Information Ethics in Africa: Cross-cutting Themes

Abstract

This book was compiled by internationally recognised researchers and academics. These acclaimed researchers contributed chapters to the book on topics that are both practical and theoretical in terms of Information Ethics in an African context. The contributions were peer reviewed by two independent researchers (as well as members of the editorial committee) and authors were given the opportunity to revise their contributions based on the suggestions of the reviewers. This book is primarily aimed at researchers, but can also be used at postgraduate level (and some chapters even at senior undergraduate level).

Full text

Information
Ethics
in Africa:
Cross-cutting Themes
Edited by
Dennis Ocholla, Johannes Britz, Rafael Capurro and Coetzee Bester
Information Ethics in Africa: Cross-cutting Themes • Edited by D Ocholla, J Britz, R Capurro and C Bester
ACFIE_handbook for Information Ethics in Africa2.indd 4 2013/07/16 01:02:47 PM

Information Ethics in Africa:
Cross-cutting Themes
Edited by
Dennis Ocholla, Johannes Britz, Rafael Capurro and Coetzee Bester



Inform
a
Cross-
c
2013
ISBN 9
7
Editors
Prof. D
e
Prof. Jo
h
Prof. R
a
Mr. Coe
This wo
r
2.5 Sou
t
details.
Produc
t
Mr Herc
Ms Rac
h
Mrs Isa
b
Ms Can
d
Publish
A
frican
C
Depart
m
Universi
South
A
Printed
Groep
7
Posbus
Tamboti
GPS: S
u
a
tion Ethics
c
utting The
m
7
8-1-920527
-
e
nnis Ocholl
a
h
annes Brit
z
a
fael Capurr
o
tzee Bester
r
k is license
d
t
h African Li
c
t
ion
c
ules Boshof
f
h
el Bothma
b
el Claasen
d
ice le Sueu
ed By
C
entre of E
x
m
ent of Infor
m
i
ty of Pretori
a
A
frica
By
7
Drukkers &
14717, Sino
i
eweg 776,
K
u
id 25° 37' 3
5
in Africa:
m
es
-
65-5
a
z
o
d
under a Cr
e
c
ence. Plea
s
f
r
x
cellence for
m
ation Scie
n
a
Uitgewers
B
ville, 0129
K
ameeldrif-o
o
5
.2" Oos 28
°
e
ative Com
m
s
e see http://
Information
n
ce
B
K (1993/24
1
o
s, Pretoria
°
17' 51.8"
m
ons Attribu
t
/
creativecom
Ethics
1
29/23)
t
ion-Non-co
m
mons.org/li
c
m
mercial-No
enses/by-n
c
Derivative
W
c
-nd/2.5/za f
o
W
orks
o
r

Contents


Page i

Contents
Foreword ……………………………………………………………………………………iii
About the Authors …………………………………………………………………………v
Chapter One
Understanding Information Ethics ………………………………………………...1
Chapter Two
Information Ethics in the African Context ………………………………………...7
Chapter Three
What is African Information Ethics? ……………………………………………..21
Chapter Four
Ethical Dimension of the Information Society: Implications for Africa………..29
Chapter Five
Ethical Implications of Intellectual Property in Africa ………………………….43
Chapter Six
e-Government Divide: Implications for sub-Saharan Africa……………….….59
Chapter Seven
To Understand or not to Understand: A Critical Reflection on Information
and Knowledge Poverty …………………………………………………………..71
Index ………………………………………………………………………………………..81




