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The African Challenge: Internet, Networking and Connectivity

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The African Challenge: Internet, Networking and Connectivity ThirdWorld Quarterly, Vol 18, No 5, pp 883± 898, 1997 TheAfrican challenge: internet, networkingand connectivity activities ina developingenvironment OLIVIERCOEUR DEROY LeMonde s’ est trouve Âouverta Átoutela race humaine ViveÂs,1531 Theaim of this article is tohighlight the importance of electronic communi- cationnetworks such as theinternet in helping the development processes initiatedseveral decades ago in Africa. First, I describebrie¯ y thenetworking environmentin Africa, the technologies, the networking systems andinitiatives. Next,I undertakea cogitationon the development of these networks in Africa anddescribe the obstacles to their expansion and challenges to theirdevelopment inthe current African environment. Why is theinternet useful for the African continent?Are there other priorities? Can electronic communication networks be developmenttools? Are they useful for the African continent? Are there other priorities?My answers andthe presentation of several initiatives and network projectsshed light on the vital and desperate need for such information and communicationtechnologies in theacademic, development and research sectors, thereforefor all of African society. Theinternet might be seen bysome typesof peoplein developedcountries as apasttime,a game,an entertainment, a newmultimedia medium providing nice graphicsand images. Its needand value are notfully understood in a society `stuffed’with information. Information, information technologies and data net- workshave a fundamentalrole in the development of our societal and cultural environments.Their role is betterunderstood in the context of developing countries.The internet and other communication networks are actualdevelop- menttools, as importantas educational,agricultural and training programmes. The Africanmatrix TheAfrican continent has theleast developed telecommunication network in the world.The International Telecommunication Union ( ITU)indicatesfor the Africancontinent in 1994a teledensity 1 of1.6 (45 in Europe)and 1.2 outside the largeurban centres. These numbers are muchlower in sub-Saharan Africa (SouthAfrica is theexception) where the number of telephonesis lowerthan in Olivier Coeurde Royis ate-mail , [email protected] . 0143-6597/97/050883-16$7.00 Ó 1997Third World Quarterly 883 OLIVIER COEUR DEROY Manhattan.The telecommunications infrastructure is insuf®cient, not well adaptedto theneed of theAfrican environment and unequally distributed on the continent.Equipment is concentratedin urban zones and not rural zones where mostof the population’ s livesare forgotten.The following paragraphs describe thecurrent status of the development of electroniccommunication networks. The term`matrix’ refers tothe set ofall networks, the internet as wellas other networkssuch as BitNet,FidoNet and Unix to Unix Copy ( UUCP). Table 1 presentsthe four main types of networking connectivity in Africa. Themost recent survey shows that 40 African countries have full connection tothe internet. 2 Thesecountries are mainlylocated in the north and west of the continentand South Africa. A fullinternet connection means thatusers cantake advantageof networking services suchas email,conferences, newsgroups, distributionlists, remote log-in, File Transfer Protocol, ( FTP)gopher,Wide Area InformationServers ( WAIS)andthe Web. Other countries are alsoconnected to othernetworks such as BitNet,FidoNet and UUCP withwhich an internet connectionis possible. TheBitNet network offers threebasic communication tools: messages, ftpand electronicmail. The electronic bulletin board can be used interactively. BitNet isconnectedto othernetworks such as theinternet. In Africa, Egypt and Burundi are theonly countries connected to BitNet. TheFidoNet network was establishedin 1984 to support electronic mail and thenewsgroup service between different Bulletin Board System ( BBS), with an attractiveprice. More than 25 000computers are connectedto the FidoNet network.FidoNet uses thetraditional telephone network as acommunication toolbetween computers equipped with networks. FidoNet Systems are batch- basedstore and forward technology widely used in Africa because they offer a low-costnetworking platform optimised for use onlow-quality phone lines. Fidonetsystems are notinternet-upgradeab le,but are connectedto the internet and to the UUCP Network.In Africa FidoNet is mainlyused by NGOs. Table 1 showsthat FidoNet is availablein Eritrea and Rwanda. UUCP isaset ofprotocolsdeveloped to copy® les betweenUnix systems, using phonelines and modems. UUCP was initiallydeveloped for Unix systems and alsoperforms on other operating systems. UUCP is abatch-basedsystem, only suitablefor low-volume data transmission. UUCP