Africa needs a culture of science

In SciDev Oyeniyi Akande contends that:

The biggest challenge to creating a science culture in Africa is the widespread public perception that science is foreign-led and irrelevant to people's daily needs.Making science-based strategies recognise and address the real needs and economic situations of local people is central to persuading them to engage more with science

Science for development requires an interdisciplinary approach, and many of the failures mentioned might have been avoided if the projects had addressed the social and economic dimensions that influence human behaviour.
Instead, people are left comparing 'science' that they can neither understand nor use, with tried-and-tested local experience. It is perhaps not surprising that they choose to trust the wisdom of their forefathers over foreign science.