Of Cables, Connections and Control: Africa’s Double Dependency in the Information Age

A little over a decade ago Africa was being written off by some observers as a ‘hopeless’ or ‘lost’ continent. While these characterizations were problematic, international business has now ‘discovered’ the African market and the level of communicative connectivity between the continent and the rest of the world has increased substantially as a result of improved infrastructure and associated falling information relay costs. This chapter examines the discourse and development of the ‘Information Age’ in Africa from low connectivity at the beginning of the fibre optic revolution to the current boom in mobile phone and internet usage. While much of the literature to date has been celebratory, this chapter adopts a critical perspecuve to interrogate the dialectical nature of this revolution in Africa; arguing that fibre-optic cables bring new constraints, not only opportunities.