Distribution : Limited Paris, 24 February 1986 Original : English UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION FONDAZIONE GIORGIO CINI "Science and the Boundaries of Knowledge : The Prologue of our Cultural Past" Cultural Constraints on Scientific Innovation in Africa 11 MaRS 1986 Presentation By Prof. D.A, Akyeampong Venice, 3-7 March 1986 REX~86/WS/14‘Symposium on "Seience and the Boundaries of Knowledge: ‘The Prologue of our Cultural Past" Venice, 3 - 7 March, 1986 Cultural Constraints on Scientific Innovation in Africa by DA. Akyeampong Department of Mathematicc University of Ghana Legon, Accra GHANA. February, 1986.108 OM 80) IMHOV ATION DLAPRICA Recent archaslogisal findings indicate that the world’s earliest san evolved in black Africa near the equator and later soved fax beyond when the climate changed to drought, ‘The earliest man vas initially concerned vith eurvival and with waking life less hasardous for himself. He wes then using rudimentary toole which he later sade and kept for future use, ‘The evolution of wan has always been culture- driven and that driving component has been technology, Inventions then were rare but they apread fast through a culture. In sixth-century B.C, Greece, the written method of transniasion,initially available to only a few sen of religion, becase a wajority possession which quickly spread all ofer the Mediterranean, Through his writings the early Eeyptian, Babylonian and Greek helped to mould Western ca,ilisation which was born when the spirit of reason took hold of nan. Comparatively little is known of the contribution of the early African to modern civilisation because, unlike his contemporaries, the oral method of transmission he used did not make it possible to refer back to ideas of a former generation, Nevertheless through oral traditions, social institutions and archaelogical findings, the rich past of the African is now being actively studied’, It is « past from which, hopefully, much can be learned. Already this rich past has sade avcreciable impact on medicine, indigeneous technology ond literature. For centuries, the steel products of the traditional iron workers in tropical Africa were known to be superior to the dron were then mamifactured in Europe”. Their silver ornaments, and the gold