Posted on by Mbuyi Shadrack

Moving forward as a continent: How do we close the gap in African research?

Doing research is quite an interesting way of spending one’s time. Come to think of it; we wake up every day to identify problems in our respective fields and hope to solve them, partially if not completely. If somebody has already proposed a solution for such a problem, we hope to make it better than they did and often to fit it into our own geographical context. In my opinion, this is also what keeps the world going. I look in my own little world and in Africa and I see my peers who, like me, are very ambitious and are also looking to transform our world. What happens though when such potential and drive becomes restricted by elements that are impossible to change overnight?

The map of Africa as a continent. Between these many countries, there is no reason why lack ofresources should be a limiting factor to our researchIn my previous blog I looked at how Africa is lagging behind in research compared to the rest of the world. It became apparent that, even though I was just looking at ecotoxicology as my field, Africa is still trailing behind in research entirely. Interestingly though, when I looked at what might be the common denominator in all fields of research, there was just one major thing that is keeping Africa from progressing – resources. These resources may be in terms of funding, laboratories or technology. Many of the labs have to depend on outsourcing processes because they cannot afford to just buy what they need and even if they can, space becomes a limiting factor. This is the reality that most researchers have to deal with and quite frankly, it is my reality as an upcoming potential researcher.

At my institution and my department specifically, there is only one ecotoxicology lab which is the size of an average kitchen. This same lab is used by honours students, other master’s students, senior researchers and postdoctoral fellows. There is also only one molecular lab which can accommodate three people at most. The equipment that I need for the simple analysis which is critical for my research is not available at this institution. As such, I have to use the laboratories from other institutions and pay for the analysis – outsourcing processes.

I am positive that by now you are probably thinking, “Why are you still there?”

Well yes, this is the story for most emerging researchers in Africa. However, most of the established researchers have been able to, against all odds, do exceptional research and contribute more transformatively to their respective fields. It’s a no-brainer why this is. As a person facing this reality every day, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the small labs and limited resources actually create better researchers that are critical thinkers. Instead of following a procedure that was developed somewhere in Asia or Europe, you have to read up on tons of literature and figure out a way of delivering the same results utilizing an alternative, affordable method. Rather than focusing on just producing a paper, you get to dive deeper into the processes that you follow to ensure that whatever that you do can be done again. This is how we create credible research with reliable results. This is how we also produce the best researchers that appreciate the value of every piece of information and those that develop with simple, affordable, ecologically-friendly yet reliable research methods that will ensure that Africa gets to live to see the next century.

As I said in my previous communication, we are still very far from where we need to be. I don’t think, however, that lack of resources should be the reason why we don’t better our lives through research. One of the greatest things I have learned in research this year is that collaboration works. Let us go back to the African way of being – Ubuntu; doing everything as part of a collective whole. If one lab has what another researcher needs, there can be no reason why Africa is not moving forward in research.

 

Posted on by Mbuyi Shadrack · 2 Comments

We need to start…right now.

Earlier this year I was having a conversation with a colleague around the advances and progress that has been made in the scientific world over the years. As the conversation evolved, we became curious about more than the science from textbooks and laboratories that’s never actually applied in the real world where Mr and Mrs Civilian would benefit from it. As we looked into the application of research in the real world, I was in awe at what Asians have been able to accomplish over the years and how much advanced they are already in terms of science and technology. This amazement ended there in that office on that day; until I started to prepare the literature review for my own research a couple of weeks ago.

A snapshot of the research that is being done in AsiaAsian countries – China, Japan, even Korea, Taiwan and India – appear to dominate ecotoxicology. I am on the internet everyday compiling papers and it seems every time I get a relevant published study to my work, it has been done in China or Japan. I am not sure if it is because of a national love for the environment, their technological advancements or if pollution is simply so excessive in Asia that researchers HAVE to try to fix the problem. But the top ten most polluted countries are not only in Asia. Some African countries have made it to the list, yet there is hardly anything in literature about their work. Which begs the question, are we scientifically ignorant, or are we just pretending that we do not care about the environment?

I don’t mean this in a judgmental way – it was just so difficult to find traces of African research in my field. But I kept on looking. There seems to be quite extensive work done raising awareness through conferences and weekly blogs that focus on the environmental work in Africa. Some prominent scientific work has also been done in countries like Nigeria and Kenya as well. Much to my amazement, Eastern Cape universities such as Rhodes University have played a prominent role in the assessment of the aquatic systems and ecotoxicological work through their Unilever Centre for Environmental Science. The CSIR has also had quite a field time especially in the assessment of the wastewater works. And I was excited to read an article on Environmental Science and Pollution Research by a colleague of mine. It really is amazing how far we have come in the past decade.

A recently published article by Winnie-Kate Nyoka - A terrestrial ecotoxicology masters major at our department
A recently published article by Winnie-Kate Nyoka – A terrestrial ecotoxicology masters major at our department

My argument, however, is that we still have a long way to go in establishing our footprint in the field of ecotoxicology. Yes, perhaps Asian countries have better technology, easily accessible funding and resources. However, at the moment there are hefty amounts of money being funnelled into the development of the African research. The few that I am personally aware of include the International Foundation for Science (IFS), REACH, IDRC, BRICS grant and DFG. As South Africans and Africans in general, we can use these opportunities to establish our footprint in the research that will benefit us and future generations. And then, we still have a long way to go in not only doing research but also in communicating our results to the general public and actually implementing the solutions that we find in the lab.