Trump falters in Wisconsin as Cruz wins big

By Holly Bailey

NEW YORK—Texas Sen. Ted Cruz soundly defeated Donald Trump in Wisconsin’s Republican presidential primary Tuesday, winning close to 50 percent of the vote in a three-man contest and potentially giving a burst of new momentum to efforts to stop the real estate mogul from clinching the GOP nomination. The outcome appeared to increase the odds of a contested convention this summer.

“Tonight is a turning point. It is a rallying cry,“ Cruz declared at his election night in Milwaukee. “We have a choice, a real choice.”

But it was too soon to tell whether Cruz’s victory was a sign that the #NeverTrump movement is truly gaining steam or if it was merely a bump in the road for Trump, who has spent the last several days trying to regain momentum after a series of self-inflicted wounds to his campaign.

While exit polls showed Trump won among moderates and preliminary results showed him doing well in rural parts of the state—where he had been expected to do best—there were some troubling signs for the real estate mogul’s campaign. Among them were Cruz’s decisive win among women and suburban voters—two constituencies that Trump has struggled to win so far.

Those two voting blocs could be pivotal as the race shifts toward Northeastern states such as New York, which is considered favorable terrain for Trump but where Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a distant third in Wisconsin, are looking to peel off as many delegates as possible to stop him from winning the nomination outright.

Aided by an endorsement from Gov. Scott Walker, Cruz easily won a key GOP stronghold in Wisconsin—the suburbs of Milwaukee, home to college-educated, middle-class Republicans. The loss underscores the difficulty Trump has had winning over suburban Republicans in the contest so far—including in places like Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, states he easily won overall but where he lost in the suburbs of major cities.

That’s a worrying trend for Trump in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland, where the Republican electorate is largely suburban and where Trump needs to win to avoid a floor fight at the convention.

While initial results suggested Cruz would win most of Wisconsin’s 42 delegates, Trump still leads the Texas senator in the delegate race by at least 200 delegates. But another hint of trouble came in the exit polls, which found 58 percent of those who voted were “concerned” or “scared” about the prospect of Trump winning the presidency.

The numbers come as Trump has tried to position himself as the eventual GOP nominee, bragging that he can be a unifying force in the party even as he struggled with discipline in what has been one of the toughest weeks of his candidacy so far, marred by political missteps that unquestionably hurt his campaign in Wisconsin.

Sen. Ted Cruz embraces his wife Heidi at his Wisconsin primary night rally April 5 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Photo: Jim Young/Reuters)

Among them were Trump’s fumbling answers on abortion—including his call for “punishment” for women who have one illegally, which he later walked back—and his re-tweet of a supporter who had posted an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife, Heidi. Trump also faced criticism for his defense of his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who has been charged with simple battery for allegedly grabbing a female reporter during a campaign event last month.

Cruz quickly sought to take advantage of Trump’s flubs—holding several events in recent days to directly appeal to female voters, who polls suggest have been alienated by Trump’s behavior and rhetoric. On Monday, Cruz held a campaign event with Fox News’s Megyn Kelly, whom Trump has repeatedly attacked, where he suggested his rival has a problem with “strong women”—a phrase he repeated during his victory speech Tuesday night.

It’s a phrase Cruz is likely to employ again as the race shifts toward Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states like New York and Pennsylvania, where women make up a major part of the Republican electorate. If the real estate mogul can’t win those states outright, his path to win the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the nomination grows ever more difficult.

Trump, who is scheduled to kick off his New York campaign with a rally in Long Island on Wednesday, is still trying to unite the party behind his bid and cast himself as a more serious candidate. In recent days, he’s held smaller rallies where he tried to project a calmer presence and resisted engaging with protesters. On Tuesday, his campaign told the Washington Post he would deliver a series of policy speeches in coming weeks as he looks toward the general election.

Still, Trump couldn’t resist lashing out on Wednesday, portraying his share of the vote, about a third, based on incomplete returns, as a victory against his critics. The statement, attributed to his “campaign” and not the candidate personally, railed against “Lyin’ Ted Cruz” and accused the senator of illegally coordinating with super PACs “who totally control him.”

