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Dreams and dream spaces of West African molecular microbiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Iruka N. Okeke
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Abstract

By the end of the 1990s, molecular approaches predominated in biomedical science, but, for West African scientists, biology could not have ‘gone molecular’ at a worse time. Resource constraints led to knowledge expiry and many discovery dreams were terminated, exported or at least postponed. Pivotal transitions in methodologies, knowledge and resources temporally overlapped with an emergent imperative to address infectious disease in Africa. This prompted new initiatives from global health programmes in the North, which imported visions, disciplinary focus and equipment for new laboratory spaces. A handful of African researchers, however, have reimagined and reconstructed existing laboratories as a means to weave their own dreams. This article examines three such laboratories. It outlines how their equipment was accumulated, the ad hoc ways in which the laboratories are supplied and maintained, their extraordinary accomplishments and their key role as domestic nodes for research. The picture that emerges is one that extends beyond technological acquisition to an enactment of the scientists’ own dreams. Importantly, it is a record of outcomes from those who continued to dream while others stilled their imaginations or became canvases coloured by the dreams of other people.

Résumé

Résumé

À la fin des années 1990, alors que les approches moléculaires prédominaient dans la science biomédicale, la « molécularisation » de la biologie ne pouvait pas tomber à un pire moment pour les scientifiques ouest-africains. Les contraintes de ressources entraînaient une péremption des connaissances et beaucoup de rêves de découverte étaient interrompus, exportés ou du moins différés. Des transitions charnières dans les méthodologies, les connaissances et les ressources ont coïncidé temporellement avec l’émergence d'un impératif de s'attaquer aux maladies infectieuses en Afrique. Ceci incita les programmes de santé mondiale du Nord à lancer de nouvelles initiatives qui ont importé des visions, des axes disciplinaires et des équipements pour de nouveaux espaces de laboratoires. Une poignée de chercheurs africains ont cependant réimaginé et reconstruit des laboratoires existants comme moyen de tisser leurs propres rêves. Cet article examine trois de ces laboratoires. Il décrit comment ils ont accumulé leurs équipements, la manière ponctuelle d'approvisionner et d'entretenir les laboratoires, leurs accomplissements extraordinaires et leur rôle essentiel en tant que pôles de recherche locaux. Il s'en dégage une image qui dépasse le cadre de l'acquisition technologique, jusqu’à une réalisation des rêves des scientifiques. Il importe de noter que l'article fait état de ce qui est advenu pour ceux qui ont continué à rêver, tandis que d'autres ont figé leurs imaginations ou sont devenus des toiles blanches empreintes de rêves d'autrui.

Type
Dream capacity
Information
Africa , Volume 90 , Special Issue 1: Beyond realism: Africa's medical dreams , January 2020 , pp. 167 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2020

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