Relationality or Hospitality in Twenty-First Century Research? Big Data, Internet of Things, and the Resilience of Coloniality on Africa

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Published: 2020-06-26
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26806/modafr.v8i1.278
Keywords:
technological relationality, digital coloniality, Chivanhu/ Ubuntu, indigenous humanistic hospitality, African data sovereignty

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Artwell Nhemachena
University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia
Nokuthula Hlabangane
University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
Maria B Kaundjua
University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia

Abstract

In a supposedly relational world, African people are increasingly datafied, dehumanised and denied self-knowledge, self-mastery, self-organization and data sovereignty. They are datafied, dehumanised and recolonised by foreign corporations and states engaged in the new scramble for African data. Arguing for more attention to data sovereignty, this article notes that the relational Internet of Things and Big Data threaten the autonomy, privacy, data, and national sovereignty of Africans. Deemed, in relational ontologies, to be lacking autonomy and to be indistinct from machines/nonhumans/animals, Africans would then be inserted or implanted with remotely controlled intelligent tracking devices that mine data from their brains, bodies, homes, cities and so on. Because technological relationality effaces distinctions between nature and culture, it legitimised mining data from human minds/bodies as if the data were natural minerals.

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How to Cite
Nhemachena, A., Hlabangane, N., & Kaundjua, M. B. (2020). Relationality or Hospitality in Twenty-First Century Research? Big Data, Internet of Things, and the Resilience of Coloniality on Africa. Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society, 8(1), 105–139. https://doi.org/10.26806/modafr.v8i1.278
Issue
Vol. 8 No. 1 (2020): Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society
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Articles
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Author Biographies

Artwell Nhemachena, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia

He is a visiting Associate Professor at Kobe University in Japan and teaches at the University of Namibia. He is also a Research Fellow at the University of South Africa. Holding a BSc Honours Degree in Sociology, an MSc in Sociology and Social Anthropology, and a PhD in Anthropology he has published widely on the sociology and anthropology of science and technology studies, decoloniality, development studies and security studies. E-mail: artwellnhemachena@ymail.com.

Nokuthula Hlabangane, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

She holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her doctoral thesis is entitled “The Political Economy of Teenage Sexuality in the Time of HIV/AIDS: The Case of Soweto, South Africa.” Attached to the University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, her research interests are in knowledge and power including decolonising anthropology. E-mail: hlabanl@unisa.ac.za.

Maria B Kaundjua, University of Namibia, Windhoek, Namibia

She holds an MA in Population and Development. She has conducted research on climate change, mortality analyses, MDGs, gender, youths, reproductive health, and the sociology of health. She teaches at the University of Namibia. E-mail: mbkaundjua@unam.na.