“Donald J. Trump withstood the onslaught of the establishment yet again,” the statement said. “Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet–he is a Trojan horse, being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump.”

This Man Riddled A Mosque With Bullet Holes. Now They’re Forgiving Him

BY JACK JENKINS | Think Progress

Just hours after a series of deadly terrorist attacks struck Paris, France, on November 13, 2015, Ted A. Hakey Jr. slipped deeper and deeper into a drunken rage. Convinced that Muslims were inherently dangerous and overcome with anger, the inebriated Hakey — a retired Marine and resident of Meridian, Connecticut — snapped. At around 2:00 a.m., he grabbed one of his high-powered rifles, pointed it out the window at a nearby mosque, and squeezed off several shots.

Many of the bullets pierced the wall of the Baitul Aman “House of Peace” mosque, leaving holes just feet from where worshippers sat a few hours earlier reading the Quran. The chilling episode was the first in an unprecedented wave of anti-Islam incidents that swept the country in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, with an ever-growing number of Muslim Americans falling victim to harassment, threats, and assaults on their houses of worship.

Ted Hakey speaking to the members of the Baitul Aman mosque on Saturday, April 2. He apologized for firing shots at their house of worship in January. CREDIT: ZAHIR MUHAMMAD MANNAN

But if Hakey’s attack set in motion a rash of anti-Muslim violence and negativity, he and members of the Meridian Muslim community are hoping to usher in a second, stronger movement rooted in something very different: forgiveness and reconciliation between American Muslims and their neighbors.

After the shooting, police officers quickly arrested and charged Hakey with intentional destruction of religious property, which is classified as a federal hate crime. But soon after discovering evidence of the shooting, officials at the Baitul Aman — a mosque affiliated with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a subset of Islam that believes that a messiah has already come — offered their forgiveness to the then-unnamed shooter. When Baitul Aman outreach director Zahir Muhammad Mannan and others learned that the shooter lived next to their worship community, they were shocked — but remained focused on what they could do to be closer to their neighbors in the future.

“When we heard that it was our neighbor, we said, ‘Where did we go wrong, not reaching out to our neighbors properly?’” Mannan told ThinkProgress.

image11-816x612 — The Baitul Aman community listens to Hakey’s apology.CREDIT: ZAHIR MUHAMMAD MANNAN

Months later, Mannan and others got a chance to ask Hakey themselves. Hate crime cases usually involve strict separation between victims and alleged perpetrators, but the judge in Hakey’s case granted him the unusual concession of allowing him to visit with mosque officials to apologize. He, along with officer escorts, met with four leaders of the community last week, including Mannan.

“[Hakey] was tearing up,” Mannan told ThinkProgress. “He actually cried and said ‘I hope you can forgive me I hope God can forgive me.’ It was a very emotional meeting. It brought us to tears.”

Mannan said he and the other representatives responded to Hakey’s apology with repeated offers of forgiveness. He explained their focus on absolution — not retribution or resentment — stems from their Muslim faith, and while some Quranic verses emphasize something akin to the Christian Bible’s concept of an ‘eye for an eye,’ forgiveness is always the superior option in Islam.

“[The Quran] says that if your forgiveness brings about reformation in the person, then forgiveness is better,” he said. “Reconciliation is better.”

At the end of the meeting, the leaders invited Hakey to deliver his apology to the mosque at a scheduled event on “True Islam,” part of anationwide campaign launched by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community that seeks to combat both rising Islamophobia and rising extremism by forging interfaith dialogue. Haley accepted, and met with Mannan and 50 other mosque members this past Saturday to voice his formal apology, according to the Hartford Courant.

“I was drinking that night more than I probably should have been,” Hakey said, standing before the group. “As a neighbor, I did have fears, but fear is always when you don’t know something. The unknown is what you are always afraid of. I wish I had come knocked on your door, and if I spent five minutes with you, it would have made all the difference in the world. And I didn’t do that.”

