Telecommunications dependency: The African Saga (1850-1980)

Using a multidisciplinary approach this book’s major contention is twofold:

1) telecommunications technology has been used in colonial times as a way to keep Africa in the framework of the unequal international division of labour. In the post-colonial period, telecommunications technology has been used by multinational corporations to control the African telecommunications market and to strengthen their economic activities through the creation and maintenance of outward-oriented national networks; 2) The underdevelopment of Sub-Saharan African countries in matters of telecommunications technology use and manufacture are rooted in the decisive impact of the telecommunications planning strategies and methods implemented in Africa by the African States.

Suggesting that telecommunications should become a major tool for national liberation integration, the author contends that new avenues should be explored so that Africa can build her own dedicated regional satelite system and promote her salvation through economic and technological self-reliance.

Publisher: Regal Press
Year of Publication: 1996