IOTL, British India and British Africa both had highly educated elites during the colonial era, but the Raj produced many eminent scientists while the African colonies, by and large, didn't. Chike Obi, the first Nigerian to get a Ph.D. in mathematics (most of the firsts in this regard are from Nigeria or Ghana) earned his degree in 1950, Eni Njoku studied botany in the 1940s, but there weren't many others, and until the last two decades of colonial rule, there were virtually none.
There were several reasons, aside from the obvious factor of colonial Africa being less urbanized and developed than colonial India. One was that the incentives for university students from British Africa favored degrees in the humanities (which would get them "European" civil service jobs), or law or medicine (which would enable them to provide services their communities badly needed). Another was that India had research universities and scientific institutes in the 19th century, whereas the tertiary institutions that existed in British Africa (many of which originated as missionary schools) focused on training teachers and civil servants; the first African scientific institute, in Ghana, was founded only in 1959. Thus, while Indians who wanted to study science could do so at home, Africans had to go to the metropole. And a third factor was that, by the late colonial era, India had industries where science graduates could find employment – Mysore already had an electronics industry in the 1930s – while there were few such opportunities in the African parts of the empire.
Is it possible to change at least one of these? For instance, could some British colonial administrator get the idea of developing an agricultural/vocational school like Makerere, or alternatively a normal school like the early Yaba College (now the University of Ibadan), into a research university? Our administrator might see physics research as too pie-in-the-sky, but botany and biology, on the other hand, would have fairly obvious near-term uses and payoffs. It might not be impossible to have, for instance, a botanical research institute in Lagos in the 1930s dedicated to improving both subsistence crop and cash crop yields, thus creating a center where Nigerians with scientific ambitions can go for training. An engineering school would also have near-term payoffs, especially in colonies with a significant mining sector.
Alternatively, would it be plausible to restructure the incentives so that more plum civil service jobs would go to graduates with science or mathematics degrees? That would be somewhat out of character for the class of people who became British colonial governors; on the other hand, all it would take is one maverick. Lugard would never do it, but maybe, given a slightly different outlook, a reformer like Guggisberg in the Gold Coast or Clifford in Nigeria might decide that technical education is important to Africa's future.
Or, given how universal the pattern of "teachers and preachers" missionary schools was in British Africa, maybe what we need to break that pattern isn't a British Administrator With Ideas, but an Inspired African Professor. Maybe in a world where the Tuskegee Institute is never established, some of the early African-American scientists might teach at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone instead - movement between West Africa and the New World African communities wasn't unheard-of in those days. Science wasn't as expensive in the 19th century as today, so even a college in a developing country could support a botany professor like G.W. Carver, and there would certainly be plenty of groundnuts around for him to work with. The botany department would grow from there, and then a Guggisberg or Clifford might decide that Accra or Lagos needs a similar institution, and with scientific education now available in the heart of British West Africa, it could really begin to snowball.
(You'll notice that I'm concentrating on West Africa; this is because (a) it's the region I know best; (b) it was the best-educated region IOTL and its institutions were older; and (c) these kind of reforms are easier in non-settler colonies, particularly since Africans with science degrees in Rhodesia or South Africa, or even Kenya, would face enormous obstacles to actually having careers. But if anyone has an idea that might work elsewhere – Zambia, for instance, which had a mining industry and, not coincidentally, decent schools – then by all means.)
How far could this go? Nigeria as an early, albeit second-tier, participant in the Green Revolution? Biotech? Electronics?
There were several reasons, aside from the obvious factor of colonial Africa being less urbanized and developed than colonial India. One was that the incentives for university students from British Africa favored degrees in the humanities (which would get them "European" civil service jobs), or law or medicine (which would enable them to provide services their communities badly needed). Another was that India had research universities and scientific institutes in the 19th century, whereas the tertiary institutions that existed in British Africa (many of which originated as missionary schools) focused on training teachers and civil servants; the first African scientific institute, in Ghana, was founded only in 1959. Thus, while Indians who wanted to study science could do so at home, Africans had to go to the metropole. And a third factor was that, by the late colonial era, India had industries where science graduates could find employment – Mysore already had an electronics industry in the 1930s – while there were few such opportunities in the African parts of the empire.
Is it possible to change at least one of these? For instance, could some British colonial administrator get the idea of developing an agricultural/vocational school like Makerere, or alternatively a normal school like the early Yaba College (now the University of Ibadan), into a research university? Our administrator might see physics research as too pie-in-the-sky, but botany and biology, on the other hand, would have fairly obvious near-term uses and payoffs. It might not be impossible to have, for instance, a botanical research institute in Lagos in the 1930s dedicated to improving both subsistence crop and cash crop yields, thus creating a center where Nigerians with scientific ambitions can go for training. An engineering school would also have near-term payoffs, especially in colonies with a significant mining sector.
Alternatively, would it be plausible to restructure the incentives so that more plum civil service jobs would go to graduates with science or mathematics degrees? That would be somewhat out of character for the class of people who became British colonial governors; on the other hand, all it would take is one maverick. Lugard would never do it, but maybe, given a slightly different outlook, a reformer like Guggisberg in the Gold Coast or Clifford in Nigeria might decide that technical education is important to Africa's future.
Or, given how universal the pattern of "teachers and preachers" missionary schools was in British Africa, maybe what we need to break that pattern isn't a British Administrator With Ideas, but an Inspired African Professor. Maybe in a world where the Tuskegee Institute is never established, some of the early African-American scientists might teach at Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone instead - movement between West Africa and the New World African communities wasn't unheard-of in those days. Science wasn't as expensive in the 19th century as today, so even a college in a developing country could support a botany professor like G.W. Carver, and there would certainly be plenty of groundnuts around for him to work with. The botany department would grow from there, and then a Guggisberg or Clifford might decide that Accra or Lagos needs a similar institution, and with scientific education now available in the heart of British West Africa, it could really begin to snowball.
(You'll notice that I'm concentrating on West Africa; this is because (a) it's the region I know best; (b) it was the best-educated region IOTL and its institutions were older; and (c) these kind of reforms are easier in non-settler colonies, particularly since Africans with science degrees in Rhodesia or South Africa, or even Kenya, would face enormous obstacles to actually having careers. But if anyone has an idea that might work elsewhere – Zambia, for instance, which had a mining industry and, not coincidentally, decent schools – then by all means.)
How far could this go? Nigeria as an early, albeit second-tier, participant in the Green Revolution? Biotech? Electronics?