Facts That Show Africa Doesn't Want To Fly

By Okechukwu Okugo

Africa as a continent of 54 independent countries, and more, is mainly sighted as a consuming continent, not capable of producing anything.
But ironically, thousands of innovators and inventors have walked and still walking on the soil of Africa today; showcasing stunning works that yearn and call for support, in order to produce them up to the world's best standards.

A lot of people are talking and speculating why Africa is poor and underdeveloped, others have pointed at outsiders as the root cause of Africa's lagging state.

In fact a book written by Walter Rodney, published in 1972, titled How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, was embraced by many people in western countries and the majority of Africans as well, as the true problems hampering Africa's advancement, but a closer look at the facts and figures on the ground today, shows that such books are far from the real problems hampering African development. .
A closer look at Africa will let you know that Africans are the ones holding themselves down.

No country has ever developed by importing a set of foreigners to come and develop them without involving their local people in the development, as well as empowering them to sustain any purveyed advancement.

Then how can Africa develop if a lot of ingenious people, who have conspicuously displayed their ingenuity among the society, is given little or no support, by those in authority?
How can Africa develop if talents are wasting away without being burnished, channeled and harnessed to benefit the society at large?
How can Africa develop with unchecked brain-drain that usually saps Africa of its best hands?

Is it Europe or the West, who supports and develop the talents of their people, that is holding Africans and their government from supporting and sponsoring their own talents?

How much does African governments spend on researches and the discovery of solutions to the numerous world's unsolved problems?
Is it the Western world that is telling them to pay less attention to more important things while they stash away money meant to develop the country as looted funds, abroad?

While there are complaints that funds are depleted, the ones to be stolen and looted, would always be available.

The richest black woman in the world is a Nigerian, while the richest African at one time has been counted among the first 50 world billionaires, but the truth is that money laundered and looted by African's Military rulers, politicians, and their cronies, when combined, can be greater than the entire treasury of U.K.
Money that can transform Africa and make it at par with other continents in infrastructural development.

And they are still, laundering, looting and counting, dividing Africa's oil wells in blocks and sharing it among themselves.

Is it a western-made underdevelopment?

And think about it: even the African billionaires, what are they doing to develop or support others? What are they doing on their own to support technological innovation and invention in the numerous fields of science, technology and agriculture?

How really do Africans expect Africa to develop?

Below is a list of very few of young and old modern innovators and inventors in Africa, who have been struggling on their own, with little or no sponsorship to help them reach the zenith of advancement and production, in the aviation sector, real reasons to show Africans truly don't want to fly, but continue to crawl.

1. Dr. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka:

He is a multi-talented Ashanti man from Ghana. The only man on earth, who is producing metal from sea shells and palm husks, and making metals renewable today.
He is the first man that started manufacturing bass guitars with seven strings.

A dancer, musician, innovator, inventor, physicist, biologist, chemist, agriculturist etc.

Through self-sponsorship and investments, he has managed to enroll Ghana into the lists of car producing countries. He is the manufacturer of Kantanka SUV's, Trucks, and other heavy duty machines, which have been enlisted into the world and African market today.

He has developed and built various air-crafts and helicopters. His helicopters and planes have been tested and confirmed safe to fly.

But where are the authorities who are supposed to rally around him, providing him all the necessary materials and other support, to see that his aviation company would soon gone off into producing planes and helicopters that can compete in the world market? A made-in Africa plane, just like his numerous made-in Africa Kantanka cars.

Does this show that Africa really want to fly?


Katanka's military-styled helicopter, one of the many flying objects, designed and built by Dr. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka of Ghana.



A Kantanka-made-in Ghana SUV. Photo credit: Kantanka's website.

Dr. Kantanka of Ghana.


2. Flt Lt Sibanda:

He served in the Ethiopian Air-force where he was trained by Russian Military Instructors.
In 2012 or thereabout, he developed a helicopter out of scrap metals, flew it to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, before he was banned from flying his machine by authorities, until he got an adequate safety clearance to fly.

And ever since then, has been looking for sponsorship to upgrade and produce a better helicopter; which he had projected would be used as air taxis, in the construction of bridges, dams in rural areas, where it would be used to lift heavy equipment; and also to be used by the police, fire brigade and company executives.

Although looking like a scrap the helicopter took him 9 months to construct, costing him a fortune and would equally need more fortune to be perfected aesthetically, and with other upgraded internal operations.