Page ii


Foreword


Page iii

Foreword
Since the first African Conference on Information Ethics was held in February 2007, various academic
institutions, government departments and private sector stakeholders have contributed to the
expansion of the work and objectives set by the conference. These objectives not only included the
growth of an awareness about Information Ethics in Africa, but also aimed to formally research the
topic and teach the new knowledge in formal courses at universities. In support of the mentioned
academic objectives, the Africa Network for Information Ethics (ANIE) and the Africa Centre of
Excellence for Information Ethics (ACEIE) were structured to further support the UNESCO activities in
WSIS on the African continent.
The ACEIE synchronises research and coordinates academic activities to enhance the awareness
and knowledge of all stakeholders and role players on the matter of Information Ethics. The activities
include workshops, conferences and public lectures, as well as books and articles. The ACEIE
envisaged the compilation of this Information Ethics in Africa: Cross-cutting Themes to form an
important part of the research activities on Information Ethics in Africa.
Information Ethics in Africa: Cross-cutting Themes was compiled by internationally recognised
researchers and academics. These acclaimed researchers contributed chapters to the book on topics
that are both practical and theoretical in terms of Information Ethics in an African context. The
contributions were peer reviewed by two independent researchers (as well as members of the
editorial committee) and authors were given the opportunity to revise their contributions based on the
suggestions of the reviewers.
Information Ethics in Africa: Cross-cutting Themes is primarily aimed at researchers, but can also be
used at postgraduate level (and some chapters even at senior undergraduate level).
We envisage this to be the first volume in a series of books on topics related to Information Ethics in
Africa.
We thank the authors and all the ANIE conference participants who contributed to the dream and
reality of this book. We also trust that both researchers and students will benefit from this source.
Professor Theo Bothma
ACEIE Management Committee and HOD of Information Science University of Pretoria
July 2013




Page iv


About the Authors


Page v

About the Authors
Johannes Britz holds two Doctoral degrees from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He obtained
his first Doctoral degree (Doctor Divinitatis) in Christian Ethics and the second (Doctor Philosophia) in
Information Science. He is currently serving as Provost/Vice Chancellor and Professor at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, USA, and Professor Extraordinary at the School of
Information Technology at the University of Pretoria. He is also Research Fellow/Associate at the
University of Zululand and a visiting scholar at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands) where he
has lectured on Information Ethics since 1994. Dr Britz is co-editor of the International Review of
Information Ethics (IRIE), Research Issues in Information Studies: Some African Perspectives and
serves on the editorial board of the Library and Information Science Research Journal of the
University of Bucharest. He is a member of the advisory board of the South Africa Journal of Library
and Information Science, as well as Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences.
britz@uwm.edu.
Rafael Capurro has a PhD in Philosophy from Düsseldorf University, Germany (1978). He achieved
his Postdoctoral teaching qualification (Habilitation) in Practical Philosophy (Ethics) from Stuttgart
University, Germany (1989) and later became Professor (em.) of Information Science and Information
Ethics at the Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart and Lecturer in Ethics at the University of Stuttgart
(1986-2009). Currently, he is Director of the International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE) (1999 to
present) and the Editor-in-Chief of the International Review of Information Ethics (IRIE) (2004 to
present). He is also a Distinguished Researcher at both the African Centre of Excellence for
Information Ethics (ACEIE) at the Information Science Department, University of Pretoria, SA, and in
Information Ethics, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. And a
former member of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) of the
European Commission (2000-2010). http://www.capurro.de/home-eng.html.
Dick Kawooya is an Assistant Professor at the School of Library and Information Science, University
of South Carolina, USA. His PhD in Communication and Information was completed in 2010 at the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA. His Doctoral research (dissertation) explores Ugandan
traditional musicians' construction of ownership. His broad research interests focus on the impact and
manifestation of Intellectual Property Rights in Africa’s informal sectors. He was the recipient of the
2006-07 International Policy Fellowship of the Open Society Institute (OSI) and the Centre for Policy
Studies at the Central European University (CEU). The Fellowship research focused on the impact of
copyright on access to e-resources in Uganda’s teaching and research environments. Prof. Kawooya
is also a member of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Copyright Expert Group. In 2005-2006, he
served as the National Copyright Expert to eIFL.IP, representing the Consortium of Ugandan
University Libraries (CUUL). His most recent work involves serving as the Lead Researcher of the
African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) project (www.aca2k.org).
kawooya@mailbox.sc.edu.
Stephen Mutula is a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He was formerly
Head of the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of Botswana. He holds a
PhD and Master’s degree in Information Science, a Postgraduate diploma in Computer Science, and
a Bachelor’s degree in Education from the Universities of Johannesburg (SA), Wales (UK), and
Nairobi (Kenya). He is the author of Web-Based Information Management: A Cross-Disciplinary Text,
and the co-editor of Information and Knowledge Management in the Digital Age: Concepts,
Technologies and African Perspectives (Third World Information Services, Ibadan, Nigeria).
MutulaS@ukzn.ac.za.

