African scientists voice scepticism on conference outcome
29 April 1999
[HAMMAMET, TUNISIA] Some of Africa's leading scientists pledged this week to put forward gender equity, social responsibility, and the development of an 'indigenous component' in science as priority themes for discussion at the forthcoming World Conference on Science in Budapest in June.
The pledge came at the end of a five-day conference organized by the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) on the future of science in Africa, and held at the Tunisian resort city of Hammamet. But most of the meeting's 100 delegates, who came from all over the continent, felt that the World Conference is likely to achieve few practical benefits, particularly for Africa.
The meeting's statement of recommendations for the WCS, known as the Tunis Declaration, concludes that "bridges need to be built between popular thought and scientific ideas, and between the language of science and the discourse of everyday life". It adds: "In a culture of science, scientists are ready to learn from the wider culture and the wider culture needs to be science-friendly in its scale of priorities."
The statement also calls for an 'androgynization' of science, a word used to describe a strategy of purposefully giving science both male and female characteristics after generations of masculine bias. "When more and more women become scientifically sophisticated, the culture of science will influence not only their own lives, but also the lives of their children," it says.
The statement does not neglect familiar themes, such as science funding, and calls for the continent's governments to set aside one per cent of gross domestic product for spending on research and development. It calls for controls on the misuse of science, and adds that Africans need to take control of the continent's natural resources - a reference to the commercialization of Africa's biodiversity.
"Africa's own industrial minerals have propelled technological revolutions in other parts of the world," the statement says. "It is time that Africa developed levels of expertise commensurate with its material resources so that both may serve the African people and their destiny."
Despite the effort that went into debating and writing the declaration, the general mood of many delegates to the meeting was one of despondency at what they consider to be the international community's apparent blindness at the crisis of science and development in Africa.
With the exception of a few countries - including South Africa and Egypt - most African countries spend less than 0.5 per cent of their gross domestic product on research and development. Economic constraints imposed by international lending agencies, frequent currency devaluations, political instability, drought and water shortages often leave no money for research.
Many delegates expressed the feeling that their declaration -- and indeed the WCS - is unlikely to make any material difference to development in Africa. "I have been to meetings like this for the last 40 years, and we've said the same things. But nobody ever listens and nothing has changed," says Rufus Adegboye, an agricultural economist and former vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
Thomas Odhiambo, outgoing president of the AAS, agrees, and says that he does not have fond memories of the many broken promises -- including funds that were promised but never delivered from the industrialized nations after the last major world science conference 20 years ago in Vienna. Odhimabo told the meeting that in his experience, large international fora are opportunities for networking, and are not intended for practical action.
Odhimabo, nonetheless, cautioned his colleagues against trying to embarrass their governments in public at Budapest for ignoring past advice to invest in science and education. Some things, he added, were best said in private.
But Mohammad Hassan, executive director of the Third World Academy of Sciences in Trieste, and incoming president of the AAS, argued that despite the apparent lack of a tangible outcome, the Budapest meeting will provide an opportunity for scientists from the developing world to think more long-term. This would include both reflecting on the mistakes of the past, and learning from the experiences of delegates from more successful developing countries that will be there.
Hassan believes that the future of science in developing countries lies in what he calls "South-South cooperation". And he says that in his experience, research centres in developing countries benefit more by sharing experience and good practice with institutions in developing countries. In contrast, collaborative projects between scientists from poor countries and research organizations in the industrialized world, Hassan says, work less well as the relationship between the two is rarely one of equals.
Hassan's is one of a number of relatively new, younger, and more optimistic voices that are being heard in African science. Part of the reason for this is that -- unlike some of their older peers -- many of these scientists have fewer memories of colonial rule. Many of the newer voices are those of newly-liberated South African scientists, as well as African scientists who have moved to Europe and the United States.
These scientists also dominated the debate on arguably the most contentious issue at the meeting: whether Africa's scientific future lies in integrating the continent's languages, culture and traditions into research and science education; or whether, as one delegate put it, African countries "should not try to re-invent the wheel".
Ali Mazrui, professor emeritus of Africana studies at Columbia University, New York, is an example of the former. Mazrui warned the academy's fellows not to repeat past mistakes when attempting to embrace new technologies.
The poor state of research and higher education in today's Africa, in Mazrui's opinion, is partly because the architects of these institutions have modelled them mostly on what they saw in countries in Western Europe, taking little account of the continent's different linguistic and cultural environment.
Mazrui told the meeting that countries that had successfully developed, such as South Korea, and Japan, have used their own languages for science, instead of English, which is taught as a second language.
Despite its inclusion in the Tunis Declaration, not all delegates endorsed the idea of teaching science in African languages -- even as a very long term goal. Aderemi Kuku, for example, a former president of the International Mathematical Union of Africa, said such a suggestion was not practical in countries, such as Nigeria, where many languages are spoken.
Kuku added that he was concerned at the implications for the training of scientists in Africa given that high level discourse in science is in English. Africans should accept this, he said, instead of trying to turn back the clock.
EHSAN MASOOD
See also How biotechnology could be Africa's route to riches and North South disparities in the production and use of knowledge by Mohamed Hassan, posted 15 January 1999.
Click here for background details to the Hammamet meeting.
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