In mid-2020, in the heart of the global COVID-19 lockdown, a group of African scientists were challenged by a German collaborator: “What happens when the music stops, and African nations don’t have access to vaccines? You’re at the back of the queue. Bumped down by rich nations, your traditional friends and sponsors.” The challenge exposed a weak link in the African medical science system: the dependence on foreign assistance in times of pandemic, the inability to develop home-grown response mechanisms and capacity. By December 2020, Prof Dr Markus Depfenhart, a plastic surgeon and inventor from Hamburg, Germany, signed an MOU with the Walter Sisulu University and the North-West University, two rural South African universities with a strong focus on Health Sciences. They agreed on two core principles: African scientists and nations need to develop capacity and skills along the full value chain of pandemic interventions, from vaccine and medicine design and development to clinical trials and pandemic management. African scientists need to collaborate in a truly Pan-African fashion, in line with the development of new free trade corridors and the movement of people and goods across the continent. They agreed to establish a suitable non-profit platform for these objectives, reached out to various scientists in East and West Africa and were astounded by their enthusiasm and willingness to collaborate. The Sisulu Foundation for African and Pandemic Disease Response was born. On 10 May 2021, it was formally registered as a Non-Profit Company with the authorities in South Africa and an inaugural board of directors were constituted. Now the great work lies ahead.