Space Exploration In Africa 1
By: Olokede Winner
Tags: Nigeria, NASA, Africa, Space Exploration, Science Education

It started in 1999 and since the 12 African countries ( Algeria, Angola, Mauritius, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Sudan) have successfully launched 39 unilateral and 3 multilateral satellites into orbit. Egypt leads with 9, South Africa with 8, Algeria with 7, Nigeria with 6 and Morocco with 3. South Africa has been the first African country to launch a satellite “Sunsat-1” in 1999. I think you get the gist now.

So back to our question; why is space exploration not prominent in Africa?

Well, as usual, we start by blaming it on the west.

Why the west?

To get a picture of how the west is stunting the growth of space exploration in Africa, let’s go to what happened in 2005. What happened in 2005?

In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina slammed America and destroyed large parts of New Orleans, satellite images were needed to help fix the problem and access the situation. The only satellite in range at the time was a Nigerian spacecraft that was launched two years earlier from Russia and we did give the United states the needed images to help fix their city, but guess what we got in return?

Less than two months from the incident, British politicians called for a halt in development aids been sent to Nigeria because we can afford a space program, it should be noted that in 2005, Nigeria is one of the world’s poorest countries, with an excess debt of 17 billion dollars with some more billion dollars in debt to the Paris club, with mortality rate on the rise and Nigeria was still recovering from a civil war. So the development aid they claim to be giving, doesn’t even pay for half of the crude oil the British companies mine up the shores of Ogoni and delta state Nigeria and the oil spills they caused in these places.

My point, you might ask?

The point is, a continent that is the focus of people’s pity and countries, agencies and world organizations donate to keep us fed and clothed and keep their blood minds in self-righteous poses are how they want it to be, they wouldn’t want to see us use our budget to develop ourselves. God forbid that the picture of a starving African kid is swapped with an African in space or an Africa module on the International Space station (I guess the word international and excellence is for some people only).

Another angle is to guess the only country to ever dismantle their nuclear program? Easy! South Africa.

The unspoken fear of a nuclear-capable African country frightens the west ( in a way it’s understandable, but aren’t we all sinners? Pakistan has nuclear weapons and the Taliban are just a few miles away).

The growth of the space industry in Africa means the development of modern rockets and better ways to get payloads to space. All of which can be easily militarized. The picture of North Korea easily comes to mind, the North Korean space program now well known as NADA started well before their breakthrough in ICBMs.

But if fear of dictatorship being in charge of these programs is the problem, why was Russia not confronted? Because it seems we are quick to forget about the Stalins of this world and focus on the Idi Amins.

In a small twist, there are even reasons to believe that some of these African dictators get their roots from the west. They are funded and weaponized by the west. The case of Libya, Congo, Sudan and some other African countries comes to mind but that is for some other time.

If this fear is indeed genuine, why are we not all placed on the same standards, why do we get to sign a treaty to be nuclear neutral but some U-shaped, insecure country in the west gets to keep the second largest stockpile of nuclear missiles?

So, yeah! To answer why space exploration isn’t prominent in Africa, we should consider how the West is influencing it. How they are afraid of seeing an Africa that is capable of sending people to space.

But we simply cannot put all the blame on the west, can we?

Of course not. It is just easier to blame others. We are also our own problem. How? Read part 2.