Commentary: How to fix the African Physical Society

Nine years ago, the African Physical Society (AfPS) was launched in a very grand and public way. The goal was to support the development of physics in Africa through various scholarly interventions, programs, and activities and by increasing the resources for physics training and research on the continent.

Unfortunately, AfPS has not lived up to that goal. It has been largely inactive and ineffective. The recently concluded Physics in Africa review, which was conducted by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) along with physical societies from the US, UK, Europe, and South Africa, openly questioned whether AfPS is “the society Africa wanted and needed.” The report suggested that a collaboration of regional societies or physics department heads might be “a more sustainable and effective alternative.”

I believe there is a need for a continental organization that can speak for physics in Africa. But AfPS needs to function better and be more relevant to the community to play that role effectively. Fortunately, we now have a unique and historic opportunity to set AfPS right. Let us do just that, or history will judge us harshly.

The second chance for AfPS is the result of a meeting held by ICTP last October in Kigali, Rwanda. Dedicated to “Reviving the African Physical Society ,” the meeting coincided with the official opening of the East African Institute for Fundamental Research (EAIFR), an organization dedicated to developing condensed-matter physics, geophysics, and other fundamental sciences in Africa. At that meeting, an interim AfPS council, headed by physicist Ahmadou Wagué of the University of Dakar in Senegal, was established with the task of reconceptualizing AfPS and placing it on a more sustainable footing. The intention is to hold a general assembly for the redefined organization in about two years’ time.

Wagué needs to be given as much help and support as possible to set AfPS on a successful path. We cannot do the same things as before and hope for a different result. There is a need for a new approach, and the two-year time frame gives us an opportunity to explore, debate, and discuss ideas. For now, we should set our goals realistically and modestly, focusing on real deliverables in the short term.

The past nine years have taught us that a model based on individual memberships and outside donations is a sure way to court failure. The chances of getting individual physicists to pay into a continent-wide coffer are almost zero; we haven’t even convinced our own governments or the African Union to step forward. We should not wait for handouts to do what we know needs to be done.

It would be much simpler and more sustainable to set up the society as a confederation of Africa’s nine national physical societies. Rather than having individual AfPS members elect a governing council, national society presidents should serve. Such a structure can be set up with little delay and few complications.

What about representation of physicists in the 45 African countries where there aren’t any physical societies at present? I think my proposed structure creates positive pressure and incentives for physicists in those countries to self-organize to secure representation on the council. In the interim, we can appoint or elect representatives from regions that do not have functioning physical societies. If adding all those representatives results in a bloated, unworkable governing body, then we can move toward a two-tiered system of a council and a smaller elected executive council.

Rather than aiming to achieve some grand yet unrealistic agenda, the council should essentially act as a coordinating and facilitating committee. There should be very little traveling, as council meetings can take place electronically. An important goal should be to help nucleate functioning physical societies in many of the African countries that don’t yet have them. AfPS should help organize continent-wide and regional meetings and secure funding for physics from African and international sources. In such a grassroots scheme, AfPS would not strongly overlap or compete with national physical societies; it would complement the work of the national societies and represent them at the continental level.

AfPS should be the voice of physics in Africa, so it should engage with the African Union on matters important for physics on the continent and strongly promote physics as an instrument for development in Africa. Physics is the test case for scientific vitality: When physics is weak, so too is science and hence technology and development. (The African Astronomical Society, which has suffered a fate similar to that of AfPS, needs to make the same argument. Its leadership is planning a meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, next month to discuss how to revitalize the organization.)

We must choose our battles carefully and prioritize what needs to get done over what various individuals want to get done. AfPS should work on adding value to existing programs and institutions rather than replicating and duplicating effort. For instance, some AfPS leaders have raised the idea of taking over the African Review of Physics , which is currently managed by ICTP. Clearly, if AfPS were a fully functioning well-oiled and well-resourced machine, it would be a natural home for the journal. However, as of now there is little capacity to manage it in Africa. And so it simply cannot be a priority for AfPS to take the journal over at this time. When AfPS is in a stronger position, it can and should take this over.

In the coming year, AfPS should make use of the African Physics Newsletter , which is being launched soon by the American Physical Society (APS), to disseminate information about the continental physical sciences community. Eventually AfPS should take over that newsletter too. But for now, the society should lessen the burden on itself and work with APS in the important area of communications.

Others have called for AfPS to set up educational programs. Yet the African School of Physics (ASP) and the African School on Electronic Structure: Methods and Applications have been running successfully for a decade now. AfPS can closely align itself with those schools and lend support. Last June in Namibia, ASP ran the first African Conference on Physics , which covered particle physics, nuclear physics, and solid-state physics; astronomy; and other physics disciplines. Once again, AfPS can align itself strongly with that initiative and help grow it rather than duplicate it.

Finally there is the issue of where to base the organization. AfPS is currently a legal entity in Ghana, the home country of the society’s first president, Francis Allotey . But resources there have run thin since Allotey’s death in 2017. I believe AfPS should make use of the infrastructure and stature afforded by EAIFR to create an administrative seat in Rwanda. EAIFR is a great development, its future is bright, and it has very strong support from the Rwandan government. Rwanda is an amazing success despite its tragic recent past. That country has decided “never again,” and it is investing significantly in its people to provide a better future, with physics having a central place.

The interim council of AfPS has a duty to help set up the organization in a manner that can make us proud. If AfPS does not rise now, it probably never will.

Nithaya Chetty is a professor of physics at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and past president of the South African Institute of Physics. He is currently vice president of the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics. The views expressed in this article are those of the author only.