Africa as a knowledge society: A reality check

SummaryThis paper investigates the question of whether Africa is moving towards a knowledge society. An analysis is made of the current initiatives that are undertaken in Africa to put the continent on the road towards a knowledge society. The content of the paper is structured in the following manner. Firstly, we explain what a knowledge society means and based on this definition we describe the technological and economic landscapes that shape the knowledge society. We also identify and discuss four interrelated pillars of a knowledge society which we coined as follows, information and communication technology (ICT) and connectivity; usable content; infrastructure and deliverability and human intellectual capability. We then use these four pillars to analyze the African content as a knowledge society. Our main findings are that Africa has still a far way to go to become a true knowledge society, but that there is hope to successfully transform Africa into a knowledge society. We argue that this success is based on certain preconditions amongst other investment in human capital, effective stopping of brain draining as well as the effective development and maintenance of a physical infrastructure.