When Hakey finished, he and his wife were passionately embraced by several in attendance, many of them moved by his words. As the group gathered to pray at the close of the event, they offered to let Hakey step outside. But Hakey declined, choosing to stand next to the Muslims whose mosque he’d fired on months prior, bowing his head with them in silent prayer.

“It melted their hearts,” Mannan said. “He is not just a shooter, but like a brother to us now.”

The radical moment of forgiveness may not solve Hakey’s legal issues, of course. He pleaded guilty to firing on the mosque in February, and will face eight to 14 months in prison when he is sentenced by a federal judge in May.

Still, Mannan said the mosque would offer Hakey what support they could, guided by their faith and the their motto — “love for all and hatred for none.”

“The Quran says everybody deserves a second chance,” Mannan said. “This is a personification of the real values of Islam. This is what real Islam is doing. It’s forgiving. It seeks to build bridges. It seeks to transform foes into friends.”

Nigeria’s Shiites say they are not planning joint attacks with Boko Haram

BY CONOR GAFFEY | Newsweek/

Shiite Muslims mark the festival of Ashura in Kano, Nigeria, October 24, 2015. Nigeria's main Shiite group has denied reports it is planning a coalition against the military with Boko Haram. — Shiite Muslims mark the festival of Ashura in Kano, Nigeria, October 24, 2015. Nigeria’s main Shiite group has denied reports it is planning a coalition against the military with Boko Haram.

Nigeria’s main Shiite group says it has no links with Boko Haram and is not planning a coalition with the militant group.

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) clashed with the Nigerian Army in Zaria, Kaduna state in northern Nigeria in December 2015 after the army claimed IMN members attempted to assassinate the Chief of Army Staff. Some 300 IMN members were killed in the clashes, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, while the group’s spiritual leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky was arrested and remains in detention.

The movement released a statement on Monday, claiming that reports were circulating among the Nigerian security services, linking the IMN with the Sunni fundamentalist group Boko Haram, which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions during its six-year insurgency in Nigeria.

Ibrahim Musa, the IMN’s media spokesperson, told Newsweek that the reports had been circulated by Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the State Security Service (DSS), to give justification for a crackdown on the movement. “The Islamic Movement is totally and completely different from the so-called Boko Haram. Sheikh Zakzaky has said it many times that we only talk but we don’t fight,” says Musa.

Newsweek attempted to contact the DSS for comment but no one was immediately available.

Boko Haram, which considers Shiite Muslims to be infidels, has previously attacked IMN gatherings, Musa says. He blames the group, led by the elusive Abubakar Shekau, for a suicide bombing at a religious procession in Potiskum, Yobe state, which killed at least 20 people in November 2014.

In 2015, a male suicide bomber detonated his device during a Shiite pilgrimage from Kano to Zaria, killing at least 21 people. Boko Haram released a statement claiming responsibility for the attacks, saying they would continue to fight “against Shia polytheists…until we cleanse the earth of their filth.” Sheikh Zakzaky, however, denied that the group was responsible and suggested the Nigerian military may have been behind the attack. According to Musa, this is because Zakzaky and the IMN see Boko Haram as a tool used by the military to persecute their group.

“If a group with such a venomous agenda against us can do this to us, then how can we go into strategic alliance with it? It’s impossible,” says Musa.

Zakzaky has been in detention since December 2015 and the IMN has claimed that a further 700 of their members are still missing as a result of the clashes with the army. A Kaduna state government inquiry into the events has been criticized by the IMN as biased and Musa says the group is still campaigning for the unconditional release of its leader.

In a previous comment to Newsweek , Nigerian defense spokesman Brigadier General Rabe Abubakar said that it would be inappropriate to comment on Zakzaky’s detention but that the army had created a new human rights investigatory committee to investigate alleged abuses, such as the Zaria clashes, and that the military had “nothing to hide.”

Panama Papers: Who’s Implicated from Africa?

