65th IFLA Council and General Conference
Bangkok, Thailand, August 20 - August 28, 1999
Code Number: 118-116-E
Division Number: VIII
Professional Group: Regional Section: Africa
Joint Meeting with: -
Meeting Number: 116
Simultaneous Interpretation: No
Global information infrastructure and the question of African content
Justin Chisenga
Department of Information and Communication Studies
University of Namibia
Abstract
The paper looks at the question of African information and cultural content on the global information infrastructure (GII) and indicates how the continent can make a meaningful contribution to the development of African local content on GII. It presents a general picture regarding the development and access to the Internet on the continent and indicates that the basic infrastructure for Africa to contribute to the development of global information exists on the continent. It further examines the various ways and methods through which information with a strong African cultural content can be made available on the global information infrastructure. Major problems and constraints hindering the development and use of the Internet on the continent are highlighted, and activities that are required to be implemented in order to ensure that a meaningful contribution to the global information content is done in Africa are discussed. The paper concludes by indicating that unless conscious steps are taken to contribute to global information, millions of people on the African continent will never access information with their own content and, even in the electronic age, will forever remain consumers of electronic information and cultural products produced outside the continent.
Paper
We have the opportunity to add our unique touch to the new Net culture
(Khaldoon Tabaza, Star, Jordan; January 16, 1997)*
GLOBAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE
The world is slowly witnessing the development of the global
information infrastructure (GII), a seamless web of
communication networks, computers, databases and consumer
electronics that will put vast amounts of information at
user's finger tips (United States. Information
Infrastructure Task Force 1994). Through the global
information infrastructure, users around the world will be
able to access libraries, databases, educational
institutions, hospitals, government departments, and private
organisations located anywhere in the world. The Internet, a
global network of computers and networks is being seen as the
front runner to GII, and is providing an opportunity and
infrastructure for publishing and distributing all types of
information in various formats in the shortest possible time
and at the lowest cost. With millions of people around the
world accessing the Internet and still a large number trying
to do so, providing information content on the Internet has
become a major business, economic, cultural and even
political activity. Both large and small business
institutions are marketing their products through the
Internet. Cultural institutions such as music and film
industries, national libraries, archives and museums are also
establishing their presence on the Net. Political parties and
governments around the world are also using the Internet to
communicate their policies, programmes and ideologies.
The Question of Content
In spite of the wide spread of the Internet infrastructure
and its use, it is generally felt that there is a dominance
of the English language and the content that targets the
needs of users in the United States and United Kingdom. As a
result of this dominance a number of governments around the
world are calling upon their citizens to produced local
content in their languages and publish on the Internet, thus
making a contribution to the development of local content on
the global information infrastructure.
Calls, although not so loud, for publishing local content on
the Internet are also being heard on the African continent.
The number of African Internet Web sites is growing and
almost all countries have local or internationally hosted Web
servers (Jensen 1998). Although this is the case, the degree
of comprehensiveness of the local content on these Web
servers vary greatly. Generally, there are very few well
established local content developers on the continent. In
addition, most governments have no deliberate or conscious
policies to enhance the African content on the Internet.
Recently, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
(UNECA) indicated that surveys have shown that Africa
generates only 0.4% of global content, and if South Africa's
contribution is excluded, the figure is a mere 0.02% (UNECA
1999. This sad situation should be a matter of major concern
to the people of Africa, and especially information
professionals on the continent.
AFRICA - ACCESS TO GLOBAL INFORMATION
Establishment of full Internet access on the continent has
moved at a very fast rate since 1995. Mike Jensen (1998)
painted the following situation regarding Internet
development in Africa as at the end of 1998:
- only three countries (Eritrea, Somalia and Libya) had no
local Internet access;
- there were almost 400 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on
the continent of which around 100 were located in the
Republic South Africa;
- the total number of computers connected to the Internet,
excluding South Africa, was almost 10000, as opposed to
around 290 in 1995;
- although generally Internet access is concentrated in
capital cities, the number of countries setting up Points
of Presence (POPs) in some other major towns is growing.
