I had the fortune of being connected with Dr. Nicholas Amani Hamman, the Medical Director at the Snakebite Treatment and Research Hospital (SBTRH) in Kaltungo, Nigeria, through one of my readers. I was immediately taken by his genuine passion for the work he does. Dr. Nicholas struck me as a researcher who doesn’t wait around for the perfect conditions to arise – instead, he builds them.

When Dr. Nicholas arrived at the SBTRH after completed his postgraduate degree, he was assigned a rather daunting task: to transform a facility that had been a “research” hospital in name only into one that could lead its own research agenda. What unfolded over the following years is a story about reclaiming local ownership of research, challenging assumptions about what’s needed to do meaningful science, and amplifying the voices of groups that remain invisible to both, the medical literature as well as political systems.

Developing a research culture from scratch

The SBTRH in Kaltungo is the largest health facility of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in terms of patient load, treating around 2,500 snakebite cases annually. Yet, there was a troubling disconnect, which, unfortunately, is all too familiar: despite the hospital having decades of on-the-ground experience as a snakebite treatment and training facility, the research conducted at SBTRH was almost entirely driven by international partners. “Most of the research that had been done in the facility was actually not locally led,” Dr. Nicholas explained. “They were mostly being done by collaborators that are working outside the facility. Mainly – they come in and carry out research and publish it at the facility with a little input from their staff.”

This pattern—where international partners extract data and publish findings while local staff remain on the periphery—happens all the time across SSA. The staff at Kaltungo lead the continent in terms of their track record for treating one of the world’s heaviest snakebite caseloads, yet their insights weren’t making it into scientific publications under their own authorship. Dr. Nicholas’s mandate was clear: to develop a research culture that centered local expertise.

The transformation has been remarkable. The team has tackled advanced data analytics using machine learning models to predict patient outcomes, published the largest snakebite research among pediatric patients analyzing 723 cases, and examined the largest case series of pregnant women with snakebites—77 cases over five years. “We’ve actually changed from just a ‘snakebite research hospital’ in name to a snakebite research both, in practice and in research output,” Dr. Nicholas noted with pride.

Research That Gives Voice to the Voiceless

Dr. Nicholas’s work examines snakebite envenoming—a condition classified and re-classified as a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD)—through the lens of clinical epidemiology and mortality prediction, with particular attention to vulnerable populations like pregnant women and children. His research has revealed how entire populations can be written out of medical knowledge.

The conventional wisdom held that pregnant women rarely get bitten by snakes because they stay at home, while snakebites primarily affect farmers working in fields. But Dr. Nicholas’s team at SBTRH discovered a different reality. Among their 77 cases of pregnant women presenting with snakebites over five years, a large percentage were bitten – not in distant fields – but rather in peridomestic spaces, within their own compounds. This was particularly common in nomadic regions where there’s frequent interaction between human habitats and snake environments. “Snakebite among pregnant women affects both the mother and the child. But the literature is largely silent,” Dr. Nicholas reflected.

In general, the populations impacted by snakebites are largely unheard. During our conversation, Dr. Nicholas made a profound observation: “Snakebite affects mainly the herders and the farmers. And these two form the basis of rural economies. And most of the economies of Africa are built based on the outcomes from those kind of group of people,” he explained.

Yet, the sad reality is that the voices of this foundational majority remain politically invisible. “These are people that do not actually have voices, even though their effect on the economy is glaring, but they don’t have a voice,” Dr. Nicholas observed. Even among NTDs, snakebite is neglected with most health and surveillance systems, tending to focus on infectious diseases that affect urban populations, such as malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis—diseases where those impacted have political representation. Snakebite is treatable and even preventable with adequate surveillance.

That’s why, when I asked Dr. Nicholas what research he would undertake if he had unlimited funding and resources, he told me he would establish “an African snakebite observatory, where we will have a real time, a multi-country, multi-center surveillance and predictive system”. Such an observatory would guide the strategic distribution of resources such as anti-snake venom – which is scarce and very costly – to the highest risk areas.

Rethinking Research and Funding

Whenever I speak with researchers about the barriers of doing research in African countries, the most commonly cited challenge, which comes up time and again, is funding shortages. Yet, Dr. Nicholas shared a wholesome memory that reminded me that this isn’t the whole story: research doesn’t have to be driven by money. When he first proposed conducting research at the SBTRH facility, a senior colleague asked whether he had funding. Dr. Nicholas’s response captured his entire philosophy: “I have three funding: I have enthusiasm, I have passion and I have interest. And I believe with these three, I don’t need any other external funding for me to do that”. That senior colleague was so inspired that he joined the effort, and together they started a new paradigm of research at the facility.

As researchers, we shouldn’t underestimate the infectious nature of passion – it attracts people who are passionate about the same causes which snowballs into greater support and collaborations. Dr. Nicholas’s team’s strategy was to build visibility through strategic engagement. They started attending webinars on snakebite, sharing their passion for the topic along with their real-time observations and experiences from the field. This visibility led to a partnership with the Global Health Network at the University of Oxford. Unlike the previous model of having external collaborators lead research initiatives, this partnership focused on building local capacity. The team decided to make an impact early by applying advanced analytics and machine learning models to predict snakebite outcomes—work that would establish them as serious players in the field. That first paper attracted significant attention and proved the team could compete at the highest levels of research.

Advice for Researchers Ready to Start

Dr. Nicholas’s recommendation to emerging researchers reflects his uncomplicated notion of the field: “Research is not something very big, something that you require funding, something that you require a lot of things to do. All you need to do is to look around you. The research questions are around you, where you work, the research questions are there with you.”

He emphasizes visibility over funding. “My experience has taught me that I don’t actually need funding to be relevant. What I need is visibility. And for me to be visible, I have to do something – and not only doing something, I have to do something that’s unique.”

The story of Dr. Nicholas Amani Hamman and the SBTRH in Kaltungo is ultimately about reclaiming agency. It’s about local experts taking ownership of their knowledge, asking the questions that matter to their communities, and refusing to wait for permission or external funding to pursue answers. It’s about ensuring that the rural farmers and herders whose work underpins African economies—but whose voices remain unheard among policymakers—are at least visible in the medical literature. I found great inspiration in his story, and his advice will remain with me as I choose my research questions and try to study topics that matter.