No nation has ever attained meaningful development without a citizenry possessed of innovation and enterprise. A glance through the history of Britain, for instance, reveals a long procession of ingenious minds: men such as Jethro Tull, who invented the seed drill; George Stephenson, the pioneering father of the railway; and Michael Faraday, whose groundbreaking work in electricity and electromagnetism transformed the modern world. Indeed, the list is virtually endless.
If we are genuinely serious about transforming our society into a prosperous middle-class nation and achieving greater affluence than we presently enjoy, then we too must cultivate a culture of innovation. We must innovate across numerous fields — technology, among them, but certainly not limited to it. Yet it must also be acknowledged that there are many formidable obstacles standing in our way.
One such obstacle is our lack of confidence in ourselves. Rarely do we entertain the notion that we are capable of producing original ideas and home-grown solutions to the challenges that constantly beset us. Somehow, we have conditioned ourselves to expect every meaningful solution to come from abroad. Nearly every manufactured product around us is imported. When I was a boy, almost everything I encountered bore the inscription “Made in England”. Later came goods manufactured in Japan and Hong Kong, and later still, India and China.
During my youth, we often sang a little tune: Azungu nzeru anapanga ndege, sikanthu kena ndi nzeru zawo — “White people are so intelligent that they have managed to build an aeroplane.” Such thinking unconsciously excluded Africans from the ranks of inventors and manufacturers. Yet the truth is that an African, when empowered and sufficiently motivated, can rise magnificently to the challenge and produce astonishing innovations.
Former Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi once challenged the University of Nairobi community to manufacture a motor vehicle — “however ugly or slow”. The challenge was accepted, and the university eventually produced a prototype called Nyayo. It was proof that innovation flourishes where confidence and determination are nurtured.
Another major hurdle is our deep-seated aversion to reading. We appear almost allergic to books. The younger generation, in particular, has drifted alarmingly far from the culture of reading. Many would rather watch or listen to something than engage with the written word. Quite a number would not even attempt to read a moderately lengthy article such as this one. If you have reached this point, then you deserve a hearty pat on the back, for you clearly do not belong to the fraternity of the book-phobic.
Reading exercises the mind in a manner that passive watching or listening does not. When you read, you create images, sounds, and entire worlds within your imagination, thereby compelling the brain to labour actively. It is minds that are consistently exercised in this manner that eventually develop the capacity to innovate.
Perhaps our greatest problem, however, is that we devote an enormous amount of time to pursuits that contribute very little towards intellectual or innovative growth. An article by a Zambian journalist pursuing his PhD studies in America once circulated widely on social media. During a flight, the journalist struck up a conversation with a white man who spoke candidly about what he had observed in Africa.
The man remarked:
“Do you know where I found your intellectuals? They were in bars drinking. They were at Lusaka Golf Club, Lusaka Central Club, Lusaka Playhouse, and Lusaka Flying Club. I saw with my own eyes groups of alcoholic graduates. Zambian intellectuals work from eight to five and spend their evenings drinking. We don’t. We reserve our evenings for brainstorming.”
Much the same could be said about Malawi, except that the establishments would simply bear different names.
I am not advocating some rigid moral puritanism. My point is merely that we ought to dedicate time to reflection, discussion, and the pursuit of innovative ideas. It is not alcohol alone that squanders valuable time; excessive indulgence in trivial television programmes also consumes hours that could have been put to far better use. There are, admittedly, a few television programmes capable of stimulating the innovative mind, but sadly, they attract little interest. One notable example is How It’s Made on the Discovery Channel.
Certain strands of religious teaching, too, appear somewhat hostile to innovation. In some circles, anyone who is not considered “born again” is neither acknowledged nor admired, regardless of their achievements. Highly innovative individuals such as Elon Musk, Yuri Milner, or Mark Zuckerberg — people whose accomplishments could inspire creative thinking among the youth — are scarcely mentioned during teaching sessions.
We need to conduct a diligent search within our habits and discover why we are not as innovative as we should be.