WACREN and the UbuntuNet Alliance programme to foster internet development in Africa

The West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) and the UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking, the regional Research and Education Networking organization for Eastern and Southern Africa, have signed an agreement to adopt the Africa Training Initiative (ATI) a programme that is highly expected to foster accelerated development of the Internet across the African continent. 

www.google.comThis MOU serves to enable the two regional research and education networking bodies to implement the ATI as a defined and endorsed project under their auspices.

The ATI is an independent community initiative developed and previously operated by Eko-Konnect, a cluster of the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN) in the Lagos area.   

Apart from contributing to the development of the Internet in Africa, the ATI  which will be facilitated and supported through the NREN members, will also promote the  adoption of best practices in building and protecting the Internet as well as fostering the emergence of a productive environment for the growing community of African users. 

It is expected that ATI will provide a sustainable capacity building ecosystem for African professionals through training and input into university programs, student involvement, industry participation, fostering Internet research and support structures such as Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and Network Operators Groups (NOGs).  

The initiative is a sustainable, ongoing and replicable framework for skills and capacity growth, and it will also provide a platform for collaboration with internal and external sources of expertise.    

Commenting on the development, Dr. Boubakar Barry, CEO of WACREN said he looked forward to expanded relationships with African organizations and their partners.

“This initiative is of common interest to the regional research and education networks because we recognize the importance of self-sustainability, independent growth, continuity of learning and self-support in establishing long term technical and Internet capability in Africa,” declared Dr Barry.

On his part, Dr. Francis Tusubira, CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance highlighted the need for strategic and tactical approaches to sustainable capacity building.  

“We have been doing a lot of stopgap training and building capacity outside the training institutions.  We need to ensure that our universities internalize the approaches so that graduates are more market ready to operate data networks,” said Dr Tusubira.

WACREN and UbuntuNet Alliance are partners in the ongoing AfricaConnect project and have been collaborating closely since their establishment.

Germany are world champions

Congratulations are due to Germany.Germany are fourth time world champions after beating Argentina 1-0! Not much pomp and funfair this part of Lilongwe, Malawi I suppose most of us had placed our money on Argentina.

Hello ICT, hello African folktales

Raising a couch-potato is probably every parent’s nightmare. Unfortunately, the development and affordability of digital satellite television, video and computer games, means that raising potatoe-couches who escape into virtual societies by watching TV or playing computer games for hours on end is a reality most working class parents in Africa have to live with.

The African child of the 21st Century may never know the joy of playing with mud dolls or making wire cars but they can learn African stories and songs of old. Stories such as Mebelo and Lebelo[An adaptation of the pied piper], Kalulu [Hare]and Hyena, Mikalange and the Ghost, stories, now nearly forgotten, passed on from generations and generations before, stored through word of mouth. This is why the National Library Service (NLS) in Malawi has established a National Folktale Resource Centre within the Library which will preserve traditional forms of folktales including legends, myths, and fables in digital form with the aim of making them freely available to all.

According to the NLS website much of the work encompasses the identification, collection and storage of folktales from a rapidly diminishing pool of traditional intellectuals: elders, clan heads, priests, historians and story tellers. The project is funded by Malawi National Commission for UNESCO and the Global Future Charitable Trust (GFCT), provides audio-visual recording equipment and technical training for Malawian engineers states the website. Trully, modern technology needs not to drive us away from our roots. Instead Africa can use innovations in ICT to embrace culture and reinforce positive societal norms such as respecting elders and sharing.

Globally, there has been an awakening to the importance of preserving folklore. Now more than ever Hollywood is cashing in on creatively re-told folklore such as Little Red Riding Hood, Star Wars, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella and many more.Maybe someday popular folktales like Kalulu and Mikalange might make it to the Box Office but even if these age-old tales do not become Hollywood hits, these folktales are ours and ours to keep and share with our children and our children’s children.