MEDICINE AND THE LAW
CORRESPONDENCE
- Keymanthri Moodley, PhD, Center of
Medical Ethics and Law, Department of
Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health
Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape
Town, South Africa.
Research imperialism resurfaces in South Africa in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic – this time, via a digital portal
Abstract
The African continent is renowned for its excellent safaris. Tourists from around the world fly in, enjoy our warm hospitality, unparalleled
landscapes and magnificent wildlife. And then they leave, with barely a hint that they were ever here. If we draw on this metaphor, it is not surprising that the terms ‘safari research’ and ‘parachute
research’[1,2] were coined, when foreign researchers did likewise: came to Africa, conducted research on unsuspecting communities, and left. Sometimes, like during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, they left with biological samples too.[3,4] Often, ‘African researchers were left out of the full research process, invited to collaborate only as is useful for sample collection, but without any benefit of the research
returning to support African researchers or infrastructure.’[5]
What often resulted was a publication in a prestigious international
