Science in Africa: a continent on the cusp of change

Akin Jimoh: 00:11

Hello, welcome to Science in Africa, a Nature Careers podcast series. I am Akin Jimoh, chief editor of Nature Africa. I work and live in Lagos, and I’m passionate about promoting science and public health journalism in my native Nigeria and across Africa.

In this series, we are going to explore the practice of science in this wonderful continent, the progress, the issues, the needs, and in the words of the African scientists who are based here.

In this first episode, we meet Dr Ifeyinwa Aniebo. She’s a molecular geneticist, an infectious disease expert currently working in the field on the malaria drug resistance projects.

What is Africa like for the new generation of scientists coming through? I kicked off by asking her about the general situation.

Ifeyinwa Aniebo 01:14

I think it’s evolving. So maybe 15 years ago, it was sort of not where it was supposed to be at all. There seemed to have been a lack of, you know, research culture, in a lot of African countries.

Now (now being the last at least five years), there’s been quite a lot of investment, and collaborations and partnerships across the board.

So for example, you have partnerships that train young, you know, next generation scientists, and you know, to do Masters or PhD or postdoctoral training. You have institutions that get funding for all of these training activities.

So it is still evolving, because we’re not where we supposed to be, because the science of the moment isn’t really translating to innovative ideas that can solve our health problems.

And so the things that I think that are the three major issues that we’re facing on the continent:

The first would be funding. There’s literally a lack of investment, you know, for science and research. There’s also, there’s also a lack of domestic funding for training the next generation of scientists in tertiary institutions.

And this is actually a problem, because if the majority of the money that comes into science is from international and multilateral organizations. Then then again, you know, it then becomes an issue, in terms of setting the agenda and priorities for research, and trying to solve the local problems that we have, you know.

We probably all know, Africa shoulders, what 25% of the global disease burden, We unfortunately only just contribute about 2% of the world research output, which is quite abysmal. We only account for like 1.3% of research spending. And we only produce 0.1% of all patents. So as you can see, in terms of that funding, and the output, it’s really poor.

And when we now talk about the human resource for science, the African scientist, we have 198 per million African scientists on the continent.

When you compare this to the UK or the US, with 4500 per million, there is obviously a lot of gap there. And the issue with this is that when we fail to invest in African science it then becomes very difficult to develop homegrown, sustainable solutions to African problems.

So funding is important. Funding research, funding scientists, funding the innovations around that. It takes a while, but it’s very sustainable. So that’s one problem that I think is an issue across the board in Africa.

Another issue, the second one, would be the infrastructure problem, right? So building infrastructure is important, because when we are training young doctors, young PhDs, young postdocs, you want to retain them, because if you don’t retain them, they’re gonna go.

There’s going to be another brain drain of them going into countries like the UK and US, where there are lots of amazing opportunities (even as a young scientist) to develop, so you’re gonna lose your talent.

So infrastructure is important. You know, we need to create an ecosystem for innovation. And this includes laboratories.

This also includes amazing good road networks because you need to go from one lab to another. You need to go from the field to the lab. You need to take your samples from the field in a very preserved manner to the laboratory, and the road networks are important..

But most importantly, electricity. You can’t do any scientific experiment if you do not have constant electricity.

Like, I couldn’t run a PCR machine without electricity, right?

If the light goes off right in the middle of the experiment, and I don’t really know what, that’s inconclusive. So that’s an important part.

And the last thing that I’d say is prioritizing women in science. We’re not prioritizing women in science. I know that we can talk about this much later on.

But these are the three areas that I think that if we focused on, we might start to have a faster evolution. If you like.

Akin Jimoh: 05:15

Looking at the problems, you mentioned funding, you mentioned infrastructure, and also encouraging women in science.

You know, will you say it’s easy to become a scientist in, let’s say, Nigeria, or extrapolate to Africa generally?

Is it easy to become, you know, a scientist? I mean, you can use yourself as an example?

Ifeyinwa Aniebo 05:37

Okay, so I would say that it’s easier now to become a scientist. And the reason I’m saying this is because over the past couple of years, you know, there has been investment, you know, We’ve seen, you know, a lot of money being put into institutions to train the next generation of scientists.

We’ve also seen a bit of role models, you know. For example, the last COVID-19 shows that Africa is basically ready to be, you know, to take science seriously.

We sequenced the COVID-19 genome in Africa.

