As I watched Artemis ll lift-off into space on its 10-day journey to the moon and back last week, my memories raced to a conversion I had with a Harvard University professor some years ago. He used to spend six months a year in Tanzania studying the Hadzabe in the bush. I had asked him a question as to why he “wasted” time studying hunters and gatherers. His reply left me dumbfounded.
As homo sapiens, he said, we can never fully understand our human story and history on earth without an understanding as to why some have remained as hunters and gatherers while others were exploring space, or rather stretching their imagination and reach beyond what we thought possible, given that we all had the same beginning in life.
Even Africa’s greatest statesmen had their own narrow views on possibilities. Told that Africans were not ready for self-rule, Kwame Nkrumah retorted: “We have the right to govern and even misgovern ourselves.” Words have power and words create. That aspect of the “Nkrumah curse” somehow reigns supreme in Africa. People who misgovern themselves can never rightfully join the global comity of nations.
Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, playing the classical African card of humbleness, also said: “Unlike other nations, we cannot send rockets to the moon but we can send rockets of love to fellow human beings wherever they are.” That was in 1958, three years before Tanganyika gained independence. Perhaps it was true then but now, almost 70 years later, we have to think differently.
Man’s landing on the moon was mankind’s shared heritage. The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) mathematician and “human computer” primarily responsible for plotting the Apollo 11 trajectory for the 1969 moon landing was a black woman, Katherine Johnson. She remains largely a hidden figure.
Black astronaut, Victor Glover, will steer the Orion capsule when Artemis ll rounds the moon, including to the “dark side” where contact with earth shall be extremely limited as man makes the first crewed lunar flyby in over 50 years. There will be no landing on the moon.
Africa can no longer ignore space exploration. Maybe yes, as of now “we cannot send rockets to the moon” but the continent needs homegrown scientists well versed in the dynamics and the science behind deep space travel, the dangers and the rewards.
Glover, a US navy captain and test pilot, sent back a heartening message urging unity: “We are all one on earth,” he said, roughly the exact words the Harvard professor told me more than 40 years ago. Let me conclude by equally saluting the entire Artemis ll crew under Commander, Reid Wiseman and mission specialists, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen on this historical mission.
Koch, an alumna of the University of Ghana where she studied astrophysics and the only female crew member on Artemis ll, sent back a humorous message, saying she had enjoyed becoming “space plumber” after she successfully fixed a toilet that broke down on day one of the mission. It was a window into the meticulous planning behind lift-off even for the extremely mundane case scenarios. Koch, who was an international student, has carried into space, Ghana’s flag.
