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How decolonization could reshape South African science

A generation of black scientists is gearing up to transform the research landscape.
  1. Linda Nordling

    1. Linda Nordling is a freelance journalist in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Wanga Zembe-Mkabile learnt a lot about herself from being uncomfortable in other people’s kitchens. In 2009, the South African social-policy researcher was collecting data for her PhD on the outcomes of government child-support grants. The research called for ‘cupboard inventories’ — taking stock of the food in study participants’ kitchens. But seeing the embarrassment in home after home as people opened their often-empty pantries, Zembe-Mkabile felt something was amiss. “It just didn’t feel right to look into people’s cupboards,” she says.

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Nature 554, 159-162 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-01696-w

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