We are constantly being made aware of how the world is changing around us. This often has a negative lens and can feel overwhelming. But there are lots of reasons to hope. Trinity Term's Week 2 Dining with Dinosaur's talk was led by Prof Kevin Marsh, on behalf of the team from the Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx) and shared how Oxford is partnering across Africa to challenge entrenched narratives and encourage us to reimagine the Africa's role in the world.
The narratives around Africa as a continent have shifted considerably. Marsh took us from the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 with high hopes for development through control of land and resources, through the UK media's portrayal from the hopeless continent to Africa rising and towards hope. This latest narrative around hope reflects the change we are observing.
Marsh highlighted six key transitions occurring across the continent that create a unique opportunity:
- Massive drops in childhood mortality and nascent increases in non-communicable diseases demonstrate an epidemiological transition.
- High birth rates have rapidly expanded the population, with a much younger demographic distribution than other areas.
- The population is urbanising, shifting economies and access to education.
- The digital revolution has achieved mobile access rates well above access to reliable electricity or water.
- Economic growth is high, above global averages.
- The last transition, climate change, is the one identified that restricts opportunities, but broadly these transitions speak to growing markets and influence across the continent.
Across these transitions there is opportunity for science and innovation to flourish. Africa Union’s masterplan to transform Africa Agenda 2063: The Africa we want, aims to shift the African continent to a knowledge-based economy. Marsh identified the role for the University of Oxford to partner, to recognise these shifts, identify opportunities to support and influence, to address a key gap: Sub-Saharan Africa has 26 researchers per million population, compared to 4603 per million in the UK.
The AfOx team were quick to point out that these numbers are rapidly improving, it isn't the type of statistics where the data collection keeps up with change. AfOx is keen to be part of this rapidly developing story. AfOx works to support graduate scholarships, to build relationships between Oxford and African researchers, and make space for African scholars to develop their research with Oxford collaborators. These scholarships and grants are building networks that support long-term engagement across the continents that allows those of us at Oxford to be part of the ongoing transitions in Africa. It has been a privilege of Reuben College to partner with AfOx to help grow their work.
The presentation fostered a lively discussion exploring themes around equitable partnerships and how to decolonise science, the shifting geopolitics and Africa's changing role in the world. If you are interested in engaging more in these discussions across the University, sign up to the upcoming Insaka.
