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Technology is the Root of All Evil - By Phillip Emeagwali
According to history books, gun-wielding European slave traders kidnapped one
in five Africans and transported them across the oceans to the Americas. A less
visible, but no means less drastic technological tool of suppression, is the
compass, a device used worldwide for navigation. In the same way that Britain
used its maritime knowledge and the US harnessed its intellectual capital to
rule the world, the early slave traders used the simple compass to wreak havoc
on civilization.
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It is a sad fact that the innocuous navigation tool originated during and was
fuelled by the Atlantic slave trade. The technological development of the
innocent compass, invented in China for religious divination 2,000 years ago,
allowed Africa to be ravaged in unspeakable ways.
It was the compass that created the Atlantic slave trade, enabling the early
colonial navigators — and their blood merchants — to chart an accurate course
from Gorée Island, off the coast of Senegal, to Brazil; paving the way for the
trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began on August 8, 1444. This trade in human
merchandise covered four continents and lasted four centuries, and serves as a
shameful beacon for the depravity of human greed and conquest.
The compass became the de facto weapon of mass destruction, which led to the
de-capitalization and decapitation of Africa. It created the African Diaspora
with one in five people taken out of the motherland. It was the largest and most
brutal displacement of human beings in human history.
Today, it is hard to imagine that such destruction and the wholesale abduction
of a race could result from a tool as common as the compass. Yet, as a people
who survived the slave trade, we must draw our strength from lessons learned
from the past and draw our energy from the power of the future. And the power of
the future lies in “controlling” technology and harnessing it for the benefit of
mankind, not for his destruction.
The people of Africa must take note that the Internet is our modern-day compass,
and within it resides our own clay of wisdom. As we prepare for our great
journey into the cyberspace of the future, with its technological promise — its
clay of wisdom — we must understand the strategic value and potential of this
all-important tool. Our image of the future inspires the present and the present
serves to create the future.
Africa’s lack of substantial technological knowledge of the Internet and its
potential may lead it to be assaulted or manipulated in unexpected ways, just as
it was devastated generations ago for the lack of a simple compass. We didn’t
recognize the power of the compass then; the danger is that we don’t recognize
the power of technology today. While Africa merely contemplates the future, the
West, the quickest off the mark to wield technology’s weapons, actually makes
the future.
This fact, and how the power of technology can be wielded against the poor, was
brought home to me clearly when I received the following email recently:
“About a year ago, I hired a developer in Africa to do my job. I am paying him
$12,000 a year to do my job, for which I am paid $67,000 a year,” the sender
wrote. “He’s happy to have the work and I’m happy that I have to work only 90
minutes a day. Now I’m considering getting a second job and doing the same
thing.”
Technology in the hands of others has been used to exploit Africa for centuries.
But now it's time for Africa to grasp technology and finally embrace the modern
age’s clay of wisdom and advancement. Africa has the chance to show the world
how technology can be used for good, not evil. And the people of Africa can use
today’s technology, not to mimic their own exploitation, but to right the wrongs
of the past and empower themselves with the same tool that has been used to
oppress them in the past. Africa can provide a shining example for the world in
using technology for its own upliftment and the benefit of mankind.
This time, it is our choice.
Excerpted from a keynote speech delivered by Philip Emeagwali at the African
Diaspora Conference in Tucson, Arizona. For the entire transcript and video,
visit www.emeagwali.com.
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