Datafication of Africa will go according to plan!
In continuation of my previous post i will continue to unravel connections between China and the Global South datafication process. Year 2023 African Union (AU) celebrated the 60 years anniversary of their existence. Between 1-3 October AU, previously known as the Organization of African Unity (OAU) , held a meeting in Rwanda. The members of the union gathered together to discuss the second decade of so-called “Agenda2063”. Meeting highlights a few flagship development directions for the next decade of Agenda2063. The main point of discussion was “The African Continental Free Trade Area” (AfcFTA) highlighting the single African market of goods, inclusive socioeconomic development, structural transformation, equality, economic integration, investment and other goals. (AfcFTA) is the biggest free trade area in the world providing trade opportunities for 55 members of the African Union and 8 regional economic communities. The main idea of (AfcFTA) is to accelerate creation of a single space market covering 1.3 billion people with approximately $US 3.4 trillion in GDP.
The leaders of African countries engaged in a big project which without any doubts will have to include a lot of digitalization and datafication during different processes of implementation. Vincent Biruta, Rwandan minister of foreign affairs in his speech underlined main goals among others: communication, electrification and broad access to ICT. As I mentioned earlier the core idea of Agenda2063 for the following decade is to create a single space market among African countries therefore (AfcFTA) calling for action by advocating for “Digital financial inclusion for the success of the ONE AFRICAN MARKET”, the body stated:
“When digital payments are delivered responsibly, the potential of African economies will be unlocked. When true digital financial inclusion is achieved, everyone who calls Africa home will have the opportunity to soar to their fullest potential, especially women and youth, who are the majority on the continent, with approximately 60%6 of Africa’s population under 25 years old”.
The contemporary world and especially the world market is indeed based on digitalization hence realistically saying “ONE AFRICAN MARKET” will not be able to flourish without digital technologies. Yet, there is a problem behind the curtains as aforementioned quote stated (“potential of African economy will be unlocked”), undoubtedly it will be unlocked, but obviously it will be unlocked together with collection of your personal data. Yet, apparently the AU are aware of such problems and took precautions by implementing a few laws concerning data privacy and security in recent years. As I already discussed in my previous post the datafication process starts as soon as we get access to any online service, so we can already now imagine the potential size of population and possible size of data surrounding the “ONE AFRICAN MARKET project”.
The Data always has an Owner.
By now many of us know that corporations gather data and we can assume how our data is used on a daily basis, there is no surprise that powerful global corporations are capitalizing on data by making us ICT users the “Product of Datafication”. The scheme is pretty simple, the more personal data corporations can get access to, the better it can and will be capitalized at the end of the day. Not to forget that data gathering is useful not only for corporations but for political and governmental means. However, in our particular case another question can be asked: who will be the potential owner of the data collected in Africa? Interestingly that before African Union event in Rwanda, another significant even (BRICS) took place at Johannesburg (South Africa) where President of the People’s Republic of China, comrade Xi Jinping held speech about great future for China and Africa mentioning the same aforementioned Agenda2063 and congratulating African Union with 60 years of existence, summarizing that China will intensify dialog and communication with Africa and will support agenda of (AfcFTA). “China will call on multilateral financial institutions to enhance the say of African countries”. So as we can see China is fully aware of political and technological processes in Africa, supports digitalization and consequently datafication. Although I do not believe that datafication is a main goal in this particular case, still we cannot underestimate the power of data and what corporations or governments can do with it. We should not be mistaken that if necessary, collected data will be used to their advantage without hesitancy.
Big Data and Big Politic
I think many agree that every story can be told from at least two different points of view therefore in our particular case the whole situation around China-Africa unity irritates western narratives. For the past few years it is very common to read or hear about Chinese technology invading Africa and how China is revolutionizing digital surveillance and helping African dictators and illiberal regimes suppress human rights and democratic freedom in the African region. Some media resources claim that China collects its own societal and behavioural BIG DATA by accessing personal data throughout their expensive global digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence. China is blamed for spreading digital colonialism and threatening democratic values. On top of it the never ending story about almighty company “Huawei” which is constantly spying and investing in digital surveillance across the world. So far, Huawei is the biggest telecommunication infrastructure builder in Africa. The money for the projects are loaned from the Chinese government and infrastructure built by Huawei, a Chinese company, seems to me like a win-win situation for China.
Who can blame who ?
Summarizing two events, it is not surprising for me that big players such as China are extremely interested in developing countries and ready to build, provide technology and loans for their development. Nevertheless, the question of datafication and use of the data which will be collected in the process remain on the surface. Yet, it is a fact that China is the biggest provider of cheap and accessible technologies in Africa, therefore we can assume that China is conducting mass datafication of the region for good or for bad, although, there is no direct evidence at this point. At the same time it is quite interesting to read the blame toward China while western knowledge creators and western politicians forgot how the “beacon of democracy” USA digitally spied on their allies in 2013 simultaneously conducting mass surveillance programs in their own country yet, in any case I assume it is too early to draw conclusions about leadership of absolute evil.
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