African genomicsAdam S. Wilkins

The second annual Africa Genome Initiative Conference

was held earlier this year in Cairo, Egypt, taking place March

26th–29th 2004 (http://www.africagenome.co.za/2004_about/).

Its title was ‘‘Genomics and Society: the Future Health of

Africa’’. The range of topics covered, however, was consider-

ably broader than this title suggests. The coverage embraced

essentially all aspects of genetic and genomic science that are

relevant to Africa. These included various anthropological

genetic studies, reconstructions of domestic animal histories,

talks on early human history in Africa, talks on genomic and

biotechnological applications to health issues, as well as the

various ethical issues that arise from genomic and biotechno-

logical studies. This spread of subject matter may sound

almost unreasonably broad but that breadth was deliberate.

This conference series is intended to build scientific bridges

between scientists and countries both within Africa and be-

tween African and European and US scientists and, in effect,

to generate greater interest in the full spectrum of African

biological sciences and more effective science within Africa.

The first conference in the series was held in South Africa

last year and was attended by several luminaries, including

Sydney Brenner, a South African himself.

That the first two meetings were held at opposite parts of

the continent, South Africa and Egypt, is no accident. These

are the countries with the largest scientific clout in Africa. The

two scientific delegations of these countries made up the bulk

of the 200 or so participants at themeeting. The Cairomeeting

washeld atMenaHouse, inGiza, at the southernedgeofCairo

and just at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops to

the ancient Greeks). From the hotel dining room, you look out,

and inevitably upwards, at this incredible construction built

4.5 millennia ago, the biggest of the group of pyramids that,

today, are the sole remaining architecturalmonuments ofwhat

constituted the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Themeeting began on a Friday evening, with a talk, ‘‘Africa

in the Age of Biology’’ by the keynote speaker, Wilmot

James, executive director of the Human Sciences Research

Council (HSRC) (Cape Town, South Africa). He began by

stressing the importance of historical memory in influencing

capabilities and actions and cited the destruction of the great

library of Alexandria as an instance in which the loss of

historical memory caused a dramatic setback to learning and

progress throughout the classical world. He contrasted this

kind of situation with that of Markov series, in which the history

of states is unimportant and what counts is only the last state.

Richard Lewontin has cited the genomeas an instance of such

an entity. Dr. James’ primary focus, however, was the set of

problems that Africa faces today and the special challenges

faced by biology and biotechnology today. The use of African

biological resources as a source of pharmaceuticals and the

vexed issue of who ‘‘owns’’ these resources andwho stands to

benefit from their commercial development is one such issue.

The disproportion between health burdens in the Third and

First Worlds and the relative expenditures on those health

burdens was another problem touched upon. Following this

opening talk for the conference, a lighter note was stuck, with

the Welcome Reception for the delegates, which featured an

entertainment involving five very attractive Egyptian belly-

dancers (an art form that considerably pre-dates the Christian

and Islamic eras).

Following this opening, the conference involved a full three

days of talks. Each day, the morning session consisted of

plenary talks, which was followed by a panel discussion

(respectively, biotechnology, human evolution and ethics).

The afternoons were devoted to four parallel sessions, on

History & Archaeology, Biotechnology/Science and Society,

and Bioethics. On the evening of the first full day, there was a

bioethics plenary talk by Garland Allen (Washington

University) titled ‘‘Genocentrism 2004’’, a history and critique

of the ideas of genetic determinism from the late 19th century to

thepresent.DrAllen sketched thedifferent contributions to this

line of thought by English, American and German scientists—

and its adverse social consequences—and the boost that the

genomeprojects of the 1990s gave to ‘‘genocentrism’’. His talk

was followed by a lively, and sometimes heated, discussion

involving the audience, about the uses and abuses of genetics

in the 20th century.

It would be impossible to give a complete accounting of the

scientific content of themeeting, given the existence of parallel

sessions, but certain themes were apparent. The ‘‘History and

Archaeology’’ talks, in fact, included archaeology proper

(including a lively plenary talk by Dr Salima Ikram of the

Egyptian Museum in Cairo, on important archaeological sites

in the Western desert of Egypt) but they also ranged more

broadly. This wider subject area encompassed, in particular,

1034 BioEssays 26.9 BioEssays 26:1034–1035, � 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

BioEssays Editorial Office, 10/11 Tredgold Lane, Napier Street,

Cambridge CB1 1HN, UK. E-mail: awilkins@bioessays.demon.co.uk

DOI 10.1002/bies.20110

Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

Meetings

molecular genetic studies to reconstruct the histories of

African livestock and human population genetic studies.

