The Congo River Basin, viewed from space (image by NASA)

When I return to the lab on September 1, I’ll have access to sophisticated equipment, expansive animal husbandry facilities and financial support for my research. Spoiled American that I am, I can’t imagine working in a lab without these amenities, which is why scientists like Yolande Munzimi and  Bwangoy Bankanza have my utmost admiration and respect.

Munzimi and Bankanza are from Kinshasa. Both are Ph.D. students in geospatial science and engineering at South Dakota State University in the United States. Both plan on returning to Kinshasa after they receive their degrees.

“Whatever I’ve been learning so far is to help people back in Africa,” Munzimi told me.  She hopes to return to the Congo and become a professor at the University of Kinshasa. Munzimi likes the United States, but she says she will not settle here. Her goal is to learn and then return, to help the Congo Basin in particular and Africa in general. The best way to do that is to live and work in Africa.

Bankanza is also committed to return to Kinshasa, in part because his wife and children live there. After spending more than ten years teaching at the University of Kinshasa, Bankanza came to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship to further his education. Like Munzimi, Bankanza’s research will have practical applications for people who live in and around the Congo Basin.

But what type of barriers will these two scientists face when they return to Kinshasa?

“In my country, being a professor, it doesn’t pay,” Bankanza said. Before coming to the United States he made about $100 per month teaching. His monthly rent was $200. Fortunately, he also worked for UNESCO’s remote sensing lab at the University of Kinshasa, which paid a decent wage. He was even able to use the lab infrastructure for his own research projects and to train students.

Munzimi pointed to the lack of continuing education as a problem hampering science in Africa. Even though you have the diploma and the education, there are still knowledge gaps about new technologies that were developed since you received your diploma. You might have a good idea but not know about a technique that would allow you to implement your idea. Also, you don’t have the funds to go out and learn the new technique. 

In the United States, Bankanza and Munzimi are learning state-of-the-art methods for monitoring the environment, according to geographer Matthew Hansen, who is Bankanza and Munzimi’s Ph.D. advisor.

“The Congo Basin is a comparatively data poor region when it comes to the environment,” Hansen told me. ”Their expertise will serve the region well by quickly advancing basic knowledge of environmental dynamics.” 

Before starting graduate school, Bankanza spent more than ten years as a teaching assistant at the University of Kinshasa. He was one of the first to offer instruction and training in geographic information systems there, according to Hansen. “Almost all Congolese working in this area now, whether in private, civil society of government sectors, learned from Bwangoy.  Now they train others.”

“I believe that Central Africa can quickly catch up to the likes of Brazil in terms of independent scientific inquiry and analysis through the talents and ambitions of people like Bwangoy and Yolande,” Hansen said.

Munzimi encapsulated the motivation to work in Kinshasa, under less than ideal conditions:

“Africa needs me much more than America may need me.”