About the Authors


Page vi

Dennis N. Ocholla is Senior Professor and Head of the Department of Information Studies at the
University of Zululand, South Africa. He qualified with a PhD and MLIS in Library and Information
Science from Kiev/St Petersburg/Leningrad in 1988 and Krasnodar in 1983 (both in the former
USSR). He is also the Editor-in-chief of Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences and
formerly Editor-in-chief of the South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science (2002-2009).
He was recently the Chair of the 13th ISSI 2011 Conference, which was held in Durban, South Africa
from 4-7 July 2011. He was Visiting Scholar/Professor – on Sabbatical – at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (September-December 2011), where he was also a Fellow in the Centre for
Information Policy Research (2008-2009). His teaching and research areas – where he has published
over 100 scholarly research publications (PR journal articles, edited books, book chapters and
conference papers) and supervised several Postgraduate (M&D) research – include LIS education
and training, Informetrics, Information seeking, ICT4D, Information Ethics, knowledge management,
IKS, scholarly communication, research methods and inforpreneurship. Ochollad@unizulu.ac.za.

Britz, J.J. (2013). Understanding Information Ethics. In Information Ethics in Africa: Cross-cutting Themes.
Pretoria: ACEIE, 1-6.


Page 1

Chapter One
Understanding Information Ethics
Johannes Britz
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
ACEIE, Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, SA
1. What is ethics?
Ethics can be defined as that branch of philosophy that studies human behaviour in terms of what is
good or bad regarding relationships with themselves, others and their environment. Ethical actions
are neither self-evident nor obvious and the same ethical action might be praised by some and at the
same time be condemned by others. Take for example the different approaches to intellectual
property rights. Some might argue that we need to protect the economic interests of publishers, while
others interpret the current trends in intellectual property rights as a form of ‘social terror’. This is
mainly due to different worldviews, as well as the fact that we have a natural inclination to act out of
self-interest or in the interests of people closest to us.
Ethical behaviour therefore does not come naturally; we need to learn it. People need to
develop insight into their own self-interest and evidently their own moral contradictions. As information
professionals we need to learn to think critically and to develop real concerns for the people with
whom we work and those we serve. We need to develop not only intellectual, but also emotional
abilities to recognise and respect the human dignity and rights of others (Elder & Paul, 2006).
Ethics is also not subjective and relative in nature. It is based on reasoning and moral
justification and open to critical evaluation. Ethical reasoning moves furthermore beyond the mere
statement of beliefs and opinions. It is also underpinned by a philosophical analysis in which we
examine the very foundation of our moral beliefs and opinions. Johnson (2003:26-27) refers to our
ethical beliefs as an argument for a claim – and that we put our argument on the table to be evaluated
and then see whether our argument does indeed support the moral claim we have made. Our
arguments are based on moral principles such as the right of freedom of expression or the right of
access to information. We use these principles to articulate our arguments based on the moral claims
we make. Ethical principles are not absolute in terms of their applications and claims. We can for
example claim that individuals must have the right of freedom of expression only in so far as it does
not harm other people.
It is also important to distinguish between morals, ethics and law. Morals refer to the customs
and traditions of societies and ethics is the critical reflection on these morals. Laws are those norms
that are formally approved by governing bodies (local, national and international) and mostly reflect
the morals of a given society (Capurro, 2006).
2. Meta-ethics, descriptive and prescriptive ethics
The main purpose of this part of the chapter is to introduce readers to some traditional ethical theories
and concepts and thereby create a useful ethical vocabulary that will provide some background
information. It does not claim to be a thorough theoretical analysis.
The first distinction is between meta-, descriptive and prescriptive or normative ethics. Meta-
ethics is concerned with the origin of ethical norms and principles and also with the roots and

