India deserves our aid despite its nuclear programme – or rather, because of it

I wonder what happened to Edward Nkoloso? And, for that matter, the pouting, pneumatic Ms Matha Mwamba? They were last heard of in the early winter of 1964, when reporters descended upon a disused farmhouse on the outskirts of Lusaka to watch the intensive preparations for the exciting Zambian space programme. Edward was the boss of the operation, the 16-year-old Ms Mwamba one of the putative astronauts. Reporters watched as the astronauts carried out their anti-gravity training — swinging through the jungle on ropes, often upside down — and becoming acclimatised to the rigours of space travel by being pushed down a large hill inside an oil drum.

Waiting proudly on the dusty ground beside the disused farmhouse was the Zambian rocket which would, a little later, propel the Africans to the moon and, after that, if all went to plan, Mars. It was made of aluminium and copper and its means of propulsion was ahead of its time, eco-friendly, no carbon footprint.