the phrase is "look beyond the scientific discourse centered on a panicking West". Mbembe is not a luddite, but rather centers his critique of the institutions of science. the ideals are lovely, but in this crisis we see colonial, capitalist, and nationalist divides everywhere. Why is everyone using different tests for COVID-19? because ownership of those tests and patents is valuable. why is there a shortage of ventilators in the US? because the manufacturers of them sabotaged attempts to build a strategic reserve of them in the past, and made repair difficult. and on and on.
we can't expect science to save us on it's own, because it's dependent on the institutions that fund and shape it, it isn't a neutral force. mbembe's argument is that many of the crises we're seeing have happened before in predatory crises in Africa (like holding AIDS drugs over the heads of poor Africans with no choice but to pay) and we should learn from that.