BMJ  2005;331 (1 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7519.0-g

Editor's choice

Open your eyes to Africa

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Africa is big, complex, and confounding. The ambivalence of looking towards a future full of promise but uncertainty is captured in our cover image—that of a child shielding his eyes in front of a Malian textile containing eyes wide open. Achieving a successful future is by no means a task for Africa alone, and the BMJ is contributing through this week's theme issue.

But can we do justice to a continent as richly diverse as Africa? We will present this theme issue to the 53 African Union health ministers at a meeting in Botswana—a country with the distinction of being one of the continent's richest yet with a staggering HIV prevalence rate (38%) (p 719). We will also launch the issue at a scientific conference in Durban—a setting bearing little resemblance to the atrocities and poverty invoked by the crises in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. In fact, . . . [Full text of this article]

Jocalyn Clark, associate editor

(jclark@bmj.com)


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