Articles · Vol. 30 No. 1-2 (2005): Africa Development

8 - NEPAD and the Digital Divide: The Case of Botswana and the Silent Marginalised Minorities

DOI: 10.4314/ad.v30i1.22217

  • Sethunya Tshepho Mphinyane
    Sethunya Tshepho Mphinyane
    Sociology Department, University of Botswana.
    Their articles →
Vol. 30 · 2005 No. 1-2 Africa Development AD

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of whether the New Partnership for Africa deve lopment (NEPAD) through its e-Africa Commission and its Science and Techno logy agenda for ICT provides for new possibilities for Africa's marginalised indi genous minorities to engage meaningfully with development processes. It questions whether NEPAD recognises the power of ICT beyond providing access to informa tion, particularly its potential as a resource for the oppressed to wage their battles for self-determination, and willing to go beyond questions of access, and address the politics of power and the Internet and other ICT. Is there likelihood in Africa, for ICTs to become new sites of resistance and oppression? The paper suggests that there is already evidence that for marginalised ethnic minorities such as the Basarwa, the San peoples of Botswana, this new forum and the Internet in particular will be yet another tool to mute their voices.

Statistics

Abstract views
161
Downloads
109

Author Biography

  • Sethunya Tshepho Mphinyane

    Sociology Department, University of Botswana.

References

  1. Brown, M. M., 2000, 'The Internet and development', CHO/CES Magazine:
  2. Special Issue on Information and Communications Technologies, June, http:/
  3. /www.undp.org/dpa/choices/2000/june/june.htm
  4. Chetty, M., 2003, 'Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for Africa's Development',
  5. Paper written for Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) for the NEPAD Ministerial
  6. Conferen e on Science and Technology for Development, http://www.nepadst.org/publications/docs/
  7. doc08_112003e.pdf, November 2003.
  8. Cisler, S., 1997, 'The Internet and Indigenous Groups' presented at conference on Community Space
  9. and Cyberspace-What's the Connection? A Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing
  10. Symposium, University of Washington HUB, USA, http://www.cpsr.org/publications/publicationsgnh.
  11. html, March 1-2.
  12. e-Africa Commission Official Website, 2002, NEPAD Task Team Responsible for developing policies and
  13. strategies and projects at the continental level as well as managing the structured development of
  14. the ICI sector in the context ofNEPAD, http://www.eafricacommission.org/about-eafrica.htm.
  15. Grieco, M. and Holmes, L., 1999, 'Electronic governance and commercial development in Africa: The
  16. grass roots perspective', Paper presented at the Institute for African development, Comell
  17. University, http://www.geocities. com/margaret_grieco/working/ iad.html.
  18. Mogae, F., 2004 in 'Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the
  19. Coordination ofHumanitarian Affairs (OCHA)', http:/
  20. /www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40200&SelectRegion=Southern_Afiica Mphinyane, S., 2001, 'The
  21. "dirty" social scientist: Whose advocate, the devil's
  22. :>r the people's?', in Alan Barnard and Justin Kenrick, eds., Africa's Indigenous
  23. Peoples: 'Firstpeoples'or 'MarginalisedMinorities'?, Edinburgh: University
  24. of Edinburgh Press.
  25. '-IEPAD Document, 2001, The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Abuja, Nigeria.
  26. '-IEPAD Draft Executive Summary Short Term Plan, May 2002.
  27. '-lyamnjoh, F., 2004, 'Reconciling "the Rhetoric of Rights" with Competing Notions of Personhood
  28. andAgency in Botswana' in Nyamnjoh, F. and Englund, H., eds., Rights and the politics of
  29. recognition in Africa, Londo11: Zed Books. ynor, N.N., 2003, 'Africa's digital rights' e-Africa
  30. Programme Commissioner,
  31. Internet and Software Development, http://www.eafricacommission.org/ presentations/eafrica.pdf
  32. R.andriamaro, Z., 2002, 'The NEPAD, gender and the poverty trap: the NEPAD and the challenges of
  33. financing for development in Africa from a gender perspective', A paper presented at the Conference
  34. on Africa and the DevelopmentChallenges of the New Millennium, ,Accra, Ghana, 23-26April. augestad,
  35. S., 2001, The lnconvenient lndigenous: Remote Area Development in Botswana, Donor Assistance, and
  36. the First People of the Kalahari, Uppsala:
  37. Nordic Africa Institute.
  38. urvival International Official Website, a worldwide organization supporting tribal peoples,
  39. http://www.survival-intemational.org/about.html.
  40. lJNDP Information Technologies (IT) for Development Programme Info21 on line magazine, Official
  41. website, the http://www.undp.org/info2l/brochure.html, August, 2000.