the session on the urban challenges of Africa remains embedded in my mind. we had seven amazing contributors who had agreed to participate. they all arrived early so that we could run thru the session and talk a bit about what was going to happen. the time to start came and passed with only about four participants in the room. it was staggeringly disappointing...but then, a few more trickled in and then more and more. in the end, we had about thirty all told. a good solid group with whom we had a really robust discussion. we found out that a session had been added on the Future of South Africa....and as the saying goes...the future of Africa goes as the Future of South Africa.
There are two things that have lodged themselves in my mind that make the urban situation of Africa quite different that than every city of the Northern Hemisphere, and perhaps of every other continent. An African does not see the city as their home. it is the place that they stay, but their home is their village. When this was stated, every black African around the circle of chairs nodded their head. A white South Africans at a breakfast session the following day stated 'and this is the problem' when i brought this up as an issue.
i believe that this duality could be the saving grace of the continent IF it could get pervasive broadband to every village. The question is, how can it be possible for a villager to have access to government services even in their own remote homes. Would it be possible, as was suggested in the workshop session, that that the continent could become known as the LEAPFROG continent. It has already done so with the use of the mobile phone. Could it do so with other technologies to enable the the continent to skip the paradigm of centralized industrialization? I hope so.
It could also be that i have a deep empathy with this idea of living a life in which you have one foot in one place that you exist every day, but have a deep affinity with another place. The Zulu believe that you need to do three things to become a man; plant a tree in your village; have a story to tell and to do so, and to kill a man. I am not keen on the third, but each have deeper meanings about commitment to the community; about giving back a gift that provides over time.
so.... where is home?