J.J. Britz


Page 2

meaning of the ethical concepts we use. It will for example investigate what we mean by the notion of
‘good’.
Descriptive ethics on the other hand studies the factual statements about the moral behaviour
of people and does not intend any moral claims about what is ethically right or wrong. This is mostly
done based on empirical evidence such as observations or interviews. For example: “Most people
using computers in country X make use of illegal software”. This is not intended to be a value
judgment but is merely based on the observation of empirical facts.
On the other hand, prescriptive ethics does make moral judgments about the moral behaviour
of people. Prescriptive ethics is based on ethical theories and bases these moral claims on certain
principles and norms. That is why prescriptive ethics is also known as normative ethics. Prescriptive
ethics is sub-divided into three categories, namely 1) professional ethics, 2) personal ethics and 3)
social ethics. Professional ethics focuses on the ethical issues relevant to professional relationships
between people. The most common application of professional ethics is in the workplace. The way
librarians treat the privacy of patron information serves as a good example of professional ethics.
Personal ethics, on the other hand, deals with ethical issues between people as it pertains to their
personal lives, for example the relationship between wife and husband. Social ethics has a much
broader agenda and makes moral claims on society as a whole. The ethical challenges associated
with universal access to information services constitute a good example of social ethics.
Prescriptive ethics is based on the assumption that moral behaviour is based on a single rule
(for example ‘you shall not steal’) or a set of principles. Three ethical theories can be distinguished.
These are virtue theories, duty theories and consequentialist theories (Encyclopaedia of Philosophy).
Virtue theories have their roots in ancient Greek philosophy (Plato, Aristotle) and stress the
importance of the development of good habits/character or virtues such, as wisdom, courage,
temperance and justice. These are the four virtues identified by Plato. Other virtues include sincerity
and fairness. The theory argues that these virtues can and should be learned from a young age and,
once acquired, will naturally guide ethical behaviour.
Duty theories are derived from the Greek word ‘deon’ which can be translated as duty or
obligation. As a theory it operates on the principle that we have a duty and obligation not to harm or
kill others, to care for people and to preserve our environment. There is a very close relationship
between human rights and duty theories. A right can be defined as the claim we have towards others
not to harm nor to kill us. This implies that the rights I have become the duty of others. The British
philosopher John Locke is one of the best known exponents of a duty theory based on the recognition
of our human rights. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant is another well-known exponent of
duty-based theory. For him our most fundamental duty is never to treat people merely as a means to
an end, but to treat each other person as indeed an end. He refers to this principle as the ‘categorical
imperative’. Based on this principle it would be wrong to steal another person’s information. Doing so,
according to Kant, implies that I treat the person from whom I stole the information merely as an end
to my own economic advantage. In Kant’s opinion we cannot ethically ‘use’ other people as
instruments to achieve our own goals. We always have to recognise and respect the inherent value
and dignity of other people.
Consequentialist theories state that a moral action must be solely determined by the result or
the consequence of a particular action. If the outcomes of a moral action are good, then such an
action can be viewed as morally good and appropriate. The British philosopher Jeremy Bentham is a
well-known exponent of this theory. One critical question is, of course: who should benefit from the
outcome? Within this tradition there are three possible answers or approaches. The first approach is
known as ‘ethical egoism’. According to this approach, the person acting should be the sole
beneficiary. The second approach focuses on the benefits of the other, and is known as ‘ethical
altruism’, and the third approach (utilitarianism) takes all the role players into consideration.

