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time and Zimbabwean socio-economic consciousness
February 05, 2013
Ever since the
onset of colonialism, information and communications technologies
(ICTs) in Zimbabwe have regularly undergone 'revolutionary' phases.
The most efficient of these technologies have initially been the
privilege of the few and then with the expansion of free market
economics, have been imposed on the masses to accept their full
import or else re-negotiate their identities and cultural practices.
This is true of the written word (paper, mechanised letters/postal
services); the telegraph and telephone; the gramophone/radio; the
television/ audiovisual 'technologies- and in contemporary
times, the internet and mobile telephony.
In the varying
phases of the introduction of these mechanisms of communication,
their 'revolutionary- import has been not so much in
their invention for us here in Zimbabwe, but more their ability
to change our societal way of life either by way of changes in the
mechanics of our existence or by way of embracing new cultural traits
and fashions that first came with the onset and longue duree of
With each new
communication technology came changes to different attributes of
our society. The letter brought a scramble for literacy, the telephone,
radio and television not only became status symbols but also were
to be identified with proximity to urban success/westernization
and therefore a departure from what was then perceived to be the
'backwardness- of rural life. (During the course of
the liberation war possessing a radio let alone a television set
in the rural areas would be to risk life and limb after being accused
of either being a spy or a sellout.)
But it is perhaps
in the aftermath of independence that our country-s interaction
with advances in ICTs becomes more apparent. Particularly where
one examines academic considerations as to the meaning of time,
space, technology and or mobility. Where we liberated the country,
we tended to focus more on ideological demagoguery (perhaps correctly
and in tandem with the times) without understanding this important
continuum (time, space, technology and mobility) that had been with
us since our historical encounter with full scale colonialism. This
is why perhaps it was reported that our post independence government
turned down offers from potential satellite broadcasters to set
up their operations here in the late 1980s. Apparently it was worried
about the potential of the latter to undermine our national culture.
This, perhaps without a fuller understanding of the full import
of the end of the Cold War and the onset of the need to re-negotiate
Zimbabwe's placement in the context of globalisation.
And this is
why too, a now major mobile communications company, Econet Wireless,
had to face years of legal battles in order to become legally operational
in the 1990s. Our government then did not understand the nexus of
time, space and technology or even if it did, it did not understand
the new energies within the context of the global political economy.
It was therefore unnecessarily prohibitive and insecure about ICTs
instead of harnessing them for the greater societal good without
the blatant pursuit of the politics of the belly that we were to
witness at that time.
It is such an
attitude that has made Zimbabwean society an unfortunate victim
of what anthropologists have called 'millenial capitalism-
due to our inability to mitigate the direct and indirect dis-empowering
socio-economic effects of the technological advances in the 'time-space-
continuum in tandem with globalized capitalism. An off shoot of
which has been our continuing integration into a global economy
that values, above all else, hegemonic free market capitalism without
social democratic principles. This, at the expense of the livelihoods
of a majority of our country-s citizens.
This is a salient
point to make in the wake of mobile telephony, the internet and
social media expansion in Zimbabwe. It appears as though, as of
old, we are unable to negotiate our way around these new technologies
without our government seeking to resort to direct censorship, arrests
and intimidation of those who would use these to express ourselves
as is our constitutional right.
ICTs would be used to seek to debate and find solutions to our national
problems, government officials and state security are more keen
on keeping their usage only in relation to the abstract while companies
are more interested more in the profit motive in exploring our small
but very energetic market. What continues to lack is deliberate
application of democratic and maximum possible social beneficiation
in utilizing these technologies
where one considers the scramble to make money from these ICTs by
promoting a consumerist culture that does not begin to address issues
and matters of production or innovation in our society. Or alternatively,
seeking merely to use these technologies for the purposes of partisan
and politicized democratization processes without framing their
usage beyond the acquisition of power by one party over the other.
Where we have
taken lessons about the significance of ICTs to development processes,
we have done so in mimic fashion without full application of context
and a pace that is slow due either to government intransigence,
businesses competing for maximum profit in the shortest possible
time and narrow politically expedient perceptions about the impact
of ICTs in the broader democratization struggle.
As it is, what
we are witnessing is the unmitigated reinvention of Zimbabwean society
via ICTs without a democratic and broad social development oriented
context. Proclamations of ICT policies have tended more to be hand-me-downs
either from South East Asia or international NGOs and are rarely
interrogated as to their full import for Zimbabwean society or its
betterment. As an unfortunate end product, we will be waiting for
ICTs to determine how we utilize space, time and technology, and
not vice versa, where we would determine to what best democratic
interests these technologies should serve us.
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