Angola, Benin, Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco,
Namibia, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe had
established POPs outside the capital cities, while South
Africa had about 70 POP locations around the country;
- use of 128kps links had become increasingly common and some
countries had established 256kps;
- around 1,000,000 Internet users, of which about 850,000 -
900,000 are located in South Africa;
- French speaking countries had a far higher profile on the
Web and greater institutional connectivity than Anglophone
and Lusophone countries, due to the assistance provided by
institutions such as the Canadian and French governments
which are concerned with the dominance of English on the
Internet.
Who has Access to the Internet?
In general, academic and research institutions appear to be
in the forefront in establishing and using the Internet.
Universities in many countries are providing Internet access
to their faculties and research staff members while some have
even started providing facilities to students. The industrial
and commercial sectors are also using the Internet and
setting up Web sites. Electronic banking and commerce through
the Internet is also slowly becoming a reality on the
continent with banking institutions in South Africa leading
the way. Governments, although some of them initially
appeared to have been opposed to the free flow of information
on the Internet, have also started establishing their
presence on the Web. A large number of international and
non-governmental organisations operating in Africa have
Internet access. Internet access from homes is also slowly
taking shape.
Taking the above situation into account, although the number
of people accessing the Internet is generally low compared to
the total population of the continent, it can be said that
the basic infrastructure and environment to contribute to
global information and culture exist on the Africa continent.
CONTRIBUTING TO GLOBAL INFORMATION
The Internet presents a rare opportunity to the people and
institutions in Africa to contribute to the development of
the content of the global information infrastructure. The
benefits of contributing to global information are many and
include the following which were identified by the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa - UNECA (1996, 40). It
will:
- make African people producers of indigenous information
and knowledge and not simply passive consumers of
imported information;
- [enable Africa] export information and knowledge and to
participate pro-actively in the development of the global
information infrastructure;
- provide African researchers and scientists with access to
information on Africa generated from within the
continent;
- enable African researchers and scientists to collaborate
on equal footing with their peers around the world
irrespective of distance;
- promote African cultural heritage, including the modern
cultural sector of its rich and growing film and music
industries
Contributing to the information and cultural content of the
global information can be done in many ways, and the
following are some of the ways through which this could be
achieved. Some of these activities or projects are already
being implemented consciously or unconsciously, although
generally on a very small and sometimes uncoordinated scale:
- Local information content on Web sites
- Creating Subject Based Information Gateways
- Creating electronic databases
- Digitalisation of documents and artefacts
- Indigenous language orientation
Local Information Content on Web Sites
Access to the Internet on the content is slowly being
followed with the setting up of Web sites and this is being
done by academic and research institutions, libraries,
museums, archives, national governments, financial
institutions, international organisations, non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), large and small business institutions,
news agencies and media organisations, and even individuals.
The best strategy for contributing to global information is
for all these institutions and individuals to make a
deliberate decision and provide a large amount of information
with local content on their Web sites.
Libraries, Museums and Archives
Libraries, archives and museums are basically information and
cultural institutions. They acquire, process, store and
disseminate information in various formats. Some of the
information being processed is unique in content and of very
high cultural value, and in some cases, very limited in
distribution. For example, most university and research
libraries in Africa have for years collected copies of
research reports, papers thesis and dissertations produced by
students and members of staff. Most copies of these documents
can only be found in these institutions. Archives in Africa
have over the years collected unique current and historical
records, while museums have in their collections rare
art-facts and many other objects of great cultural value. If
these collections could be made available in electronic
format and accessed over the global information
infrastructure, it will go a long way in contributing to the
development and growth of Africa's information and cultural
content on the Internet.
Unfortunately, most Web sites of these institutions do not
contain much in terms of original local information, except
for the brochure type of information (Chisenga 1998). In
contrast, there is quite a lot of links to full-text
information resources produced and stored on Web servers
located in other countries outside Africa. It very easy for
people from Africa to access information materials from the
Library of Congress and other major libraries around the
world than materials in a local university or national
library, through the Web sites of libraries, archives and
museums based in Africa.
Non-Governmental Organisations
Both local and international non-governmental organisations
operating in Africa produce quite a lot of information
materials with a large local content for public consumption.
These organisations conduct research and work on projects
whose end result is basically information. In addition, most
of these NGOs have the capacity to establish Internet
connection and set up local Web servers on which they could
publish their information products.