So Nigeria was the first country that sequenced, and the institution that did this was the African Centre of for Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Osun State.

The second institution that did this was also an institution in Ghana. So these are the people sequencing these things are young, young Africans, the other ones sequencing this, these genomes, right.

Of course, they have a director who is the mentor. But these are the young people doing it. And so I really think that we’re, we’re in a better place, compared to say, 10 years ago, when it was still evolving.

So I think it’s a little bit easier, because you have, you know, a little bit of funding. You have more opportunities, you’ve got more access. But it’s still very difficult.

So when I was growing up in Nigeria I only got interested in science, not because I was being taught really nicely to be honest. I didn’t particularly enjoy maths or any of those science subjects in Nigeria. I didn’t, and that that then goes back to the teaching, how exactly do we teach these subjects? And how do you make young people interested in it?

I got interested in science, because I’m just, I’ve just been a curious child.

So unfortunately, again, which is also another reason why I got into malaria research, I had a best friend who died of malaria. And she was literally like my best friend, because we had similar interests. We loved comic books. We loved X-Men, and we loved watching Dexter’s Laboratory. So we had so many things in common.

And she died because the medicine that was given to her, chloroquine, to treat her malaria, at the time was resistant. So she was kept being given a lot of doses, but it didn’t clear the malaria parasites in the blood. And we were what, eight, nine years old? And so she died. And if you know, malaria affects mostly children in Africa, so children are the ones more susceptible to it.

So that obviously changed the way that I felt about malaria, changed the way that I felt about science. And just my curiosity. I started to ask questions, which, unfortunately, a lot of doctors in the hospitals couldn’t really answer.

But luckily, I had a really….my father was such a lovely man, but he literally engaged me in all my questions. He might not even have had the answers, but he would get his friend to where, you know, physicians, to really answer me.

And I did understand that it was because of drug resistance, which is why my friend died.

And so that kind of sparked my interest. So my interest is a bit different, because I obviously started getting interested, because, one, I was curious. And two, because I had the personal, you know, tragedy that kind of got me into that.

But I would say that, generally, science in Africa is better than it was before. But it’s still not easy. Because of the the things that are highlighted, the problems highlighted before. The infrastructural problems, the lack of funding. Without this ecosystem, you can’t really do the kind of science that you want to do, unfortunately.

Akin Jimoh: 09:01

You had a number of experiences. I mean, sorry about your your friend. And, you know, there’s a saying that curiosity killed the cat, but your curiosity, you know, takes you to science. And let me ask. “When and how did you become a scientist?” You know, can you tell us your story? I know you’ve talked about the story about your friend, but tell us your story.

Ifeyinwa Aniebo 09:25

So I would start with…so losing my friend and getting very curious about, you know, I was curious about drug resistance, actually, which is interesting.

So I wasn’t particularly interested in the particular area. Although malaria killed her and I am a malaria researcher today, which obviously, that’s kind of connect.

But it was drug resistance that got me interested, because the way that it was explained to me because I was such an X-Men fan. My dad’s friend basically just used what I understood (because I was really young). I was, I was nine years old.

I used to read a lot of comics. I was a comic geek, and so he basically explained to you me and said “You know how the X-Men have abilities that make them, you know, adapt better, and just evolve to be better superhumans? That’s basically what happens with the parasites. So rather than the parasite getting killed by the chloroquine that your friend was given, it didn’t get killed. It just kept multiplying in the blood system until, unfortunately, it took a life.”

So that for me, that resonated with me. And so I always had that at the back of my mind.

And so I went to England, and my parents sent me to boarding school in England. And first time, I extracted DNA from my lunch, salad cress. And I was taught that the DNA is basically the blueprint of life.

And so I started to literally connect DNA and parasites, understanding the genetic makeup of the pathogens around us.

And this is exactly…..because understanding that will make me understand why they even become resistant.

So, so this is where, during my GCSEs, I started to get really interested in drug resistance and biology on that level.

And so I applied to study genetics, at University of London. Queen Mary, University of London. And during my university in London, I was very obsessed about a bacterial bacterial genome which affects people, it causes sepsis. And so that was basically my project.

And so I was interested in drug resistance in that particular bacteria. Until I carried on. I did other you know, research. I worked for a few years, a Master’s at the University of Nottingham. I also attended the University of Oxford, I did a PhD, I got into a PhD program at the University of Oxford. And I’ve worked at, you know, genetic institutions, Illumina in the UK.

