Is African Science - Long Plagued by a Lack of Equipment and Resources - Poised for a Comeback?
Empty surfaces are hard to find in Kazhila Chinsembu's office at the University of Namibia. Wherever you look - on desks, chairs or filing cabinets - there are stacks of hand-written assignments waiting to be marked. The papers are the work of Chinsembu's hundreds of undergraduate students. Considering their volume, it isn't surprising he smiles wryly when asked about his own research. He'd desperately like to spend more time on it, he says, if only he could take time away from his teaching duties.
If Chinsembu appears disheartened, it's understandable. For the past 11 years he has been engaged in a struggle to keep his research career in molecular biology afloat in the face of resource shortages, too much teaching work and political disinterest.
It was all so different a decade ago, ...
