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This blog caption is actually the title of an unpublished work (currently under review) by Dr.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."

Introduction

The lack of adequate regional ICT infrastructure to support high-quality and high-speed Internet connection in Sub-Saharan Africa is recognised as a major obstacle for setting the region’s economic and social development in motion. But even for the moderate telecommunications infrastructure it employs, Africa pays an estimated US$400 million annually in routing of data traffic. Studies indicate that transmission capacity required to carry Africa’s international voice and data traffic is increasing – it increased by 91 percent in the three years to 2002 to 5.09 Gbps, with projections of a rise to 21.9 Gbps in 2008. This in effect means that Africa will increasingly need to pay more money in routing international traffic unless it can build a cheaper and more efficient international data carrier systems using undersea fibre optic cables.
The East African coast currently has no direct links to the international fibre optic network, which is one of the main reasons why the region’s connectivity is less reliable and costly. But this region is by no means the only one in Sub-Saharan Africa that is paying a high price for lacking a direct link to the international fibre optic system. Consequently, a number of initiatives are underway to create regional – and national - backbones, and some of these initiatives are private-public partnerships. The need for these regional backbones has been made even more urgent in light of the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, adopted by the UN World Summit on the Information Society in November 2005, which asks multilateral institutions and bilateral public donors to consider providing more financial support for regional and large-scale national ICT infrastructure projects.
Without access to affordable infrastructure, there will be little chance of building an information society.

As part of the global agenda to improve communications and data transfer technologies, SAT3, a high capacity optic fibre, was laid along the Western coast of Africa, from Morocco to South Africa. Similarly, a cable has been laid along the entire North African coast up to the Red Sea, with the exception of a small section between Tunisia and Libya. These regions accordingly have access to cheaper and more efficient communication with the rest of the world, than Eastern Africa does.

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.