Curiosity Driven Science - Africa’s Space Scientists Look to the Stars
“My questions were all about satellites, launching rockets, and where people came from. It was only later, when I found out about astronomy, that I realised I could find answers there.”
- CYNTHIA UMUHIRE
Authors: Naliaka Odera & Kari Mugo
Contrary to what many might think, African countries have been active players in the space industry for decades. In 1970, “Uhuru, the world’s first X-Ray astronomy satellite launched off Kenya’s coast. A project of the Italian government in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA, the satellite’s mission was “To detect, survey and map celestial X-ray sources and gamma-ray emissions.” At the time, the project was heralded as a success for science and Kenya. However, as important as the data “Uhuru” has provided has been to furthering scientific research and discovery, the milestone global project had little effect on Kenya’s scientific community.
More than 20 years later, in 1999, South Africa launched Africa’s first satellite, SunSat. Constructed by students at Stellenbosch University, over ten years, the construction and operation of the satellite’s orbit led to around 100 students earning their post-graduate degrees. The knock-on effect of South Africa’s ownership of the launch and satellite itself was felt by South African space scientists, and also encouraged other African governments to throw their hats into the ring. Although it would be nearly two more decades before more countries would follow suit, to date, African countries have launched 41 satellites from 1998 until Jan 2020, 38 of these satellites were launched by 11 countries including Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Morocco, Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, Angola, Kenya, Rwanda and Mauritius while the remaining ones involves several countries in multilateral projects.
Developments such as these are welcome as there is strong - and justified - consensus on the importance of research and innovation to solving Africa's development challenges and achieving the Africa 2063 Agenda. There are actual development goals to be met by countries that invest in space programs. For example, several of the more than 41 satellites African countries have launched in the last decade are providing data that addresses agricultural productivity, climate forecasting, disaster management, security among many other uses that work towards the attainment of SDGs.
However, too often, research and innovation advocacy is dominated by foreign development players who are the primary funder of research on the continent. This form of research and innovation boosterism has worked to constrain knowledge generation on the continent to strictly "practical" research projects that align neatly to SDGs or regional policy priorities. But what do we lose when we abandon curiosity-driven science and research, as extolled in the race-to-space? What does it mean when we brand entire lines of interrogation as a luxury that Africans can't afford? And how much of the scepticism that some governments may have about Africa’s involvement in space has to do with a narrow, stereotypical view of what African research should be centred on?
Rwanda offers a case study for what investment in space science looks like on the continent. In 2021, the government launched the Rwanda Space Agency (RSA) with a focus on developing Rwanda’s space sector towards socio-economic development. Integral in RSA’s mandate is to foster and create entrepreneurial ingenuity and industrial development that can create globally competitive commercial products for various space activities. The agency also wants to build a cadre of highly skilled Rwandan professionals in the space industry.
In a 2021 interview with Rwandan newspaper, The New Times, RSA’s Chief Executive Officer, Col. Francis Ngabo, outlined why the space sector is an ideal investment for Rwanda. Col. Ngabo described space as an area of true economic potential for the country, listing traditional uses such as broadband and telecommunications, as well as aiding the mining industry with satellite imagery, and increasing and improving employment options through capacity building. Another use for satellites, that will only increase in necessity, is weather imagery, which can help us understand the effects of climate change.
In its latest assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) notes that funding for climate-related research to African countries remains low despite being “the most vulnerable continent to climate change impacts under all climate scenarios above 1.5 degrees Celsius” (according to the Africa Development Bank Group). Only 3.8 % of the global funding available for climate research makes it to the continent - and of this, seventy-eight percent is channelled to research institutions in Europe and the US that are studying climate change in Africa. “Furthermore,” the IPCC report adds, “nearly 60-70 % of research publications on climate-related areas for over 75% of African countries did not have local authorship.”
