Africa-China Dig Entanglements

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This class examines some of the methodological and conceptual instruments that have shaped the understanding and history of technology in Africa. In doing so, it addresses the context, political commitments, and conceptual roots of technological adoption and investment in the afterlife of colonialism. This course seeks to address topics such as:technology's relations with the state, technology and development, technology and diplomacy, and the politics of techno-modernity. The examination of digital tools will include AI-powered facial recognition systems and data production and management, as well as associated understandings of modernity, development, rationality, and objectivity. We explore how African postcolonial states use technologies to try to engender futures beyond the asymmetries established by colonialism and its aftermath. We draw attention to China’s growing digital footprint in Africa as part of the rise of digital development on a global scale