I used to love Horrible Histories ( a series of books and BBC programme that is for children, but is also a kind of People's History of the UK). The writer, Terry Deary, said that he wrote it to make history interesting and relevant to all people, with a focus on the social and cultural history of the underdog. Fabulous.
Then he has to go and spoil it by attacking Britain's public libraries (which are already under attack from a philistine government) and that
“no one has an entitlement to read a book for free, at the expense of the author, the publisher and the council tax payer. This is not the Victorian age when libraries were created to allow the impoverished to have access to literature.”
In my mind, Deary 's reputation has taken a nosedive, and by extension, so has Horrible Histories. It's a bit fickle and rather unfair, but that is the kind of knee-jerk reaction that I work with. I'm trying to compensate for my fickleness and like Horrible Histories again, but it still comes with a bitter taste, the idea that such a great programme should be made by such a big fool! How can that be!
By the same token, the same thing happens in reverse. So Julia Donaldson, who I always loved anyway,
lifts my spirits with this article, and goes up a notch in my estimation. She says, "I think it's brilliant that libraries are free. Not only do library
users also buy books, but if some users genuinely are too poor to buy
books, then it's great that we've got libraries for those people … [And]
If libraries have any bearing on bookshops, it's the other way –
libraries are creating readers," said Donaldson, who has "never met" a
bookseller who believes libraries are putting them out of business.
We make allowances and over-compensate for those that we like. I do it all the time, and being aware of it doesn't really make it any better. It happens all the time with photography. Somebody's pleasant and kind and we like their work better. Someone's an asshole it goes the other way.
I wonder if that isn't what happened with Cristina de Middel's Afronauts. She is such an engaging speaker and livewire of a personality that we believe what we want to believe in her work because she's worth it. I think it's a great fun project, and an exercise in making things happen and improvising, but I don't think it has a depth to it. It's part of a long, long line of
science fiction projects that connect to space and Africa
and it is entertaining for all that - that has value in itself. Political, a commentary on African development or our perceptions of the continent - not really. It's more of a depoliticisation than anything..
Not everyone agrees: this is what the inestimable John Edwin Mason said about the Afronauts.
Cristina said that she was signifying? Well, not precisely. But darned close. She told Pete that
The Afronauts, in other words, is about us -- we
non-Africans -- and the stereotypes and prejudices about Africa that we
carry around in our heads. It's about challenging those stereotypes and
beliefs, on the sly, with humor, and with a sleight of hand.
'''''''''''''''''''''''
It seems to me that this is Cristina's strategy as well. She takes what
seems to be a playful look at the silly idea that Africans can build
rockets and lures her readers into wondering why the idea seems so
absurd.
I don't know but I think the whole premise of the Zambian Space Programme was absurd (and it was always the brainchild of an individual rather than a national programme). An article in the .
the Lusaka Times reproduces this article from Discovery, which details how the Programme chief, Edward Nkoloso, unilaterally declared his eccentric ideas to the press.
In a newspaper editorial,
Nkoloso claimed to have studied Mars for some time from telescopes at
his “secret headquarters” outside Lusaka, and announced that the planet
was populated by primitive natives. (He graciously added that his
missionaries would not force the native Martians to convert to
Christianity.) In fact, he said, he could have achieved the conquest of
Mars a mere few days after Zambia’s independence had UNESCO come through
with the funding. Oh, he also called for the detention of Russian and
American spies trying to steal his “space secrets” — and his cats.
It’s hard not to like Nkoloso, based on what little we know of
him today. Here’s a grade school science teacher setting up his own
national space program with a small group of trainees who had to roll
downhill in a 44-gallon oil drum as part of Nkoloso’s plan to simulate
the sensation of rushing through space. Zero gravity? He simulated that
by having them swing from the end of a long rope, cutting the rope when
they reached the highest point so they went into freefall. He also
taught them how to walk on their hands, “the only way humans could walk
on the moon.”
Naive? Ignorant? Sure. Especially in light of his less than
dedicated volunteers: “They won’t concentrate on space flight; there’s
too much love-making when they should be studying the moon,” he complained. Indeed, the much-touted girl astronaut, Matha, became pregnant and her parents brought her back to their village.
You can read more of Nkoloso's proposal in the article. Is it absurd? Well, yes it is, clearly and obviously, to everybody involved in the case. We don't just have absurd people in Europe and America, there are absurd people in Africa as well and Nkoloso, as all Africans of sane mind would and do recognise, was top-grade absurd, as nutty as a fruitcake, as fruity as a nutcake.