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Africa Must Return To Her Ancient Spirituality To Unlock Advanced Science And Technology: A Book Chat With Ugo Eze, Author Of The Book ‘Python And The Rainmaker’
“Foreigners Shouldn’t Build Presidential Vehicles For African Countries:” A Book Chat With Ugo Eze, Author Of The Book ‘Python And The Rainmaker’
Ugo Eze is an engineer, an automobile enthusiast, a tech person, a software programmer, a researcher, and an author. His book Python and the Rainmaker focuses on the elements of science, the spiritual, the shaman, and the rainmaker, and how this will affect all things, especially tech, and science. Muna Chinedu had a talk with Ugo Eze about the book as it touches on different areas of life and the growth of Nigeria and the continent of Africa.
Here are excerpts:
What inspired the writing of this book?
I founded a company in the ’90s, named Atlantis Research Center. People usually ask me what I was researching. I have always wanted to research existential issues: about meaning, and about the black man; his inability to develop science and tech.
I tell myself we can’t all be stupid, there must be something we don’t understand. It’s this quest that drives me, and luckily enough I had a father who was that kind of person, too. He was free and he exposed me early to these issues. I mean, I was reading editions of Time Magazine at seven, not to mention The Economics, National Geographic, and others. Even though I didn’t understand everything I read then.
I am often found in the middle of trying to make a living and doing what I enjoy doing. I like to research knowledge. I am seriously a tech person, a programmer, an engineer, and more, but that’s primarily to provide myself with the resources to do what I like; this kind of research.
During the Osama bin Laden crisis, something came up about what really happened to the building. My brother was in Hong Kong then because he was part of the team that built the Hong Kong Airport. In a discussion, he said he didn’t think it was just airplanes that brought down the buildings.
Then, in a similar talk, some crazy Americans insisted that America never went to the moon, that it was a faked mission. The first thing that occurred to me was why I never thought of that possibility. I was shocked that such doubt never crossed my mind while I was taught physics then in secondary school and university.
I downloaded documents about NASA and started researching the Apollo Moon Mission. Someone from the Soviet Academy of Science did a detailed analysis of the amount of fuel the Apollo was carrying and the rate of combustion, then attempted to prove the Apollo couldn’t have reached the Moon and couldn’t have had enough fuel for its return journey.
I told myself if things like this could be a lie (not that it is), what else is a lie, in doubt, or undiscovered?
In the course of my investigation, a fellow programmer, Samson, informed me that his granddad was a rainmaker. I asked him what he was doing with Python programming since his granddad made rain. My investigations led me to his granddad and other shamans in different parts of Nigeria. My intention wasn’t to publish a book, but I finally decided to document my findings in Python and the Rainmaker.
The book connects Python – the programming language, Python – the snake, the dibia, the shaman, the rainmaker, and science; one would find it difficult to connect this. But you showed it in the book. The rainmaker controls the water cycle, lightning, and thunderbolts, to make or stop rain, such power, how do you think it can affect the continent in reality and the growth of the tech sector?
You wouldn’t call it two types of science, the science as you know it, from the West, is based on dead energy; say waves, electricity, capacitor, and more, they don’t have life in them. There’s a different kind of science that is based on psychic energy, the human energy field: an energy field, which can be swayed with the mind, with thoughts.
This science is not made of dead energy. What we think of as traditional science is based on this kind of science; psychic energy. But this field can be subtle. It is hard to control because everyone has this psychic energy and influences the environment consciously or unconsciously. It has a feedback side, which can have a negative effect. There is also an ethical aspect that seems to guarantee one’s safety. It appears this psychic field is operational when people pray.
This field is a part of state-of-the-art research in most top-secret labs in advanced countries. These researches are classified. In fact, in ’07 the Central Intelligence Agency released a memo that tried to stop further studies in this area, though they would continue to monitor related projects and researches worldwide.
The reason is simple: anyone who succeeds in making a breakthrough in psi research becomes the new superpower. Officially, psychic powers do not exist, but the unofficially enormous effort is being made to understand, control, and militarize them.
