Africa Skipped a Generation of Technology, but the Future will Include the Third World

Due to the harsh landscape, corrupt leadership, and intense poverty of Africa, millions of people missed out on a generation of technology that we in the West take for granted. It was a near impossibility to cover the African continent with powerlines and telephone poles in the last century. Existence itself has been as near to Hell in some African countries as can be imagined. Telecommunications in much of the continent's most impoverished nations has remained a distant dream. That a Sudanese rapper has a Youtube video about Facebook could signifiy a massive shift.

The irony is that many of the resources the West relies upon to build cell phones have come from African soil; Congo, Nigeria and Sudan (where Bangs, above, hails from) have all provided the raw materials to build our most popular tech gadgets. Corrupt government deals stepped over the people in these countries and lined the pockets of a few greedy leaders and a few massive corporations.

Now, however, wireless technology is speeding up the development of the third world. This is nowhere more evident than in Africa. This is not to say that corporations aren't going to benefit. On the contrary, cellphone companies like Orange are working to brand themselves to be as recognizable as Coca Cola, even in places where shoes are a luxury. Why? Because it's a huge and potentially burgeoning market. The cost to build wireless towers in Africa is nominal compared to the previous options of building physical lines. The hunger for cultural inclusion in Africa is close to outweighing the need for relief aid. Notice the heavy presence of the iphone in this video. A product shot in the follow up video to one that cleared 3 million views is no accident.

The internet is becoming global. It is making it possible for a common language to emerge on the planet. The cult of the amateur has reached the farthest corners of the planet in a relatively lightning fast fashion. BANGS is now a youtube sensation, his "Take you to da movies" video reaching over 3 million views. The fact that his videos idolize typical Hip Hop consumerism is a whole other layer of human irony.

Of course we mostly watch because the simplicity of his rapping is ridiculous and rarely even rhymes but I think we also are rooting for "ya boy Bangs". Maybe we enjoy the fact that a marginalized piece of the world can gain an audience with more ease than ever before. Maybe Bangs heralds a new global culture, leaving the past where it belongs.

We shall see where it ends up. The playing field may not quite be level but it is definitely changing, and rapidly.