My thoughts on the reason as to why Africa, as a whole, has failed to contribute to serious intellectual advancements.

A thread

A reason why Africa's intellectual progress has lagged so much is the fact that many people are driven into choosing professions by prevailing
economic circumstances instead of by their skills, talents, passions and inherent inclinations.

You find that, because of the continent's high unemployment figures coupled with the venerable status commanded by some professions in the society, masses of brilliant folk are led to choosing lucrative/employable courses such as medicine, engineering or law

when they would have been phenomenal should they have opted for natural sciences, humanities, arts or even philosophy as these are much more in tune with their innate abilities and passions.

The result is that these supposedly "high-end" courses end up being filled with impassionate and greedy people who, oftentimes, turn out to be frustrated figures especially when the returns are not commensurate to their efforts.

It goes without saying that their talents end up being wasted and they, also, make no contributions to these fields as they are more interested in money than the profession.

On the other hand, the "low-grade" courses are totally shunned, disparaged and neglected. Minimal investments yield minimal returns and true to this no progress or significant contributions are made by Africa, as a whole, in these fields.

The result of this mess is that, as a people, we are relegated to being spectators: who stand in awe and applaud other nations as they gain massive grounds and make astonishing moves in this intellectual game.

His eminence @waweru what are your thoughts on this matter?