Universities and Research Institutions
Africa has a large number of universities and specialised
research institutions like the Institute for Southern Africa
Studies (ISAS) of the National University of Lesotho;
Institute of Ethiopian Studies (Ethiopia), Kenya Medical
Research Institute, Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Cheikh
Anta Diop (Senegal), Human Science Research Council (South
Africa), Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology,
National Council for Scientific Research (Zambia), Nigerian
Institute of Social and Economic Research and many more.
Members of staff of these institutions conduct research and
participate in many projects within their communities,
countries or regions, and therefore these institutions have
the capacity to produce and publish information with a large
African content on the Internet.
African universities and many other research oriented
institutions should encourage their academic and research
staff to publish their works on the Internet. In addition,
they should also publish on their local Web server much of
what they are currently producing i.e. annual reports,
technical papers, consultancies reports, feasibility study
reports, research reports from their specialised research
units.
African Governments
African governments have already started setting up Internet
Web sites and they should also take into consideration the
question of providing adequate local content on their sites.
Not only should they provide information targeting potential
foreign investors, but also provided information for the
consumption of the few Internet users in their countries. The
U.S White House Web Site is a source of huge amount of
information. Audio and video files, speeches and briefings by
the Presidents, policy papers, etc. There is nothing
preventing African governments from providing the same level
of information services on their Web sites.
News and Media Agencies
Most news agencies in developing countries were established
to counter the work of the major international news agencies
and media such as the Agence France Presse (AFP), Reuters,
Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI),
with the aim of trying to balance the flow of news and the
seemingly negative reporting by the international media.
National television and radio networks are established to
serve the local populations. These institutions have put in
place the infrastructure to collect news and information from
around the country and disseminate such information to both
local and international audiences. Using the Internet
infrastructure, they can reach millions of people around the
world and thus afford the people around the world a rare
opportunity to access a wide variety of original and first
hand news stories from the African continent.
Therefore, efforts being made by the South Africa
Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the Media Institute of
Southern Africa (MISA), Pan African News Agency (PANA),
Africa Online and a host of local newspaper publishers to
distribute their news stories through the Internet must be
commended. These institutions have set up Web sites on which
news stories coming from Africa can be found. Online
newspapers from Africa are providing an opportunity to a
large number of Africans living abroad and other people
interested in news from Africa to be up-to-date with events
on the continent.
Individuals
Web sites being created by individuals in Africa are also
slowly coming up. These sites could also be used as a means
of providing information with local content. For example,
Africa artists could exhibit some of their works over the
Internet; great African musicians like Luck Dube (South
Africa), Yousour N'dour (Senegal), Salif Keita (Mali), Baba
Maal (Senegal), Khalid (Algeria), Astere Aweke (Ethiopia),
Kofi Olomide (Democratic Republic of Congo), Angelique Kidjo
(Benin), Papa Wemba (Democratic Republic of Congo), and many
more could provide access to their Web sites where their fans
could get information about their music, lyrics, and even
sample audio files of their music; lecturers and researchers
could provide their works on their home pages; and even
Sangomas or traditional healers could also market some of
their products on the Web sites.
Subject-Based Information Gateways
Subject-based information gateways (SBIGs) or virtual
libraries, have emerged as one form of organising Internet
information resources and ensuring that researchers, teaching
staff and other serious Internet users have access to
information which has gone through some form of quality
control. Information gateways have been set up in a number of
disciplines and the following are just, but a few of the
gateways available on the Internet:
-
Social Sciences Information Gateway (SOSIG)
-
http://www.sosig.ac.uk
-
Engineering Electronic Library (EELS)
-
http://www.lub.lu.se/eel/
-
Dutch Electronic Subject Services (DutchEES)
-
http://www.kb.nl/dutchess/
-
INFOMINE World Wide Web virtual library
-
http://infomine.ucr.edu/
-
Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library (EELV)
-
http://www.eevl.ac.uk
Information professionals in Africa should consider setting
up subject-based information gateways of information
resources produced on the continent. These could be in
subject areas such as human rights, rural development,
governance and democracy, agriculture and the environment,
education, etc. Contributions to these gateways could be done
by information professionals on the continent located in
different countries. Establishing African based and managed
information gateways could be one way of marketing the
information produced on the continent to the rest of the
world.
