Articles, interviews and Projects

Read more about my journey on page 29

“I quickly realized that AI technologies could cause harm and perpetuate existing inequalities if not developed and deployed ethically, and those who will suffer most are millions of people on my continent, Africa.” Emsie Erastus

In African culture, the harvest is the people's property and is kept safe in communally constructed barns. It is ours, safeguarding what sustains us; no one else has any authority over it.

​Data must travel in the same direction. To ensure that information is safe, independent, and beneficial to the people rather than outside interests, Africa's digital harvest requires its own Okaanda, which must be owned and maintained by locals. When a robust, locally constructed data infrastructure is in place, control remains in the community, safeguarding knowledge, encouraging creativity, and forming a future where data empowers rather than exploits.

This project looks for wisdom in African traditional knowledge and places data within African store principles. 

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Interview with Democracy Now!

Germany has apologised for its role in the first genocide of the 20th century, which took place in Namibia, a former colony then known as German South West Africa. Between 1904 and 1908, German colonisers killed tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama people in Namibia.

​German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas officially described the massacre as genocide and outlined an offer of more than $1.34 billion in development aid to the Namibian government.

The offer was not negotiated with survivors of the genocide, and critics have described it as a pittance. We speak with Nyoko Muvangua, born of the Ovaherero people who were targeted for ethnic cleansing by the German government, and Namibian researcher Emsie Erastus (watch full interview)