Genetically modified organisms used to terrify me. I blame it on my introduction to them: Learning about the hellish practices of the Monsantos and Duponts and their monopolistic evilness doesn’t do much to instil faith in a Third-Worlder.

Certainly not one who has been marinated since birth in the sauces of socialist thinking. For the longest time, it was all terminator seeds and American Imperialism using Big Agriculture to advance its world domination. Say what you want about social sciences, they are powerful tools for the investigation of complex behaviour.

The nice thing is that there is as much literature out there as anyone could wish to consume to challenge any belief. So I read, did a little basic thinking about genetics and exhaled. Humans have been doing this for a while.

The history of agriculture and the rise of the human race is the history of deliberate genetic modification. We tamed the animals, coaxed the grains and fruits and vegetables and roots into producing bigger and better et cetera, and now we are here.

Now on to the fun stuff: The ethics of it all. I recently learned about Crispr technology, which is basically a very affordable and effective way to play with genes... taught to us by bacteria (or is it viruses? I forget).

It is easy to ignore the effects of technology on society when not actively thinking about them, and when our values are not challenged. But then someone comes along and crosses a potato with a squid? Suddenly discomfort rears its head. Where are the limits on this technology? Should there be limits on this technology?

My discomfort comes from realising that all “life” can indeed be manipulated through its genetic code, and now humans have fumbled our way into God’s Own Forge of Life. We’ve managed to steal fire, all over again! And the Chinese aren’t even being shy about their plans to ignore internationally agreed conventions in this matter. It does make me respect them somewhat: Everyone breaks the rules, nice when someone doesn’t want to be a hypocrite about it.

So, genetically modified humans are on their way. Not lightly modified ones like mitochondrial replacement, but seriously modified folks who will have been bred for any variety of purposes. They’re going to make doping in the Olympics look like child’s play.

When I consider the world I am going to Inshallah grow old in, these are the things that worry me. Knuckle draggers who are still screaming their heads off about whether women should have reproductive rights are hopelessly lost on this one. The future is here and it ain’t playing.

Since this Crispr tech is opening up new moral territory, there is very little regulation except that which comes to humans most naturally: Reactions born out of fear. I am prone to that myself, and am willing to admit that I absolutely detest change. Change is scary, it is challenging and unmanageable and disruptive and I can’t control it, therefore burn it with fire.

But that’s just the lizard brain talking, and I know it can’t keep up with the drastic pace of our contemporary technological revolutions.

The slightly less panicky side says: Okay, what’s this. What is this thing? And most importantly: What does it mean for Africa, Africans, East Africans and Tanzanians in particular. Will it harm the children? Are our babies going to be okay? I do not know. Nobody knows yet. Which is why this essay is now going to turn into a discussion about the importance of education and what we think it means.

We need a generation of people who should be able to answer these questions.

For the longest time, we have embraced the outmoded British thinking that Arts and Sciences are separate crafts. They are not. Science, when done right, requires not only rigour but imagination. Arts, when done right, require discipline and intellect and imagination. And both of those, done right, will probably be based in a spiritual or philosophical examination of what life means to begin with.

As such, we need our school systems to develop all of the talents that a child may have without privileging one over the other. We’re going to need technical know-how to... to know how. We need the social sciences and the arts to understand who, why, how, when and what for. Because our young’uns are going to have to think about the new frontiers of genetic modification and they’d better have the tools.

Stay safe and remember: There are scarier things out there than Uganda’s Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo, hard as that may be to believe.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report, http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com. E-mail: [email protected]