On bettering African lives

We live in a polarised world. In battle and debate, we are at war. It is a world scarred and scared by division. The space for hope is diminished, our indivisible connection denied by labels — national, gender, language, race and even corporate and brand labels.

The Africa in the World festival stands in contrast to this insular world. Held annually in Stellenbosch’s early Spring, it brings together the world’s finest innovators, thinkers, dreamers and doers with decision-makers of many stripes. It shares learning and inspiration with the intent of sparking connection and action to better African lives.

On the 2024’s stage were academics and activists, bankers and business builders, poets, philosophers, philanthropists and politicians, and scientists tackling the challenges of millennia. Careful curation transforms what might otherwise be disconnected strands into a rich tapestry of possibilities.

The festival’s founder, Nigerian Pulitzer Prize winner Dele Olojede, welcomed guests to “my ancestral home, Stellenbosch”. Guests chuckled at the improbability, yet beneath the levity was a seriousness that recalls journalist Ralph Wiley’s response to novelist Saul Bellow’s provocation.

Bellow had allegedly asked, “Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus? The Proust of the Papuans?”

Wiley’s pithy retort was “Tolstoy is the Tolstoy of the Zulus”. Bellow protested he had never written those words, that the scandal was “entirely journalistic in origin” a misunderstanding emanating from an interview. Nevertheless, the kerfuffle revealed much about the Western world’s view of the continent and Wiley’s response reminds us that in truth the world’s best belongs to all of us.

Olojede’s playful claiming of Stellenbosch echoes that. It is a confident pan-African position which advocates for a world in which we confidently claim each other’s excellence. The theme pulsed at the core of Africa In the World, our knowledge, our advancements, our successes are all connected.

The festival’s working sessions were held at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (Stias). Stias is one of those insufficiently celebrated SA treasures. One of 10 institutes of Advanced Study in the world, it is the only one in the Global South. It draws scholars from across the globe, seven of whom have gone on to win the Nobel prize. They are varied in their disciplines, united by the desire to contribute to the betterment of humanity.

Opening the first day, Stias director Prof Edward Kirumira commented that leading the institute had taught him success comes “not from asking people to do things, but by creating space in which they can do things”. The venue and the festival mirroring each other’s soul.

That first morning was held by the scientists.

First, an astonishing story, the cracking of the malaria code. Dr Ally Olotu and Prof Sir Adrian Hill are at the forefront of developing a malaria vaccine. The disease is thousands of years old. The attempts to create a vaccine extends to 114 years ago. One-hundred and forty five vaccines failed; today, we have one. Its effects will be transformative.

Altogether, 620,000 Africans die every year. Behind each death is loss and suffering. A total of $5bn a year is spent on controlling malaria. NGO Malaria No More estimates Africa’s malaria dividend (the economic benefit from the elimination of malaria) to be $126.9bn. The solution is here and the science is done; now starts the work of co-ordinating governments, prioritising expenditure, convincing politicians and strengthening the delivery systems. All are possible with will.

Kirumira, Olotu and Hill laid the foundation for the next two days. They gave the hope of victories won, a reminder that it can be done and the caution that sustained change is systemic and requires principled activism to shift from stasis.

The festival’s second session, a conversation between Profs Salim Karim and Tulio de Oliveira, spoke to the power of coalition and collaboration, of scientists, activists and principled administrators marching in lockstep. Karim and De Oliveira are globally acclaimed SA epidemiologists. They have been at the forefront of fighting multiple infectious diseases, from HIV to Covid-19. Despite the subject’s seriousness, there was a joy in listening to the interplay between two virtuosos who’ve been at the forefront of influencing some of the world’s most powerful people.

Like Hill and Olotu, failure and persistence mark their work. Karim noted wryly that global conference audiences expected his annual presentations about his attempts to combat HIV, to start with “How I failed this time”. And yet, this year, Gilead Sciences’ Lenacapavir provides hope of ending HIVAids.

Throughout the festival this theme — that just because there is no answer yet, does not mean that it can’t be found — surfaced repeatedly across discussions of climate, race, business, employment, technology and inequality.

Karim reflected how his early work on HIV revealed uncomfortable truths. The following day, Ethiopian cognitive scientist Dr Abeba Birhane amplified the theme. Her work systematically peels back AI’s limits, cautioning that the hype of AI exceeds its capabilities and more grievously hides its flaws.

Birhane warned we should not be distracted by apocryphal warnings of “the robots taking over” but must pay far closer attention to its current failings resulting in people unjustly jailed, losing livelihoods, denied access to credit and countries.

She observed that the data sets underpinning AI models often amplify hateful content with devastating effects for society’s most vulnerable. The audience wrote furiously. It wasn’t hard to imagine questions cascading through the continent’s largest organisations. Change was seeded.

Between the scientists and business builders stood Afrikaans and San poets Antjie Krog and Nunke Kadimo. Among others, they recited The Broken String. First recorded in the 1870s, it laments the destruction wrought by colonialism. It concludes, “they have broken the bow’s string for me and the old places are not sweet any more for what they did”.

Each speaker arrived with their tools of trade — genetic sequencing, stanzas, cashflows and compositions — seemingly disconnected, but united by their desire to improve the world.

It is a joy to witness a businessperson first frown at the poet’s complex formulations and then smile as they recognise the process. Likewise, the poet and the musician came to recognise the business builder’s creativity. The onstage conversations catalysed more personal exchanges, those connections no doubt continuing to strengthen, reweaving and repairing the bow’s string, returning sweetness to the land.