By Conor Gaffey | Newsweek

Rawal, the Deputy Chief Justice and Deputy President of Kenya’s Supreme Court, has been linked to as many as 11 offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands by the leak.

The massive leak of confidential documents described as the Panama Papers has got a lot of politicians and world leaders hot under the collar.

The leak of more than 11.5 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca—obtained by German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with more than 100 other news organizations—is the biggest data leak in history. The documents show how 143 politicians, including 12 national leaders, have used offshore tax havens and other means to avoid tax and sanctions. While the use of offshore facilities is not in itself a crime, the leak could have devastating consequences for many—the Australian Tax Office is investigating more than 800 people for possible tax evasion, while world leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson may also have questions to answer.

Here, Newsweek considers five of the African personalities who have been caught up in the scandal.

1. South Africa: President Jacob Zuma’s nephew

The papers name the nephew of embattled South African President Jacob Zuma, Khulubuse Zuma, as a representative of Caprikat Limited—one of two offshore companies that acquired oilfields in Democratic Republic of Congo in a 100 million rand ($6.8 million) deal in 2010. Caprikat is registered in the British Virgin Islands, the main offshore tax haven involved in the Panama Papers.

Khulubuse’s spokesperson Vuyo Mkhize said on Monday that “Khulubuse does not, and has never held any offshore bank account” and that the Panama Papers simply suggested he was associated with Caprikat, which was a matter of public record.

2. Kenya: Kalpana Rawal, the country’s second-highest judge

Rawal, the Deputy Chief Justice and Deputy President of Kenya’s Supreme Court, has been linked to as many as 11 offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands by the leak. The judge was a director or shareholder of four companies while her husband, Hasmukhrai, held the same position in seven other companies, Kenya’s Daily Nation reported. Three of the companies were used to buy and sell property in the U.K.

The judge has denied any wrongdoing and stated that the practice of registering and running businesses in tax havens is a “perfectly legal and legitimate corporate practice in the U.K.,” where her family are involved in the real estate business.

3. Nigeria: James Ibori, the jailed ex-governor of Nigeria’s oil hub

Ibori served as the governor of Nigeria’s Delta state—a center of the West African country’s vital oil and gas industry —between 1999 and 2007. He was convicted in 2012 for fraud, totaling nearly £50 million ($77 million at the time) by a London court following a complicated extradition procedure after he evaded arrest by Nigerian authorities and fled to Dubai. Ibori is currently serving a 13-year prison sentence in the U.K.

Ibori was linked to four offshore companies by the Panama Papers link, one of which—named Stanhope Investments—was used to open a Swiss bank account, into which funds were channeled for the purchase of a $20 million private jet.

4. Democratic Republic of Congo: The president’s twin sister

The twin sibling of Congolese President Joseph Kabila, Jaynet Désirée Kabila Kyungu, has been a member of parliament in the vast Central African country since 2012. Kyungu, who is also the daughter of assassinated ex-Congolese president Laurent Kabila, also runs a media company called Digital Congo, which has TV, radio and internet wings.

She is linked to Keratsu Holding Limited, a company incorporated in the Pacific island of Niue in June 2001, months before her brother was elected as the president of Democratic Republic of Congo. Kyungu has yet to comment on the allegations.

5. Angola: The oil-rich country’s petroleum minister

José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos has twice served as Angola’s petroleum minister, between 1999 and 2002 and again from 2008 until present. He also served as president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2009. Angola is Africa’s second-biggest oil producer behind Nigeria, churning out 1.8 million barrels per day according to 2014 data from the U.S. Department of Energy.

According to the Panama Papers, Botelho de Vasconcelos was listed as one of two individuals with power of attorney for Medea Investments Limited, which was founded in 2001 in Niue. Botelho de Vasconcelos is yet to respond to the leak.

Uncertainties over President Buhari’s secret alliance with radical Islamic leaders

Guardian News | Houston, TX

Nigerian President Muhammad Buhari 0n, November 23, 2015 met with the Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran, Iran. — Nigerian President Muhammad Buhari November 23, 2015 met with the Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran, Iran.

