SciBraai, a non-profit social media platform and website dedicated to sharing news and stories about South African science, has its roots in the Boland. One of its co-founders, Engela Duvenage, is a science writer and journalist living in Wellington.
The website was conceived four years ago, when Duvenage attended the World Conference for Science Journalists in Finland. There she met Anina Mumm, an MSc graduate turned science communicator from Gauteng.
“We started chatting about how privileged we are to have a day job that means that we write about some of the brightest minds in South Africa,” Duvenage recalls.
“We decided that SciBraai would be our Proudly South African endeavour to tell more people about the fascinating work being done at our universities and research institutions.”
SciBraai celebrated its fourth birthday on Heritage Day. It was launched on 24 September 2014, not just because it is unofficially Braai Day, but because scientific accomplishments are also part of South Africa’s history and heritage.
“We’ll always be known as the country where the first successful heart transplant was done, for instance,” says Duvenage. “These days South Africans, among others, have the work of the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope to be proud of and the tremendous work being done to fight HIV and tuberculosis.”
So far, the social media platform has been made possible through the sheer will of volunteers from across the country, who sacrifice their free time. Among the regular contributors helping Mumm and Duvenage are science communicators Paul Kennedy from Cape Town and Sibusiso Biyela of Richards Bay. Biyela is responsible for a regular science column in Zulu on SciBraai — the first of its kind in South Africa.
Articles are written in English, Afrikaans and Zulu. A regular feature is the Monday Menu that carries news about new local research findings. There is also a SciBraai YouTube channel. The team also shares the news of local universities and research institutions via Facebook and Twitter.
For the next few months, the website will also feature profile articles about 53 South Africans featured in the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSaF) book “Legends of South African Science”.
According to Duvenage, she is often asked whether SciBraai is dedicated only to meat, wood or braai implements, and the science behind them. “SciBraai is much more than that,” she points out.
“It’s about sharing stories with the public about the great work and ideas being pursued by South African researchers in a vast array of fields — from the environment and agriculture to physics, astronomy and health matters.”
Why the braai metaphor then?
“South Africans love to braai,” explains SciBraai co-founder Mumm, a science communicator from Gauteng. “It brings us together and binds us. We share stories and we share food around a fire. “Around the SciBraai grill we share stories and food for thought hopefully in such a way that people start talking about the snippets of information they have read the next time they gather round a fire.”
Braaing itself is a science, Mumm adds.
“The chemical reactions as the wood burns in oxygen, the way the proteins in meats and vegetables break down as they are cooked, and the psychology behind why we love to braai. In fact, science is everywhere and very much part of everyday life in South Africa, just like braaing.”
Says Duvenhage: “Over the past four years, we have shown there’s a definite interest in a news site with such a niche focus, and that the concept works.
Our next aim is to get funding with which to pay other local scientists to write regularly for us. So far, our volunteers have written all of our articles for free, or content was sourced from free-to-share websites, such as The Conversation Africa or The Science Inside radio show of the University of the Witwatersrand.”
It could have a spillover effect to other media, the site’s material being open-access. So it can be used for free by any other publication or website, as long as the site is acknowledged.
For more info: http://scibraai.co.za, or follow Scibraai on Twitter (@Scibraai) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/scibraai).
