I, like the OP, am referring specifically to African researchers' ability to speak in person at conferences in the West. Africans can and do publish research in

I, like the OP, am referring specifically to African researchers' ability to speak in person at conferences in the West. Africans can and do publish research in English all the time, which is sometimes picked up in "conversation" in the wider global community, but without the social emergent properties inherent in face-to-face communication it's difficult to bring that to wider attention (there's a reason tech companies aggregate in SV, for example).