Africa And The Internet:
A Medium For The Masses, Or Merely The Elite?

By Article 19, The international centre against censorship

In the 21st Century, the capacity to communicate will almost certainly be a key human right.

Nelson Mandela

Issues of government control and censorship of the Net in Africa pale in comparison with the overriding problem of access. The sheer lack of access to basic telecommunications services means that three-quarters of Africa's people will never make a telephone call, let alone use the Internet. Simply by not having access to the new technology, their voices are effectively silenced and they are excluded from the benefits of participation in the global information society.

There is growing consensus that the right to communicate is a basic human right. In December 1997, the UN General Assembly endorsed a statement committing the UN system to the objective of universal access to basic communication and information services for all in order to secure sustainable human development. The statement expressed concern that the 'information and technology gap and related inequities between industrialized and developing nations are widening: a new type of poverty-information poverty-looms.'

This chapter will explore some of the main issues and obstacles surrounding universal access to the Internet in Africa. Full details of connectivity and technological developments are beyond the scope of this report, and are available elsewhere.

Net growth in Africa
The number of African countries with full Internet access in the capital cities has nearly tripled from 16 in 1996 to 46 in 1998. Only 3 of the continent's 54 countries still have no Internet connection-Eritrea, Libya and Somalia-and the first two are expected to obtain full Internet access soon.

Despite the dramatic growth in Internet connectivity, its outreach is largely confined to an educated and affluent elite living in the major cities. Only 10 African countries have local dial-up facilities outside the capital cities. Of the 700 million people in Africa, about a million-.14 per cent-are Internet users, and more than four-fifths of those are in South Africa.

The major obstacles to its spread in many countries, as discussed in the last chapter, are government monopolies in telecommunications with vested interests in obsolete technologies and high cost structures. As a result, Africa has the world's least-developed telecommunications network, with an average of just one telephone line for every 100 people. Some countries, such as Chad, Mali and Congo-Kinshasa, have only one phone for every 1,000 people. About 80 per cent of Kenyans live in places that have no phone. According to South Africa's Telecommunications Minister, Jay Naidoo, there are more phones in Tokyo city than in the whole of Africa, which has about 12 million phones, 5 million of which are in South Africa. Even in South Africa, which ranks eighteenth in the world for Internet use, half the population has never made a phone call.

Nevertheless, the state of national telephone networks varies widely. Some African countries have made telecommunications a priority and are installing digital switches with fibre optic inter-city networks and the latest cellular and mobile technology. For example, the national networks in Botswana and Rwanda are among the world's most sophisticated, with all the main lines digital, compared with only half in the US. At the other extreme, countries like Madagascar and Uganda have unreliable analogue systems and poor national links between the major urban centres.

Few lines
In many countries, the few lines that do exist in rural areas are often unsuitable, either because they are still on manual exchanges or the quality is poor and highly unreliable, especially during the rainy season. Even in most cities, Internet use is constrained by poor quality lines and high charges for local calls-as high as US$14 per hour in some countries. In areas without local dial-up facilities, Internet access requires an international phone call, at a cost which would be considered prohibitive even in the world's wealthiest countries. International calls in Kenya, for example, cost as much as US$6 per minute.

The high cost of phone charges stems partly from the way that telephone systems were set up under colonial administration. Calls from Dakar (Senegal) to Lusaka (Zambia) are still routed via London making them inefficient and expensive. In Namibia, the phone system was designed to facilitate calls to South Africa, where all banks and many businesses have their head offices. Thus, it is easier to make a call to the rest of the world, via South Africa, than to a neighbouring African country, or even within Namibia. The post-colonial telecommunications structures impose another injustice in that African countries pay at both ends of the Internet links-data drawn from websites in Zimbabwe and Senegal to the US is paid for by the Africans.

Computers, software and modems are out of reach of most Africans. Such equipment is often subject to high import tariffs, making it several times more costly than in industrialized countries. For example, the cost of an average computer is 15 times the per capita GDP of Ethiopia. Computers and networks require constant maintenance as well as electricity, supplies of which can be highly unreliable.

Complacency
According to the International Telecommunications Union 'the greatest danger to improving access today appears to be complacency. There is a tendency to believe that a profitable industry with expanding sources of supply will solve the access problem by itself.' Most African governments appear to be realizing the importance of telecommunications for development. In 1996, they pledged to build 'the African information highway' in order to aid the socio-economic development of the masses. Several large-scale infrastructure development projects-backed by multilateral and bilateral donors-have begun in the last decade with the aim of wiring Africa. Closing the AFRICA TELECOM 98 forum in Cape Town in May 1998, South Africa's Deputy President, Thabo Mbeki, said: 'We have the political will to put in 50 million lines in Africa in the next five years. We will connect every village, every school and every clinic in Africa, if we are determined enough to do this.'

