Internet in Africa

Interesting class about internet filtering otherwise known as internet censorship.  It was quite interesting to note the types of censorship and how internet filtering is done.  In the library the time allowed on the internet is limited to 45min. per day to allow everyone an opportunity to use it.  We also do not allow access to social media websites after 2pm (physical police work involved) in the afternoon to allow the learners to do their assignments.  It was also interesting to learn which countries have greater censorship than others.  Sadly, most African countries do not feature as they simply do not have the infrastructure neccesary for internet access. Being proudly African, this prompted my interest to do some research and the results were hardly surprising. 

Africa has 15.3% of the world's population, yet only 7% of its internet usage.  Of the African countries Nigeria (48.4%) heads the pack when it comes to internet usage, followed by Egypt (29.8%), Morocco (16.5%), Kenya (12%) and South Africa fifth at 8.5%. One would've thought that we'd be higher in the ranks, but we are clearly not as progressive as we'd like to believe.    

Dare I ask - what happened to the much talked about African Renaissance during Mbeki's tenure? Has it all been forgotten?

Since we'll be doing our presentations in less than a week, I thought I'll add a useful link I've come across to help us along: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34274/7-Lessons-From-the-World-s-Most-Captivating-Presenters-SlideShare.aspx. 

One can certainly try!