I know most people know about Illumina now because they’re the ones that…they’re very popular for theeir sequencing machines. So they’re the reason why we’re, we’re able to successfully sequence genomes. That is Illumina platforms.

So I’ve worked in genetic research for a very long time. And so this is basically my story. And I’ve just followed my passion through through research and working in that area.

Akin Jimoh: 12:20

Let me ask you one question. Since you are a student, how has the business of science in Africa changed, or how has it progressed?

Ifeyinwa Aniebo 12:29

Well, I have highlighted the challenges, and I’ve highlighted where exactly we are on the continent.

But I also think that, for example, when you look at a country like South Africa, there’s been a lot of, you know, investment in the private sector. Investments in, like, biotechnology, right?

You’re getting all of these cool startups coming out to do really amazing things.

And I really think that that’s beginning to spread across Africa. So you have Nigeria, you have some startups as well, in the biotech space, you have some in Kenya, you have some in Ghana, as well.

So what I think is changing, I think…one thing that from my own experience is changing. I would say that, because (I also feel really strongly about it) is you know, how basically we have a traditional path in science, when you have your PhD, then you go on to do your postdoctoral training for about seven years or so, four to seven years.

And then you go into university, do the lectureship, probably become a professor at some point. You know, the traditional route basically. I realized that a lot of younger people are not doing that, particularly, because we are in a different generation.

And then we also are very passionate about solving our immediate problems around us. And so a lot of us are thinking about, you know, innovative ways using, you know, being entrepreneurial, as well as solving using the entrepreneur path to solve the problem.

Because, again, funding is amazing. But when the funding comes from outside, it’s not very sustainable. You’re gonna keep going from one, you know, funder to another.

And sometimes everyone has their own priority. So if you’ve got your own priority, you can’t really do what you want. You have to do what the funder wants, based on their priority.

And this is why domestic funding is important. Because if countries start to invest in science, then young Africans will start to really do the research that really concerns them in the local context.

So now what you’re seeing is that younger people are using – getting other – using other means, like business and investment startups to create solutions like diagnostics.

We’re looking at cancer diagnostics, and young people doing that. We’ve got a biotech company in Lagos, which also does, tries to collect human genome so that we are being represented in the world. So there’s so many things that are happening.

And I think that in the next five to 10 years it will evolve even faster. But I think it’s just a start. It’s just starting to change in that regard. And I’m, I’m really looking forward to the future of that, actually.

Akin Jimoh: 15:01

I thought that was interesting, how the tragedy of losing a childhood friend due to malaria drug resistance, had given Ifeyinwa the drive and passion to attempt to solve that problem in adult life. I was also shocked by those statistics.

Africa shoulders 25% of the world disease. Yet African scientists produce only 2% of the research outputs, contribute only 1.3% of the research spending, and successfully secures less than 0.1% of patents.

And the other shocking number that perhaps explain those percentages that only 198 per million Africans are scientists, compared to 4500 per million in the UK, and the US.

So I wanted to know. Is this because of the shortfall of women in science?

You made mention of, you know, women in science. Are the key challenges, or are there key challenges that can work against the professional growth of female scientists in Africa?

Ifeyinwa Aniebo 16:18

Oh yes. Okay, so the thing is, a lot of women don’t have the opportunity to start with, and they don’t even have access to these opportunities.

You know, you have women who take time out for pregnancy, maternity leave, breastfeeding, you know. A lot of women in Africa do, obviously, a higher share of the childcare and domestic duties.

And all of these things, honestly, affect the entry and progression and the sciences. When you look at boys and girls in secondary school you can’t even tell the difference in maths and science achievement.

Once the girls get into university, it’s a problem. It’s almost like they’re distracted, and that the data is there to actually prove it. They’re just not as invested in it.

And the reason why, from research, is we’ve shown that women have more cultural expectations placed on them.

So by the time your university is asking you, “Are you going to get married? Why do you want to do a PhD? No man’s gonna marry you if you do a PhD?” Yeah, I’ve had that. People have said to me, “Why am I even doing it? Why are you studying for a PhD? Aren’t you gonna scare a man off if you’re so educated?”

The point is, women are always pressured to adapt and adhere to cultural expectations.

And so some women, you know, like myself, will obviously do what we want, based on what we are passionate about. We’re not very common. The majority of women would obviously adapt to whatever cultural expectation is expected of them.