Some say that satellite technology offers Africa the opportunity to 'leapfrog' development stages. Like cellular telephony, which has been successful in some areas, notably southern Africa, satellite communication does not require the laying of costly fibre optic cables which are required for high-speed data transmission. As investment in older communications technology is relatively small, Africa may be able to 'hop' directly to satellite use. But with call charges currently at least US$1 per minute, and handsets between US$700 and US$2,000, it is hardly likely to solve the access problem for the three-quarters of Africans living in rural areas. Nevertheless, satellites have already proved useful for some well-resourced NGOs and journalists. Amnesty International, for example, was able to bypass the local ISP in Angola by using mobile satellite technology to connect to the Internet, thus avoiding unnecessary and frustrating delays. Governments in some countries are reported to be concerned about the use of mobile telephony as it is difficult or impossible to control.

Success in capitals
'Telecentres'-or 'cybercafes'-are proving successful in many African capitals. These offer a range of low-cost telecommunications services, including phone, fax and e-mail and Web access, on a timed charge basis. The concept has also been advanced for rural communities. According to the World Bank, 'telecentres' are a 'powerful engine of rural development and a preferred instrument in the fight against poverty.' Farmers and traders will have access to information about prices and markets for their produce, doctors and health workers to life-saving medical advice, and schools and businesses to the latest information in their fields. This would no doubt be a valuable improvement for rural communities, but concerns remain that the services, even if subsidized, will not be affordable to everyone, and that the poor will again be excluded. So far, there is little sign that 'telecentres' will extend to areas where they cannot at least cover their own costs, and in most of Africa that means well-off urban areas. A self-sustaining 'telecentre' in rural Suriname was a failure, according to a report from the Internet Society's 1998 conference. The population was too sparse to sustain the centre-a few people used the phone and fax, but the computer was rarely used.

Genuine aspirations
There is no doubt that African governments are genuine in their aspirations to maximize the Internet's potential as a catalyst for development. However, despite Thabo Mbeki's visionary words, it is questionable whether there is enough political will to ensure universal access to telecommunications for all, especially in remote rural areas where there is little or no commercial incentive to invest in service provision. Governments do not have the resources to do it alone, but the precise roles of the private sector, the state, and civil society in expanding access are still the subject of debate. It is critical that freedom of expression advocates contribute to formulating policy to ensure that fundamental principles of freedom of expression and information are not overlooked by the technocrats, bureaucrats and businessmen.

Culture, language and content
The Suriname example above begs the question of how relevant the Internet really is to rural Africa where many people do not even have access to the most basic social services, such as water, health care and education. A simple, affordable telephone service may be more important for most rural farmers than connection to a global information superhighway.

The Internet requires at least a basic level of computer training in order for people to access it-possibly a low priority for people in rural and other marginalized areas. In addition, although the Internet is becoming more multilingual, English remains the dominant language, and translation would be required to make it accessible to millions of people. In some countries, fears are growing that the Internet's Western domination will destroy local cultures and moral values. In Sudan, for example, religious leaders recently described the Internet as 'moral pollution', and said they planned a nationwide campaign to ban the local ISP, Sudanet, so as to protect the country's young people.

Local content produced by Africans is needed to make the Internet relevant and viable in Africa. In a continent where radio reaches about 75 per cent of the population, television about 40 per cent, and the Internet just 0.1 per cent, the impact of the new technology is extremely marginal. Says Peter da Costa:

If the objective is to include more and more communities in the information loop, then radio, and not the Internet, is the technology of choice, and will be for quite some time to come.

Gender and the Net
Estimates of male domination of cyberspace range from 63 per cent to 95 per cent. While this is a huge margin, the fact remains that there is a profound gender gap on the Net in all societies-it is a predominantly male medium, and sometimes a forum for gender discrimination and intimidation. The Platform for Action from the 1995 Beijing Women's Conference recognized the gender implications of the new technology, stating:

Women should be empowered by enhancing their skills, knowledge and access to information technology. This will strengthen their ability to combat negative portrayals of women internationally and to challenge instances of abuse of power of an increasingly important industry ... Women therefore need to be involved in decision making regarding the development of the new technologies in order to participate fully in their growth and impact.

African women occupy a subordinate position in society, because of their higher domestic workload, unemployment, illiteracy, poverty and lack of access to power and decision-making. As with rural and poor communities, women's lack of access to the benefits of information technology threatens to reinforce their second-rate status and create a new form of social exclusion.

