Prof Desta Mebratu, an Ethiopian based in Addis Ababa and appointed as an Extra-Ordinary Associate Professor in the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition, led an all-African research process that resulted in an edited book called Transformative Infrastructure published in 2019 (co-edited by him and myself). This talk was delivered at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS) on 5 December 2019. STIAS has jointly hosted Desta over the past few years.