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With joyous hearts among the majority of Africans, our continent has just celebrated Africa Day, May 25, in this first year of the African Union, successor to the OAU. We realise that in promoting the conditions of development, we have to acquire the right mix of the three domains of learning and production. There is the cognitive domain, which seeks to promote objectives related to the recall of knowledge and development of intellectual abilities and skills. This is the domain of understanding. There is also the affective domain, which includes objectives concerning changes in interest, attitudes, values and appreciation. This is the domain of personal-social adjustment. Lastly, there is the psycho-motor domain, which promotes objectives related to the psycho-motor skills we must acquire for development. It is our actions and the content of what we do that govern the conditions and requirements of how we develop. For instance, it is the content of the various media of communication that differentiates degrees of understanding the truth of our messages. Concerning the cognitive domain, we must endeavour to get every African to acquire precise knowledge of the scientific nature of the universe so that we know the universal environment in which the great drama of life takes place. In brief, we must begin to acquire knowledge of the simplicity of God’s laws of the creation and how the physicists have proved that the universe follows rules that are fundamentally mathematical and which humans can figure out. These laws are the key to our understanding of the well-defined plan of God so that men and women know what to do in order to prosper and to lead meaningful and happy lives. The constants of nature — unchanging numbers like strength of gravity, the charge of an electron and mass of a proton — make atoms hold together, stars burn and life to possess the characteristics we know and can predict. Our knowledge has to be based on our proper understanding of the scientific explanation of the origins of the universe. This explanation postulates that there once existed one huge mass of matter which, because of extreme heat at its core, exploded, causing a big bang which saw this matter scatter into our known universe with galaxies, solar systems and stars. The big bang is theorised to have taken place 15 billion years ago. Life on our planet earth began to evolve over this period of time. The big bang is theorised to have created two types of waves, or ripples, from the centre of the universe outward. These are the electromagnetic waves, or light, and the gravitational waves as measured by the graviton, the elementary quantum mechanical particle. It is theorised that the differences in speeds between gravitational waves, the graviton, and electromagnetic waves, light, is zero if the graviton has zero rest mass. Light, electromagnetic waves, is represented in its elementary form by the seven colours of the rainbow, which are red, yellow, green, purple, orange, blue and indigo. These colours, together, make the beautiful rainbow that we see. Rainbows are also associated with water in the form of raindrops and bubbles. As we know, water is life. From this simple foundation is to be found the vast array of processes of transformation of matter, right up to the discipline of quantum mechanics from which industrial machines are designed and manufactured. From the exhaustive research and studies of Dr Anta Diop, on the origins of world civilisations, we learn that humankind first originated from the Mount Kilimanjaro area, and moved north, south, east and west within Africa and then swept into Europe and Asia by way of the Nile through Egypt. In time, three distinctive races emerged — the blacks who remained in Africa, the whites or Caucasians in Europe and the yellow race in Asia — their cultural outlooks based on response to climate. In time these different races began to mix due to travel, inter-marriage, conquests and migrations. Thus, when the blacks inter-married in Indo-Europe, the Semitic people came into being and were found in Mesopotamia, among other regions. Because the blacks were more oriented towards the development of their social, political and spiritual organisations, rather than to speculative scientific research, they apparently fell behind in the production of high quality technical tools, especially in the manufacture of arms of war. On the other hand, the white and yellow races, perhaps because of harsher climates, developed systems characterised by a propensity for war, supported by advanced weapons of war. Thus, in the evolution of world history, the Africans, who after having attained a desirable level of technological development, became progressively indifferent to material-scientific progress and fell behind in the ability to wage wars with those who had developed more deadly weapons. Thus,slavery and colonialism became possible, for economic purposes, to the temporary gain of the white race and the Semites. The truth still remains, however, that it was the blacks in Ethiopia, the Sudan and Egypt who created the first world civilisation that lasted for 17 000 years and was then copied by all the other races. Isolated from the drama of wars and conflicts around the Mediterranean, the lands south of the Sahara thrived in relative peace. It was in this environment of peace that Wadyembeu founded the Munhumutapa empire — centrepiece of the Great Zimbabwe civilisation and culture — an empire founded in justice, good governance, peace and prosperity. As we celebrate with joyous hearts the occasion of Africa Day and the bright future of the African Union, we are aware of the disturbing conflicts in some parts of our continent, especially in Liberia, whose instability since 1990 has caused wider conflicts in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire. The recent agreement by former rebels at Bouake to the formation of a reconciliation government in Cote d’Ivoire is indeed good news. Meanwhile, rebel groups in Liberia are reported to have over-run the port towns of Harper and Pleebo. The African Union, through Ecomog, must try to quarantine Liberia and work with President Charles Taylor to bring about lasting peace and reconciliation in that country. The DRC and the Sudan are slowly moving into the era of peace. The situation in Somalia is still cause for concern. For us to understand the conflicts in Africa, we need to realise that the whole world has become somewhat unstable, especially after the September 11 terrorist attacks in America. In response, the US has instituted worldwide anti-terrorist campaigns which seem to have made the situation universally worse. We should realise that this is, indeed, the time the prophet Daniel refers to as follows: "And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever" (Daniel 12:1-4). Daniel also adds these words of hope and redemption: "Many shall be purified, and made white and tried. But the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand" (Daniel 12:10). We must, thus, all try to avoid being the "wicked (who) shall do wickedly" because we do not understand the truth of our times. We must be among those who "shall be purified, and made white and tried" so that we can be counted among "the wise (who) shall understand". Our times, paradoxically, are in keeping with the prophecies of Jesus Christ who chastised the Pharasees (Mathew 23), referring to them as "Ye hypocrites! Ye wicked and adulterous generation! Ye whited sepulchers! Ye generation of vipers!" This reference is today applicable to some Western countries who are seeking to impose their will on some African countries like Zimbabwe. We should be led by the knowledge that after delivering the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel, God then said: "An altar of earth thou shalt make for me and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offering, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen. In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." In saying "an altar of earth thou shalt make unto me . . .", God is charging us with the responsibility to use the land that we have wisely and productively. This is the meaning of replenishing the earth. The Government of Zimbabwe has devised a far-reaching educational system which is capable of teaching us not only the knowledge of the origins of our universe, but also how to prosper through knowledge of science and technology as we begin to follow the pillars and conditions of development. The future of us Zimbabweans and Africans, as with all of humanity, lies in the proper understanding and utilisation of appropriate science and technology. Our bright future in Zimbabwe was foretold by Chaminuka and Nehanda, who spoke of the return of the glorious age of Wadyembeu. The
Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
