By Dr Daniel Osei Ofosu,
Research Scientist at the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.
Nairobi, Entebbe, Pretoria, Accra (for me), Nairobi, Lusaka. No, this is not a list of my next destinations for a safari. These are the cities that have played host to Africa’s foremost communication platform on the biosciences, African Biennial Biosciences Communication (ABBC) Symposium. Since its first edition in April 2015, it has consistently provided the platform for Africa and its global partners to exchange ideas and share experiences on the best practices in the biosciences and biosafety. Since its inception, it has attracted delegates from over 50 countries globally have partaken in this transformational symposium.
When most people think of science communication, the picture of lab coats, complicated graphs, and jargons that make your brain want to switch off immediately come to mind. However, ABBC has spent six editions proving that African scientists are not only pushing the boundaries of biosciences but can also explain it without sending audiences into a coma. These are reflective of the carefully chosen themes for each edition. The theme in 2015, Agri-biotech Communications and Evolving Trends, was apt for the first edition as it highlighted the need for scientists to connect with the public in the face of a growing anti-science, anti-technology narrative. Entebbe in 2017 highlighted the progress that had been made in putting in place regulatory frameworks across the continent under the theme Strengthening Communication for improved Biosafety Management. Pretoria’s (2019) theme was Getting it Right: Communicating about Genome Editing, and this broadened the conversation beyond agribiotech and biosafety to include all the other biosciences.
In steps Covid-19! The world was virtually shut down. For the first time in my lifetime, science and scientists were almost always the top news all over the world. The lockdowns and restrictions meant that having a physical meeting of participants from across the world in one room was neither practical nor possible. Thus, ABBC 2021 was hybrid in Addis Ababa, Accra, Nairobi, Lilongwe, Abuja and Kampala with participants navigating breakout rooms and mute buttons (there will always be that one person who forgets they’re not muted). Despite these challenges, the symposium managed to spark vibrant debates with its theme: Accelerating the Africa Biotech Tipping Point: Taking Stock and Celebrating the Gains.
The Homecoming Edition (as I like to call it) happened in Nairobi in 2023. It felt like the world had been given a new lease on life after being forced behind computer screens for a long time. Meeting familiar faces after almost four years and making new acquaintances was refreshing. It was very apt that the first physical symposium after the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic like Covid-19 should come back to the place where it all begun: Nairobi. We needed to ask ourselves this question: Evolution of Genetic Improvement Tools in Agriculture: Is Communication Matching Up? The answer, I believe, was partly highlighted in the next edition, ABBC 2025 in Lusaka with yet another question (I am Ghanaian after all; we answer questions with questions), The War on Science: How can we Overcome the Burden of Misinformation and Disinformation? Science has for the most part being playing catch up with public opinion of it. Simply put, we have always been at war with people who for whatever reason do not want science to succeed.
Six editions in, ABBC has matured into Africa’s flagship platform for making biosciences understandable, relatable, and impactful. It has shown that science communication is not just about simplifying big words. It is about building trust, sparking innovation, and ensuring that African voices shape the biosciences future. I have had the rare privilege of being there from the very first edition to the most recent one in Lusaka. As I looked around the room, I saw progress, and I saw that the conversation around biosciences was not static. Majority of the people in the room were not there in 2015 when it all begun. That makes me either a very rare species or an old man (in biosciences terms)!
If the past is anything to go by, future ABBC editions will be bigger, bolder, and perhaps finally answer the ultimate scientific question: why do conference microphones only stop working when it’s your turn to speak?