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Content for Africa by Africans

Written by: John Wesonga

Article Overview: About 3 months ago I attended the ICTExpo organized by ICTVillage, the event was quite interesting with a wide range of presentations including one from Google. It was during that event that the permanent secretary in the ministry of information and communication, Dr.Bitange Ndemo made a very important point concerning content, he said “the biggest challenge we have right now is the issue of locally produced content..we need content providers..”, once he finished a lady from South Africa informed him that they had a large amount of content from the space observatory which they were willing to offer for free, her offer was eagerly accepted. I left the event racking my brain over the need for quality local content and how I could play a major part of that process.

Content for Africa by Africans

About 3 months ago I attended the ICTExpo organized by ICTVillage, the event was quite interesting with a wide range of presentations including one from Google. It was during that event that the permanent secretary in the ministry of information and communication, Dr.Bitange Ndemo made a very important point concerning content, he said “the biggest challenge we have right now is the issue of locally produced content..we need content providers..”, once he finished a lady from South Africa informed him that they had a large amount of content from the space observatory which they were willing to offer for free, her offer was eagerly accepted. I left the event racking my brain over the need for quality local content and how I could play a major part of that process.


The need for locally produced quality content is one that all African countries face, the colonial legacy that most African countries have inherited has resulted in a large amount of Western/European content forming the bulk of what we expose ourselves to. The vast amount of traditional and cultural information that was passed from generation to generation has been largely ignored by local content providers and instead our bookshelves and magazine racks are filled with the latest copy of Harry Potter among other publications.


The question I ask myself is “when will someone decide that it’s time to put up our historical content?” if we are expecting the next multinational to set money aside in order to achieve this then we are mistaken, why should an American care about the naming practices of the Luhya in Kenya? Africa and Africans must step up to the plate and recognize the treasure that is our rich culture and then go the step forward to put that content online for an internet savvy generation.


Two months ago I was introduced to a very interesting man, Mr.Viterlis Sitati, and believe you me once I give you his story you’ll see why I say his interesting. Mr.Sitati who has had and continues to have a long and remarkable career in government service has spent countless hours researching names within the African context and their meanings and variations in other languages, so far he has compiled well over 5000 names and is in the process of adding even the historical context of the particular name. Can you imagine if this content was put online so that Africans locally and in the Diaspora were able to access it? The possibilities are endless, and this is a clear example of the passion for local content that we need.


The infrastructure to manage, store and disseminate the content to the masses is available, all we need now is the content providers who have a passion for Africa to step up and focus on producing the content. The opportunities for provision of content are enormous and range from academic applications, business and cultural applications.

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Article Tags: Africa, African countries, African countries, Bitange Ndemo, content providers, content providers, Google, Harry Potter, Kenya Africa and Africans, local content, local content, local content, ministry of information and communication, permanent secretary, South Africa, Viterlis Sitati, Western European



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