The Dark Continent at effective web ministry notes

The Dark Continent

filed under Culture, Demographics by rob on 03Mar06 @ 9:55 am EST

I ran across a very interesting post talking about technology and Africa. The author, HASH, envisions this about Africa:

I see young Africans gaining access to technology and connecting to the world at a greater pace than ever before. What happens when you get millions of children on $100 computers? How does that change their world view and affect the way communication happens?

I see an Africa on the verge of a technical revolution that leapfrogs years of government corruption and of condescension by the worldâ€™s developed nations. What happens when the government canâ€™t control information or communication?

I see people who want to be recognized as more than just the hand-out junkies that their governments make them look like. Technology is giving them that voice, and will give them more over the coming years. This begs another question: what happens when the highly educated African diaspora return, or invest?

I find this very interesting because I’ve been curious about pretty much the entire southern hemisphere (sans Oceania) with reaching them using internet technology.

There are many coming to Christ in these areas, but given how many live in Africa compared to how many are online, well, it’s just not many.

I updated the email you’ve probably seen about if the world were 100 people. 14 would live in Africa (the second largest continent) while only 1 of them would have the internet…and they’d be sharing it!

As I type this, a co-worker is in Africa helping a particular group get set up with a secure, online community package. They are loving it.

What opportunities do you know of in Africa for the power of the internet?

5 Responses to “The Dark Continent”

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1 hash on Mar 3rd, 2006 said:

Rob, interesting post on how technology can be used to further ministry in Africa. It’s the kind of thinking that I was hopeing would come out of my thoughts in the article I wrote.

I agree that one of the challenges is that so few are online in Africa. One of my assumptions, and it is just that - an assumption, is that technology will become cheaper and more accessible to Africans.

When that happens you have a major opportunity to affect many things, ranging from ministry to politics to social structure.

We are really only constrained by our imagination and ingenuity.
2 Frank Johnson on Mar 3rd, 2006 said:

Rob:

I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that there aren’t many online in Africa. The reason I say that is because of the increasing use of cybercafes. See this article for example: http://tinyurl.com/jok5c.

100 cybercafes in Bamako (the capital of Mali, the land of Timbuktu)! My closest friend lives in Bamako and he tells me that young college students flock to cybercafes every day to surf the web and check email.

Also, check out this article on my blog - http://tinyurl.com/k2pp8 - notice the part about voip calls!

By the way, my friend now has a wireless connection in Bamako which would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago.

Would love to chat more about Africa and the internet - contact me directly if you’re interested. I lived in Cote d’Ivoire for a little over two years and this is an opportunity that is dear to my heart.
3 rob on Mar 4th, 2006 said:

Frank, I don’t mean to say there are not many Africans online. I know many are. I’ve heard first-hand stories of it, and like I said, I have a co-worker there now getting things set up.

But the fact remains, at least according to these stats, Africa is the second most populated continent but is fifth in internet population. Further, Africa is last in internet penetration (population vs internet population).

That’s all I’m saying. But that’s looking at it in a comparison. The truth is there are almost 23 Million Africans online. That to me is still big!
4 hash on Mar 18th, 2006 said:

Rob, I’ve come across those same statistics before, and I’m sure they’re accurate as to the number of connections. However, what they don’t show is the number of people using each connection.

Also, I outlined an idea on my blog which was centered around the “meeting people where they are”. In other words, if you’re doing a web-based project in Africa you have to realize that computers are prohibitively expensive relative to average wages. However, mobile phones aren’t.

So, use mobile phones as a major access point. I’m sure there are a ton of holes in the idea, but I think it’s an idea well worth testing out.
5 Ashlee on Mar 10th, 2007 said:

This is an interesting topic. I often wonder if the diaspora will return or not. I lived in Kenya for 2 years and there it seems everyone is trying to find a way out. Now Somaliland on the other hand, had people who were returning to invest in their country. There the people seemed to be motivated to learn and become better and stay there. They also had the best internet connection I used in Africa (via Satellite). So I think parts of Africa are coming up to speed. I hope that many of them will read websites that will share the Gospel with them.

And I concur with the point that individuals don’t generally have their own internet access… for several reasons. One being the expense, and 2, the irregular power. Power comes and goes so much it’s not reliable. However an internet cafe can set up and run off a generator as backup to stay in business. Plus, if you had a nice computer, you’d have to pay a guard to guard your house well too.
I loved the map though. There’s a little twinkle of a light in the town I lived in.