There are ambiguities over a speculated secret collaboration of Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, with unspecified major Muslim leaders to make Nigeria a major Islamist state. International Guardian sources reveal that Buhari’s 2011 and a part of 2014 presidential run were actually sponsored by some radical Muslim leaders who were guaranteed of Buhari’s victory and promised that Nigeria would be delivered to their fraternity in his tenure.

An aide who recently defected from the All Progressive Congress, and who worked directly with some Muslim leaders in Africa and Middle East to negotiate support of Buhari’s campaign told our newsroom on strict anonymity that he was deceived into such mission, and that he was not briefed properly. “My impression was to raise fund – only to find out later that there were other deals made behind closed doors that I cannot just talk about now.”

It may be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari’s first practical foreign diplomatic move after his inauguration in April 2015 was to grant a visa to a fleeing ‘ISIS Emir’, and a Lebanese fugitive, Ahmad al-Assir who was later arrested at the airport. He had changed his appearance by shaving his beards, and was trying to escape to Nigeria through Cairo with fake Palestinian travel document that had a valid visa, according to the Lebanese authorities. His arranged Nigeria’s escape swiftly raised questions about a possible collaboration of Assir with the Nigeria’s new regime.

Furthermore, in November, President Buhari had visited Iran to attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), but according to the defected aide, it was actually an appreciation visit as well as a brainstorming meeting on how both countries could collaborate on similar sectarian structures. Guardian gathered that Iran’s former President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who left office in 2013 was the one who initiated Buhari’s support in 2011 in a race that claimed hundreds of lives in sectarian violence following Buhari’s loss.

A Nigerian visa was granted to this fleeing ‘ISIS Emir’, and a Lebanese fugitive, Ahmad al-Assir. He was later arrested at the airport.

Buhari’s romance with Iran unfortunately hit a major snag when he accepted the invitation of the King, Salman Bin-Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and that of the Ruler of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, both who allegedly supported his race against Jonathan. He secretly enrolled Nigeria in Saudi’s led coalition of Muslim countries against terrorism, denying such engagement. Months later, he finally admitted joining the partnership in an interview with Aljazeera, claiming “We are part of it because we have got terrorists in Nigeria that everybody knows, which claims that they are Islamic.”

Buhari in Saudi Arabia.... he accepted the invitation of the King, Salman Bin-Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and that of the Ruler of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, both who allegedly supported his race against Jonathan. — Buhari in Saudi Arabia…. he accepted the invitation of the King, Salman Bin-Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and that of the Ruler of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani, both who allegedly supported his race against Jonathan.

Arab countries such as Qatar and the UAE indicated interests in the coalition, as well as Middle Eastern, Asian and African states including Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and Nigeria. Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran and its allies Syria and Iraq were excluded from the alliance, despite the states sharing a common enemy in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Islamic Revolution Leader Ayatollah Khamenei also lost interest with Buhari after the Nigerian military launched an attack on a Shia Muslim group in one of the country’s northern city, killing numerous members, and brutally arresting the spiritual leader Ibraheem Zakzaky and his wife. Iran quickly issued a strong warning to Nigeria to release Shi’ite cleric and leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zazaky. Iran was at the time involved in a diplomatic brawl with Saudi Arabia following the execution of another renowned Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr,

The Nigerian Army Confirms a brutal arrest of this Shia Leader, Sheikh Zakzaky.

Our newsroom reliably gathered that some Muslim countries which initially indicated interest in working with president Buhari are now slowing down to weigh options over Buhari’s inconsistency with foreign policy. “I believe they are still weighing his loyalty. He is not focused, and don’t seem to understand what foreign relations is all about. Muslim countries are a different politics, and trust is the key. He doesn’t seem to be trusted,” a former diplomat with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

arrives mecca — President Muhammadu Buhari prays in Medina in Saudi Arabia.

