I addressed this question in the video below:
In this video, I referenced some interesting feedback when posing this question to ChatGPT. Below is what I got:
“Your observation highlights a critical and ongoing issue in the intersection of global technological advancement and Africa’s role within it. Here’s a brutally honest assessment, based on historical trends, geopolitical realities, and emerging dynamics:
1. Africa as a Resource Provider, Not a Driver
Historically, Africa has been positioned as a supplier of raw materials rather than a center for innovation or industrialization. The colonial legacy entrenched this dynamic by structuring African economies around the extraction and export of resources like minerals, oil, and agricultural products to fuel industrialization elsewhere. This dependency model persists today in the form of cobalt for batteries, coltan for electronics, and other critical minerals essential for modern technologies.
While Africa possesses the resources that underpin global technological systems, its nations often lack the infrastructure, capital, and political stability to transform these raw materials into finished products or technological ecosystems controlled by Africans. This lack of vertical integration ensures that Africa remains a recipient of technology rather than a driver of innovation.
2. Western and Asian Technological Dominance
Western nations and increasingly Asian nations (especially China) dominate the creation and deployment of technology. These regions have established ecosystems that integrate research institutions, venture capital, and manufacturing, creating a pipeline for constant innovation. Their cultural influences—like Western rationalism or Eastern spiritualism—are embedded in the technologies they produce.
In contrast, African indigenous knowledge systems, which are rich and diverse, have not been codified or systematized into frameworks that can drive technological development. This isn’t due to a lack of creativity or intelligence but rather systemic barriers like lack of funding, brain drain, and the prioritization of external rather than internal markets.
3. Africa’s Current Position: Groomed for Dependency
Africa’s relationship with global technology is increasingly characterized by dependency:
- Infrastructure by Outsiders: Major projects, such as telecommunications networks, are often funded and constructed by non-African entities, such as China through its Belt and Road Initiative. These projects frequently come with strings attached, including debt traps and strategic concessions.
- Consumer Markets: African countries are viewed as emerging markets for technologies developed elsewhere rather than hubs of technological innovation themselves. For instance, smartphone penetration is growing, but the devices and ecosystems are controlled by foreign companies.
- Brain Drain: Many of Africa’s brightest minds in science and technology are educated abroad and often remain there, contributing to innovation in the West or Asia rather than on the continent.
4. Why Africa’s Innovations Struggle to Scale
Africa does have innovation—particularly in mobile payment systems (e.g., M-Pesa), renewable energy solutions, and health tech. However, these innovations rarely scale globally due to:
- Lack of Investment: Venture capital remains skewed toward Western or Asian entrepreneurs, even when African startups demonstrate potential.
- Fragmented Markets: Africa’s political and economic fragmentation (with over 50 nations) makes it difficult to scale technologies continent-wide.
- Limited IP Protection: Weak intellectual property laws discourage African inventors from investing in long-term innovation.
5. Potential for Change
Despite these challenges, there are opportunities for Africa to assert itself:
- Leverage the Resource Advantage: Africa could demand greater participation in the value chain of its natural resources. For example, instead of exporting raw cobalt, African nations could invest in local processing and battery production facilities.
- Embrace Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Africa has a wealth of spiritual, ecological, and medicinal knowledge that could inspire unique technological paradigms. For instance, biomimicry and eco-technologies could draw from traditional African practices of living in harmony with nature.
- Techno-Nationalism: African governments must actively champion domestic innovation through policy, funding, and education. Ethiopia’s homegrown social media platforms and Rwanda’s push for drone technology are steps in the right direction.
- Pan-African Collaboration: Initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could help create a unified market, allowing African technologies to scale more easily.
6. The Risk of Perpetual Subjugation
Without deliberate intervention, Africa risks remaining a “techno-colony,” where it supplies the raw materials and provides a consumer base but has little say in the design, production, or governance of the technologies that dominate its future. This creates a dangerous cycle where technological control becomes a new form of colonialism—what some scholars call “digital neo-colonialism.”
7. A Path Forward
For Africa to transition from a recipient to a creator of technology, it must:
- Prioritize STEM education tailored to African realities and needs.
- Invest in infrastructure and research that encourages homegrown innovation.
- Build regional alliances to pool resources and talent.
- Protect intellectual property and reward innovators.
The road to technological sovereignty is fraught with obstacles, but Africa’s untapped potential—human and natural—remains one of the greatest assets for the global future.”