The African Academy of Sciences, based in Nairobi, Kenya, is a pan-African nonprofit institution that supports worldclass scientific research. It also serves as a thought leader for African science, assembling its own Fellows, professional staff, and other experts to study and issue policy statements on the important issues and questions that impact science in Africa. The research and training programs of the Academy operate under the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), which was created in 2015 through a partnership of the AAS and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), founding and funding global partners, and through a resolution of the summit of African Union Heads of Governments. The mission of AESA is to shift the center of gravity for African science to Africa through agenda setting, the mobilization of Research & Development funding, and management of continent-wide Science, Technology, & Innovation programs that promote the brightest minds, strengthen the best possible science environments on the Continent, foster scientific excellence, inspire and mentor emerging research leaders, and accelerate and translate research and innovations into products, policies, and practices that will improve and transform lives in Africa. We think of AESA and the AAS as the US NIH, NSF, and National Academies of Sciences all rolled into one. This moment in history, between the pressures and uncertainties of COVID-19 and a long-overdue recognition of inequities among people in the US and worldwide as exemplified by the Black Lives Matter movement, provides an opportunity to attempt to put African research in perspective.