Electronic Bibliographic Databases
Most libraries and documentation centres in Africa have
established local electronic databases. Many of them are
using UNESCO's CDS/ISIS software and most of the databases
created are bibliographic records of materials termed as
'special collections'. These are materials that relate to the
their countries' or parent institutions' available in the
collection. If these databases are made accessible and
searchable over the Internet, it will go along way in
identifying and knowing what information materials are
available on the continent and where they are located.
For most CDS/ISIS users who have access to the Internet, a
number of Web-based Interface programs for accessing CDS/ISIS
based databases are have been developed and made available
from the ISIS Users Forum Web sites at:
http://www.bib.wau.nl/isis/. These can be down loaded
from the site and implemented on the local machines.
Unfortunately, Africa with quite a large number of CDS/ISIS
users, only the National Archives of Namibia has its CDS/ISIS
based databases accessible over the Internet at
http://witbooi.natarch.mec.gov.na. Efforts to train
information professions in publishing CDS/ISIS databases on
the Web are slowly emerging and in June 1999 UNECA organised
training workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for a number of
information professionals from around Africa at which skills
in publishing CDS/ISIS databases on the Web were taught. It
is hoped that participants at the UNECA workshop will soon be
publishing their databases on the Web.
Digitalisation of Documents, Artefacts, etc.
Digitalisation of existing documents, manuscripts, artefacts,
and making them accessible over the information superhighway
is one major way of contribution to the cultural content of
global information. Throughout the world, major
digitalisation projects are being implemented. National
libraries, museums and archives, with the support of national
governments and sometimes private institutions, are spending
millions of dollars on creating digital archives.
Digitalisation of unique national libraries, museum and
archival collections and materials will make these
institutions become accessible to all parts of the world.
Unfortunately, efforts towards digitalisation of information
materials on the continent are either non-existent or very
negligent. Lack of funds, appropriate equipment and skills
could be the major hindering factors to digitalisation of
documents on the continent.
Indigenous Language Orientation
Africa is a continent of thousands of indigenous languages.
While all foreign languages such as English, Portuguese and
French, spoken on the continent, have institutions and
governments fighting to ensure that they are well represented
on the Internet, there seem to be no effort in advancing
African indigenous languages on the Internet. Arguably, in
terms of cost effectiveness, it may not be feasible to create
Internet contents in all of the African languages. However,
established African languages like Kiswahili (spoken in the
East Africa) and Amharic (Ethiopia), spoken by millions of
people, should have a presence on the information
superhighway. Governments that have indigenous national
languages (i.e. Sesotho in Lesotho, Setwana in Botswana)
should also ensure that materials being produced in those
languages also find way on the Internet. This is the only way
African Internet users will find materials in their languages
in cyberspace.
PROBLEMS AND CONSTRAINTS
While discussing the methods and strategies through which
Africa can contribute to global information, it is important
to take note and acknowledge the various problems and
constraints to electronic information sharing and networking
still facing the continent. Above all, Africa's capacity to
contribute to global information will largely depend on how
well these problems are solved. Jensen (1997, 13-15, 41)
discussed in detail the following constraints:
- low level of computerisation in most countries
- scarcity of computers
- lack of proper guidelines on the use of computer facilities
- limited training and lack of skilled manpower
- lack of mechanisms to improve collaboration in areas of
electronic networking
- vandalism of network infrastructure (i.e copper telephone
lines)
- high import duties on computer and communication equipment
- high price of Internet services in some countries
- lack of Internet bandwidth
It should be noted that the degree of the severity of the
above problems differ from country to country. However, if
the continent is to contribute effectively to global
information, the above problems have to be attended to and a
number of strategies and initiatives have to be adopted by
both governments and information professionals. The political
will of African leaders to establish a viable global
information infrastructure on the continent is required and
is already taking shape with the adoption of the African
Information Society Initiative (AISI) document in May 1996
(UNECA 1996).
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
An enabling environment must be established across the
continent, and the implementation of the following is
considered to be very vital:
- African Information Society Initiative
- National Web servers
- Training of library and information professionals
- Training of technical experts
- Conscious government policies and efforts to contribute to
global information
- Effective copyright laws and regulations
Africa Information Society Initiative
African governments and leaders have recognised the role
information and communication technologies (ICT), if properly
harnessed, can play in the development of the continent. They
have also realised the various opportunities presented by
ICTs in overcoming the priority challenges which hinder the
continent's development in the following areas: job creation,
health, education and research, culture, trade and commerce,
tourism, food security, gender and development, man-made
crises and natural disasters. As a result of this realisation
and conviction, in 1996 they adopted the African Information
Society Initiative (AISI) document prepared by the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in which they
agreed to establish an African Information Society. Among the
recommendations made, the Initiative calls upon national
governments to implement the following three which are very
relevant to the subject of this paper (UNECA 1996):
- develop and use software and data that addresses the
variety of languages used in African countries and oral
traditions;
- encourage the development of value added information
services including electronic publishing and networking
facilities;
- support initiatives which build local content.
