One of the most important features of
the digital age is the use of new communications technologies to build digital
citizenships. Cultures could be a source of conflict that affect the use of new
media to make powerful collaborations among online communities across
societies, and within the same society, however, there are still altercation
between digital citizens, groups and nations (Hofstede, 2002). New media could
help citizens in many directions such appreciating their diversities; solving
their problems, sharing experiences and voicing out their salient issues
without worries and shame.
There is urgency for this research to
help update data base to improve the current media governance and address vital
issues of conflict and violence in Africa that are permanently on record, which
might be occasionally contested in some African countries but almost impossible
to erase or block.
ICT in Africa could be the refuge for
peace, security through embracing participatory governance principles on the
one hand, and is implemented through user friendly harmonized, effective and
efficient management tools and mechanisms on the other. The latter and more
specifically those responsive to the populations needs in harmony with the
environment, will allow governments to better channel development actions in
order to obtain a positive and sustainable impact and address the challenges
faced by African countries.
Key
Words: ICT, Africa,
Development, Peace, Security and Governance, Social Harmony
Today, the world is
full of problems that are interdependent and multifaceted, which makes the
search for solutions requires a new type of governance based on citizens’
participation through ICT.
In this perspective,
Africa is on a path of reinventing government, following the orientations of
the African Union, with the priority challenges of its individual countries and
the Millennium Development Goals.
The autocratic
regimes all over the world have always tried to use new media and ICTs for
their own parochial ends, & propaganda to impede their use by civil
society. Examples are countless from different parts of Africa; including the recent cases of violation in
Egypt with the attempt of holding tightly down any pro-democracy
communications, and punished activists with jail, torture and kill civil rights
activists, including bloggers.
On 2 November 1985,
the South African government in Pretoria overwhelmed by racial protest imposed
a ban on photographic and sound recordings of protest activities, with the aim
of denying protesters an international "stage," reduce coverage of
events in South Africa, and accordingly lesser attention to the South African
problems causing national and international decline in sympathy for the black
population.
As such, the use of
computers and modems in Operation Vula, the ANC’s underground communications
network against apartheid has been a surprisingly robust derivation and
forceful example in strengthening human security, rights and democracy even
under the most repressive regimes, even at times when civil society and the
Fourth Estate are co-opted, or severely vitiated. 2
Five years later on
February 2, 1990 Nielson Mandel was released from the Victor-Verster Prison in
Paarl after 27 years of leading the anti-apartheid campaign. Mandela’s first
words were "Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts. To
relax now would be a mistake which future generations would not forgive." However, the dim picture remains even after
twenty years of releasing Mandela and the establishment of South Africa as a
democratic state in 1994 that conflict
is a key impediment facing Africa; including South Africa.
The
aim is to provide a clear
understanding of how ICT in Africa could help address issues of conflict, peace
and security, and new media discourse that addresses these topics and put
forward societal development, and
enhance environmental quality.3
Development
involves informing and motivating a "mass of people with a low rate of
literacy and income, and the socio-economic attributes that go with it"
(Quebral, 1975). Mass media stand out
as a central tool for the transmittance of ideas by political actors, and even
the changing nature of communication has accordingly changed the nature of
political interaction profoundly. As the advent of ICT has brought about a new,
global dimension to the operations of modern democracies and has in effect
created a new "global public sphere," or a global civil society.
However, this global public sphere does not displace, but rather supplements
national public spheres and governments.
ICT and national
development are irrespirable and brings a larger diversity of agents to the
conversation.
ICT could be a path
towards peace, security through embracing participatory governance principles
on the one hand, and is implemented through user friendly harmonized, effective
and efficient management tools and mechanisms on the other. The latter and more
specifically those responsive to the populations needs in harmony with the
environment, will allow governments to better channel development actions in
order to obtain a positive and sustainable impact and address the challenges
faced by African countries.
This inevitably
demands greater accountability and good governance from political actors. Socioeconomic development, emancipative
cultural change and democratization constitute a coherent syndrome of social
progress, a simple reality that was not properly addressed by many scholars.
ICT use in Africa
would certainly strengthen communal leadership and local governance through Telecentres as community centres that offer
shared access to ICTs for the purpose of community level development and
poverty reduction. Telecentres could address the problems of the digital
divide, by including and engaging a large section of the society that is
usually totally excluded from the socio-economic benefits that such access
brings.