Anne Muigai (International Livestock Research Institute

and Jomo Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya) reviewed

molecular genetic studies on sheep in Africa. The data support

the idea that there were two points of sheep entry to the

continent, one at the Isthmus of Suez, the other the Horn of

Africa, to the east. The panel discussion of human history in

Africa dealt with the whole armoury of tools that can now be

brought to bear on this subject, from archaeology and pale-

ontological finds to molecular genetic studies and linguistics.

Martha Lahr (University of Cambridge), for instance,

discussed both the overlaps and, more importantly, the areas

of non-overlap between the different approaches but stressed

that all of the evidence is consistent with the out-of-Africa

hypothesis for the origins of Homo sapiens. Christopher

Ehret (UCLA) discussed the evidence for the existence of

four, possibly five, language families in Africa. He then

presented the results of an analysis which suggests that all

these languages trace back to an African region consisting of

the Middle Nile Basin, parts of the adjacent Ethiopian

highlands, and certain proximate areas of East Africa.

TheBiotechnologyandScienceandSociety talks dealtwith

numerous specific developments of potential economic impor-

tance for Africa—ranging from various agricultural applica-

tions to generic drugs to vaccine development. An important

general biological phenomenon was discussed in depth by

Jannie Hofmyer (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa)

and he spelled out its implications for biotechnological

research. This is the highly complex integration of biological

systems and the fact that alterations in one component often

trigger either compensatory or dysfunctional systems-level

responses. With most biotechnological approaches focussed

on single-component alterations at a time, there is a serious

possibility that many of these schemes will either fail or

perform suboptimally because of this integrated complexity.

An important subtext in many of the talks dealing with

biotechnological issues was the practical difficulties of devel-

oping them to obtain maximal benefit for Africans. It is clear

that public finance alone in Africa cannot be sufficient to

promote these developments, hence public–private partner-

ships must be, at least, part of the answer. How to generate

such partnerships was a major subject of attention. The

dilemmas presented by GMO foods were also the subject of

several talks anddebatewithin oneof thepanel discussions. In

the area of bioethics, Dr Udo Schuklenk (WITS Faculty of

Health Sciences,Gauteng, SouthAfrica) returned to the issue,

raised by Dr James, of the disproportion between Third World

health burdens and the research and health budget monies

allocated to theseproblemsasa functionof total health-related

expenditure.

Much attention was paid to the question of how to generate

more funding for scientific research and, specifically, more

research in Africa on topics and approaches that will bring

benefits to the people of the continent. One general proposal

which is gaining ground is the idea of establishing centres of

excellence. One of these already exists, namely the Bios-

ciences for East andCentral Africa (Nairobi, Kenya, http://www.

doylefoundation.org/africanbiosciences/background.htm), a

facility established with the help of aninvestment of more than

CAD$30 million by the Canada Fund for Africa through the

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). In

addition, several smaller institutes have been founded in

recent years, including two devoted to bioinformatics. Any

non-African delegate to the Conference could not help but be

struck by the disparity between the potential for interesting and

important genetic and molecular research in Africa and the

currently existing support levels for this research. It is ironic,

and more than a little sad, that the continent that was the

birthplace of Homo sapiens and several major civilizations,

including the one so much in evidence just outside the door of

Mena House, should be struggling so hard to establish its

place in contemporary biology.

The next African Genome Initiative conference will be held

next year in Nairobi (March 25th–28th). The conference will be

organized by a new umbrella group, the Africa Genome

Initiative, with the participation of local scientists and their

colleagues from several organisations. The latter include the

Biosciences for East and Central Africa (BECA), the Interna-

tional Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and The Interna-

tional Center of Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE). A major

theme of this conference is going to be the problems of and

prospects for vaccine development and drug development to

benefit African societies.

As part of the African Genome Initiative, a new on-line

journal, sponsored by the HSRC, has been launched and the

first issue appeared in January 2004. Covering the world of

African genomics, the magazine is aimed at bringing together

students, teachers and scientists. (http://www.africagenome.

co.za/publications/scientist.html).

Meetings

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