Irrationality vs The Scientific Method

G. Pascal Zachary on Africa's anti-science movement:

The large numbers of highly educated people who move to Europe and the U.S. and lack of social and financial support for scientists in most African countries means that there are few voices defending science in political and media debates in the region. The most passionate defenders of science often are foreigners and thus anti-science attitudes are fueled by resentments against outsider...The anti-science movement in Africa displays curious parallels with a similar movement in the U.S. This suggests that merely dismissing science skeptics in Africa as irrational or irrelevant won’t work. These science skeptics must be understood on their own terms. And the case for greater financial investment in research and development in Africa must be made convincingly in political, economic and moral terms. That greater benefits to African societies will result simply from more spending on more R&D should not be presumed but rather demonstrated.