Understanding Information Ethics


Page 3

3. Information Ethics
Information Ethics, as applied ethics, is that field of study that investigates the ethical issues arising
from the life cycle of information, including the generation, gathering, organisation, retrieval,
distribution and use of information. As an interdisciplinary field of study it relates among others to the
fields of computer science, library and information science, philosophy, communication science,
journalism and mass media. The focus areas include the following: the right to privacy, the right of
access to information, the right to intellectual property and the quality of information.
3.1. Historical development of Information Ethics
According to Capurro (2006), the study of the historical development of Information Ethics within
different cultural traditions is still an open task. Not much is for example known of the development of
this field in Africa and Asia. In this text the focus is on the development of Information Ethics in the
Western tradition. A few comments on recent developments in Africa will also be made.
The Western tradition of Information Ethics is based on three core ideas, namely 1) freedom of
speech, 2) freedom of access to information and 3) freedom of the press. Western Information Ethics
can be traced back to the oral tradition of the ancient Greeks where freedom of speech and freedom
of expression were highly valued in the agora (the market place). Plato, with the publication of his
dialogues, introduced the transition from an oral to a written culture. Under the influence of the
Christian tradition a true book culture was developed focusing on the Bible and using Latin as the
official written language. Interpretation and communication of the text were limited to members of the
clergy. Freedom of access to information and communication of ideas was therefore still mainly
applied in written form and limited to the religious leaders of the time. The invention of the printing
press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1452 as well as the translation and distribution of the Bible into
German by among others Johannes Mentelin and the reformer Martin Luther (1534) changed this
situation and introduced the notion that everyone can have access to information as well as the
freedom to share ideas with others, not only in an oral but also in written and printed forms. After the
French revolution, libraries of the nobility and churches were made public and allowed more people to
gain access to information and to share their ideas. This laid the cornerstone for what later became
the principle of the freedom of the press.
A direct consequence of the invention of the printing press and subsequent widening of literacy
levels of people in Europe was the introduction of copyright in the 18th century in Britain. This was
mainly in reaction to the monopolies held by printers. Although initially invented to provide authors
some form of legal protection for their works for a short period of time, copyright soon expanded its
scope and application to become an international legal concept, known as intellectual property,
regulating not only the creation of information products, but also the right of access to them and
copying and distributing them in almost all formats. The introduction and development of intellectual
property rights have profoundly changed the very nature of freedom of access to information.
The acceptance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations
(UN) in 1948 articulated these three core information principles as universal and basic human rights
for the first time. It also lays down the groundwork for the role of communication in society as a whole.
This is specifically true of Articles 18 and 19 dealing with the right of freedom of thought, conscience
and religion (Art. 18) and the right to freedom of opinion and expression (Art. 19) respectively. Since
then, most democracies have embedded these principles into their own constitutions and/or
legislation. Since the late 1960s the right to communicate has also become a central concern for the
UN. This is the case with the purpose of expanding the spheres of both freedom of expression and
access to information by including the right to communicate as a basic human right. The focus of this

