This book is the culmination of a long-held dream to one day assemble a stellar team of mentors and colleagues to discuss a burdensome question: What do science, technology, and
innovation mean from Africa? Put another way: What is Africa in science, technology, and
innovation on the one hand, and what are science, technology, and innovation in Africa on
the other?
The rationale for asking this question is that Africa appears on the technological map of
the world as a blank or as a problem—in fact, as an oceanful of problems—to be solved. But
solved by whom? It was very clear to me at the turn of the century that science, technology,
and innovation seemed to be things inbound from somewhere outside Africa, usually the
West—hence the whole notion of technology transfer as a North to South or West to nonWest flow that would finally lift the continent up the development ladder in the hope that
perhaps, one day, Africa would be developed. Therefore, the basis of the conversation about
Africa was that it was a recipient of science, technology, and innovation, not a maker of
them