Page 22 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 12

ARTS
MY AFRIKA

in Africa). disease, and economic inequality. Of
course, there are some pockets of each
The fourth and final part of the of these phenomena in Africa, as there
book completes the GENEtic cycle are in Europe, North America, Asia,
by revealing the Nature-grounding and Latin America. But Africa's heart
to science-based innovation of two and the drumbeat is to reflect its role as
of Africa's most unique and trans- the origination and the end-steward of
formative communal businesses. civilization. And thanks to Adodo and
First, we see the fusion of European Lessem, this persistent rhythm can be
associative thinking and African more acutely heard.
rootedness, through the biodynamic
agricultural pioneer-enterprise of
Sekem (with its learning centre at
Heliopolis University), in the Egyp-
tian desert as it was before Sekem
turned it green. This is courtesy of
one of Sekem's principals: Dr Maxi-
milian Abouleish.

Second, we are taken into the com-
munalist world of Anselm Adodo's
own plant and Nature-power-based
herbal medicine centre, of Pax
Herbals. Therein we see a dis-
tinct fusion of Roman Catholic
spirituality and traditional African
knowledge, where the life of plants
is understood more like co-creators
of the world than as crops to be
harvested. Pax Herbals' significance
through the Covid-19 pandemic has
been a remarkable example of how
a distinctive indigenous approach
to medicine has attracted the eyes
of the world, away from vaccines
and global Pharma, onto the life Dr Tony Bradley is a Business Sustainabil-
of African soil and plants. This is ity lecturer, Social Enterprise &Innovation
a fitting final chapter, before the at Liverpool Hope University, and Centre
authors conclude, as we see through Director, Social and Economic Action Re-
their eyes, the work that they have search Centre (SEARCH) at Liverpool Hope
pioneered, both in theoretical University, Liverpool, UK.
practise and practical theory, as an
integral advantage and transforma-
tion management.

What we hear as well as see through
the encircling of African philosophy
and praxis, in this book on Afrikol-
ogy, is the wild drumbeat of Africa,
which needs to be recognized for
what it is in the world's destiny
of the 21st century. This is not a
continent of poverty, malnutrition,

22 | we tell the true afrikan story