How Africa lit up the world
It's 2025, and Africa is booming. Conflict has been resolved, democratic leaders have established unprecedented calm. And as the fight against disease gains momentum, it's African scientists who offer salvation to the rest of the world. Fantasy? Jeffrey Sachs, the architect of the UN's plans for banishing poverty in Africa, doesn't think so. He explains how it could happen
The 21st-century plague had largely bypassed Africa, and the continent's research labs continued their work in relative peace. Africa's tropical ecology favoured its residents, since the reservoir of avian flu was bird species of the temperate climes. And it was from Africa's most famous biomedical research centre, the Rwanda Institute of Infectious Disease, that the world was saved. The new miracle vaccine, AFV06, developed under the leadership of Dr Kwesi Obawang, went into production in February 2025, with delivery in June and mass distribution by October. By New Year's Eve, the spread of the influenza had ended. The Rwandan president, Beatrice Musanberta, whose family had been wiped out during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, praised her country's scientists, declaring: "From the heart of darkness has…