Paper short abstract:

The residue of colonialism persists in conducting research in Africa, with financial capacity and research ideas initiated from the "global north". Such an approach leads to short-term, disparate efforts, and information inequity. Decolonizing science gives agency to African researchers.

Paper long abstract:

The African Great Lakes (AGL) consist of over 28% of the world's surface freshwater. They provide millions of people with food, water, and livelihoods and their riparian governments reap large benefits from them. These critical resources face the same challenges as other freshwater resources the world over. What is surprising, is the relative lack of resources directed towards addressing the problems these lakes face. The lack of resources, is caused, in part, by colonial approaches to development and natural resource research and management. These approaches keep financial power and influence, and research directives, centered in the "global north", providing little leadership opportunities from the researchers on the ground. Further, such approaches are actually detrimental to understanding these resources through short-term, disparate, and underfunded efforts. The results are inadequate and inconsistent monitoring of even basic parameters, incomplete information and data, barriers to accessing data and information relevant to these resources, and a dearth of in-field training opportunities for African scientists. There must be a shift from the present reliance on international and top-down approaches to funding and research, to long-term comprehensive processes that give agency to the African scientific community. Herein, I discuss how this can be done by creating "dense" networks of scientists who establish harmonized and prioritized research needs on each of the AGL--empowering those on the ground to direct those who desire to conduct research in this region. This concept creates the "voice of science" and flips the top-down "bungee" approach to a bottom-up process.