J.J. Britz


Page 4

right is not only on the ability to communicate, but also to have access to communication media.
Although efforts to add this right to the UDHR have been unsuccessful so far, the debate has gained
momentum at the two recent World Summits on the Information Society (WSIS) (2003, 2005).
3.2. Brief overview of the development of an African Information Ethics
African Information Ethics, in other words, an ethical reflection by Africans on the information ethical
problems facing Africa, is in many ways still in its infancy. Not many African philosophers reflect from
their philosophical traditions on these issues and Information Ethics does not form part of the
curriculum at most universities in Africa. Aggravating this problem is the fact that where Information
Ethics is taught, it is mostly done within the traditional Western philosophical traditions. This problem
became even more apparent in October 2004 during an international symposium on Information
Ethics which was held in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was initiated by Rafael Capurro and organised by the
International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE). The sponsor was the Volkswagen Foundation in
Germany. Leading international experts in the field of Information Ethics were invited to participate
and it was a first of its kind in the world. There were only a few Africans in attendance, most of them
expatriates. There were of course many reasons why the African scholars were not present, some
relating to the mere fact that they are unknown to other international scholars. Lack of funding to
attend international events was also a stumbling block, and last but not least, not much research had
been done on the African continent on this very important topic. It seems, in terms of philosophical
reflections and scholarly publications, that African scholars did not have much to offer their global
counterparts on the ethical challenges facing Africa in the era of globalisation.
Evolving from this it became clear that there is an urgent need to integrate leading African
scholars into the international debate on the ethical issues facing Africa as part of the global
information society. This led to the organisation of the first ever Africa Information Ethics conference
which was held in Pretoria, South Africa, in February 2007. Scholars from more than 21 countries,
most of them from Africa, attended. The theme of the conference was very appropriate: ‘The joy of
sharing knowledge’. The topics addressed at the conference included the following:
• The digital divide
• Information poverty
• Information corruption
• Access to information
• Privacy
• Intellectual property rights
4. The impact of modern information and communication technologies on
the ethical discourse
When discussing Information Ethics, it is important to reflect on the impact that modern information
and communication technologies (ICT) have on the ethical debate. The development of modern ICT,
and more particularly since the 1960s, has not only profoundly changed the information and
knowledge landscape, but as a result has also fundamentally impacted the global field of Information
Ethics.
Preston defines these new technologies as “[…] the cluster or interrelated systems of
technological innovations in the fields of microelectronics, computing, electronic communications
including broadcasting and the Internet” (2004:35) and includes the Internet, digital photography, cell
phones and the World Wide Web. These technologies have radically changed our way of living (at
least for people in the developed world) and the way in which we do things. As such they are seen as
ubiquitous, invading most facets of our existence. They have created a new and unprecedented form

Understanding Information Ethics


Page 5

of dependence, introducing new power relationships. Most organisations and institutions around the
world rely on some form of ICT for their daily operations, and ICT has become the default technology
for most of the socio-economic activities of those living in the First World. Organisational changes and
benefits that it has brought about are no longer in question (Introna, 2005).
According to Freeman and Louca (2002), the impact of these technologies arises from three of
their characteristics. In the first place, ICT is an enabling technology that has not only become
instrumental in most of our activities, but also contributes to further technological development and
changes. Secondly, it has grown, in terms of its capacity, exponentially over the last couple our years;
and thirdly, it has become cheaper, making it more affordable and accessible to nearly everyone. As
such, the introduction of new and modern ICT opens up new possibilities for libraries and other
information agencies. The most important of these is the digitisation and consequent manipulation of
information. This has far-reaching implications, not only for the different information-based activities
pertaining to the life cycle of information, but also with regard to the ethical issues relating to these
information-based activities. The digitisation of information allows, for the first time, the unbundling of
information from its original physical carriers, such as objects (e.g. an airline ticket), paper and other
print material in a different and unique way that previous ICTs, including writing and printing, were not
able to do. Pre-digital information technologies did not have the ability to simultaneously reach
millions of people and allow synchronic interactivity and the customisation of needs. Due to modern
ICT, digitised information has become interlinked (hypermedia), can ‘travel by itself’ at nearly zero
cost, and can reach more people in an interactive way. Examples include e-mail, webcam
technologies, as well as interactive TV. There has indeed been a move from “textuality (writing and
printing) to multimediality” (Linguist, 1998:6). It is within this context that philosophers such as Rucker
(1988) and De Mul (2003) remark that “everything has become information”. Modern ICT, including
the camera and other digital technologies like the computer, has therefore permanently established
our global information-based world in the 20th century. These technologies allow for the mass
customisation of users’ needs, including, especially, information needs (Evans & Wurster, 1997). A
good example of the ability to customise information according to users’ needs is the online booking
of airline tickets where people can select their seats as well as meals online; indeed, a customer
without access to ICT is at a significant disadvantage in this example. Service costs are in many
cases higher for those who do not have access to the Internet – a good example is the banking
industry. In a country such as South Africa, Internet banking is encouraged by making ‘face-to-face’
banking more expensive. This has introduced a new form of ‘information exclusion and
discrimination’.
Modern ICT has therefore profoundly changed the notions of privacy and of access to
information. Access to information is no longer limited to accessing the ideas of others or freedom of
expression. It has also become a socioe-conomic right that opens the opportunity for people to
participate (online) in the various socio-economic and political activities. It also introduces new
asymmetric information relationships whereby people (in terms of their personal and private
information) are being ‘unbundled’ and observed without their knowing it.
References
Britz, J.J. (1996a). Inligtingsetiek – met spesifieke verwysing van die beroep van die inligtingkundige: ’n
Christelike perspektief. DD Proefskrif. Pretoria: Universiteit van Pretoria.
Capurro, R. (2006). ICIE: The Field. Retrieved December 24, 2012, http://icie.zkm.de/research.
De Mul, J. (2003). Cyberspace odyssee. Kampen: Uitgeverij Klement.
Elder, L. & Paul, R. (2006). Thinker’s guide to understanding ethical reasoning. Foundations of Critical
Thinking. CA.
Evans, P.B. & Wurster, T.S. (1997). Strategies and the new economics of information. In Harvard Business
Review. Vol. 75, (5), 71-82.

