And now, our focus turns to the female citizens of sub-Saharan Africa!

This blog caption is actually the title of an unpublished work (currently under review) by Dr. Fay Cobb Payton, who has to her credit, numerous publications straddling the crossroads of ICT, digital divide and 3rd world access.

Here's a 20 thousand feet synopsis of the book;

Technology alone cannot act as a direct cause of women's empowerment.
Therefore, we do not support the argument that ICT will change women's
lives in a profound and positive way. Instead, we find that strategic
empowerment can only occur in the context of broader social change, and
even Western, technologically advanced nations continue to grapple with
the roles of women in IT issues (Berki and Payton, 2005).

In my mind, two words sum up the popular perception of the telecom sector; 'frenetic' and 'turbulent'. I agree, some people thrive in such environments, while for some others, it’s a career debilitating disease. The industry is unique for a number of reasons but for the purposes of this illustration, we stick to the Technological elements of it.
The telecommunication industry is pretty much the primary vehicle that ushered in the current digital era, hence the moniker; 'information technology age', and it somehow remains the bleeding edge of current technological innovations, evidenced by its characteristically high disruptive technology propensity. Following from this, I find it interesting, but perfectly logical that telecom is also leading the charge in the ‘digitalization’ of SSA (sub-Saharan Africa) -- ahead of all other needs in SSA: water, power, healthcare, etc. Of all possible hues,  the SSA digital lightening flashes in telecom silhouettes! This sentiment is aptly captured in a popular South African joke; "It’s easier to talk on the phone these days than get a bucket of water from Cape town water faucets."

I finally made good on my promise in part I, so here’s part II.
Via this interview with Philip Emeagwali (Left) and this article by Assante Darko (Right) of University of Lesotho, we further explore the African Diaspora question and all it’s ramifications.

The African Diaspora conundrum could either be interpreted as “brain drain” or “brain gain” depending on your convictions on the subject matter. I believe my sanguine introduction in part I casts me in the glass-is-half-full camp. So be it. 
The “brain drain” theory says: Skilled Africans migrate to foreign countries with their ICT skills, and in essence, depleting the residual skill/academic pool while enriching their destination countries with same. In the SSA context, the “Brain drain” theory resonates pretty strongly with the Atlantic slave trade theme – where SSA suffered a massive drain/depletion of “prime” economic capital (read: human capital). The associated trepidation with the “Brain Drain” point of view is not totally baseless per my paraphrased version of this libertine theory on wealth: 

“ If you took all the trained, skillful, and accomplished sub-Saharan Africans and moved them to a deserted Island with only the clothes on their backs, leaving behind all their material wealth and acquisitions. In 10 years, Sub-Saharan Africans will still be wallowing in the throes of HIV/AIDS, begging for UN handouts and IMF bailouts. While on the desert island congress floors, they’ll be arguing aid and support package propositions for Africa as well as curbing illegal African immigration to their desert Island.”  

In part I, Rebecca Enonchong is a dazzling success story -- it wasn't smooth sailing all the way, but somehow all the factors came together for her company, AppTech; timing, patience, contacts, experience, management, skills, etc.
Via Africa unchained, we present in part II, Monique Maddy. And just like Enonchong; Harvard trained, African-born female, with an ambitious sub-Saharan Africa based/focused ICT endeavor. Her company, Adesemi communications, waged a 7-year long crusade in Tanzania but eventually threw in the towel.

She had the following interview with Cynthia Churchwell on Global Envision in January 2005, "An Enterpreneur's Journey in Africa" :

When Liberia-born Monique Maddy started Adesemi to offer users throughout Africa a wireless system of pagers and public pay phones, she believed that tremendous pent-up demand would launch her company to success. But in fact, the company eventually had to be liquidated, a casualty not only of internal miscalculations but also of the bureaucracy, corruption, and environmental factors faced by start-ups in Africa and other developing countries.

The term 'Diaspora' immediately connotes loss, deficit, downfall, ruin, death; loss of manpower/human capital, loss of intellectual capital, loss of much needed (ICT) skills -- that would all 'hypothetically' be more useful if they stayed home in Africa.

This blog supplies some interesting statistics that appear to contradict this pervasive intuition that diaspora amounts to denoument and death of a society;

 "...Diaspora on average contribute 5-10% of some African countries Gross Domestic Product and in a few cases over 20%. In a year alone it is estimated that the Diaspora invest over US$ 450 million, this excludes the estimated US$ 12 billion remittances sent by the Diaspora annually..."

And in response to the above blog, I had said:

"Diaspora investments tickles me to the very core -- in a positive way, that is :-)
Permit me to introduce another major ICT-Diaspora connection here:
Anybody in sub-Saharan Africa who knows a thing or two about leveraging ICT for economic development is always quick to brandish the PSA (Singapore) story, and very few understand or acknowledge the 'diaspora Engineering' underpinnings. When Singapore started planning this ICT leveraged PSA concept, they had ...