Washington, D.C. — Ministers of Communications from across Africa as well as directors of telecommunications companies from around the world are meeting in AFCOM 2001, the 10th telecommunications and information technology conference organized by AFCOM International, Inc., publishers of Africa Communications magazine. Over 30 African nations have sent delegations and for the first time, two African nations - South Africa and Nigeria - have a pavilion. The theme of this year's conference is "Bridging the Digital Divide." AllAfrica's Charles Cobb Jr. spoke with AFCOM founder, George Mason University professor and Executive Director of the University's Center for Media Research and Telecommunications, Dr. Raymond Akwule.
What is AFCOM? Tell us the purpose of AFCOM's annual conference.
AFCOM is a forum for leaders of telecommunications from Africa to meet and discuss telecommunications developments with their colleagues from around the world. The conference idea came about eleven years ago, when I was still a young professor, noticing that in the Washington, D.C. area and in the United States in general there was not a lot of information or knowledge about telecommunications in Africa. What this means is that even among the international development community, where people wanted to help develop telecoms in Africa, they did not know what was available in Africa. They did not know what the needs were in Africa. They did not know what Africans themselves had decided they would like to do with regard to development in general but, more importantly, with development in the area of communications technology. So our idea was to bring the leaders of telecommunications from Africa to the United States to discuss issues that are relevant to the African environment with their counterparts from around the world.
How many people attend the AFCOM conference and who are they?
A typical AFCOM conference has about three categories of people. First are the ministers of communications from across Africa. We average between 20 to 25 ministers of communications at every AFCOM conference. And it is the biggest gathering of African ministers of communications under any one roof anywhere in the world. The second group of people would be leaders of telecommunications from the private sector in Africa - heads of ISPs, for example, cellular outfits. At this conference at least three different cellular outfits which already operate in Africa are coming, wireless local loop providers. Then we have the leaders of telecommunications from everyplace else. So the idea is to bring these two groups of people together - the African public and private sector leaders to be talking to public and private sector leaders from the rest of the world, including international organizations.
You've been holding these conferences for about ten years. Have they all been in the United States?
No. The first one was in the United States and we had three or so in the U.S., but then we had one of them in Ghana and it was very successful. The next year we came back to the U.S. Then two years in the U.S. and we went back to Africa and had a very successful AFCOM conference in Swaziland, and the next year we came back to the U.S. However, now we've decided that at least the main AFCOM conference will be held here, but we will have mini seminars and conferences in Africa. And the reason is that when we started ten years ago there were no major conferences of this type in Africa. Frankly, until this day there are not conferences that are as big as AFCOM or bringing the exact same type of people. However there are many more conferences than we used to have back then. So we felt that since the idea of bringing people together to discuss telecommunications development is ongoing, our biggest contribution would be to give the leaders in Africa a chance to come out once a year to look at what their counterparts are doing, to see what developments are out there, and have these people who normally would not have a chance to meet all of these ministers one at a time, give them a chance to discuss with these ministers what contributions they could make - whether in the area of finance, in the area of technology or in the area of policy.
This year both South Africa and Nigeria will have pavilions. Is this a first? What does it indicate?
It is a first. Our idea is that we start with these two countries because they indicated interest, by the way. We would like in future years to encourage other African countries to have an exhibit. Rather than just going from one booth to the other asking about technology, they have a place where people can come and ask them: What is going on in the Gambia? What's going on in Togo? And what's going on in South Africa? That sort of thing. In future AFCOMs we would like to see African countries represented with exhibits, so you know where to find them and you can sit down with them for longer periods of time and discuss whatever interests you have in terms of your technology or business opportunity.
Are the issues now, as compared to a decade ago, somewhat or maybe significantly different? What is the state of telecommunications in Africa? Will you compare then and now, if that's a fair question?
When we started about 10 years ago, the question was really one of awareness. I remember the question that Africans were being asked at the time was: are you aware that telecommunications can actually help your development process?
Who was asking this?
Well, all of the development specialists, especially the ones that had knowledge about telecommunications. There was argument, debate and skepticism in some quarters as to whether there was even need to spend money - for example, on improving the telephone links in your country; whether there was a need to bring data communications to your country; whether there was a need to expand radio and television. Those issues were being debated back then. Today, we have gone past that debate. The idea now is how do you do it, and where do you go to get the resources to do it? But more importantly, I think in Africa we have now gone the extra step to a situation where we are looking at how Africans can play a much larger role in determining how these events happen within their own continent. And that's really where we are.
