Written by Maleke Montshiwagae
I was greatly concerned after listening to that student in the video I was tagged in attempting to explain what decolonisation of Science is ..... her somewhat limited views on scientific modernity cements the very need to decolonise the university/higher learning institution's curriculum together with her very mind! . . . Her fight together with the #FMF movement to decolonise Science is correct and i support it fully, but her views on scientific modernity as a product of western construction are greatly misplaced...
One of the simple reasons I support the decolonisation is that in all the science textbooks for example, the Greeks appears to be the only ones mentioned, credited and super-glorified. Take medicine for example, according to Edward Bynum (phD) in his book "The African unconscious: Roots of ancient mysticism and modern psychology" pg 104-105, the ancient Egyptians whom Prof Cheik Anta Diop has demonstrated scientifically through melanin tests to be BLACK people, were writing medical textbooks as early as 5000 years ago! He writes that "the most famous Greek physician of antiquity, Galen (130-200 C.E), was known to have studied in the medical schools of Egypt in the early centuries C.E in search of medical knowledge". So clearly Africans must be mentioned in textbooks in order to decolonise the textbooks without necessarily erasing the scientific content as it is also African anyway!
Examples of these medical textbooks includes Hearst papyrus, Berlin papyrus, the Kahun medical papyrus, the London medical papyrus etc which can be found in European museums! Edward again writes that "these medical papyri reveal that the Egyptians ..... had a rather sophisticated knowledge of Anatomy and physiology at least 4500 years before the studies of the cardiovascular system by the English physician, Harvey. The Egyptian approach to medicine resembled very much that of today."
Therefore, taking this into account, the question of scientific modernity does not appear to be a construction of the West! .... so to say that African science is to send lightning to people in order to kill them is in itself a colonial condition of the mind, hence science must be decolonised in order for Africans to see themselves as an integral and an important part of the scientific history and modernity together with its evolution.
Maybe explaining how is it possible for Africans to have a regulatory power over such powerful sources of electricity such as lightning must be made a subject of scientific inquiry within a decolonised curriculum!.... ... who knows, we could harness electricity for free ... lol
there are many examples from Astronomy, mathematics, philosophy etc in which African contributions can be located.
Our next project will be to decolonise Christ!
#DecoloniseScience
