COSTECH AND THE QUEST FOR MAKING HARD SCIENCE GREAT AGAIN
#MakeHardScienceGreatAgain #FarewellKavazi
The rays of the sun meant business. With sheer vigor they expressed their frustration on man’s conduct against nature. So it is said, “nature is generous when preserved and often revengeful when destroyed”. What a way to communicate such vengeance as the heat intensified with every tick of the clock on that fateful Thursday afternoon of the 12th of December 2019.
It was anotherKavazi day, but unlike the five years experience of its existence as the Nyerere Resource Centre (NRC), this time around the day lacked that sense of excitement. The mood was not entirely jovial to most of us. The happy faces were now in grief. The lively tones were now in somber. We walked into the gates of the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) with our heads down. Awkwardly, even Vitali Maembe’s vibrant songs that spoke truth to power in many Kavazi events were a nuisance to our ears. We had nothing to celebrate about, how could we as we were bound to bid farewell to our once upon a time home of ideas.
The long awaited moment arrived. Prof. Shivji, in a derailed manner, had that last Kavazi walk on to the podium. His peers, Prof. Saida Yahya-Othman and Dr. Ng’wanza Kamata looked upon him in despair. That was the ambiance all over as if served by Happiness George at the reception desk, together with the pack of groundnuts, bottle of water and soda. Microphone checked, throat cleared, specs well placed, he, Prof. Shivji, glanced at the audience and sighed before uttering the first words on Kavazi’s eulogy.
Throughout the moment, his voice was mournful as he walked us through Kavazi’s journey, remarking its milestone achievements. Like in a funeral mass, the subject matter dictated utmost silence amongst the audience. The good deeds of KAVAZI, the semi-autonomous unit of COSTECH, were spelled. Amongst others, in the course of KAVAZI’s five years there were 4 Nyerere lectures, 9 occasional papers, 4 training courses, special publications, outreach programs and so forth. But none of these thrilled the audience in distraught.
We were all wondering, with all these accolades mentioned and many others spared, how come KAVAZI ‘s life was shortened? It was until Prof. Shivji read us the autopsy report from the coroner, the current Director of COSTECH, Dr. Amos Nungu, that we understood why its life was cut short. He pronounced that COSTECH was no longer relevant to host the Nyerere Resource Center (KAVAZI). Absurd as it may seem, YES! The Director expressed, and as evidenced on paper, said that KAVAZI is not relevant to COSTECH.
With my nerves gutted and every sense in me being irked by such ridiculous statement, I then recalled his words, whereas in his welcoming address, “Dr. Relevance” said, upon his appointment as the Director, he found it difficult to define KAVAZI’s position in COSTECH as COSTECH is the home of HARD SCIENCE. Point of note, this term HARD SCIENCE, he mentioned it with pride, LOL! That earlier statement, corroborated with the reason offered in the termination letter of KAVAZI’s doing at COSTECH, definitely expound on the naivety and ignorance one may have, even though being “A Doctor”.
When queries were issued on the relevance of KAVAZI and COSTECH, this same “Doctor Relevance” just found the need to stand again and prove his ignorance once again by lecturing “KAVAZI’s Soft Scientists” that it is not the question of RELEVANCE PER SE that pronounced KAVAZI’s death, but rather the RELEVANCE OF COSTECH HOSTING KAVAZI. Lol! How would he dare try to hide behind the meaning of words with all the linguists and people who are enthused with words and phrasing present? Yooh! The dialectical relationship between KAVAZI and COSTECH foremost needed KAVAZI to be declared irrelevant to COSTECH for it not to be hosted by COSTECH. And it does not need some laboratory experiments or a HARD SCIENTIST, but a person with mere common sense, to know that you cannot host something that is not relevant to you.
There are definitely floodgates of questions and queries that could flow to “Dr. Relevance’s” thinking: How did the prior director, Dr. Hassan Mshinda, find KAVAZI relevant? How comes there is a social science unit in COSTECH and still KAVAZI is not being relevant? Is the social science unit irrelevant to COSTECH too? Or is COSTECH not relevant to critical thinking – KAVAZI’s trait?
If I, like the wiseDr. Kamata who pleaded of COSTECH’s generosity, try to ignore my conspiracy theories that probably the ultimate move came from an ultra power, yes that one, then I too am bound to believe that Dr. Hassan Mshinda made the Hard Scientists outcasts in their own home and allowed the continued trespass of the soft scientists, for about five years, in the house of real science. It is thus definitely obvious “Dr. Relevance” intends to reclaim that space for some actual science. In a nutshell, he is desirous to #MakeHardScienceGreatAgain.
And we cannot diss, hate and envy the move as the doctor gotta do what he got to do – if you know what I mean. J Until another KAVAZI replica, I dedicate to you Wiz Khalifa’s (featuring Charlie Puth) – See You Again. Cheers.
