At present, the most fascinating and potentially world-revolutionising egghead in the world happens to be an African. That’s right.

Elon Musk may have escaped the intellectual wastelands of his athletics-obsessed corner of South Africa, but as the saying goes: You can never take the Africa out of an African. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

This guy is going to be — wait, what am I saying? This guy already is a game-changer, and in another century or two will be the reason why our kids buy us tickets to visit space as birthday presents.

Thinking of this supernerd, however, is not healthy for me, mostly because I know he’s one of the lucky few who managed to shift to somewhere, where his talents wouldn’t go to waste. It would have been nice if that somewhere was on-continent, but it wasn’t. How many great African minds have had to do that?

Elon Musk and countless others are the reason I find it infuriating when news reports come out of some forsaken village on this continent, detailing how the local teenage genius has built a functioning supercomputer out of twigs, frog slime and rusted Land Rover spark plugs. They make me crazy, these stories.

First of all, for every successful self-trained innovator who makes it out of the hinterlands, there must be about a hundred young minds going to waste, and they are the ones I really obsess about.

Second, it makes me want to bite the Ministers for Education of the past three Tanzanian regimes so hard they will need multiple tetanus shots. Constant reminders of how far we’d be if only our government had invested as much in children as they did in luxury vehicles and overseas trips can bring out the worst in anyone.

Yes, I know. We’re an anti-intellectual society. Some folks have recently expressed alarm at the number of educated elites the Bulldozer has been appointing to government by way of both the Cabinet and civil service.

I had the pleasure of reading Prof Issa Shivji quote Mwalimu on social media on the moral ambiguities of educated elites when it comes to matters politic. Yes, that’s right: A university professor is quoting a teacher (and acknowledged intellectual giant) about the educated class. The joke kind of writes itself.

Agreed, educated folk are neither better nor worse than people who haven’t had the opportunity for formal training. But you know what they are good at? Doing their jobs with technical competence. I am cool with that. Trained airplane pilots? Surgeons who know whether they are supposed to operate on a patient’s knee versus their leg? Architects whose multi-storey buildings won’t fall down? That’s alright by me. What else are educated people useful for if not actually doing things with some measure of competence? Put them to work, say I. Put them to useful, nation-building work.

And before my fellow country folk come at me with pitch-forks claiming my views ain’t socialist enough for me to keep my citizenship, cool it. The thing about education is that we’ve been conditioned to limit the concept to a very narrow definition. Sure there’s the formal system.

Then there is the deeper level, the brain-opening aspect of itm which unleashes the infinite power of human intellect and creativity. The Teslas, the Achebes, the B.B. Kings of this world did not come about by collecting degrees — or government jobs for that matter. Some of the best thinkers in the world never got any schooling, but I think a little bit of the esoteric and the formal together probably make for the right mix.

I look forward to seeing how the fifth administration will handle the care and development of Tanzania’s collective intellectual capacity. Elon Musk could have been a Rajabu Chacha or a Grace Mosha if the Creator had but sneezed a few degrees northwards. Will this administration — powered by engineers and other robotically efficient sorts — finally design a system that can capture these folks and set them free? I hope so. I really, really hope so.

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