Maxwell Chikumbutso rings a few bells because he was an unknown quantity until he caught the World unaware of his technological breakthroughs that seemingly defy the scientific principles known to date. This article will explore his primary invention, which is the capability to trap freely available radio frequencies and convert them into electricity that is available for human utility. We will interrogate the scepticism and the hope behind his invention and the potentiality to transform Africa into a global superpower few can even dream of.
Who is Maxwell Chikumbutso?
Maxwell Chikumbutso is a Zimbabwean citizen who has been stretching his mind all his life, trying all kinds of ideas unsuccessfully until he was able, through a dream-like inspiration, to begin working with airwaves. Then, he was able to discover there was boundless energy in the sky in the form of radio waves. This energy is in the form of a microwave that can be transformed into electrical power.
His government rebuffed his earlier inventions, and when asked by a reporter why the Zimbabwean government treated him like a criminal, his response was prophetic: The African mind has been programmed to mistrust African ingenuity, and as a result, many within the government circles deem him a con artist, not worthy a second of their precious time. He has spent and endured brushes with the law because he dared to dream and put his dreams into real-life benefiting projects.
With the ridicule and the indifference he met in his motherland, and with the heavy investment needed to advance his ideas, Maxwell Chikumbutso approached a Mozambican businessman who trusted him and was willing to pour millions of dollars to translate Maxwell Chikumbutso’s ideas into actual electricity generating project that power three hundred homes with minimal running costs after incurring initial investment cost.
Several American professors visited him, were impressed by his invention, and asked the authorities to protect him because his innovation threatened conventional wisdom in electricity generation.
At a time when the World is struggling to wean itself away from polluting fossils, the innovation that is environmentally friendly technology with reasonable costs must be pleasant to the eyesight of all and will topple geopolitics engulfing the World today.
Global Geopolitics Will Be Flipped Forever
Access and control of energy have defined geopolitics. The US power is in denominations of the dollar as an international fiat of transaction. The dollar’s dominant position was more accessible to establish because of global demand for fossils to power factories, homes and transportation.
The US was able to spread the cost of inflation worldwide, borrow irresponsibly by minting its currency to pay for trivials such as defence and social safety networks and shoulder an ever-rising price of health and infrastructural investments domestically and overseas.
One can reasonably argue that the US global dominance was attributed to the type and limits of the technology during her heyday. Fortunately for all of us, all empires that rose and fell were because the relevance of technology defined their limits, and the US is by no means an exception.
But Maxwell Chikumbutso’s invention is posing a severe threat to that, and it renders mineral extraction and use less critical as the sky is beginning to be viewed as the ultimate space for extraction of valuable resources that may prove too costly to obtain them from the earth or they are simply unavailable.
Is Maxwell Chikumbutso’s Invention Rebuking Science?
We have made a painstaking effort to look at the relationship between Maxwell Chikumbutso’s invention and the position of science, and we have concluded that it does not challenge science, but it clarifies grey areas.
Science says that one can transform electromagnetic waves into electrical energy available for human use, and Maxwell Chikumbutso’s invention makes a similar claim.
However, science is still years behind in the methodologies needed to trap electromagnetic waves for human applications beyond trapping them to contain lightning and protect infrastructure and humans.
What must be acknowledged as a remarkable feat is how Maxwell Chikumbutso could trap radio waves known for years as electromagnetic waves, capable of being switched into the electrical energy we need.
Conventional wisdom has successfully turned mechanical energy from wind, water and air through turbines and solenoid or wound wires in a helix matrix that traps and converts mechanical energy into electrical energy.
Could Maxwell Chikumbutso’s invention applying the same scientific principles in trapping radio waves be a well-guarded secret that is now patented to ensure his toil benefits him and those who trusted him to invest a considerable chunk of money in his technology?
How Can Tanzania Benefit?
Through REA (Rural Energy Agency), Tanzania ought to dispatch its engineers to Zimbabwe and investigate the authenticity, cost, and possibility of hiring his services to build those machines to power rural homes.
From what we have gathered so far, the cost looks very reasonable, and maintenance costs are within the pockets of our rural communities.
When writing this article, it was unclear what the maximum megawatts could be generated from the equipment and at what costs. That is where REA could step in and learn from the horse’s mouth and decide for themselves how far they can peg their hopes into this technology.
Let us wipe away the colonial opium that has convinced us Africans can be taken out of the bush, but nobody can take the brush out of Africa. Let us start in earnest to believe in the African entrepreneurial spirit to power African development, and where else to begin than REA to pay Maxwell Chikumbutso a courtesy visit sooner than later before American conglomerates patented this precious technology away from our meagre means.
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