African Systems of Science, Technology & Art

These essays, compiled and introduced by Gloria Thomas-Emeagwali, represent an important collection of African scientific history and historiography. The writers concentrate on the different aspects of technological and scientific experiments and the processes and procedures which exemplify a live tradition. The book shows that the scientific spirit is not isolated to a particular group of people, nor to a particular region, but to the whole of Nigeria.

The essays confirm the extent to which the scientific spirit has been a fundamental social activity in Nigeria in the pre- and post-colonial world: the quest for new technology, new methods of investigation and application, remains a foundation of Nigerian society upon which innovations are being introduced to lend to the inherited scientific traditions.