What you mean is that breaking through in Psi and paranormal science will change the face of everything?
It definitely will. And the funny thing is, according to my research, it’s Africans who hold the key to this, and not the said advanced nations. Current research does not produce repeatable results.
Traditional groups such as the Igbos, the Yorubas, the Egyptians, etc., seem to understand the architecture of this field; they seem to understand the correlation between an owl and night and death. These are very complex systems with a certain kind of feed-forward of causation and retro-causation.
However, one needs to be prepared for the effects of this feedback created by working in these realms. When you see a proper dibia, his moral standard is often impeccable, not because he wants to, but because the forces he interacts with will react against him if he doesn’t. You will notice that the bad dibia is often crippled, or disabled.
The colonialists saw and knew that if they failed to remove this knowledge from the consciousness of the people, they wouldn’t be able to gain control. They lured the children to the church, made their tradition evil, and encouraged them to burn and destroy shrines. Now, there’s hardly a true scholar in traditional science/spirituality alive. It’s a serious disempowerment. People have been programmed to think that when you keep an Ofor in your house, it’s Ogwu (Evil).
The Egyptians understood the making of gods, they saw it as a means of infusing Sensus (sensors) and Spiritus (life force or psychic energy) into natural things and objects. These gods, deities, or shrines are the equivalent of psychic energy Supercomputers. The traditional oracle is a psychic energy-based information processing system.
So, this energy/spiritual field is like the supercomputers we have today, loaded with information and data that works by command and activation?
The traditional libation and invocation practices are the equivalent of charging, calibrating, and activating the system. The ancient Egyptians understood this as an art and science that could be learned. Naturally, people seem to focus on the negative aspects. People think that it is easy to understand these techniques and many charlatans pretend and deceive.
Currently, few understand nuclear physics and similar areas of study. Even among the Professors, few have the practical knowledge required to build a nuclear bomb. A degree in nuclear physics does not imply the ability to build a nuclear bomb.
What special thing makes the guys that build the engines, the chips, and the most advanced technologies attain such a level of almost unattainable excellence?
When you research the lives of these people, you will see that there is a psycho-spiritual component; they have attained a certain level of mental/psychic energy mastery. As I hinted in Python and the Rainmaker, there’s a point where matter and science hit a balance with the spiritual and the psychic, especially in the case of many inventors. It’s so clear to me that I often wonder why so many seem oblivious to it.
Nigeria has graduated over 50,000 engineers, and no major breakthrough yet. There is a new bullet train, Maglev (Magnetic Levitation), made by the Germans, that float on its rails. The train starts and the magnet lifts it off the rail and hangs it there, increasing speed to 400km per hour. It doesn’t miss the track nor touch the rail. The Chinese have it, just like the Japanese. However, it appears the same German company owns the primary patents, while others manufacture it under MOUs and non-disclosure agreements.
You should know that if you start from a level of doing what you are taught, you are not on the same level as the originator/teacher. Few are at this originator level, and these originators are at a psycho-spiritual level. There was a guy who worked in General Motors, he worked for Opel, the Germany subsidiary. I don’t know how, but Volkswagen got a hold of him in the mid-nineties. Then, Volkswagen was designing mostly box cars. He practically turned VW design and engineering into the sleek designs now available.
General Motors had to take Volkswagen to court, and they paid GM billions in an out-of-court settlement. It was said the guy had everything in his head and that it was a breach of contract to poach this particular person. GM had over 200,000 workers but went to court because of one. People that operate at his level are not so many. These people are at the paranormal level where matter and spirit are merged in a balance. Everyone has the ability and potential to operate at or attain this level. However, formal education programs limit people to the material-physical level.
The problem is, most of us are unconscious of the fact that we don’t know enough, even in our areas of expertise. We need to at least get to that level of consciousness where we become aware of our knowledge limitations.
For example, someone can scream that Nigeria is not working and that the government is useless. When asked what should be done, such a person will say, “Build infrastructure, empower people, and build schools”, but is it that simple?