We
need to change the mind set in Africa from the focus of literacy from individual expression to community
involvement, which could result with making the average citizens able to
archive, annotate, appropriate, and re-circulate growth and development;
however there must be a tempered optimism with the recognition of Africa’s
cultural vulnerability to different principles of social organization (H.
Jenkins, 2006a).
These
telecentres could be a step to build digital citizenships (Hofstede, 2002) at
different levels, by enlarging and accelerating processes already in place in the
African societies instead of creating entirely new forces (Agre, 2002:315-316).
It is
very pertinent to refer to technological multiplier effects across income
levels and innovative capacity, which makes ICT access a magic stick to enhance
economic equality, social mobility and economic growth (Hettiarachichi, 2006).
Historically,
much effort has gone into attempts to diagnose the problem of the weak Science
and Technology (S&T) base of the South and its weak integration with
development, but the digital divide and the global asymmetries of critical
issues such as poverty, HIV, conflict, peace, security and democracy remained
a huge obstacle facing this development (Lall 1990; Ernst et al. 1998).
Challenges
in Africa remain unlimited and include poor ownership structure, weak financial
base, low quality staff (particularly journalists), and lack of access to
information, and conflict with authorities and market interests (Mak‘Ochieng,
1994:17).
The
differential knowledge could be explained in the light of the lack of
telecommunications infrastructure; computers and connectivity; the high costs;
absence of awareness of the possible implications of ICT on development; lack
of ICT skills and support; remaining attitudinal barriers like cultural and
behavioral attitudes towards technology; non-availability of governmental
information online and lack of motivation to use information over the internet
(Cullen, 2002 & Rao, 2003).
In
Africa , there is an entrenched idea of a single-minded, short term focus
constrain of (S&T) resources, not enough data are available to guide
the research policy on what changes are needed to maximize the outcomes of
research, especially that ICT
emerged in many of the African countries as state-owned media and has always
suffered from slow and restricted development to stop or at least delay the
public’s will to replace the current top-down, state-driven propaganda to
message-driven and participatory forms of dialogue and expression.
The
paradox is between the current ideas of sequential assumptions about science
leading to development and the nouvelle approach of Research & Development
(R&D) that sees knowledge to be obtained as practice-based,
trans-disciplinary and context-bound, through the grouping of different skills
to solve problems with greater ability to draw on local knowledge and
expertise.
According
to the latest report of the International Telecommunications Union on the state
of mobile and internet data in Africa, Africa had 246 million mobile
subscriptions and mobile penetration has risen from just five per cent in 2003
to well over 30 per cent today by the end of 2008.4 However, new
media penetration is less than (5%) of Africans use the Internet, and fixed and
mobile broadband penetration levels are insignificant due mainly to cost,
coverage over a very large continent that lacks population density outside of
major cities, and unequal access and resources setting. For example, Nigeria
has the highest markets share (26%), then South Africa (19%), then Kenya (7%).
ICT is not an option but
its implementation and its strategizing should be integrated in its functional
and regulatory roles. The first role deals with how ICT could strengthen and
enhance the basic functions and practices of participatory democracy, while the
second focuses on the expected role of ICT as a regulatory institution that
encourages conformity to a set of norms through socialization, or through facing
the threat of coercion, or maintaining social integrity and cohesion in the
African nations.
There is an urgent need to reconsider
the current structures, content and policy agenda. Besides, one has to abide by
an Afrocentricty paradigm to retrieve voices of Africans to close the
current gap, by including those who are still
unable (or unwilling) to get on board as a result of many unappreciated social,
cultural, political, economic, and motivational factors faced by those who
might even have physical access. I see the solution in addressing and leveling the
degree of democracy, the degree of social divisions, and the level of economic
prosperity.
Realizing the grip of ICT
is only through the broadening of human choices, which increases individual
resources; rising emancipative values strengthen people’s subjective
orientation towards choice; and democratization provides legal guarantees of
choice by institutionalizing freedom rights. In addition, addressing the notion
of "Identity Crisis" explains the conflict of self and society, which
magnifies the current flagrant gap, debilitating the will for profound social
change and local governance, between the rhetoric of liberty and the reality of
double-standard policies in ICT.
To overcome the current
vicious cycle of oxymora, there are fundamental reforms that must be considered
in that regard (Saleh, 2009):
-The first key element is
to acknowledge the need to reform ICT laws. The second coincides with the need
to reconsider the current social contract between governments and the public,
by empowering human rights through ICT potential in development. The third is
the necessity of changing the power flow direction of communication, by
stipulating consensus and democratic debate in which all members of society are
engaged as equals, providing input from the bottom up paradigm.
