internet - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Undersea cables for Africa’s internet retrace history and leave digital gaps as they connect continents

LARGE parts of west and central Africa, as well as some countries in the south of the continent, were left without internet services on 14 March because of failures on four of the fibre optic cables that run below the world’s oceans. Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Ghana, Burkina Faso and South Africa were among the worst affected. By midday on 15 March the problem had not been resolved. Microsoft warned its customers that there was a delay in repairing the cables. South Africa’s News24 reported that, while the cause of the damage had not been confirmed, it was believed that…

Mar

2024

By The African Mirror

No smartphone or internet? No problem; AI-backed phone has the answers

NEWS

VISUALLY-IMPAIRED Nigerian Kehinde Olutubosun is a geography and animal enthusiast who struggled to find information because he has no smartphone. But that is changing, thanks to an Artificial Intelligence-powered mobile phone that works offline. The service, launched by Canada-based Viamo in Nigeria last month, allows anyone – even in the middle of nowhere without the internet - to access AI technology. Viamo uses a traditional handset to tap into local mobile phone networks to send commands or requests for information through SMS or voice calls. It works like other AI chatbots and can be used by illiterate persons since it…

Sep

2023

By The African Mirror

African Literature in the Digital Age: new book traces the role of the internet, queers and class

LITERATURE

THE first book-length study of digital literature in Africa has attracted a lot of academic attention. African Literature in the Digital Age: Class and Sexual Politics in New Writing from Kenya and Nigeria considers the role of the Internet and new media in finding and shaping new audiences for literature. We asked its author, former journalist, literature scholar, publishing editor of The New Black Magazine and associate professor of African studies, Shola Adenekan, about the book. SHOLA ADENEKAN, Associate Professor of African Literature, Ghent University What prompted you to write this? The book came out of my own experience of…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

A Digital Transformation: How migration to the internet will transform Africa – report

NEWS

BIRD STORY AGENCY AFRICA’S growing population is projected to become the largest in the world by 2100, with more than 22 million Africans joining the workforce annually. While this growth is often considered a threat to Africa’s socioeconomic well-being, a new report shows the trend could advantage the continent. Characterised by an innovative and highly creative youthful population, a World Bank report shows Africa leveraging digital technologies to bridge unemployment and fuel rapid economic growth. Regional integration and climate transition are seen as key drivers of change. The report, ‘Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs’ shows regional integration will open…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

The state of data privacy and protection in Africa

NEWS

BIRD STORY AGENCY WITH nearly 600 million people across Africa using the internet today, African countries are increasingly recognising the need to legislate and invest in, data and privacy protection. Internet Society, a non-profit advocacy organisation, estimates that more than 17 African countries have enacted comprehensive personal data protection legislation. Additionally, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 33 countries had some form of legislation that guaranteed data and privacy protection as of 2021. Speaking at the 2023 Global Data Privacy Week in Abuja, Nigeria's Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, said the Nigeria Data…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

Challenging the internet’s colonial structure starts with looking to media history

MEDIA FREEDOM

HISTORICALLY, many media institutions were at the service of “the colonising empire”, both in how they were modelled and used. They were meant to advance the ideology of colonisers in colonies. SIYASANGA M TYALI, Associate Professor and Chair of Department, University of South Africa Today some print and electronic media remain at the service of coloniality and imperialism. They play out colonialism’s legacy, coloniality – the patterns of power that persist long after the end of formal colonialism. This process has a regressive effect. It betrays the progressive role that is generally associated with media institutions as spaces of sharing…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

Internet shutdowns in Africa threaten democracy and development

MEDIA FREEDOM

TOMIWA ILORI, Doctoral Candidate and Researcher at the Expression, Information and Digital Rights Unit of the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria MAGNUS KILLANDER, Professor, Centre for Human Rights in the Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria IT'S broadly accepted that there’s a close relationship between development and access to information. One of the first economists to make the link was Amartya Sen, who won the Nobel Prize in 1998 for his contributions to welfare economics. Increasingly over the past two decades, the internet has been a major factor affecting the right to development. The United Nations definition of…