These exchanges highlight the differences in the cultures involved and the different understandings of what initially looks like a very simple situation. When the Africans tell the colonialists that this land does not belong to anybody, the colonialists would take that to mean that the land is unoccupied. “It does not belong to anyone” is taken to mean it is ownerless. That was a misunderstanding of what they had been told. For when the African said, “This land does not belong to anyone”, what they mean is this land does not belong to any single person or family. This land is the property of the community under the stewardship of those who currently occupy it. The Elesi of Odogbolu, a Nigerian chief, told the West African land commission in 1912, that he “conceived that land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living and countless yet unborn”. In other words, “this land does not belong to anyone” meant this land belongs to everyone. It is occupied by us, but we do not own it, we are merely the current stewards holding it for future generations.

In my talk during the Digital Citizen Indaba I touched upon the issue of the African blogosphere and ownership asking, “Who owns the African blogosphere”? I used the above example of our ancestors’ attitude to land as the basis of my understanding. In my opinion the internet is a space through which discussion takes place and blogs are the tool through which we utilise that space for discussion. In other words this space we have carved on the internet is our land and bloggers are the occupiers of that land. Like our ancestors I believe that this land does not belong to any of us, it belongs to all of us.

Why is this important? First of all this space belonging to all of us means that there is room for all of us and for all our opinions in that space and we all have an equal right to it. For example those who feel unrepresented in the main stream media can use this space to get their message across. Those who feel left out of the national conversation can use this space to get their message across. Ndesanjo in his keynote address emphasised this highlighting that several Africans who happen to be gay had used this space to express themselves through blogs, several Africans who happen to be white or of Asian origin had used this space to express themselves through their blogs.

Another example, last year during the time of the first DCI there was a passionate, and at times, heated debate about whether a blogging conference organised largely by South Africans, who happened to be white, and held at a university named after Rhodes, had the right to call itself African. I felt then as I do now that, yes, they had the right to call it a conference of African bloggers. I feel no one has the right to stop other bloggers from organising themselves in a way they feel fit. Once you start putting restrictions on how bloggers organise themselves then you are on the slippery slope that ends up with putting restrictions on what bloggers can write about. For if you think that these guys do not have the right to organise a conference for African bloggers do they have the right to write about African bloggers or as African bloggers?

I should clarify the difference between those who objected to the content of the conference and those who object to the very notion of the conference. The DCI crew never claimed to be organising a perfect conference and gave us the opportunity to give our feedback on what they did right and what they could do better. This year you can see they took the suggestions on board. A big issue last year was the DCI venue did not have wireless internet access, this year we had wireless internet access. Last year we raised the issue of representation amongst the speakers in terms of geographical location and content. This year we have spent a lot of time examining the role of language which was led by Tanzanian bloggers with their central role in the Kiswahili blogosphere. We also looked at cyber activism is Ethiopia and Zimbabwe as well v-blogging, photo-blogging and open source. Space to give feedback and raise issues about the content of a conference should always be available. Feedback I have no problem with. What I object to is those who feel that the conference itself had no right to exist in any form.

That is not to say that all bloggers must agree with all other bloggers all the time or even most of the time. In fact we do not have to agree at all! I hope that having disagreements and differences of opinion does not mean we can not sit down together at the end of the debate and appreciate each other. But if that is not the case, the good thing about this space we are carving on the internet is that it is basically limitless. If you do not like the way people are doing things you can start your own thing. Just do not try to stop people from doing what they are doing by placing artificial restrictions based on your opinion of what is and isn’t for they have as much right to this space as you do.

digital citizen indaba | highway africa

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I spoke with on the Democratization of the Digital Citizen in the morning session on Fractured Identities. I shared the floor with my Tanzanian brother Ansbert Ngurumo. Our panel was chaired by Professor Guy Berger.

Check out the DCI wiki which is updated regularly throughout the day for a summary of all the talks, the DCI flickr stream for evidence that bloggers are the best looking people around!

digital citizen indaba

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Why are people always surprised and shocked when certain bloggers defend themselves after they are attacked? I had someone musing loudly in my comments about whether our blogs had become bigger than us. For crying out loud if you attack people they will defend themselves.

Secondly, why are some people always surprised that the verbal knife can cut both ways. If you complain, rightly or wrongly, about non Africans organising, speaking and attending a blogging conference in Africa why would you be surprised when Africans tell you that a non Africa who lives, works, blogs in Africa has more right to write about Africa than an African in the diaspora. I would think that that would be the first counter point you would prepare yourself for.

Thirdly, why are we as a people constantly arguing and debating the same issues over and over again. I challenge anyone of you to point out a new idea, a new controversy that emerged in the verbal sparring of the past two weeks.

Fourthly, if you have been running to your computer or checking out the aggregator every day to find out, “the latest” i suggest you move to Nairobi. The hectic panic that is living in this city will wipe your brain of any energy you may have spare.

