African data sovereignty and the challenge of Northern perspectives
I ended 2024 with a busy schedule that was accompanied by an unending series of accolades from authorities in South Africa and Lesotho and institutions of higher learning. Kind of nice. This affirmation always compels one to look at the person in the mirror to seek balance. But I had a bitter moment that I had to endure.
I took time to think it through and to come to conclusions that are not different from the time I decided that I would respond. As I worked on this in the passage of time, my initial commitment to respond, which I communicated with Pew Research Centre was affirmed.
The Pew Research Centre is a non-partisan American think tank based in Washington, DC. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the US and the world.
The mission of Africa on sovereignty over data would not be as urgent.
I was assigned by the African Development Bank (AfDB) a year ago to think through how we could advance the data and statistics mission in Africa. We prepared the strategy, and to bring the strategy to life, we thought of tools to drive it. One such tool was the Innovate Africa series of symposia. The first was held in South Africa at the University of Johannesburg, and the second was held in Kigali, Rwanda.
I had the privilege of being on the organising team. In this position, I had to identify speakers. Several came to mind and were invited. One of those I was pleased to invite was Professor Eldrid Jordaan, CEO of Suppple, and he delivered a keynote address.
The other was my former employee, Dr Zeenut Mohamed, at Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), who was later poached by the Office of the Premier in the Western Cape, and she became a member of the Statistics Council as a nominee from the province. She immersed herself in matters of the national statistics system, and she later researched a PhD in this direction.
She asked me to be one of the advisers on her PhD, together with Dr Ros Hirschowitz, herself, an ex-StatsSA employee and my deputy. Mohamed presentation was well received in the Kigali session.
She asked me to be one of the advisers, together with Dr Ros Hirschowitz, herself an ex-StatsSA employee. Her presentation was well received. But she asked me to participate in the Transforming Evidence Network (TEN), which was scheduled for Cape Town at the International Conference Centre in November 2024. The theme was quite attractive and appealed to me. Scholars, practitioners, policymakers, funders, and others were to gather to discuss leading-edge scholarship and innovations in closing the gap between research and real-world outcomes.
I was further asked to preside over the function at the official dinner. As I took my paces in preparation for the evening, I came across the sister who was responsible for organising the event.
She told me, “When the plane landed at OR Tambo, I felt that I should have stepped out to connect with Africa. But I could not because we were in transit to Cape Town. But I wanted to have connected with the first touchdown.” She said this was her first trip to the continent in her more than five decades of life on earth.
When you think about the history of slavery to the Americas and you meet people who want to connect with the continent of their forebears, the context of the gap between research and real-world outcomes faces you so starkly. Particularly when you have been in the space of evidence where North and South disparities are so stark. The pursuit of healing from the atrocities of slavery is part of the agenda of scholarship and reality.
The sister and I then spoke of the slave castles of West Africa, including the window of no return at Gorée Island in Senegal.
So, as the person who was running the show, I arranged to recognise this moment of leading-edge scholarship and innovations that closes the gap between research and real-world outcomes. Here was a real time example of a black woman, a descendant of the African slaves taken to America, who longed to set her foot on the continent of Africa, who deserved a special welcome.
I thus invited her to the stage to say, “Welcome Home, My Sister.” Much to the applause of all and the recording of the moment, I was later surprised by the reaction, which I thought was just a joke.
But the gesture offended the gods of PEW, who were huffing and puffing with pure froth spewing for bringing the fact up. Tight lips and some stern faces. I have never seen a race so offended. PEW staff would have none of it and they consulted their head office on the matter. I was scheduled to talk the next morning, but the gods of PEW decided to remove me from the programme.
The PEW staff member I called on stage was a slave descendant whom history of recognition left behind. The PEW gods failed to understand this depth of mission, and I doubt if they ever will.
I only found out after I had retired to bed when Dr Zeenut Mohamed, who had taken the trouble to introduce me to this lot, gave me the news.
Mohamed was short of words at the arrogance displayed by the North and could not hold back her anger. So, we convened to try and understand.
I laughed the rubbish off at the time, but I now feel compelled to discuss this unpleasant incident because it is a bigger scheme of malaise that afflicts our world. The recent Trump administration's anti-diversity measures is once more the dominant North playing god.
This matter did not bother me at a personal level, given the opportunities serious institutions have afforded me, including my own country, to lead its Statistics Institution for 17 years, and I have been engaged in serious and transformational research. And by all counts, the institution StatsSA is great. But importantly, I was part of the 15-person team that advised the UN Secretary-General on the Data Revolution and leaving no one behind.
I would have let this matter go without writing on it, but I am not one who does without teaching. I promised TEN and PEW that I would say a few words about how wrong and colonial they remain in their approach. They need a lot of transformation themselves. As scholars, practitioners, policymakers, funders, and others will gather in the future to discuss leading-edge scholarship and innovations in closing the gap between research and real-world outcomes, they have to look at the person in the mirror.
They should ask the question—have we done enough to ask and understand what Ms Battle felt in her representative capacity? Mohamed and my other colleagues who were offended by the conduct of PEW.
I have been offended equally in the rounds I do in the field of statistics, and that is why we established the Africa Symposium for Statistical Development and Innovate Africa as the engine for advancing Africa’s data sovereignty.
PEW needs to purge itself of the impurities of arrogance. We need to look the gift horse in the mouth and we have to be wary of a Trojan horse. The reaction of PEW affirms my instincts.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of the Institute for Economic Justice at Wits, and a distinguished alumnus of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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