One of the Muslim countries solidly behind Buhari’s campaign is Morocco. “I know that some representatives from the campaign had a meeting with the regime during election, but I cannot speak on that issue,” an aide had confirmed to the Guardian during then election period in 2015. It may be recalled that the Moroccan monarch, King Mohammed VI rejected a request from the then President Goodluck Jonathan for a telephone conversation, saying it was an “inappropriate” move by the Nigerian leader to curry electoral favor just weeks before a crucial poll. A row thus erupted between both countries and resulted to Morocco’s recall of its ambassador to Nigeria.

After Buhari’s inauguration, however, the Moroccan Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Mostafa Bouh met with Buhari assuring that his country was ready for a renewed relationship with Nigeria. “The new relations is for the good of both Morocco and Nigeria. I am here to give the President- elect a message from the King of Morocco. The message is for greetings and best wishes from Moroccan people.”

1st passenger flight leaves Brussels since March 22 attacks

BRUSSELS (AP) — A Brussels Airlines plane heading to the Portuguese city of Faro took off from Brussels Airport on Sunday, the first passenger flight to leave the airport since suicide bombings on March 22 ripped through its check-in counters.

Security at the airport was tight with completely new check-in procedures for passengers.

Two other planes were scheduled to leave later Sunday — Brussels Airlines flights to Athens and Turin, Italy. The three flights were a test run for a European aviation hub that used to handle 600 flights a day and plans to slowly climb back to normal capacity.

Arnaud Feist, the CEO of Brussels Airport Co., had said ahead of Sunday’s flights that they were a symbolic “sign of hope” following “the darkest days in the history of aviation in Belgium.”

On Sunday, he thanked employees for their courage, solidarity and the “impressive work carried out in so little time.”

“We are more than an airport … We are a family more bound together than ever,” he said at a ceremony at the airport.

“It will take time to accept what happened and more time to get over the pain,” Feist said as the flight for Faro took off. “But we will never forget.”

Damage to the airport was extensive when double suicide bombs exploded near its crowded check-in counters 12 days ago, killing 16 victims and maiming people from around the world. Another bombing that day on a Brussels subway train killed 16 other people. Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.

Feist said Belgium’s biggest airport should be back around 20 percent of capacity on Monday and able to process 800 passengers an hour. He said Saturday that he hoped full service at the airport could be restored by the end of June or the beginning of July in time for the summer vacation season.

However, traffic may take time to return to its previous pace. Delta Airlines said on Saturday that it was suspending service between Atlanta and Brussels until March 2017.

New security measures at the airport aimed to minimize the chances of any repeat attacks.

Police on Sunday conducted spot checks of vehicles before they arrived. A large white tent was set up outside the terminal to screen travelers’ IDs, travel documents and bags before they were allowed to enter a specially built area for check-in.

A drop-off parking area outside the terminal was closed down and authorities said there would be no rail or public transport access to the airport for the foreseeable future.

The bombers entered the check-in area with suitcases packed with explosives and nails, and the resulting blasts collapsed the airport’s ceiling and shattered windows.

The attacks have prompted a wider discussion among aviation authorities in many countries over whether to impose routine security checks at the entry to airport terminals

The ‘next Einstein’? She’s from Africa

The Next Einstein Forum was held in Senegal last month

By Julian Siddle | BBC Radio Science Unit/

Back in 2008, South African physicist Neil Turok gave a speech in which he declared his wish that the next Einstein would be from Africa.

It was a rallying call for investment in maths and physics research in Africa. The “Next Einstein” slogan became a mission for the organisation Neil Turok had founded to bring Africa into the global scientific community: the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS).

That search for an African Einstein now has some results, with 15 “Next Einstein Fellows” and 54 “Next Einstein Ambassadors” announced at an event last month.

These are young African scientists, often leaders in their fields, working and studying in Africa.

‘Revolutionary and fearless’

“Einstein is a natural, easy role model for people to look at – not just because he was a spectacular scientist, but also he thought about the way we should care for social justice as well as science,” says the 36-year-old South African cosmologist Amanda Weltman, speaking to the BBC Discovery programme.

Dr Weltman is one of 15 Next Einstein Fellows

Her work on the Chameleon field, a way to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe, is seen as a continuation of Einstein’s work.

