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Despite often being regarded as incompatible, African scientists maintain strong religious beliefs. This has not, however, held back the development of science on the continent, or elsewhere, writes Bankole Falade.

A comparison was undertaken of confidence in 17 institutions in Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the USA using data from the World Values Survey to find shared valuations and distinguishing characteristics as markers of cultural categories. Frequencies and rankings were examined and exploratory factor analysis was used to find plausible meanings of groups of institutions. The findings show that, although African respondents score institutions higher than their US counterparts, the rankings vary. With frequencies, the meaning is manifest. The analysis shows that 10 institutions load similarly on one latent variable and their combinations with the others indicate culture-specific characteristics. The latent variables were named ‘not-for-profit’, ‘for-profit’, ‘political’, ‘watchdog or fourth estate’ and ‘social order’ and they show Ghana is closer to the USA than to Nigeria, which is closer to Zimbabwe. The ‘not-for-profit’ variable is more important in the USA and Ghana and ‘political’ is more important in Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Institutional-specific loadings show that whereas the police and courts are grouped as ‘political’ in Nigeria, in other countries they belong to ‘social order’; and while universities are perceived as ‘for-profit’ in Africa, they are ‘not-for-profit’ in the USA. Comparing frequencies and rankings or dividing along the lines of individualistic versus collective or private and public sectors, masks the dynamic distribution of the systems of meaning in the local cultures; the latent variables approach therefore offers a more conceptually sound categorisation informed by shared and distinguishing institutions. Significance: Nigerians, as at the time of the survey, were yet to perceive the principles of separation of powers between political institutions, the judiciary and the police – an essential feature of a good democracy and a characteristic of other countries in the study. Zimbabweans and Nigerians perceive their public institutions in generally

The Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa (2013–2016) claimed over 10 000 lives in less than 18 months. Low levels of familiarity with the disease, ease of transmission, scale of infection, gruesomeness of symptoms, lack of cure and high fatality rate created a global panic. From the perspective of the social psychology of communication and content analysis, this study examines media coverage of the crisis in Africa with a view to unpacking the scientific and non-scientific information that may have framed public understanding of the disease. Findings show that accepting scientific advice was not unproblematic, because of the similarity of early symptoms with known diseases such as Lassa, dengue and malaria fevers. Cultural and religious actors and beliefs posed a paradox for believers as the public assimilated disease prevention information into existing norms and practices. Rumours and conspiracy theories about Western governments and pharmaceuticals also contributed to the rejection of the scientific explanation of its origin. Fear of the devastating effects of the disease and the lack of a cure led to the stigmatisation of the infected and treatment centres and ultimately to public revolts. Findings show the importance of non-scientific information and actors in matters of health and illness in Africa.

LSE’s Dr Bankole Falade examines how research on the oral polio vaccine controversy in Nigeria helps us to understand prevailing attitudes to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

This study, of modern common sense in Nigeria, combines questionnaires and interviews to examine the compatibility and incompatibility of religion and science. Nigeria is a large country with a complex diversity of religious, ethnic and cultural practices that condition the reception and elaboration of science in everyday life. We find evaluative attitudes to science structured as ‘progress’, ‘fear’ and ‘mythical image’. Scientific knowledge and religiosity have a direct bearing on expectations of progress and feeling of fear and worry about science; mythical image is independent of this. Nigerians trust both scientific and religious authorities in contrast to other social actors. Many of the results are consistent with the hypothesis of cognitive polyphasia of scientific and religious knowing manifesting as a ‘hierarchy’, when one form is elevated over the other; ‘parallelity’, when both serve separate functions; and ‘empowerment’, where one enhances the other.

Dr Grace Wang and Dr Bankole Falade explore China’s unique role in shaping Africa’s energy landscape, and emphasize the need for a nuanced understanding derived from local perspectives as reflected in African newspaper discourse.

Vaccine safety, importance and effectiveness are at the core of vaccine hesitancy around the world and Africa has had its own share of vaccine revolts. This study uses the Wellcome Trust Global Monitor 2018 on public perceptions of vaccines in 40 African countries to examine the predictors of vaccine hesitancy. It compares levels of hesitancy along language lines, comparing French speakers with others, mostly English. Study shows that French speakers are significantly more hesitant on importance and safety while English speakers and others are more hesitant on effectiveness, an indication of the continuing influence of colonial ties. Respondents who have higher levels of trust in social actors are also more hesitant about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, indicating the importance of non-scientists in vaccine hesitancy. Those with higher levels of education are also more likely to be hesitant about vaccines in general indicating that having more education may indeed have an opposite effect. Perceptions of science as progress is significant for all three hesitancy types and indicates that Africans with more progressive attitudes are less likely to worry about the importance, safety and effectiveness of vaccines. At country level, no predictor cuts across indicating the strong role of local social and cultural issues. These findings improve our understanding of the drivers of vaccine hesitancy in Africa and provide valuable input for future vaccine policy and health awareness campaigns.