French & Africa’s DIGITAL DIVIDE

1. French & Africa’s DIGITAL DIVIDE ‘Gbenga SesanNigeria’s Information Technology Youth Ambassadorwww.gbengasesan.com | me@gbengasesan.com Encouraging Nigerians to Learn FrenchParlon FrancaisAlliance Francais, Lagos, NIGERIA. 15 July 2003.

2. OVERVIEW • Defining the Digital Divide • Africa and the Digital Divide • Africa’s Multilingual Status • Conclusion

3. WHAT IS the Digital Divide? The Digital Divide is the GAP that exists between the technologically advanced and the technologically backward The Digital Divide exists between the global North and South, and within continents and nations The Digital Divide is a virus that brings many setbacks with it – economic, social, political and psychological backwardness Indices of the Digital Divide include PC penetration, Internet usage, bandwidth consumption, content creation and online representation The Digital Divide can be bridged, and can be transformed into Digital Opportunities

4. AFRICA and the Digital Divide Africa is presently at the most unfair end of the Digital Divide equation Annually, Africa loses unquantifiable wealth to the Digital Divide – high cost of communication and Internet services, reliance on Europe and Northern America with security risks… Africa’s language differences contribute to the widening divide “Africa must get onboard… Right now! … Africa will be either on to the Information Age or off to the dark Agricultural Age … Africa is suffering from knowledge apartheid that forces its children to eat the crumbs from the dinner table of the information-affluent nations.” - Philip Emeagwali, A Father of the Internet (www.emeagwali.com)

5. AFRICA'S Multilingual Status Africa is blessed with multiple languages dotting the entire landscape of the continent, with most nations still speaking the language of the nations that occupied their governance seats before independence French and English are about the most popular languages in Africa – hence the Anglophone and Francophone segments This language “barrier” poses a large threat even in the face of bridging Africa’s digital divide Nigerians account for about 20% of Africa’s population, and that says a lot about a possible stride on Africa’s path if Nigerians are bilingual. We will have a smoother transition to the better side of the divide

6. CONCLUSION Africa’s Digital Divide will be bridged, and will eventually become an undeniable Digital Opportunity - having redirected the attention of the world at Africa as the emerging continent Language and local content are major indices in relation to any region’s efforts towards bridging the digital divide African initiatives that seek to bridge the digital divide can cut down on duplicity and reinventing the wheel if the language divide is bridged Multistakeholder support (government, civil society, academia and private sector) should be given to the initiatives that seek to bridge Africa’s language divide – which can in turn build a bridge across the digital divide