In effect, import engineers from Germany, get RCC to build bridges, import cell phones, and claim the fastest growing African economy, when, in fact, we are the fastest growing consumer base for foreign corporations.
Why will the funding of education by a foreign government be to our economic advantage in a competitive world, in which one country seeks advantage over another? Why would a competitor empower a rival? Would Africa empower the Europeans and Americans if the roles were reversed?
The Education they fund is a form of brainwashing or psychological warfare. Particularly, when someone else writes your textbooks, takes your language away, and writes your curriculum, nothing changes. But instead of getting up on your own strength and engineering your own original way, you still borrow from the same people that want you to stay kneecapped, and then reinforce the same pattern that kept you down. Where are you going with that?
We have to define what basic education is, and list things that, for example, a 10 to 12 years old should be able to know and do. Say, he should be able to know such as a certain level of practical mathematics, measurement, reading, and basic electrical, and domestic capabilities. Make the school exciting for the kid, and increase play and exploration time.
To grow as a nation and a people, we have to think anew. We have to find a new departure in which to pursue knowledge. We have to find a way to leapfrog, not follow the current trend in science and technology. And, should there be a next level of science and tech, it’s Psi – the psychic-spiritual. Traditionally, ancient Africans were at the cutting edge of this knowledge. Africans have to rediscover their techniques and knowledge to be relevant in the future of science and tech.
Are you talking about building a thing entirely different from what we have in tech at the moment?
We should know that we can’t out-Intel Intel, we can’t out-Facebook Facebook, Psi is a field that can put Africa at the forefront of state-of-the-art technology. If I can come to a UN meeting and make you say and agree with what I want, and when you send a jet-bombers, I can make its pilot receive or wrongly interpret the coordinates, then I have a new type of soft power that nullifies raw military might. We have to understand and accept this as a theoretical possibility first, before anything else. The African culture is rooted in this type of science.
Somewhere in your book, you said there was a time when science, magic, and alchemy co-existed. This science you are talking about that the Africans are rooted in, is it magic?
Is the remote control you use to turn on your television science or magic? Magic is a science you don’t know. To the dibia in the village, he has no clue how people are talking on a radio, to him that is magic. But when the same dibia pins a masquerade to a spot, to you who don’t know what he’s done, it’s magic.
The ancients categorized magic into two major divisions: inferior virtues and superior virtues. The inferior virtues refer to mechanical arts and sciences, while the superior virtues refer to the ability to focus this living-psychic energy to infuse functions into objects, animate, and control aspects of nature.
So, what would you say is the way to go with this, in order to get a structure out of it?
There has to be a group(s) saddled with the mission of researching, working, and understanding this high science in a practical way, just like it’s not just anybody that builds nuclear weapons. The government has to constitute groups to research this, just like they have secret labs in other countries working on Psi. However, I doubt the government can really do it. It has to be individually driven, a push from within to work on it, to dedicate oneself or a team to the course. There has to be a group of common minds, classified possibly, working on understanding the complexities of the Psi and also the present economy and why it isn’t working.
Think about Bitcoin, the Asians have always been frustrated about how the Americans control everything with the dollar. Crypto coins are not new, they have always been used in games, but when the Satoshi group designed it better and got a secure algorithm on which it works, everyone thought it was a joke, but look at where Bitcoin is today.
Everyone thought it was not possible, but some people understood the game and kept working on it, remaining anonymous until they got it right. You have to remain anonymous to get it right. We need to start making some hard decisions as a people.
For example, if we decide that we need to stop importing Brazilian hair and associated cosmetic products, Nigeria will save billions of dollars in the not-so-distant future. You can imagine such a surplus from a simple decision. Taking a loan to invest in a manufacturing facility for any product might not even produce such profits, that is if the project doesn’t end up a failure.
Again, imagine how much the government will save in Forex if it insists every imported car cannot have more than a 1.8-litre engine.
Or before the fight for Biafra, the south-east governors remove all reference to local government areas, so anyone from any part of the East can work anywhere, buy houses and lands easily, and live anywhere without being reminded that he’s not a native of that place. We have to create this unity first. That’s how you deal with a problem; at the root.