Role of women
Nevertheless, while women in Africa and worldwide are concentrated in the clerical aspects of work within the new technologies, a small number are beginning to succeed higher up. Many are employed in the science and technology area, as well as management and entrepreneurial areas. African women's groups are also increasingly gaining access to e-mail and websites for networking and information-sharing on issues ranging from sexuality and health, to women in academia, technology, politics and development. It is also assisting women's income-generating activities, such as organic gardening in South Africa, which are providing a useful model for other women's groups on the continent and for adult education as a whole. The Net is well-suited to the needs of women's networks because of its decentralized and horizontal nature. The essential role of women in development is well documented. Their equal participation in the development of the new information and communication technologies is paramount to prevent further marginalization from the political and decision-making processes.

Commercialism
Rapid commercialization is affecting access to the Net everywhere, making it more difficult, time-consuming and expensive to sift through increasing amounts of advertising in search of real information. This poses an additional problem in Africa where bandwidth is already insufficient to allow decent access to the Web. There are concerns that as the media moguls of the world continue to increase their domination of the information and communications technologies, the Internet will become increasingly bland and depoliticized. The Net is in danger of losing its unique character by drowning out the voices of civil society-those who pioneered the Net as a catalyst for scientific, social and cultural progress.

Some have likened the advent of the Internet to the invention of television. Television was introduced on the promise of revolutionizing mass education, abolishing mass ignorance and raising the cultural level of the masses. Far from reaching its promise, today television is often called the 'idiot box' and the 'boob tube', largely because of advertising, concentrated corporate control of international television networks, and unimaginative state control of national television networks.

If the Internet is to fulfil its promise as an electronic extension of a global civil society, then governments in Africa and elsewhere must cease trying to control the information revolution, and help nurture their own networks and encourage equal access for all.

Conclusion

Powerful medium
The Internet is the most participatory medium ever known, and it offers a powerful vehicle for popular participation in the democratic process. Although the technology is still in its infancy in Africa, it is already proving its value in many ways. Now, for the first time, there is a glimmer of a possibility that Africans can participate fully in the democratization process which has only just begun across the continent. While not everyone will seek to use the new technology to make their voices heard in the decision-making process, everyone should at least have the choice to participate or not.

Need widespread access
Widespread access to the Internet is obstructed by poor telecommunications-the result of vested interests in state monopolies of obsolete networks with prohibitive price structures. The lack of adequate communications represents Africa's most potent form of censorship. It curtails the right of the vast majority of Africans to 'seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers,' as established by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also obstructs the development of free, independent and pluralistic media, which are essential to social and economic progress.

A society's ability to develop depends on the ability of its members to have access to information and to express themselves freely. Therefore, access to information technology is no longer a luxury, but a basic human need. The lack of adequate telecommunications threatens to widen the gap between those who have access to the new technology and those who do not. Africa is in danger of being left behind, as are marginalized groups within African society. Rural and poor communities, women and other disadvantaged groups face a new form of poverty and exclusion-information poverty.

Encourage internet growth
However, these negative effects should not preclude efforts to develop and encourage the growth of the Internet. The Internet is certain to continue spreading rapidly whether we like it or not, and it will have benefits for the whole society. As David Lush says:

The Internet is an elite medium, but I feel this should not detract from its uses: those Africans with Internet access tend to be decision-makers, academics and professionals whose use of the Internet can benefit many. Lives have been saved as a result of rural hospitals using e-mail to get speedy diagnoses on patients' illnesses. Media workers can pass on to their audiences information gleaned from the Internet. So by making public information available on it, governments would not just be benefiting an elite.

Maximise potential
While it is too early to gauge the long-term impact of the new technology on African societies, it will clearly depend on the level of access achieved across the continent.

This will be determined largely by the effectiveness of government policies. As a latecomer in the field, Africa is well placed to 'leapfrog' stages in telecommunications technology. If the take-up of the new medium is to flourish, and its empowering potential is to be realized, African governments would do well to cease trying to monopolize and control access and resources, and instead form partnerships with civil society and the private sector to ensure equitable and progressive development of the new technology and access for all.

In order to maximize the Internet's potential for democratic empowerment, governments should encourage the unobstructed flow of ideas and information that gives the medium its unique character. Governments also should strive to prevent the Net's vibrancy from being swamped by the dulling effect of over-commercialization, and protect it from becoming a vehicle for 'hate' speech and the spread of racial and religious intolerance. The benefits for Africa of the new information and communications technologies could then be an empowered and better educated civil society, improved economic development, and greater social equality and respect for human rights.

Footnotes to this excerpt not included here.
Source: The Right to Communicate. The Internet in Africa. Published by Article 19, the International Centre Against Censorship.
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