Then ask me, who has come to his official sponsorship, to see that this lofty innovation, which would benefit Zimbabwe economically, and carve out a niche for Africa in the world aviation affairs, is materialized?



Flight Lieutenant Sibanda from Zimbabwe, a former Air-force Officer in Ethiopian Army, and trained by Russians, being interviewed by a reporter. Photo credit: YouTube.




3. Felix Kambwiri:

A 45-year old man, who took 4 months to construct his helicopter, with fiberglass and scrap metals, in his village, Gobede in Malawi, spending about $450 including a converted motorcycle engine.

Even though he has been banned from flying the machine for safety reasons, he is hopeful that by June this year, he would get the safety clearance from the nation's aviation authorities to test fly his machine.

Now at best, he only starts the copter, making the engine roar to life, and the rotor blades rotating vigorously at very high speed, to show his visitors that it is working.

Felix has also shown, dropping out of school does not stop the ingenuity of a genius. As he developed this prototype helicopter solely from his head, right from the scratch to finish, because he couldn't find any book on helicopters, as he had really sought.

He has expressed his desire for someone to come to his financial aid and sponsorship, to see that he produces a copter that would compete in the world market.

Though he had worked as a radio repairman and tailor, he now finds his daily bread as a professional welder.


 
Felix of Malawi and his prototype helicopter. Photo credit: TheNational Website




4. Vusimuzu Mbatha:

Since 2014, 35-year-old Mbatha who lives in Siza informal settlement near Rustenburg, South Africa, had started constructing his helicopter, and in 2015, succeeded in getting it to a stage that he has now started calling experienced pilots and aviation experts to come and do safety checks on his helicopter to certify it safe for him to test fly.

He used scrap metals and other recycled materials to assemble his helicopter which has red and green indicator lights at the tail, roaring engine and a vigorously rotating rotors to show that the machine is not a contraption but a workable edifice.

This helicopter has been parking in the front of his home in the shabby settlement he lives, to the admiration of all his neighbors, who had drawn courage and inspiration from his exploits.

News24.com had quoted an impressed neighbor, who had also deemed the importance of government intervention, saying:
"We are surprised. We never expected something like this to come from our area. This guy is talented. Government needs to help him to take his dream further."

Because Mbatha was scantly educated, stopping at grade 7 due to financial problems, and could achieve this ingenuity (doing something that is bringing all sorts of people to their very poor neighborhood to see), other youths in the area have been made to believe in themselves, and now holding him in a high esteem as a local hero, in their neighborhood.

Is it the Europeans that is now holding this young man back from governmental or personal sponsorship of African moneybags?


Mbatha of South Africa, and his prototype helicopter. Photo credit: News24.com




5. Mubarak, Muhammed Abdullahi:

A 24-year-old Nigerian undergraduate, studying Physics in a Nigerian University. Through self-sponsorship, has succeeded in building a helicopter that flew a very low height of 7 feet, powered by a second hand 133 horsepower engine, from a Honda Civic.
Abdul who learnt the basics of flying through the internet, has said it was not a hard feat for him to achieve the dream of designing and building an easy flying helicopter.

He told Gizmodo.com how easy it is, flying his copter, displayed on a hangar, on his Campus, saying:

"You start it, allow it to run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and the propeller on top begins to spin...The further you shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rpm you press the joystick and it takes off."

He told reporters he's working on gears to measure atmospheric pressure, altitude and humidity.

He also said that the higher the power of the engine, the higher the altitude and the time of flight; as such needs sponsorship to upgrade his helicopter, and get a higher altitude and long-hour flights.


Mubarak of NIGERIA and his prototype helicopter. Photo credit: Gizmodo.com



6. Gabriel Nderitu:

Although this Kenyan part-time entrepreneur has built more than 10 planes, he has never managed to get any of them off the ground, according to what DailyNation, attributed to the aircraft designs being deemed too heavy to lift off from the ground.

This man absolutely needed to be provided for, materially; and be given all other kinds of support to see that all his self-sponsoring efforts, would not be allowed to waste in vain for the advancement of their country and to the pride of the continent of Africa as a whole. If truly Africa wanted to fly.

Gabriel Nderitu, of KENYA, being interviewed by Citizens Television, Kenya; one of his prototype planes can be seen at his back.

(Opening image: An aircraft designed and built by Dr. Safo Kwadwo Kantanka of Ghana from personal sponsorship and investments. Photo credit: Kantanka's website.)