And what you then see is that they don’t further their education, to even, you know, Masters or PhD level? Because again, society, you know, promotes or values isn’t that education, it is to be married. So they just drop out.

Then another one is when you actually see women who actually go on to become PhDs or to study PhDs or become postdocs, yes? They don’t have that support. Again, cultural expectation. How exactly are you going to go for training in Ghana if you have a baby to breastfeed? And then your husband is not supportive, or you don’t have a supportive network of people? That’s the issue. So I think that there are serious issues here.

And the way that institutions, government, and everyone else, you know, would help the situation would be making sure that we think about women when we’re thinking about these policies.

If you’re providing training for a particular skill….imagine someone wants to go to Kenya for bioinformatics training, yeah, and she was a woman who had a baby?

Funds for creches should be provided. Daycare. Extra money to bring the child along to the training should also be provided.

Right? So we need to think about women. We can’t remove them from their everyday, you know, activities, you can’t do that. So we need to include that in, if we want them to have access.

So if you think about the UK, for example, there are grants in the UK given out to people in science, young people, men, women, it doesn’t matter. But they acknowledge time spent away from research.

It’s the Wellcome Trust, actually. A really amazing institution in the UK. They actually prioritize. They tell you that you’re not going to be penalized if you’re taking two years out. “Just tell us what you’ve been doing for two years. If you’ve been a mum, it’s okay.”

That is always considered. It’s not penalized. So I think Africans need to start thinking about that, you know, and that’s a way to solve that issue.

And also, advocacy is important. You know, advocacy of African women currently in science (because we have so many African women in so many countries doing amazing work), and COVID-19 highlighted a lot of amazing African women doing amazing work on the front lines and even in the laboratory.

So, it’s important that younger women see these people. Because what are they seeing on television? They’re seeing entertainers. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with entertainers. But you know, you do have other types of professions, you know.

And so I think also just putting these things in their faces to say, you know, you can actually be, you know, a scientist, you can be a physicist, you can do this and that, you know. Creating that mentor-mentee relationship would actually help with the problem of the dearth of young people, women, young women getting into the sciences.

Akin Jimoh: 20:30

Yeah. Well, you say, has the prospect for women scientists changed, you know, in Africa, you know, based on your experience?

Ifeyinwa Aniebo 20:38

Yes, I think it’s improved.

I personally, to be honest, I’ve not had (apart from the cultural expectation that random people throw at me, not my family)…The reason I’m able to get to where I am is because I’ve got huge family support. And I’m very grateful for that.

But I actually think it’s improved compared to say 10-15 years ago, because when you think about the funding that even comes, some of them prioritize women, you know, “We would like for women to apply for positions.”

So yes, I think there’s more opportunities for women, and people are starting to think about the access. I also think that in terms of mentorship, it’s really good.

So for example, I myself have been, you know, I’ve been privileged to be mentored by a really amazing African scientist in Ghana, and in Nigeria, so for example, in Ghana, Professor Gordon (Awandere), who’s a Ghanaian parasitologist. Amazing. He leads the center in Ghana. And also professor Christian Happi in Nigeria. So they are just two figureheads. And they’re men who inspire tons of women and young people in science. And they’ve paved the way for the rest of us to follow.

So I think that, yes, it’s a better place, because you’re getting more, you know, mentorship, more training, you know, and you’re getting access to these things.

Like I got access to training for grant writing in Ghana, These are the things that, that help, you know, the training helps. And then now I have a grant.

So I can’t, you know, you obviously connect the dots to see that the training takes a few years for you to get better. But you need an opportunity to even have a shot. And I was given that opportunity. And now I have a shot. So it’s so much better for women, I think. It could be better. We’re making progress, but we’re not where we need to be. And that’s okay, as well.

Akin Jimoh: 22:29

Yeah, I know you’ve been doing a lot of work when it comes to women. I mean you have an initiative. Tell us about it. Tell us about AfroScientric.

Ifeyinwa Aniebo 22:40

Yes, yes, AfroScientric. I’m very passionate about women’s involvement in science. And I’m just passionate about women generally.

So I formed an organization called AfroScientric when I was in my first year of my PhD. And it’s basically an organization that aims to inspire and empower young African women in STEM, on the African continent, and the diaspora.

