Africa's place in extraterrestial activities

Some of us may have seen some strange & laughable attempts at Africans trying to create spacecraft to go to space but let us not kid ourselves, extraterrestial activities cost a lot of money. Money many African countries simply do not have. So since Africans will, eventually, see need for us to explore outside the planet Earth, how can we do so so that it makes economic sense? We can look at South African-born American/Canadian entrepreneur Elon Musk who is planning to make an extraterrestial cruise ship-like business for wealthy people to get an experience of space travel. 

My belief is that Africa needs to be united in it's extraterrestial ambitions & activities e.g. Namibia cannot send a satellite or spacecraft on it's own without approval of a united African astronomical sciences & exploration body. This will prevent us cluttering the already cluttered external stratosphere orbit & gather us more funds & scientific brains for any space missions whether they be for research or replenishing already existing missions. But we must remember that there's enough information from space missions & satellites launched for Africans to not need to do so in the near future. 

Extraterrestial research in the southern hemisphere: The Square Kilometre Array

MARS 
I'm led to believe that the famous space race between the USSR & the USA was a sort of back up plan should Earth become decimated by nuclear war. Perhaps a united African astronomical sciences body should consider an African extraterrestial colony (or sub-aquatic colony) for our future survival. Living under the sea is cheaper & less daunting prospect (considering extraterrestial radiation & the fact that there's no breathable air outside Earth's atmosphere) than life on Mars. So we have to weigh out our options. 

Internet image of an underwater city

I'm a fan of astronomy & extraterrestial studies & probably know more than the average South African on extraterrestial subjects but we shouldn't fool ourselves as Africans, extraterrestial travel is incredibly expensive & we should best stick to studies relating the subject than actual travel outside the Earth. 

There have already been black people in space & Mark Shuttleworth was already the first African/South African in space. Mandla Maseko who was set to be the first black African in space succumbed to a premature death. Any historical firsts we would make by going into space would come at an enormous cost. 

So, in short, extraterrestial activities by African organisations should have a real & reasonable purpose other than just exploring & should be done by a united African body of independent extraterrestial research organisations or the African Union itself. As much as interplanetary or interstellar travel excites us, there needs to be clear reasons for us doing so than just claiming extraterrestial land.