Fifthly, blogging is all about thinking for yourself. It is about sharing what you think. Your blog is your opinion. So why is that some bloggers take unreliable second hand information and preach it as gospel? I mean if you write a post claiming that there are “no natives” at the DCI then you really are guilty of “surf and click” laziness of the highest kind. Next time do not stop so soon, you are one click away from the truth.

But you know only a fool thinks he has all the answers and only a fool thinks there is nothing to be learnt from debate with those who disagree with you. A wise person once told me, the biggest honour anyone can give your argument/your position is to to criticise it intellectually because that means that they feel that your position is worth spending time upon. So we can and we should disagree. We just need to learn how to disagree constructively.

So this is what i suggest. Clearly we have many African bloggers who have an opinion on what an African blogging conference should or should not have, should or should not do. We have many African bloggers who have an opinion on how an African blogging conference should be run. Well then, let us hear it.

I have set up a google email discussion group called “African Bloggers”. This email group has a simple task but it is a massive one. This group is created with the intention of working towards organizing a conference for African bloggers in 2007. Our discussions within this group will centre around (but may not limited to) sponsorship, dates, venues, facilities, speakers, agenda. This group is open to ANYONE who has a blog.

Let us take all this passion and try to create something positive out of it. Let’s quit complaining, defending, attacking and start debating, thinking and creating.

I’m in, are you?

(*Ka boom chi! I managed to use Asterix in a serious blog post!)

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The AMM is the base for the Digital Citizens Indaba. This journalism school features brand new TV studios with professional studio equipment. Brand new radio studios. In their finally year students form media companies and these companies have offices in the building. They have massive computer labs and the whole building has wireless broadband. The walls are decorated with historical pictures, original art work, autographed books by Rhodes Alumni,and pieces of media art. In short it is a very impressive building.

The best thing however, yes even better than the wireless broadband internet which by the way is powered by some serious looking equipment, comme ca:

Yes even better than that wireless system and the historical pictures. The best thing about this building is the place where many of us do our best work, the toilets.

The tiles in the toilets are decorated with quotes on the media from various sources. It makes for very interesting reading. Here are a small selection.

From the famous historical:

Three estates in parliament; but in the Reporters’ gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth estate more important far than they all.
Edmund Burke

To the calls to action

Make it your pledge to keep Africa on the front pages of the world’s newspapers and television screens. And not just the bad news, because great and good things which take place on this continent often go unreported.
Mohammed Amin

To the beautifully surreal

Radio lets people see things with their own ears.
New York Times editorial

To the uncompromisingly honest

Only cowards and panic-mongers will think of surrendering to this threat (of apartheid).
Inkululeko

The African proverb

The cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household but his voice is the property of the neighbourhood.
Chinua Achebe

Some give advice

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.
Bill Clinton

To the funny

You cannot hope to bribe or twist (thank God!) the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there’s no occasion to.
Humbert Wolfe

An editor is one who separates the wheat from the chaff and prints the chaff.
Adlai E. Stevenson

Yeah my camera goes everywhere with me because you never know!

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In the Q&A session after Ethan’s address we discussed all forms of citizen media not just blogs. Ghanaian journalists mentioned that with the explosion of the talk radio in their country which in a very interactive medium, radios are blogs. A interesting challenge there, how do we combine these two powerful tools of citizen media, radio and blogs? It is not enough to have websites for radio stations. We need a truly interactive where listeners are contributors as well as content generators. That is one to think about.

We has a lively debate in the Q&A session following the Web 2.0 presentations. Our very own Kenyan Pundit and Emeka, the man behind Timbuktu Chronicles, pointed out that to start a conventional TV station such as Al Jazeera you would need approximately USD 20 million. But using various Web 2.0 applications you can post video, audio, text, interviews, exclusives etc. right on your website and blog. We have extremely powerful tools available to us today, largely for free, these tools can be harnessed by Africans to bridge the digital divide.

The best thing for me today however is the social interaction. It is good to me so many bloggers from across Africa, exchange details and discuss our various experiences. For example apart from Timbuktu Chronicles I also met Alaa who’s imprisonment earlier this year led to a google-bomb campaign which the Kenyan blogosphere responded to with enthusiasm. We talked blogs and politics for about 10 seconds and before you could say “integrated web solutions” we were discussing various Open Sources CMS and the pros and cons of each one. It is also good to meet Ethan as well as the DCI organisers. People who existed only on blogs and email up to today. There are a reasonable number of Kenyans here, mostly journalists who have all expressed interest in blogging and joining KBW like their colleague John Kamau who has been a member for a while. I’ve bonded with, Rebecca who has been blogging for a while.

For the official coverage, podcasts etc, check out the DCI blog.

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On Monday one of the presenters, Neil Jacobson from FutureWorld, when talking about the future of newspapers in particular and media in general told the media about the, “culture of the individual”. That is in today’s digital society people use various tools to generate news that is relevant to them. I do not think that any of you rely solely on one newspaper for news. Many do not even look at newspapers at all.

