The African Digerati Interviews

One of the topics that I veer into every once in a while is built around the term African Digerati. My definition of the term is someone who marries experience with Africa and technology. I initially wrote about it a year ago in one of my favorite posts:

Our insights into technology are not the same as the vast majority of those who live in Africa and our knowledge and perspective of Africa is much different than the rest of the world’s. We, currently, are the people on the bridge – maybe even the bridge – that spans the divide of both knowledge and technology when it comes to Africa.

Finally, I decided to contact a number of individuals who I consider members of this group. There are many more, this is only a smattering of the individuals who are bridging that gap. Some bridge the gap directly by actually creating applications, software and tools in Africa. Others are in the African diaspora in the US and Europe, working within organizations and making a name for themselves.

I’ll be the first to admit that there are many others who rightly belong in this series – please forgive me if I have overlooked anyone that you believe should be outlined. Do know that some didn’t reply to my emails, so are therefore not a part of it.

Over the next few weeks, you will begin to see a few of these interviews come to life here on White African. I hope you enjoy them, and that you’ll take the time to open dialogue about their ideas, thoughts and visions for Africa’s technological future.

Interviews:
Emeka Okafor
Neville Newey
“M”
Rafiq Phillips
Ethan Zuckerman
Ken Banks
Adii Pienaar