With Africa’s research productivity across all scientific fields, less than 1% of the global output, investments like the RSA’s can help close the gaps in climate-research identified in the IPCC report by meeting the need for more local data on climate change, while increasing both funding for African researchers, and research productivity.
Ange Cynthia Umuhire, Rwanda’s first female to be enrolled in a space research field at PhD level and a 2021 Mawazo Learning Exchange (MLEx) Fellow, worked at the RSA. She is in her last year of a three-yearPhD programme in Astronomy and Space Sciences at the University of Rwanda’s College of Science and Technology (UR-CST). As part of her fellowship program, the Mawazo Institute, a Nairobi-based research and leadership incubator for female researchers in Africa, talked to Cynthia about her science journey, which has been driven by curiosity.
“Young scientists like Cynthia represent the next generation of African researchers. Tenacious, unhindered by the lack of a career blueprint, and eager to make a mark on their country, their continent, and by extension their world.”
As a highschooler, in Rwanda’s Southern province, at Byimana School of Sciences, Cynthia recalls being drawn to the combination of Physics-Chemistry-Mathematics (PCM). She couldn’t get enough, returning to her Physics textbooks every chance she could; “I wanted to know everything around me ” she says. At the time, she did not know about the field of astronomy; “But my questions were all about satellites, launching rockets, the difference and relationship between planets, galaxies, clusters, stars and the Universe. I also wanted to know where people came from. It was only later, when I found out about astronomy, that I realised I could find answers there.”
Astronomy forms just one branch of space science, a multidisciplinary field that includes all of the scientific disciplines involving space exploration and the study of natural phenomena and physical bodies in outer space. Space medicine, for example, is also a branch of space science. As is astrobiology, which studies the advent and evolution of biological systems in the universe.
Cynthia's area of research as a PhD candidate has involved studying geo-effective phenomena from the Sun’s corona and their impacts Near Earth. “I use contemporaneous data from ground based spectrometers and space borne instruments to observe ejections from the sun and their evolution in space." This data is then used to predict what ejections might look like in the future. By studying this kind of solar activity, astrophysicists like Cynthia “can implement measures to mitigate whatever the future holds.”
As a space science analyst in the Earth and Space science department at RSA, Cynthia used her knowledge to solve challenges related to weather and climate predictions for disaster management, improving agricultural yields for food security, predicting pandemics, and improving GPS functions and operations used by companies and institutions. Her work as the only female, and often the only space analyst, in a new exploratory field in Rwanda, often makes her feel like a pioneer. As one of a few local specialists in the field, she is frequently called in to share her expertise and says that her larger dream “is for us [Rwanda] to launch more satellites that can be used by governments in the East Africa region." One benefit of studying astronomy in her home country, Cynthia points out, is its geographic location.
“In Rwanda, we are lucky to be located near the equator. When a country is located near the equator, it is easier to launch satellites into orbit.” However, there are still other constraints to address, as a landlocked country.
Young scientists like Cynthia represent the next generation of African researchers. Tenacious, unhindered by the lack of an already existing career path or trajectory, and eager to make a mark on their country, their continent, and by extension their world. To make way for this kind of science research in Africa, that moves beyond tried and tested sectors and incorporates new frontiers, we must ensure supportive infrastructure that can nurture curious streaks and a thirst for knowledge. This means greater investment in local research and development (R&D), while ensuring the right regulatory mechanisms are in place to encourage innovation and commercialization of scientific products.
For both higher education actors and funding institutions, it will also mean adjusting the compass on what African science and scientists look like. As the case study of the Rwanda Space Agency shows, with the right investments, scientists like Cynthia can explore their ideas in their own country, a feat that two decades ago would have been impossible.
You can learn more about the Mawazo Learning Exchange Fellowship programme, which supports the professional development of African women in the knowledge sector, and meet our other Fellows at the page here. This article appears in the African Futures - Future of Education series. To read more articles and view events around African Futures, visit our dedicated webpage.