We should do what the Japanese, the Chinese, the Iranians, the Turkish and others did - admit to our technical inferiority.

We need to tell ourselves the bitter truth that we were not oppressed, enslaved and colonized because we were/are black.

No. We suppressed and oppressed because we were weak.

And if truth be told, we still very much are. While others boast of Fifth-generation Fighter Jets and Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, we still dance ourselves silly carrying Chiefs who brandish antediluvian Dane guns.

The question before us is what do we do about our weakness?

Documenting and lamenting them is great, but quite ineffectual.

We can do what the Japanese and the Chinese and Iranians did, that is to take to the tools of science and technical education like starved hyenas, and refuse to let go until we are strong enough to make our oppression undesirable to any wannabe oppressors.

Despite the Sabre-rattling and all that, there is no power on earth today that can contemplate taking on the Chinese.

The reason is simple: there will be a hell of a price to pay for any attacker.

We paid no heed when our forebears admonished us that: We should not yam on credit if we don't want people to shout when they pound our pounded-yam. Today, we remain at the mercies of donors to get the vaccines that will protect us against COVID-19, and we continue to vociferate loudly that some people are scheming to eliminate us.

This is very rich coming from a people that produce nothing and rely on foreign imports for both their domestic and industrial consumptions!

©️Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ
Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ is a writer and author.