Read the full article on The Conversation here. From the article:

Salome Maswime: There have been many successful global research collaborations. But there’s a long history of unequal partnerships and research collaborations between African institutions and research institutions from developed countries. African researchers have often described unequal power dynamics. These have been fuelled by what can be described as a top-down approach, a sense of tokenism. There’s a sense that research agendas are driven by interests of collaborating centres instead of the needs of the communities involved. ...

Rifat Atun: COVID-19 will likely affect the power relationship between African and foreign institutions. To date this power relationship has been hugely imbalanced. It’s been in favour of research institutions from high-income countries at the expense of African researchers and institutions....

Kevin Marsh: It could contribute to a change that long predates the pandemic and which has been gathering pace. Historically, we’re all aware of the imbalance in many such relationships. This reflects a structural consequence of colonialism, in terms of where money and scientific expertise and decision making were centred. ...

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Reference: Maswime, S. Marsh, K. Atun, R. 2020. "International research collaborations: how can we shift the power towards Africa?". The Conversation.