Digital Citizenship in Africa: Technologies of Agency and Repression, reviewed

We review Digital Citizenship in Africa: Technologies of Agency and Repression, the first book in a new series. See more about the book on their website here. Digital Citizenship in Africa: Technologies of Agency and Repression edited by Tony Roberts & Tanja Bosch

Digital Citizenship in Africa: Technologies of Agency and Repression, reviewed

This book aims to be thorough, with many pages of references to end each chapter. It is a timely publication and marks the opening book in what it’s publishers plan to be a series of books looking at African related issues. This seems like a great idea as it is an area that is not always covered as much as it could be. This is despite the great strides made by fintech innovations such as Mpesa and others.

There is a chapter specifically focussed on the 2019 election in Namibia and the impact of digital information sharing technologies. This is a country close to our own heart, having worked there for an extended period of time in the late 90s. Even then you could see the penetration of mobile phone usage, as the local population worked around a dearth of landlines to jump straight to mobile telephony instead.

With this in mind it is no surprise to see that online access to news and information did play some part in the influencing the 2019 election. Unsurprisingly, particularly with a ruling party that has yet to surrender power several decades after independence, many of the stories concerned government corruption. This illustrates the potential for new media technologies to shine a light on murkier practices, but, at the same time, it is then also a tool that those committing this misdeeds also then seek to use to cover up their acts. This chapter, and the book in general do a good job of exploring current trends in Africa and to give a sense of what to expect coming down the road too.

An interesting and thought provoking read. Hopefully it is the first in a series of useful books to focus on Africa.

More about the book

This open access volume brings to life the dramatic struggle for the digital realm between citizens and governments in Africa; documenting in vivid detail how citizens are using mobile and internet tools in powerful viral global campaigns to hold governments accountable and force policy change. AI-enabled surveillance, covertly deployed disinformation, and internet shutdowns are documented in ten countries, concluding with recommendations on how to curb government and corporate power, and how to re-invigorate digital citizenship across Africa.

Description

Since the so-called Arab Spring, citizens of African countries have continued to use digital tools in creative ways to ensure that marginalised voices are heard, and to demand for the rights they are entitled to in law: to freely associate, to form opinions, and to express them online without fear of violence or arrest. The authors of this compelling open access volume have brought to life this dramatic struggle for the digital realm between citizens and governments; documenting in vivid detail how citizens are using mobile and internet tools in powerful viral global campaigns to hold governments accountable and force policy change.

With contributions from scholars across the continent, Digital Citizenship in Africa illustrates how citizens have been using VPNs, encryption, and privacy-protecting browsers to resist limits on their rights to privacy and political speech. This book dramatically expands our understanding of the vast and growing arsenal of tech tools, tactics, and techniques now being deployed by repressive governments to limit the ability of citizens to safely and openly express opposition to government and corporate actions.

AI-enabled surveillance, covertly deployed disinformation, and internet shutdowns are documented in ten countries, concluding with recommendations on how to curb government and corporate power, and how to re-invigorate digital citizenship across Africa.

See  more reviews here.