In the book ​Arrow of God​, Chinua Achebe created his characters that resided in rural Nigeria during the mid 1920’s. The technology presented is that of the real world in the 1920’s, guns and machetes were being used in this era with much of Africa being skilled in metallurgy and agricultural techniques, according to the article: “Technological Developments in Pre-Colonial Africa”, “​Pre-colonial Africa was experiencing a rapid emergence and spread of classical agricultural and metal-using technologies in the second millennium B.C.​” Despite technology back then being much worse than today, Africa was very skilled in making things like machetes and tools with metal working compared to other nations during that time. Cars were invented in Europe but not mainstream. The industrial era was not yet introduced in rural Nigeria so most people had to rely on manual labor. Man power was used constantly whether it be when people were harvesting yams or constructing roads. The only technology that really reached out to rural Nigeria was guns because they were easy to distribute. Part of the reason why technology from Europe hasn’t been imported to Nigeria is because of Europe only colonizing Africa only about30 years prior. Factories that Europe had were not being built in Africa yet, but they would eventually in ​No Longer at Ease ​which took place in the 1960’s in Nigeria.

Compared to our technology today, ​Arrow of God​ has completely inferior technology due to it taking place in the 1920’s. But that doesn’t mean that technology was bad in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole. In fact, natives in Africa had great knowledge of medicine, tools and weapons. According to the article: “Great Achievements in Science and Engineering in Africa”, “​Before the European invasion of Africa, medicine in what is now Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, to name just a few places, was more advanced than medicine in Europe.” Medicine nowadays was much better than medicine then but Africa was ahead in medicine compared to Europe and had many types of medicine that could cure different ailments. Ever since then, we have developed much better military technology with hand grenades and improved firearms. Instead of harvesting crops manually we now have technology to harvest them by vehicle and mass produce that crop into a product via factories. In ​Arrow of God ​wives of a father or husband would cook meals by hand when nowadays we can buy fully cooked meals from the store. Nigeria today also has much better technology than in the book because eventually, technology from Europe such as factories, cars and much more were able to make it into Nigeria and the rest of Africa. This prompted people to start working into factories instead of farms later down the line but there are still plenty of farmers in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole to this day.

We have surpassed the technology used in the 1920’s in nearly every way. From military technology to infrastructure technology we have gone from Obi’s which were small to large huts that likely only had one story, to skyscrapers with several floors on them. However with the new technology brought from Europe, the cultural traditions in rural Nigeria greatly diminished. In fact, it is likely that many of the traditions and festivities that resided with the culture of Umuaro in the book would vanish due to this. As the culture and traditions revolved around manual labor when it came to farms and daily life. With the new jobs being created as technology was brought over, it is likely that those traditions would be abandoned soon after. Yet without Europe, places in Africa were able to develop technology just as good or even better than Europe’s in some fields.

References

Blatch, S. B. (2013, February 1). “​Great achievements in science and technology in ancient Africa​.” Asbmb.https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/science/020113/great-achievements-in-stem-in-ancient-africa

“Technological developments in pre-colonial Africa​.” (2020, February 17). The Confucian Weekly Bulletin.https://confucianweeklybulletin.wordpress.com/2020/02/17/technological-developments-in-pre-colonial-africa/

The Martian is a science fiction novel written by Andy Weir. It was Andy Weir’s first book to ever be written and published. The Martian is about a team of astronauts going to Mars for a month so study and hold experiments. Within the first 6 sols, there is a massive dust storm, so big that they had to abort the mission and leave Mars immediately. One of the crewmates, Mark Watney, gets hit by a satellite and is blown into the darkness of the storm. His crewmates want to go find him, but they assume he is dead and they leave. Fortunately, Mark is not dead, but he is stabbed with an antenna from the satellite. From there on, Mark must survive on Mars alone and with little supplies while he waits for someone on Earth to come rescue him.

The Martian was published in 2014, and within three months it sold more than 35,000 copies. The next year, it was made into a movie starring Matt Damon. Some of the main technologies from 2014 included: 3D printed everything, Copenhagen Wheel, Hendo hoverboard, and the Mangalyaan spacecraft, which was the first Asian spacecraft to be sent into Mars orbit. The Martian was set in 2035, fifteen years from now. Some of the technologies in the book include: The Hab, a lab that keeps Mark safe from the outside of Mars; the rover; The Hermes, the gigantic ship that carries the crew to Mars and back; and finally, Mark’s spacesuit. These are just some of the main technologies in The Martian, but there are many more.

The Martian may seem very far fetched with the technologies, but we are actually very close to having almost all of the technologies in the book. “While the premise is science fiction, much of the NASA equipment and technology featured in the film is scientifically accurate” (Orwig, 2015). The Hab is extremely similar to a real life Mars-suited habitat made by NASA, called the HERA. NASA also has a rover like the one in The Martian, also suited for the harsh Mars surface. One of the most impressive is Mark’s spacesuit, and even though NASA has quite perfected it, they have started working on a spacesuit for the Martian surface. “It’s not as sleek as Watney’s fictional spacesuit, but NASA’s Z-2 and Prototype eXploration Suit could be similar to what the first people to walk on Mars wear” (Orwig, 2015). The Hermes uses ion propulsion to travel over 280 million miles, and so does a NASA ship called the Dawn. “NASA’s Dawn spacecraft runs on ion propulsion, which uses xenon ions to accelerate through space” (Orwig, 2015). These technologies from different times are very fascinating because Andy Weir came up with all of this technology before it was even officially out today.

References:

Orwig, J. (2015, September 24). 9 tripped-out sci-fi technologies in ‘The Martian’ that NASA really uses. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/whats-accurate-in-the-martian-2015-9

Weir, A. (2014). The Martian: A novel. New York: Broadway Books.

Williams, M. (n.d.). Top 10 Greatest Inventions & Technologies of 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2020, from https://www.herox.com/blog/266-top-10-greatest-inventions-of-2014