The bottom line I see here is that if it comes to Africa recovering through science, you talk about psi.
Yes, it is an attempt to find a new basis for development. We can’t expect to build our innovative systems on Intel, Amazon, Facebook, and others if we wish to retain a serious competitive advantage. There has to be a total overhaul of our understanding of development and geopolitics. There has to be a new basis for growth.
Before Russia-Ukraine war, the Russian president ordered that his presidential car be made by Russians. The car was built by Russians exclusively. There’s a pattern: you won’t see an American president driving a Mercedes, a French president doesn’t drive an American car. Before you are selected as a part of the team to build the American presidential vehicle, you have to have a top-level security clearance.
In Africa, a president uses a bullet-proof Mercedes, sits in it, and discusses top-secret policy and security issues. Even the presidential security guards use scanners and devices procured from foreign sources in a bid to maintain security. Foreigners should not build presidential vehicles of African countries. Why are African elites oblivious to these issues?
There should be a group, a team dedicated to performing such functions. Al-Qaeda and drug dealers can understand these security implications, why would a country not? These folks don’t use normal cell-phones in running their businesses; they use satellite phones with their custom encryption algorithm, not those provided by WhatsApp. You can’t bounce their calls or trace them to anyone.
Since I was a kid, the problem has always been malaria. All that has been done so far for decades after decades has been a periodic solution, you take the drug and it goes away and comes back when there are already vaccines for other diseases. With this, do you think that health liberation in Africa is tied to the elements, energy, and practices of the shamans, the dibia, and the rainmaker?
Growing up, my great-grandparents were shamans, when we had malaria, my grandmother would get Neem leaves, mango leaves, pawpaw leaves, and other herbs and cook them together, then get us all covered against the steam coming out of it, until we sweat so much, then drink some of the liquid. One thing I remember is, after the treatment, you wouldn’t have malaria for at least two years. What I have seen is that pharmacology is a billion-dollar profit-making venture.
Was malaria killing Africans back then, at the current rate, America would not have had access to the number of slaves they had. In African communities, malaria was not a serious issue. With the local herbal treatment, the body builds immunity to malaria over time. The Dibias had ways of knowing the solution to health problems due to their understanding and application of Psi – the art of communicating with herbs to understand their medicinal properties.
All things being equal, would you choose something as bitter as onugbu (bitter leaf) to eat? But our people discovered this plant hundreds of years ago. It was only a few years ago that science confirmed that bitter leaf was helpful for insulin deficiency. It is strange that no new edible plant has been introduced into the mass market by our educated experts in Agronomy, Botany, Chemistry, and Food processing. Our staple foods remain those ones our ancestors discovered.
Aside Onugbu (bitterleaf), there are ukpaka, and plants that would appear toxic such as Ogiri and Cassava. Our ancestors were able to remove cyanide from cassava without an explicit knowledge of what Cyanide is.
We have to develop a science based on our culture. When I tell my friend that I drink medicine made with Neem leaf, guava leaf, and all, they say, “Oh, you will damage your kidney, you will kill yourself, that I should go for a lab test”. But that’s not true. I have seen and experienced the potency of these herbs.
Don’t think that the pharmaceutical firms know this and try to infuse it in tablets and syrups, or so?
The Western scientific attempt to control all aspects of nature is not very smart. So is the attempt to convert all natural things to their synthetic equivalent. Everything can’t be synthetic. Everything that exists in nature has a purpose with respect to the whole. Our ancestors understood and respected this inter-relationship. These concepts were often misunderstood as the worship of deities, trees, and rivers. But it was this same attitude that gave them the ability to commune with nature and discover medicinal plants.
People praise the efficiency of American hospitals. However, efficient treatments and procedures would produce fewer illnesses and hospitals than is currently available. In most African communities only one or two Dibias (shamans) service whole communities, which attest to their expertise.
