AFRICA AND THE CURSE OF IGNORANCE

By Margaret Kamba

There is an uproar in Kenya over defective covid19 test kits. Whether or not this is true is another issue. But the reality on the ground is that hard earned resources have been used to acquire test kits in order to protect the lives of the citizens.

The kits were acquired in trust so that they would inform decisions on how the populace could be protected. Now that has gone haywire because it jeopardizes every protective measure taken as it could mean those who have tested negative could actually be positive and vice-versa. The question is who stands to gain in all of this?

ZANU PF's Secretary for Health Cde David Parirenyatwa says to ward off any doubts about defective covid19 tests kits, health officials are testing the kits.

"Local transmissions are now common within the community and people should assume the next person is positive. The virus is mutating. We are however happy with the recoveries which are increasing and its a good sign," Cde Parirenyatwa said.

"For a long time there was stigma which was common with HIV and Tuberculosis. It has also come with covid19. But positivity is not a death sentence."

For many centuries Africa has imported seemingly worthless products from abroad in exchange for its richest and most finest. The Transatlantic Slave Trade brought in exchange for some of the best of our kind, coffee, mirrors and rum among other things.

While our men and women were being separated from their loved ones and others were settling scores, a few enjoyed these gifts brought by the white man.

The transportation of these men and women was not at all easy because they were bound in chains, stored like sardines in ships with some dying in the process.

Once abroad, they would be accommodated in squalid conditions waiting for auction.

Prior to the auction an inhumane thorough medical examination would be done to ascertain the pricing model before being shipped off to sugarcane and coffee plantations among others.

Africa has literally given its jewels and you wonder why it should be given or sold rejects.

The West has continued even today to take Africa's natural resources for a song processing them and bringing them back at a cost literally beyond Africa's reach.

The question is why can Africa not develop its own industries and beneficiate some of these products for its own climatic conditions?

Zimbabwe's implementation of education 5.0 fortunately seems to be coming to the rescue with efforts by the younger generation to dream big and find solutions for Zimbabwe's problems through the innovative technology. Given the right support, these brilliant ideas will go a long way in making this country great.

But what's the importance of having home grown solutions to local problems? Many say it keeps the income generated within the country and jobs are not exported. I think I agree with these notions because it really wards off unwarranted problems.

Take for instance right now, the test kits most African countries are using, have been manufactured and used in other regions which are not similar to ours in any way. Depending on the storage and perhaps transportation, they could become defective.

We are busy importing a lot of goods while exporting jobs which could be created in our own backyards.

We are consuming outdated products and flooding them in our countries without even knowing how to dispose of them.

Nearly half if not more of the problems we are resolving are imported.

Finance Ministry's Permanent Secretary's Guvamatanga's kiss with covid19 recently made him appreciate the cost benefit analysis of the pandemic.

In his interview with ZBC, he questions the cost of ventilators as opposed to oxygen, testing costs as opposed to treatment costs.

As a Finance expert, he is clearly aware of the unnecessary expenditure caused by the pandemic and realises that sharing his experience in relation to his role as a man dealing with thd country's hard earned resources, something must be done.

But it doesn't just stop there, look at the used vehicles we are importing from abroad for instance. They have flooded our streets causing a menace on our roads with need for constant rehabilitation.

There is the case of ozone depleting substances and the need to phase out old ones and adopt newer ones. The irony of it all is that we must return the used containers abroad for destruction at a fee.

Whatever happened to the 3Rs concept of reduce, reuse and recycle? The West has learnt to recycle and reuse and so can we. Why should African countries be dumping ground for lifeless products from the West?

We have seen many amazing life hacks on social media platforms which we can adopt as well to avoid being environmental nuisances. It is time to wake up from the curse of our ignorance.