One of the things I have always thought about in relation to how cultures enable advancement and innovation that lead to wealth is how the African, the native Americas and other cultures who haven't made much advancement tend to shroud what they do not understand in mystery.

The cultures such as the Aztecs, Yorubas and Mayans, they simply took a thing which they had no control over and instead of them to try investigate what makes that phenomenon the way it is, they simply carve an image in its name and begin to worship it.

The Aztecs had the Sun and war (Tlaloc). They worshiped him by taking on Flowery wars where they captured people from other tribes and sacrificed these people for simple things such as so that the sun may continue shining. By so doing, they made it impossible for themselves as a

culture to seek any practical knowledge about the sun since it was a worshipped as a deity. The yorubas have Ogun, the god of iron who they worship by killing dogs at its shrine.

So while Europeans were observing and studying the chemical properties of Iron (Fe),

The early Yoruba people worked on creating myths about a man who descended from heaven on a chain and cleared a path for the other gods with a cutlass. Thereby denying themselves the sense of inquisitiveness that could have led to advancements in study of metals.

These are just a few examples but you get it.

While people of European descent chose to believe there's an explanation for everything even if not readily seen, we simply chose to believe these things were gods and they had no explanations and as such all we can do is appease

them.

While Europeans studied small pox and furthered research on treatment and cure, we created a mythological "Sapona," who will be appeased by performing traditional rites. Again we denied ourselves the natural curiosity that should come from not understanding a thing.

I can only imagine what would have happened to anyone who dared contradict the sacred belief that Sapona (a god) was the one who punished people with small pox and the only cure was to appeal this non living stone that had been cast somewhere instead of as an ailment that could

be cured if we combined this and that.

These people later evolved but even when they did, the treatments found were still rooted in these beliefs and still shrouded in mystery and secrecy.

These cultural beliefs are some of the components that now separate the haves

from the have nots.

The nations of the world that prosper today are able to do so in a large part because of the belief system that there's a logical explanation to everything and furthered scientific studies into these things.

This is why we have mythological trees that are not supposed to be cut down per our culture and traditions but same trees hold chemical properties that if studied and developed into drugs, will bring health to mankind.

Our cultures in many ways have dragged us back

and they still do in many cases.

Some of our earliest discoveries were put down as blasphemy against these gods; probably why those who discovered these remedies chose to shroud the knowledge of these cures and treatments in secrecy and find a way to operate within the culture.

Which means they could not record them as logical explanations, they had to teach them as "deep secrets" and make them family rites that are passed on from parents to children.

How long did it take the first blacksmiths to see that there was nothing mythological about metal?

If you put it in this and that degree of heat, you can shape it into other things and that's about it. But these people had to be ogun worshippers and it was usually a family business. They taught the practical knowledge of it to their children and never tried to isolate any

these properties of Iron which may be seen as trying to play god (since the formation of iron is an act of god.)

These beliefs led to no writings and records on these things and when the long arm industrialization forced us in, this practical knowledge could not find an

arbiter as the children picked up other interests.

We made a lot of advancements and discoveries in medicine, metal work, agriculture, etc but the fact that our cultures encouraged us to shroud them advancements in secrecy and mythology meant we could not fully appreciate these

things and we could not further study on them and record them properly.

This has affected us as a people as these studies led to trillion dollar industries of which we could not take our fair share.

We were busy worshiping Sango while other people studied meteorology.

Now that that's all done, perhaps we can find a use for these mythologies in the creative industry. Ohh, that's already been done. They made Sango Thor and still cashed out on it while we were busy telling stories about wicked mother in laws and rich woman marry poor man.

Perhaps there's something in our DNA that makes us mentally lazy or maybe its just these backward cultural beliefs.

The verdict is still out.

Good afternoon, Olóyè writing from the #CouncilofChiefs