A rallying manifesto for the innovative problem-solving we need to build a better, more verdant, and sustainable planetary existence. Academics are letting Africa down. With all that we know, what do we have to show for it? Whose lives have been changed for the better by it? What have we done for and with our communities lately? In this provocative book--the first in a trilogy--Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga argues that our critical thinkers must become actual
thinker-doers. Taking its title from one of Thomas Sankara's most inspirational speeches,
Dare to Invent the Future looks for moments in Africa's story where precedents of critical thought and knowledge in service of problem-solving are evident to inspire readers to dare to invent such a knowledge system.
Mavhunga revisits insights from Edward Wilmot Blyden, Booker T. Washington, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Amílcar Cabral, Julius Nyerere, and Thomas Sankara to illustrate how the academic disciplines have been, and could be, deployed in the service of and through problem-solving, building on what people are doing and know. At its core, he writes, knowledge in the service of and through problem-solving derives from reading the past for new questions, doing due diligence in the present, and contriving an anticipatory approach toward the future.
Questioning the fundamental premises of Western and white knowledge production, especially regarding science and technology, Mavhunga proposes in this book refreshingly new approaches to thinking-doing that stem from African realities, in the hopes of inspiring a generation that will run toward, not away from, problems to solve them.
一份激勵人心的宣言，呼籲我們進行創新的問題解決，以建立一個更美好、更綠意盎然且可持續的星球存在。
學術界正在辜負非洲。憑藉我們所知的所有知識，我們有什麼成果？有誰的生活因此而變得更好？最近我們為社區做了什麼？在這本挑釁性的書中——三部曲的第一部——Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga 主張，我們的批判性思考者必須成為真正的「思考行動者」。這本書的標題取自 Thomas Sankara 最具啟發性的演講之一，《敢於創造未來》尋找非洲歷史中那些顯示出批判性思考和知識服務於問題解決的先例，以激勵讀者敢於創造這樣的知識體系。
Mavhunga 重溫了 Edward Wilmot Blyden、Booker T. Washington、Aimé Césaire、Frantz Fanon、Amílcar Cabral、Julius Nyerere 和 Thomas Sankara 的見解，以說明學術學科如何被運用於問題解決的服務中，並且可以如何被運用，建立在人民所做的事情和所知的基礎上。他寫道，知識在問題解決的服務中和通過問題解決而來，源於對過去的閱讀以提出新問題、對當前情況進行盡職調查，以及對未來採取預見性的態度。
Mavhunga 在這本書中質疑西方和白人知識生產的基本前提，特別是關於科學和技術的部分，提出了源自非洲現實的全新思考行動方法，希望能激勵一代人勇敢面對問題，而不是逃避問題，去解決它們。
Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga is Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. He is the author of The Mobile Workshop and Transient Workspaces and the editor of What Do Science, Technology, and Innovation Mean from Africa? (all published by MIT Press). He is also the founding director of Nyamudira Hills Research Design Build (RDB), a catalytic space that provides science and engineering support to rural communities in Zimbabwe and the African continent.
Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga 是麻省理工學院科學、技術與社會的教授。他是《The Mobile Workshop》和《Transient Workspaces》的作者，以及《What Do Science, Technology, and Innovation Mean from Africa?》的編輯（以上皆由麻省理工學院出版社出版）。他也是 Nyamudira Hills Research Design Build (RDB) 的創始主任，這是一個為津巴布韋及非洲大陸的農村社區提供科學和工程支持的催化空間。