Implementation of the recommendations of the AISI document is
the surest way through which the continent can contribute to
global information.
Training of Library and Information Professionals
Library and information professionals on the continent are in
a well placed position to make a strong contribution to the
development of the global information infrastructure, by
ensuring that much of what already exist in print format
finds it way on the information superhighway. However, there
seem to be a general lack of adequate skills that would
enable them work in electronic information environments.
Skills in the following subject areas are required:
- web page design, hypertext markup language (HTML) and the
emerging extensible markup language (XML)
- use of electronic networks
- use of metadata
- evaluation of Web-based information sources
- setting up and maintaining subject-based information
gateways
- management of electronic documents and collections
- digitalisation of documents
Skills in the above areas are very important if information
professionals in Africa are to make a major contribution to
global information.
Training of Technical Experts
There are very few technical experts to install and maintain
electronic networks and computer equipment on the continent,
and generally they are overloaded with work and cannot meet
the needs and demands of Internet users. Therefore,
dependency on foreign experts from outside the continent is
still high and this is in spite of the many years of
political independence most African countries have enjoyed. A
deliberate policy should be adopted to ensure that
establishment of electronic networks goes hand in hand with
the training of people to manage and maintain the networks.
The Internet Society (ISOC) is contributing a lot to Africa
in the development of technical expertise. Since 1993, ISOC
has been organising training workshops for participants from
developing countries at which a large number of individuals
from Africa have attended. Training has been in host-based
internetworking technology, backbone internetworking
technology, network navigation services and national network
management. Some of the exiting Internet Web servers and Web
sites on the continent have been set up by people who have
gone through ISOC's workshops. However, local initiatives are
required from within Africa to train the required manpower.
Deliberate Government Policies
Governments and information professionals on the continent
should adopt deliberate policies aimed at creating local
content. Just as there are national libraries, archives and
museums, African governments should also encourage and
support the setting up of national Web servers at which local
information could be published. They should provide support
and funds for the digitalization of some of the materials in
national libraries, archives and museums.
Copyright Laws and Regulations
The question of intellectual property in the digital
information environment should also be addressed on the
continent. Electronic publishing and production of various
works of art and culture can only be very successful if
content producers are assured that their works, even in
cyberspace, will be protected by appropriate and effective
copyright laws. Unfortunately, the situation regarding
protection of intellectual property on the continent is not
that good. The major reason is that in some countries,
copyright laws are old and out of date and do not protect
works produced in electronic formats. In other countries,
laws protect only materials produced by certain sectors of
the industry i.e. music or published books; and in others,
the laws are almost non-existent. It should also be noted
that some countries on the continent have not endorsed the
many international copyright and intellectual property
conventions.
In order to encourage the production of electronic
information on the continent, African governments should
enact and enforce appropriate copyright laws. Information
professionals must take an active part in the establishment
of effective copyright laws and also ensure that the new laws
are not too restrictive.
CONCLUSION
The global information infrastructure is a global phenomenon
with no borders. There are no restrictions on how much should
be contributed to its growth in terms of the information
content. Therefore, the onus is upon both African political
leaders and information professionals to make a valuable
contribution to the growth of the global information
infrastructure. Political leaders should create a conducive
environment by providing the required information
communication technology infrastructure, while information
professionals should use their information processing and
management skills to ensure that information with a large
African content is made available on the global information
infrastructure.
For years, Africa has been a major market and consumer of
information and cultural products from developed countries.
Unless, deliberate steps are taken to contribute to global
information, the continent's millions of inhabitants will
never access their own content, and will forever, even in the
electronic age, remain consumers of electronic information
and cultural products produced from outside the continent.
Fortunate enough, it is not too late. Africa still has the
opportunity to add its unique touch to the new Net culture.
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