J.J. Britz


Page 6

Freeman, C. & Louca, F. (2002). As Time Goes By: From the Industrial Revolutions to the Information
Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Froelich, T. (2004). A brief history of Information Ethics. textos universitaris de biblioteconomia i
documentació, Retrieved December 13, 2004, from http://www.ub.es/bid/13froel2.htm and
http://www.ub.es/bid/13froel2.htm.
Introna, L. (2005). Phenomenological approaches to ethics and information technology. In Stanford
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.
Johnson, D.G. (2003). Computer ethics. 3rd ed. Prentice Hall: New Jersey.
Lindquist, M.G. (1998). Citations in the digital space. The Journal of Electronic Publishing. Retrieved
January 4, 2013, from http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-03/lindquist.html and
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-03/lindquist.html.
Preston, P. (2003). European Union ICT policies: neglected social and cultural dimensions in the European
information society: a reality check, edited by J. Servaes. Bristol: Intellect Books: 33-58.
Rucker, R. (1988). Mind tools: the five levels of mathematical reality. London: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Toner, A. (2003). The Problem with WSIS. In World Information. Special IP Edition. (10-12 December
2003), 7.

Capurro, R. (2013). Information Ethics in the African Context. In Information Ethics in Africa: Cross-cutting Themes.
Pretoria: ACEIE, 7-20.


Page 7

Chapter Two
Information Ethics in the African Context1
Rafael Capurro
ACEIE, Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, SA
International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE), Germany
School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA
1. Introduction
Since the second half of the twentieth century, computer scientists like Norbert Wiener (1989 - 1950)
and Joseph Weizenbaum (1976) have raised public awareness of the societal challenges of computer
technology. In the beginning, the academic discussion was focused on the responsibility of computer
professionals. However, for scientists like Wiener and Weizenbaum, the impact of computer
technology was understood to be something that concerned society as a whole.
Half a century after Wiener’s seminal work, the World Summit on the Information Society
(WSIS) developed the vision:
[…] to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society,
where everyone can create, access, utilise and share information and knowledge,
enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting
their sustainable development and improving their quality of life, premised on the purposes
and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and respecting fully and upholding the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (WSIS, 2003).
The WSIS proposed a political agenda, namely:
[…] to harness the potential of information and communication technology to promote the
development goals of the Millennium Declaration, namely: the eradication of extreme
poverty and hunger; achievement of universal primary education; promotion of gender
equality and empowerment of women; reduction of child mortality; improvement of
maternal health; to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental
sustainability; and development of global partnerships for development for the attainment
of a more peaceful, just and prosperous world (WSIS, 2003).
The Geneva Declaration of Principles states:
56. The Information Society should respect peace and uphold the fundamental values of
freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, shared responsibility, and respect for nature.
57. We acknowledge the importance of ethics for the Information Society, which should
foster justice, and the dignity and worth of the human person. The widest possible