Each new technology creates side effects that require more technology. This pattern forms the basis of scientific and technological progress. Take the case of the electric vehicle. The production and recycling of the batteries create the need for new technologies that might nullify the advantages of the electric car when all the effects and costs are considered. The traditional African system of development is holistic, eco-friendly, and sustainable in its attempt to maintain balance and equity. It is based on the use of bio-degradable materials, both for physical construction and medicinal purposes.
With all you said, it looks so true that there is a huge hope for the continent of Africa after all. We have the resources there, but there seem to be a lot of hurdles to jump first.
Sure, we have the resources. Africa has all the strategic minerals – crude oil, tantalite, coltan, uranium, gold, and lithium, and expects empowerment on how to exploit these resources by the foreign powers who also wish to exploit these resources.
However, the advanced countries understand that Africa should remain a raw material and consumption zone if they are to maintain the pace of their socio-economic-technological development. All gestures aimed at helping African development rest on this collective foreign policy of developed nations.
Most scholarship awards, loans, development, aids, and projects are designed to separate the African brain from the raw material and employ the African muscle and intelligence in extracting the raw material and human resources for export. The Chinese, the Americans, and others may call Africa stupid, but deep down they know that intelligence and creativity, like air, are equally distributed across the world.
In various ways, ideas that do not support this primary objective are censored. Even for harmless books like Python and the Rainmaker, Draft2Digital, and Amazon rejected putting it in their online stores. This shows that it is not wise to build any type of technology atop a foreign base if one is interested in a nation’s future technological development. The Russians encountered a similar issue when they were removed from the world financial system. They found their own way to go around it, we must also bend down and find an original way to develop ours, too.
I think the main thing is to look into what our schools are not getting right or need to change. The possibilities are clear.
The university should have helped, but our lecturers seem to have lost the plot. Instead of firing the zeal of the youth and focusing it on nation-building, the educational system has been reduced to a student’s struggle for grades.
Ideas can come from the most unusual sources. Inventions can also come from anywhere. Each culture is rich with specific concepts that can be used for advanced technology. The student is not told and does not understand this, he/she is made to think that the formal system of education is the only way to discover and invent.
In an interview, Larry Page of Google said the techniques the Byzantine monks used to hide information during the persecution era inspired aspects of the Google Search Engine. Unofficial reports claim Ancient Egypt built tombs with lanterns burning for over two thousand years, which stopped burning when the tombs were opened.
Few people, if any, have any idea of the composition of such lanterns. Many students do not associate Archaeology with science and technology; they believe the excavations in Egypt are just for historical reference. They fail to realize that the sponsors of some expeditions are after knowledge and how to convert it into science and technology.
The primary goal of knowledge is power; the power to solve problems. Not money, knowledge is power. Knowledge accumulation is a source of power. Power gives independence both on a personal and national level. Students need to stop thinking that what they need is to just go to school, and get the certificate so they can get money. A student needs the knowledge to solve problems. With the power of knowledge to solve problems, money is a given. Currently, many students believe that education is not important because of the failure of lecturers, teachers, and graduates to act as proper role models.
Obviously, The Python and the Rainmaker is beyond a book, it’s a call to a certain level of consciousness, an epiphany. What are your final words?
I think every African must attempt to become a power source. And must also reduce the need for external help, because need is inversely proportional to power. The more you need something, the less power you have.
The West knows that knowledge is the power, that’s why they are bent on having the highest pull of knowledge in their custody and command. They can offer your bright minds scholarships to get them over there. He who has the highest bank of knowledge controls the world. This is the game the West plays, but the question is, what game is Africa playing?
We need to generate power from within, and increase our capacity to suffer: the capacity to stick with a problem till it is solved. We need a psychological reorientation. Python and the Rainmaker is my contribution in this direction.
You can reach Ugo Eze through his emails: [email protected], or [email protected]
This Piece Was Written By Muna Chinedu (Neddu). He is a writer, an editor, a poet, a tech enthusiast, and a farmer. He has worked with many media outfits online and offline. He has a special interest in research journalism and interviews.
email: [email protected]
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