More than 100 senior researchers, early career researchers post-doctoral fellows and students representing more than 40 research groups from 32 universities and more than 20 countries attended the IYCr2014 Pan African Summit meeting in Bloemfontein, South Africa, 15-17 October 2014. It provided the opportunity to consider, discuss and review the status of education and research on the broadly defined discipline of Crystallography in countries in the region. A full report and a final declaration signed by the attendees will be available soon.