The Colonization Of Africa As A Violation Of Star Trek’s Prime Directive
If you are a Star Trek fan like I am, then you should already be familiar with the concept of the Prime Directive.
Star Trek inspired and ignited the dreams of many science fiction writers and scientists today.
Buckle up, because this isn’t another fan opinion piece on Star Trek….
What is the Prime Directive?
In Star Trek Gene Rodenberry envisions a futuristic Communist society comprised of various advanced intelligent races/species co-existing with a common interest, which was the search for knowledge through the exploration of the universe.
The Prime Directive, otherwise known as the Star Fleet General Order 1, was a known rule that prohibited members of the Star Fleet from interfering in the technological or cultural development of any species.
As such, they could not reveal their presence or their ship even if their lives depended on it.
The prime directive was placed to avoid the contamination of a species’ values and identity by another race, especially if this particular species is relatively behind in both cultural and technological development.
Violating this directive could completely derail a species’ development.
What happens if the Prime Directive is violated?
To answer that, we will have to specify the level of violation made.
For the sake of this article I’m talking about a complete violation on the Colonization scale, what then?
For starters, lets take a moment to examine Star Trek.
Star Trek is full of colour and diversity.
Take the Vulcans for an example, they have their own culture, language, attire and even architecture, and when they joined the Star Fleet, they brought quite a lot to the table.
They brought knowledge, wisdom, even experience which overall made the Star Fleet better.
The same goes for every individual species in the fleet, the unification but yet separate respect for the way of life of these species, led to the colorfulness of the show.
Its arguably the best thing about Star Trek.
How would Star Trek have been if all the species in the Star Fleet spoke English instead of using the universal translator?
What if they had the same culture and dressed alike?
What if there was no difference in their values, cultural or otherwise?
It’ll still be a nice show surely, but it definitely would not be as good in exploring the Political questions faced by Spacefaring peoples as only Star Trek does.
Now lets imagine if the Prime Directive had been violated for a particular species, if they had been colonized by another species in the fleet, what would have been their role, or value?
If for instance humans colonized Vulcans in Star Trek, what role would they play?
One thing is for certain,and that is there would be no Vulcan culture and Vulcans would likely be humans in pointy ears and weird eyelashes.
Every other thing that makes us appreciate the Vulcans especially our favorite half Vulcan half Human, Spock, wouldn’t exist.
He would just have been another pointy eared human.
What if humans had made contact with aliens in the 1800’s?
If the human race had made first contact and been inducted into the galactic union since the 1800’s, some of us would be living the lives of our dream for sure (huge alien enthusiast here), however we might not have any identity of our own.
In the 1880’s human technological advancement was yet to begin, while cultural and emotional development was far behind.
We wouldn’t have had Einstein and the theory of relativity, Newtons law of Gravity will still be chief, and with no internet, we’ll know even less about the world we live in and the cultural heritage of other humans.
Humans would bring absolutely nothing to the table, we’ll have nothing to defend and nearly nothing to share.
Our Identity wouldn’t mean anything to us and our values will be lost within a short while of joining the union.
Aliens would have no regard for us, and we would seek validation in races that reject us.
While the Prime Directive was only a concept for an awesome TV show, there’s a complete possibility that aliens have not made contact yet in order not to violate the prime directive, there are those who believe we are still quite primitive, and as such, we gotta wait a long while or work faster…
Slavery and Colonization as a violation of the Prime Directive.
The total violation of the prime directive occurred when the Europeans made their way to Africa and pillaged it for profit through slavery and colonization.
The current African society is akin to the scenario described above about the pointy eared human in the Star Fleet.
There’s no particular flavour brought in to this cocktail mix, and whatever advancement is made during the period after slavery can be credited to the influence of the Colonizer.
At this juncture, many black people are seeking validation, trying hard to impress and belong.
The reason is quite clear to any critical thinking negro, the cultural and technological development of Africa was interrupted, and as modern technological development goes, Africans/black people have brought no real piece to the table.
There’s one or two ways to go from here:
1. Stay and continue to live this sham, 2….
Fixing damage to the Prime Directive
Violating the prime directive at some point or the other is completely unavoidable, there is no perfect system, and contrary to what you might be thinking now, this post isn’t about blame apportioning, its a call to repair.
Slavery has been a part of human history for a long time, there’s been slavery all over, within the same race or across different races.
It perhaps safe to say that every race had at one time or the other been enslaved by another.
So what do we do now that the damage has been done?
How do we fix the damage done due to the violation of the prime directive?
Pan Africanism
There are several movements out there in today’s world, there’s feminism, and the like, while Pan-Africanism isn’t as new as most of them, it is of uttermost importance in today’s world.
The black man needs to go back to the drawing board, there’s a great need to pull out the papers and pencils and to start sketching, there’s need to start building back home in Africa.
There’s a need to further develop the African culture, technology, traditions and philosophies.
If we are to be a functional part of the current society with full dignity and respect, we need to take a step back and build our home, repair the damage that has been done and then bring good flavor to this cocktail mix.
We can’t continue to be pointy eared humans with wired eyebrows.
There is work to be done, and as such I call you all to join in and help build.
We definitely cannot go into space like this, we need to regroup otherwise we will reproduce the kind of Space Civilization revealed in The Expanse, a modern Sci-Fi classic.
Originally Published @ The Prime Directive And The African Society by Unoke Imhotep Solomon
