What Do Science, Technology, and Innovation Mean from Africa? (The MIT Press)

Explorations of science, technology, and innovation in Africa not as the product of “technology transfer” from elsewhere but as the working of African knowledge. In the STI literature, Africa has often been regarded as a recipient of science, technology, and innovation rather than a maker of them. In this book, scholars from a range of disciplines show that STI in Africa is not merely the product of “technology transfer” from elsewhere but the working of African knowledge. Their contributions focus on African ways of looking, meaning-making, and creating. The chapter authors see Africans as intellectual agents whose perspectives constitute authoritative knowledge and whose strategic deployment of both endogenous and inbound things represents an African-centered notion of STI. “Things do not (always) mean the same from everywhere,” observes Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, the volume's editor. Western, colonialist definitions of STI are not universalizable. The contributors discuss topics that include the trivialization of indigenous knowledge under colonialism; the creative labor of chimurenga, the transformation of everyday surroundings into military infrastructure; the role of enslaved Africans in America as innovators and synthesizers; the African ethos of “fixing”; the constitutive appropriation that makes mobile technologies African; and an African innovation strategy that builds on domestic capacities. The contributions describe an Africa that is creative, technological, and scientific, showing that African STI is the latest iteration of a long process of accumulative, multicultural knowledge production. Contributors Geri Augusto, Shadreck Chirikure, Chux Daniels, Ron Eglash, Ellen Foster, Garrick E. Louis, D. A. Masolo, Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, Neda Nazemi, Toluwalogo Odumosu, Katrien Pype, Scott Remer Contents Preface Introduction: What Do Science, Technology, and Innovation Mean from Africa? Science, Technology, and Innovation: The Origins of Concepts African Science, Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Snapshots Outline of the Book 1 The Place of Science and Technology in Our Lives: Making Sense of Possibilities Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation The Egyptian Mummification Saga Innovation and the Dangers of Internationalization: ICIPE Conclusion, or in Lieu Thereof Notes 2 The Language of Science, Technology, and Innovation: A Chimurenga Way of Seeing from Dzimbahwe Why Chimurenga Now? Spiritually Guided Warfare Sacred Animals Chimurenga as Laboratory: Chemical and Biological Weapons in Dzimbahwe? Discussion: Some Implications for the Concept of Innovation 3 The Metalworker, the Potter, and the Pre-European African “Laboratory” Laboratories without Buildings: Sites of Indigenous Metal Production in Precolonial Africa Homesteads as Laboratories for Pottery Production in Africa Discussion: Should Western Concepts Always Have African Equivalents? Conclusion: Toward a Decolonized African Science, Technology, and Innovation Practice 4 Plants of Bondage, Limbo Plants, and Liberation Flora: Diasporic Reflections for STS in Africa and Africa in STS Performative Research and Visualized Knowledge: Cabinets, Gardens, and Patches “To Set Going Something New”: Assemblages, Visual Arts, and African Reinvention in the Americas Irregular Rearrangement and Imagination: An “Aesthetics of Resistance and Identity” Liberation Flora New Genealogies of Invention and Innovation Notes 5 Smartness from Below: Variations on Technology and Creativity in Contemporary Kinshasa Katrien Pype Innovations for the City Mystical Knowledge Blacksmiths and Engineer Students Experts of the City Being Smart Conclusion: Scales of Urban Smartness Notes 6 On the Politics of Generative Justice: African Traditions and Maker Communities Generative Justice in African Traditional Society Generative Justice in Contemporary Sociotechnical Movements A Brief Introduction to Maker Movements in the United States Makerspaces in Africa Case Studies Conclusion Note 7 Making Mobiles African Mobiles and Place Constitutive Appropriation: An Analytical Perspective Is That a Landline in Your Pocket? Speaking the Language Mobiles, Language, and Technological Understanding Configuring a “Nigerian” Mobile Network Conclusion Notes 8 Innovation for Development: Africa Introduction Africa Has a Pressing Need for Essential Human Services Essential Human Services Are Necessary Steps toward Development Countries Must Build Domestic Capacity for EHS as a First Step toward Development Capacity Building Is an Effective Innovation for Development Framework Foreign Aid Impedes Africa’s Development Examples of Innovation for Development for Watsan Services Conclusion Notes 9 Science, Technology, and Innovation in Africa: Conceptualizations, Relevance, and Policy Directions The History and Development of Science, Technology, and Innovation Africa: What We Already Know Measurement of Innovation in Africa Conclusion Notes References Contributors Index In the science, technology, and innovation (STI) literature, Africa has often been regarded as a recipient of science, technology, and innovation rather than a maker of them. In this book, scholars from a range of disciplines show that STI in Africa is not merely the product of "technology transfer" from elsewhere but the working of African knowledge. Their contributions focus on African ways of looking, meaning-making, and creating. The chapter authors see Africans as intellectual agents whose perspectives constitute authoritative knowledge and whose strategic deployment of both endogenous and inbound things represents an African-centered notion of STI. "Things do not (always) have the same meaning everywhere," observes Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, the volume's editor. Western, colonialist definitions of STI are not universalizable. The contributors discuss topics that include the trivialization of indigenous knowledge under colonialism; the creative labor of chimurenga, the transformation of everyday surroundings into military infrastructure; the role of enslaved Africans in America as innovators and synthesizers; the African ethos of "fixing"; the constitutive appropriation that makes mobile technologies African; and an African innovation strategy that builds on domestic capacities. The contributions describe an Africa that is creative, technological, and scientific, showing that African STI is the latest iteration of a long process of accumulative, multicultural knowledge production. Book jacket

Clapperton Mavhunga's collection of essays about science, technology, and innovation (STI) from an African perspective opens with the idea, "Things do not (always) mean the same from everywhere; when we insist that only 'our' meaning is the meaning, we silence other people's meanings." Mavhunga and his contributors argue that our contemporary definitions of STI are those of countries and cultures that have acquired their dominance of others through global empires, and as a counter to that, Mavhunga seeks to put the concepts of STI into question, exploring what the technological, scientific, and innovative might mean from Africa in lieu of outside introductions or influences. We strongly feel that this book is suited to the Knowledge Unlatched program because of the difficulty of reaching markets and readers in Africa with print books. We feel unlatching would go a long way toward helping Mavhunga reach an important audience for this work that we have been previously unable to reach.