Introduction

AfricaArray (www.AfricaArray.org) is a 20-year initiative, started in 2005, to meet the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) requirements for continent-wide cooperation in human resources development and science capacity building. The name "AfricaArray refers to arrays of scientists working on linked projects across the continent; arrays of shared training programmes and observational networks; and above all, a shared vision that Africa will build and retain capacity in an array of technical and scientific fields. AfricaArray was established through a partnership of three organisations, the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa), the Council for Geoscience (Pretoria, South Africa), and the Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA, United States of America), to address demands for a well-trained geosciences workforce in Africa by industry, government, and academia. For details about AfricaArray, the reader is referred to Dirks (2006), Nyblade et al. (2008), and Durrheim (2008).