And the purpose to empower them in science, encourage them to stay in science, and also permit their career development within the sciences, whilst creating opportunities to influence, you know, economic, ecological and health changes in the country.

And like, you know, I’ve already said, you know, women are not very represented. We’re below 20% in the sciences in Africa, even though we make up more than 50% of Africa’s population.

So there is a lot of issues there. So what we do basically, is that we target young women, to provide them with training, Training that they can use to get opportunities, right? Like “How do you write a personal statement? How do you write a research proposal? How can your CV look better? How do you approach a mentor?” Just little things. “How do you get access to grants?”

So we train young women in sciences to have these skills. We also pair young women with mentors, say someone who’s done this before you and has a little bit of experience. We do a one-on-one pairing so that they’re mentored for two months. So a young woman is mentored by another much experienced lady who mentors them.

And what we see is that it’s beginning to…it really affects their lives. So for example, last year, we had about five, five of our mentees had fully funded places at university, PhD places fully funded.

You know, you teach them how to write a personal statement, you teach them how to write a research proposal, you know, give them the skills and they go by themselves, do these applications. Also provide for them the opportunities. Because some of them don’t have access to all of these advertisements.

So on the website we always showcase opportunities. Like everyday we’re posting on all social media, plus our website. And so these women access these things and apply with the skills that we’ve trained them with.

And last year, five of them got fully funded, have PhDs programs in different parts of the world, which is really amazing.

That they actually got money to go to school. And a lot of them didn’t think that they could ever achieve that.

A lot of them are from different African countries, mostly Nigeria, but one from Kenya and one from Ghana. So it’s actually very amazing.

So this is the kind of thing that keeps me very, you know, alive, that I’m able to…

Because when I was, when I was a scientist, in university, I was always the Black person, or the only woman in the space.

And I always wondered “Where all the Black Africans? It can’t obviously just be me.”

But a lot of us actually had that experience. And I thought, you know, I have to do this. So that’s no one ever feels a bit alone.

I was lucky that I had a lot of, you know, mentors, and a majority of them are actually men.

You know, they helped me. My supervisors, my lecturers, my professors all had time for me. So I was very lucky. And so I just felt like, you know, it’s always good to create opportunities for people who probably don’t have the same experience.

Akin Jimoh 25:57

That’s great. That’s sounds really great. Looking at your work it’s pan African. I mean, you have mentees who have, you know, moved further in, you know, in their studies, who have gotten grants, and so on and so forth.

What advice will you give, or can you give to other Africans in other African countries, you know, to do the kinds of things you do in terms of AfroScientric and other related issues concerning women, scientists, or women in science?

Ifeyinwa Aniebo 26:31

Yes, I think mostly the African diaspora. I think that mentorship goes a really long way, you know. But COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that the internet works, right?

Zoom is an amazing tool like we’re using right now. So you can spend time with a mentee. Even if it’s like three hours a week, or even one hour a week, however much you can give, in terms of time, it always goes a long way.

So it’s important that this training and mentorship is accessible for them. I also would say that collaborations also help.

So if you, for example, have a research study that you’re interested in, collaborating with the African scientists in the diaspora is always a nice idea.

You’re also learning through collaboration. But you’re making that partnership even stronger for future kinds of like ideas that can pop up, right?

So collaboration is something that they should also be open to.

Another thing for younger people, younger students in STEM, is creating that exchange program. So you have universities in Nigeria or other parts of Africa. I think that what the diaspora can do really nicely is create exchange programs.

Because what I find is that when a young person from an institution in an African country goes….when they go over to the UK or the US, of course, it’s a different experience. You have all of this amazing laboratory machineries that they have to do all this amazing, you know, analysis with.

And it just opens their minds to possibilities. The exchange programs help the students or the young person understand that. Look, the science that I’m doing, I really love it. Like it just really emphasizes why they’re there.

Akin Jimoh 28:22

For the new generation of scientists coming through, I agree that exchange programs can work as a brain gain rather than brain drain.

To bring those skills and knowledge back to Africa, as Ifeyinwa has done. Mentoring to is a vulnerable offering that the older generation can give to the younger, That’s men too but what especially women, African institution, we have to follow this advice. If the shocking statistics we heard earlier are to shift in the right direction.

Now that’s all for this episode of Science in Africa podcast. I am Akin Jimoh chief editor of nature Africa. Thanks again to Dr Ifeyinwa Aniebo. And thank you for listening.