The digital revolution is here in Africa and newspapers as well as other sections of the MSM need to realise that it is about a lot more to a digital strategy than having a website and a bunch of RSS feeds. The way we assimilate news is changing, where we go for news is changing and through our blogs we are not just reporting the news, which in itself is revolutionary, but we are helping create it, helping construct it, deciding which issues linger and which ones do not. These guys here get it, and they are powerful African news people, that puts a smile on my face.

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Well things finally came to ahead yesterday. No one could hold it in any more. People would either have to come with some answers or the whole place would erupt. After all if a conference of journalists can not make our decision makers accountable who can?

The issue had been burning all week. Whispers here and there but all we got were polite smiles and polite dismissals. We wanted to be taken seriously dammit. These were serious questions we were raising.

Well finally last night at the annual Highway Africa awards, which were live on TV across the continent, things finally came to ahead. Tired of being pushed around we demanded answers to our burning questions. Detailed and full answers. We would not cooperate until we were answered. We demanded to know, and to know immediately on behalf of the people of Africa, we wanted an end to all this conspiracy to all this controversy. So we asked,nay, we demanded to be told. Was it really true that The Princess of Africa also know as Yvonne Chaka Chaka was going to perform live in front of us? And if she was, would she perform her famous hit single “Umqombothi” which for years I thought was “eh mandanzi”?!

Well, mabibi na mabwana, i can reassure that we demanded, on your behalf, and got, on your behalf, an answer! Yes Yvonne, because i’m on first name basis with her cause she knows me like that, was performing. And boy did she perform! Yani she even had me singing ati, “I’m in love with a DJ.”

So there you go controversy sorted.

(You may have read elsewhere about another so called controversy, believe me that is nothing compared to this YCC drama. All i have to say to that is this:

Look at the big picture, at the bigger picture. Where were all these self appointed champions of African blogs when we sent out repeated calls for help? Where were these self appointed defenders of the African blogosphere when we were building. They were online, they knew what we were doing but obviously did not feel it was important enough to engage with us then, so why now? What has changed since?

Remember the old proverb, beware strangers carrying gifts. Just as we who are here in Grahamstown will be watching those around us for anything suspicious, you too watch those around you and their motives.

In KBW we welcome interaction, we welcome those who want to build a community with us. Of course you can refuse to interact with the community except when it is in your own interest. Of course you can ignore us. That is the beautiful thing about our community, even after you join you do not have to participate. You bring to the table what you want to bring. BUT, and oh boy it is a big BUT, BUT if you refuse to interact, if you abdicate your responsibility to engage with your fellow bloggers, if you abdicate in your responsibility to the community then you must allow to me to laugh from the end of my toes when you turn around and come out in full amour as the “defender of the African blogosphere” hehe. We are not good enough for you to engage with, yet we are good enough for you to enlighten about the evil mzungu. Give me a break.

Sisters and brothers, Kenyan Pundit co founded Mzalendo, Mr Mental founded KenyaUnlimited, Bankelele runs probably the most read finanical writing coming out of kenya and Marazzmatazz is no push over as well. Some may try to imply that we came all the way to South Africa to be seduced by 30 pieces of silver. Or they may suggest that if we are not sell outs we are to seduced by the whole proceedings to remain objective. Many of you know us through our blogs. I think it would be fair to say that naivety on world issues is not an accusation you can seriously throw at us.

Beware those who decide they can think for you. One minute were being told how no blogging conference should try to control bloggers, the next minute we are being told about who is or is not worthy to engage. So you want me to be free to blog about what you want me to blog about? Wow. One minute we are told the problem is the conference was not widely publicised, and being asked why they were not invited, the next minute we are being told the conference is bogus anyway. So the rest of the African blogosphere should apply for scholarships but you should be invited? Why? Why you? Why shouldn’t you have to apply with the rest of us? What makes you so damn special?

Next the whole, “there are no natives” (whatever a native is) argument lacks so much logic someone is surely looking for a slapping from a certain Mr Spock. I am sitting in a hall full of 500+ journalists from 40+ African countries, no natives? I have previously blogged about the logical fallacy of an ad hominem argument. Those who have lost the argument tend to attack the man. “Yeah, well Hitler was a vegetarian that means all vegetarians are evil.” The so called handing of our souls to the devil in a code of conduct for bloggers. I mean for crying out loud have you looked at the programme? The “code of conduct” seminar is one of three simultaneous seminars being held on Friday afternoon, hardly the setting for the evil take over of the world is it?

OK enough of the jokes, there is a serious point to all this, believe. Some bloggers have raised concerns with me about the Indaba, which i will bring up when the opportunity arises. I do believe that things can improve, of course they can, the organisers feel that things can improve, this is only the first ever meeting for crying out loud. But i refuse to believe that those who shunned our community and only play lip service to it are now acting as such strong defenders of the African blogosphere for anything other than selfish means. You may chose to read it differently and if so, or even if you agree, blog about it. That is the beauty of blogging!)

Now to help us all smile let me post a picture of our co host last night:

Ahhhhhhhhh, calm all ready Anyone out there know her name?

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