Africa is making progress despite many crises
and upheavals some countries are still facing and encountering. There is need
to accelerate the speed of progress in ICT as a corner stone for development
with patience and persistence
Emerging experiences in the world show that
the ICT achievement of a lasting impact requires a visionary leadership with
sound management systems and tools in place to translate principles into concrete
actions which at the end generate expected results. It is thus a must to engage
well-trained with skills and vision to provide a new
niche of public sphere that can aggregate views about standards and creation of
enlightened citizenry that is reflective of social mixes within individual societies.
Without doubt, political reform toward classical liberal values is a step to
engage with adequate Internet literacy and to foster good governance.
Digital literacy requires
the establishment of a new set of institutions to grapple with this reality,
and new training methods to engage people in national self-interest and
identity-construction. It is a priority to link the research filed with the
decision making process to implement change without turmoil, with a progressive
understanding of peace and human rights as a way of reclaiming African identity
and pride.
The African countries need to set up
mechanisms and communication tools that will make their development a reality
rather than mere word commitments. Development indicators should be set and
standardized. Planning monitoring control and evaluation of public oriented
programs and initiatives should be systematically applied through sound
communication systems and information strategies supported by efficient and
appropriate technology should be put in place and rigorously used.
It
is thus crucial to address the issues understudy in spite of all the recurrent
challenges and limitations to examine the role of technical knowledge in
developing national and regional approaches in what is called "epistemic
communities" (Haas and Haas, 1995). However, Africa is in need of more Afrocentric studies directed towards
studying closely how new media interacts and addresses the different complex
cultural, political events with regard to identity, race, ethnicity, and
integration.
Besides,
there should be a domestication of global ideas of development to strategize a
discourse that resonates with the different groups and communities in Africa
that could be best stratifying, credible, content comprehensible, sufficient
and efficient in dealing with issues of conflict, peace, security and democracy.
This discourse should be inclusive, engaging and comprehensive in which
everybody has something to say, and decisions are taken by those who will be
directly affected by them.
If
this level of localized participatory democracy could be attained, then virtuous
relationships could be established within the African constituencies that could
help reach out to new alliances between economic, politics and culture, and
between the current culture and past history with all its remedies.
At the end, I believe that
not taking a serious action for reform will maintain the actual
political decision-making process in the hands of ascertained individuals, who
use the complexity of information to engage in manipulating the information
process. However, it is rational that the use of ICT and the telecentres to
change the nature of communications in Africa. As electronic and digital
communication enables citizens to directly and instantaneously convey their
wishes to their representatives and to each other, political interaction is
bound to be influenced.
Endnotes
1.
Convenor of Political
Communication at the Centre For Film & Media Studies, University of Cape
Town (UCT); Chair of the Journalism Research and Education Section, & Chair
of Regionalisation and Membership Committee in the International Association
for Media & Communication Research (IAMCR);Co-founder of the Arab-European
Media Observatory & Global Partner Organization of the UN Alliance of
Civilization Media Literacy Education Clearinghouse
Email:Ibrahim.Saleh@uct.ac.za,Isaleh@aucegypt.edu,jre09is@gmail.com
&librasma@gmail.com
JRE site: http://isaleh.uct.ac.za
JRE Blog: http://jre09.blogspot.com
Personal website: http://isaleh.uct.ac.za/IbrahimSaleh/Biography.html
2.
The African National
Congress (ANC) went underground in the 1960s as a result of the apartheid
government’s crackdown on political opposition. Nelson Mandela and some other
leaders of the ANC were caught and sent to prison. The rest escaped to
neighboring countries where they continued to operate covertly. But it was not
until the 1980s that Operation Vula was crafted. The plan provided for the
first time effective and secure communication channels between the ANC’s exiled
leadership and the military wing inside South Africa. “Members of the movement
report that the development of the encrypted communication system was key
aspect to Operation Vula’s success, which a system is built by activists who
taught themselves computer programming and encryption.
3. Magnaghi, A. & Kerr, D. (2005). The
Urban Village: A Charter for Democracy And local self-Sustainable Development.
London: Zed Books.
4.
"Information Society Statistical Profiles –
Africa 2009,” International Telecommunication Union.
http://www.itu.int/publ/D-IND-RPM.AF-2009/en
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