“Where Einstein triggered all these completely new ideas and brought about revolution, that’s what we want to do. It’s not necessarily to be that person, but to be revolutionary and fearless,” Dr Weltman adds.

When Neil Turok made his declaration, he wasn’t thinking so much of a literal African Einstein, but of creating opportunities to nurture young scientific leaders who would challenge the stereotypes of Africa and champion its development through science.

“There is a huge youth demographic in Africa and this will get bigger; 40% of the world’s youth will be African by 2050,” he says.

“Many scientists around the world are more than happy to come to Africa for a few weeks a year and share their knowledge and insights with the most able young Africans.”

The apparent gap between studying maths or physics and Africa’s needs – in public health and disease control, for example – might seem huge. But one branch of science can inform another.

Changing thinking

Thierry Zomahoun, the CEO of AIMS, cites the example of the west African Ebola outbreak, where local work on mathematical modelling of the virus might have slowed the spread of the disease at an earlier stage.

“It’s urgent for mathematical epidemiologists to be trained on the continent, for lab technicians to be trained so that we don’t have to invest billions of dollars paying expatriate technicians from France or the US to do the work that we could have done here,” he said.

Mr Zomahoun is also the chair of the Next Einstein Forum – an AIMS initiative which held a gathering in March in Dakar, Senegal, both to celebrate the Next Einstein Fellows and to raise the political profile of the need for investment in scientific research in Africa.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was one of the speakers.

NEF's March 2016 "Global Gathering" made the case for science investment in Africa — NEF’s March 2016 “Global Gathering” made the case for science investment in Africa

“We cannot be satisfied with just ending extreme poverty. Our aim is shared and sustainable prosperity and the key to that is science and innovation,” he told the conference.

Foreign donors, especially former colonial powers, have played a big part historically in developing African education – particularly in science – but have also dictated what kind of research is done.

That model is changing, says Evelyn Gitau, adding that her Kenya-based research into cellular immunology and malaria is only possible because of large-scale funding and a hands-off approach from the UK’s Wellcome Trust.

In order to own scientific progress, Dr Gitau says, African governments must get more involved.

“African governments have to change how they think. Travel grants are great, but $10 to $20,000 is not going to fund research at the cutting-edge level.”

Dr Gitau is working to develop cheap point-of-care diagnostic tools

From the beginning, AIMS had a funding policy which compelled African governments to step up to the plate. Its institutes get half their funding from the governments of the countries in which they are based – South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon – and the rest from foreign governments and private foundations.

New AIMS institutes are planned for Morocco and also Rwanda.

Unique advantages

Rwanda styles itself as the place to do business in Africa, making it easy to set up there, especially for entrepreneurs from other African countries.

It sits, however, in a region with a history of instability and autocratic government. That doesn’t sound like a place for free-thinking scientists to thrive.

This is an issue Neil Turok is only too aware of.

“This does not mean we are an instrument of the Rwandan government. AIMS is all about freedom – it’s about freedom to learn, freedom to express opinions… Science is all about critical thinking. Nothing we do will compromise that,” he says.

Africa might seem an unlikely destination for high-end scientific research, but this is becoming a reality and the continent has some natural scientific advantages.

Amada Weltman cites the example of the Square Kilometre Array – the world’s largest radio telescope, currently under construction. This “south south” project (the second section of it is in Australia) could not have been built in more densely industrialised countries, due to the amount of radio-wave pollution in their skies.

“We didn’t get that project just because of some sort of sympathy towards Africa. We consider the night sky as a resource, where Africa is perhaps more empowered than the global north, which is already overly polluted with radio waves. So this gives us a fresh angle to how we think about the universe.”

There are advantages in other fields, too. For scientists using bioinformatics to explore the origins of genetic disease, Africa holds a unique place as the cradle of humanity – and therefore the repository of our oldest genetic information.

The continent’s future scientific development could have a profound impact on the future of mankind.

‘Revolutionary and fearless’

Changing thinking

Unique advantages

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