My Science School

          Remember Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa? He was jailed for 27 years because he fought for freedom. Before Mandela came to power, the country was ruled by a British minority government. Their rules strictly kept apart the two ethnic groups- the whites and the blacks.

         This system known as apartheid started in the 1950s; black people were forced to live in places called homelands with minimal opportunities for work and education. This created tensions. At first people started protesting peacefully; it later turned to violent riots and even massacres. After a lot of struggle and mass protests led by the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela, this practice came to an end in 1991.

         South Africa has rich mineral deposits. Diamonds and gold were discovered there which attracted European fortune hunters.

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          Cameroon is noted for its geographical and cultural diversity. It is known as ‘Africa in miniature’ for the same reason. The Sao civilization flourished near Lake Chad in Cameroon and the southeastern rainforests were inhabited by the Baka hunter-gatherers.

          In the 1400s, the Portuguese sailed to the coast of Cameroon. These sailors traded ivory, rubber and slaves. Cameroon came under German rule in 1884; it became a colony known as Kamerun.

          Modern Cameroon took shape in 1961. By then, the British and French had taken control; they unified a British and a French colony to give birth to the new country. It was later renamed as the United Republic of Cameroon in 1972. After a second round of renaming in 1984, it was known as the Republic of Cameroon.

          The country was not free of internal tensions after its independence. There were constant conflicts between the English-speaking provinces and the French-speaking ones; it turned to a secessionist movement in 1990 and an insurgency in 2016.

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           Many of the fossil remains of ancient Man have been found in Kenya. Kenya was colonized by the British in the 19th century. The colony did not have a peaceful atmosphere like many others.

         The tensions between the British and the Kenyans led to the Mau Mau rebellion. Mau Mau was a secret nationalist group and they started terrorist attacks in 1952 which lasted almost seven years. The country was in shatters, thousands of Kenyans died and the British finally granted independence to Kenya in 1963.

          The first Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta and his successor Daniel Arap Moi worked hard to unify its people. Peace was still far away from Kenya. Each elections were followed by episodes of violence; people were killed, property destroyed and citizens dislocated. A peace agreement signed by various political parties reestablished security and stability. Today, there are around fifty different ethnic groups in Kenya.

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          Africa is the oldest inhabited territory on Earth; human beings originated here! The continent was home to many ancient civilizations including those of Egypt, Congo and the Ashanti people, which flourished before Arab or European contact. Africa is noted for its jarring ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity. It’s the second largest and the second most-populous continent.

          Africa has a bloody history. The continent has 54 countries and almost all of them were colonized by European powers up until 75 years ago. The colonizers became rich through mining and farming the colonies. The natives were treated like animals; they had to suffer the ills of colonization and slave trade. By the 1960s, African countries started gaining independence. Many of the white settlers refused to leave the continent which further led to complicated social evils like apartheid. Many countries had to go through long years of dictatorship, wars and natural calamities like drought and famine. Though major developments took place, Africa is still hampered by instability, violence, corruption and authoritarianism.

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          Let’s talk about our motherland now. Apart from its history, what is special about our country? Here are some interesting facts about India.

         India holds one of the largest populations in the world. India saw the birth of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. The concept of Zero originated in India: some branches of mathematics like calculus, trigonometry and algebra too.

         The human calculator Shakuntala Devi who did a calculation of a random thirteen digit number is an Indian! Seems like India has a mathematic genius. The presence of water on the moon was detected by Chandrayaan I, an Indian lunar probe. Science Day in Switzerland is celebrated in the honour of our ex-President Dr. Kalam.

         Shampooing is an Indian concept: in fact, the word has a Sanskrit origin. Diamonds were first mined in India. India is also credited with the development of that most popular board game Snakes and ladder. The game was developed to teach kids the concept of karma. Our country is a land of architectural marvels. Apart from the Taj Mahal and the Iron Pillar, we also have living root bridges in the northeast. India has more than 122 major languages. These are a few of the fascinating aspects about our country. The list is endless!

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          Before communism took shape, China was ruled by empires after empires for at least 2000 years, the last of them being the Qing dynasty. China established itself as a great power in the 18th century.

          By the end of the 19th century, its glory began to wane; China lost the Opium Wars to Britain, and the Treaty of Nanking gave the island of Hong Kong to Britain while unrest prevailed in the country. After the Boxer Revolution in the 1900s, Sun Yat-sen led the Republican Revolution in which the Qing Dynasty was overthrown by the People’s Republic.

          This could not bring in peace. China was invaded by Japan and war followed. In addition to it, the communists and nationalists struggled for power. Mao Zedong came to power in this situation. Mao spread communist ideas and influenced thousands of Chinese. After a series of campaigns, he established the People’s Republic of China, overthrowing the Kuomintang government. Since then, China is a communist country.

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          Cambodia and Vietnam have one thing in common; both the countries were ruled by the French for almost a hundred years. Though Cambodia tried to remain neutral during the Vietnam War, the country was in trouble as the war spread across the borders. The country’s peace was affected by the bitter fighting between the US troops and the Vietnamese communists.

          After years of fighting, a new dictatorship took over the country in 1975. Khmer Rouge, a political party led by Pol Pot came into power causing considerable damage to the country. Both industry and agriculture collapsed as he forced town dwellers to farm the land; thousands died of hunger and diseases. Many were murdered as well. This is largely referred to as the Cambodian Genocide. Years of tyranny came to an end when Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978; the Khmer Rouge was overthrown and a new Vietnamese-backed government was established. The monarchy was restored later.

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