Science and technology studies tend to focus on the global South, and especially on Africa, mainly when “following the [Northern] scientist” southwards, when seeking sites of pathology and data collection, or as novice partners in European and American research projects. Yet the fields of bio-, nano- and information technologies are rapidly converging in many regions of the world, and research is proceeding apace in several key centers of erstwhile developing countries. This presentation will examine the features of South Africa’s complex local ecology of knowledge and its national system of innovation, suggesting how bio-pasts may be shaping nano-futures there in specific ways which may provide important insights to, and raise provocative questions for, the study of nano-tech in societies.