Juma often gets asked when he will return to Africa. It's a barbed question, coming from a continent bedevilled by brain drain. But he views it differently. Nobody accused him of leaving Africa when he was at the UN, but it was then he felt he'd left Africa behind. "That was when I was disengaged." In his current position, he feels engaged once more. He goes back to Kenya at least once a year, and co-chairs a panel drawing up a continental biotechnology strategy, among other things. But he won't go back to live there any time soon. His wife was born and bred in Boston and his family is settled. "The only reason I'd like to go back is to be involved professionally in Africa."
(Guardian, via politicaltheory)
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