Is there something in particular that is critical in terms of this last point? What's critical to how Africans can play a "much larger role?"
In the nature of technology we found that Africa had usually had to look outside of the continent to source the technology, to look for solutions to some of its technology problems. Now when you get technology from outside your own continent you sometimes import items that are not particularly suited to your environment.
For example?
There are simple things like switches that are used for telecommunications. I will give you a story. There was a time when this one particular country in Africa used to import cables - cables that you use for telephones. They imported them from Latin America. But they came to find out after they had laid these things nationally, that in this particular African country it took only a few months for the cable to be destroyed because there were particular kinds of termites on the ground that just destroyed them. The point I am making is this: We have gone so far now that people from within - and that's why I said Africans playing more of a role as to how these things are determined - people from within are playing a bigger role in how they choose the technology that comes in, in what quantities, deciding where they should be deployed, how they should be deployed and some Africans are the engineers that actually implement the projects. This is very useful. It is different from models we have seen in the past, where sometimes decision-making about the technology is made from outside the continent, the money is sourced from outside the continent, the project planners and implementers come from outside the continent and when all of these components result in a network that you see in an African country, no wonder that sometimes it only takes a short time for problems to arise.
Is this a problem of attitude or a problem of resources and skills?
It is a combination. Take the Internet. The Internet is a relatively new technology. Across Africa you have a lot of very competent telecommunications engineers, people who have worked with telephone lines and all kinds of analog switches and even digital switches. But the Internet technology itself is new. Internet protocol - the IP - is new. So, it is understandable that there has to be this constant interaction with the outside world so that there is continuous update of knowledge and skills and that sort of thing. But it is important that whatever skills there are must be transferred and inculcated into the Africans themselves, who will then take that and design for themselves that which will be most appropriate for their own environment.
Talk to me about what an African design might be. Will you draw that out?
Technology design is not always about engineering. It is sometimes about sociology. It's about culture and it's about politics. So, the entire project planning and the program is what I am looking at. It is not enough to just pick up technology and dump it somewhere. And we've seen that happen. When you plan a program, the idea really is to get people to communicate. As long as you keep your eye on that goal - communication - technology is only a tool to that goal called communication. Now if you took a network, or a design that you see somewhere, say Iceland, and just because it worked very well over there and you take it - and I'm not just talking about the physical characteristics of that network, I'm talking about the way people use technology. There are cultural elements to how people use technology. Africa is so diverse that also have to worry about from one end of Africa to the other, the variations, the cultural variations that you will find. So, the point I am trying to make is this: You have to worry about the entire project design element which would include technology, the sociology, the economics of the people, the culture of the people, the politics of the people - their entire way of life.
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Could we just pursue this a little more?
The older generation, for example, they don't need to know about the technology behind the Internet. What they need to know is that this new technology is going to help them do the things they do but do it much better. When I was a kid in Nigeria I used to live across from the post office. There used to be these gentlemen who sat in front of the post office and would write letters for people who could not read or write in English. So, my grandfather or my grandmother would go to the post office and dictate a letter to a grandchild somewhere - in England, in France, or in the U.S. for that matter. These people would write the letter and help them mail the letter. The response to that letter might come back in about 3 months because that was what the postal system was about way back then. Today, if we are able to implement an email system in all of these post offices, then these same people - and we are seeing this happen already - these same people can go to the post office and through an interpreter or somebody who can write for them, dictate the message they want for their grandchild in Oregon or in Glasgow or in Paris - somewhere. Or in South Africa for that matter, or in a different African country. They can dictate this and have this keyed into an email system and the message sent off. So now rather than letter boxes like we used to have, the people will have email boxes at the post office. This is a sort of an adaptation of technology to culture. So if you can see a whole older generation, people who did not learn how to read or write English, it doesn't mean that they cannot use this new technology to better their lives. This is an example of what I mean when I say you have to take the technology but look at the way people live and adapt it to how they can use it. They don't need to know the technology behind the Internet. They only need to know that they can use it to improve the things they do.