canrun over different networks (packetswitching, X.25 lines, leased line). Indirect connections to the internet are possiblevia a computerconnected to theinternet and transmission via a UUCP call. UUCP is widelyused in Africa because the system makes possiblean easy transitiontowards the TCP/IP protocol,3 whichprovides a directconnection to the internet.In other words, UUCP systems are TCP/IP compatibleand internet upgradeable.The UUCP technologyis welladapted to the African communica- tionsinfrastructure. The UUCP networkis ableto work with the simplest equipment,with bad telephone lines and on different types of networks. The mainnetworks that use thistechnology are RIO inFrancophone Africa and UNINET-ZA insouthern Africa. Thedifferences between the types of services offeredby the FidoNet and UUCP networksand by the internet are explainedby the lack of interactivity,the unavailabilityof telnet and rlog-in applications that allow users towork on 884 INTERNET ACTIVITIES INADEVELOPING ENVIRONMENT TABLE 1 Networkingconnectivity in Africa Release:97.09.04, last-modi® ed: 1997/ 09/19 Code Country Connection Comments AOAngola (Republic of) FI BFBurkina Faso FI BJ Benin FI BW Botswana FI CFCentral African Republic FI FI CICoÃte’Ivoire FImeans Full internet CM Cameroon FIConnection DJ Djibouti FIThis includes remote DZ Algeria FIapplications such as telnet, ftp EG Egypt FIBand internet E-mail ET Ethiopia FI GH Ghana FI PFI KE Kenya FIstands fora provisional LS Lesotho FIfull internet connection MA Morocco FIThis is used when one or more MGMadagascar FIof the following is true: ML Mali FIaddress not veri® ed MRMauritania FIor lack of address NA Namibia FInet connection possible but NE Niger FInot of® cially announced NG Nigeria FIpremature of® cial SN Senegal FIannouncement of connection SZSwaziland FI TN Tunisia FI TZ Tanzania FI B UG Uganda FIstands forBitNet connection ZASouth Africa FI ZM Zambiaa FI ZW Zimbabwe FI TG Togo FI GQEquatorial Guinea FI GWGuinea Bissau FI GA Gabon FI SD Sudan FI BI Burundi FI-B CDDemocratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) b PFI GN Guinea PFI CG Congo PFI MW Malawi FFidoNet Network Connection RW Rwandac FIt is assumed that the connection ER Eritrea F is stable and reliable SLSierra Leone U UUCPConnection TD Chad UThe country is reachable GM Gambia U by e-mail SO Somalia 0 LY Libya 0No connection LR Liberia 0 FI 5 Full internet connection, including remote applications such as telnet, ftp and internet email. PFI 5 Provisional full internet connection. This is used when one or more of the following is true: address not veri® ed or lack of address; net connection possible but not of® cially announced; premature of® cial announcement of connection. B 5 BitNet connection. F 5 FidoNet connection. Itis assumed that the network is stable and reliable. U 5 UUCPconnection. The country is reachable by email. 0 5 Noconnection. aIntermittent; bUnstable Connectivity; cCurrently Cut. Source: Compiled fromdata obtained on the internet, on the World Wide Web Site developed by Olivier Crepin-Leblond, `International e-mail accessibility’ ,available at: http://www.ee.ic.ac.uic/misc/country-codes.html. 885 OLIVIER COEUR DEROY remotecomputers and by thelack of internetservices suchas WAIS,FileTransfer Protocol FTP andthe World Wide Web ( WWW)inan interactive mode. 4 Resources offeredby the electronic mail in batch mode are nevertheless important.They allow participation in forums,discussion lists, the WAIS database and FTP,documentand computer programs research viaArchie and Trickel servers, access toinformation available on the WWW viaelectronic mail, searchingfor electronic directories such as WHOIS andX500 and the reading of newsand articles available on UseNet. Compared to the costs ofvoice and fax telecommunications,electronic mail is theonly type of technology that Africa canafford for international communications. Whenthe main objective is toget new data which Africa has lackedfor severalyears, these networks are, in the short term, an excellent basis for trainingusers whowill know in the future the conviviality and ef® ciencyof full directinternet connections. The maincommunication networks in Africa Themain networking projects being developed or in working condition on the Africancontinent have chie¯ y beencreated by non-governmental agencies and are mainlyresearch± education networks. The following section brie¯ y presents themain communications networks in Africa. GreenNet GreenNetis thenetwork of a nongovernmentalorganisation ( NGO) member of theAlliance for Global Communication ( APC).Thenetwork is basedon Fidonet technology.The Fido Gateway of GreeNet (GnFido), with the `store and forward’technology allows access tobasic services ofthe internet (email). GreenNetworks conjointly with other networks helping the development of local initiativeslike HealthNet and SDN participatein
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