Chinua, professor at Bard College

Bard College used to be an undergraduate college of Columbia University. Most academics in Africa know of it because it is there that the great writer Chinua Achebe is a distinguished professor. Bard’s president Leon Botstein had the foresight and humanity to offer Achebe an academic place after an awful accident in the UK left him wheelchair bound.

A gracious and lucid man, Achebe remains one of Africa’s outstanding intellects. The former vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town Njabulo Ndebele is presently there and what good company he keeps.

Leon Botstein is my personal music hero. He plays the viola. He is the music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York and of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the radio orchestra of Israel.

“The problem is that the western world’s move toward organic farming - a lifestyle choice for a community with surplus food - and against agricultural technology in general and GM in particular, has been adopted across the whole of Africa … with devastating consequences,” says Sir David King, the UK Government’s former chief scientist.

Nature, the widely respected scientific journal, had this take in a recent editorial: “For well over a decade, companies such as Monsanto have sought to create African markets for GM crops such as insect-resistant Bt cotton, while against them have stood European environmental groups and not a few African political leaders, for whom multinational businesses evoke the spectre of colonialism. The two sides have waged a war in parliaments, in the media and even on the streets.”

The conflict, in which African interests are wrestled by pressure groups outside of Africa, has become so intense that, in 2007, the African Union sponsored an investigation into genetically modified crops, “Freedom to Innovate: Biotechnology in Africa’s Development”.

Their report begins with a clear understanding of their position, “It is no secret that Africa’s history has been marked by a development narrative in which the benefits from science, technology and innovation have been enjoyed by few, instead of being seen as tools for the development of all citizens.”

Signaling intent...

Human cells communicate with one another. They send and receive biochemical messages. They tell one another when things are not right. In the world of biomedicine they are called disease-signalling molecules. Having the human genome at hand has allowed the science community to look and find those molecules that signal disease.

The leukotrienes for example are molecules that give out signals about chronic and degenerative diseases. A study completed in 2004 identified leukotrienes as lipid molecules signalling chronic inflammatory disorders affecting the joints and respiratory systems that are serious health problems with major socio-economic consequences.

The study wanted to describe the biochemical nature of the underlying disease so that earlier diagnosis was possible and new drugs be developed. ‘Our project will be conducted’ they wrote ‘in alliance with industry and has the potential for future extension into medical practise’.