1 This contribution is based on the following papers: [1] Information Ethics for and from Africa. Keynote address at the first
Africa Information Ethics Conference (Pretoria 2007), published in the International Review of Information Ethics (IRIE).
Online: http://www.i-r-i-e.net/issue7.htm and reprinted in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and
Technology, 59 (7): 19, 2008. [2] Digital Ethics, presented at the 2009 Global Forum on Civilization and Peace organised by
the Academy of Korean Studies, Seoul 1009. Published by The Academy of Korean Studies (ed.), 2009 Civilization and
Peace, Paju: Jimoondang 2010, pp. 2003-2014. Online: http://www.capurro.de/korea.html; [3] Information Ethics in Africa.
Past, present and future activities (2007-2010). Report presented at the WSIS Forum 2010, Geneva, May 11, 2010. Online:
http://www.capurro.de/wsis2010_africa_infoethics.html.

R. Capurro


Page 8

protection should be accorded to the family and to enable it to play its crucial role in
society.
58. The use of ICTs and content creation should respect human rights and fundamental
freedoms of others, including personal privacy, and the right to freedom of thought,
conscience, and religion in conformity with relevant international instruments.
59. All actors in the Information Society should take appropriate actions and preventive
measures, as determined by law, against abusive uses of ICTs, such as illegal and other
acts motivated by racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance,
hatred, violence, all forms of child abuse, including paedophilia and child pornography,
and trafficking in, and exploitation of, human beings (Geneva Declaration of Principles,
2003).
The participants of the Tunis summit shared the Geneva vision with the following words:
2. We reaffirm our desire and commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and
development-oriented Information Society, premised on the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations, international law and multilateralism, and respecting fully
and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so that people everywhere can
create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, to achieve their full potential
and to attain the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including the
Millennium Development Goals (Tunis Commitment, 18 November, 2005).
The economy and public policy of modern societies rely heavily on digital networks. The importance
of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for the economy became obvious with the
burst of the 2000 dot com bubble and was one of the main factors leading to the recent world financial
and economic crisis. Beyond the individual responsibility of politicians, bankers and managers, there
is a systemic issue that has to do with the digitalisation of financial and economic communication and
information. Digital capitalism was and still is able to bypass national and international law, control
and monitor institutions and mechanisms, as well as codes of practice and good governance, which
lead to a global crisis of trust not only within the system, but also with regard to the system itself. In
order to develop a people-oriented and sustainable world economic system and national and
international monitoring agencies, as well as international law, self-binding rules are needed in order
to establish a sustainable system based on fair play.
ICT has a strong impact on public policy, leading to a transformation of 20th century democracy
into a more participatory one. Interactive media weakens the hierarchical one-to-many structure of
traditional hierarchic mass-media, giving individuals the capacity to become senders of messages and
not just receivers of information. ICTs are widely used for political participation and grass-roots protest
groups, as well as by liberation and peace movements. By the same token, online social networks
make possible new structures of political surveillance, censorship and control of individuals and whole
societies (Coenen et al., 2012). We live in message societies (Capurro & Holgate, 2011), where the
Internet has become a local and global basic social communication infrastructure. Freedom of access
needs to be brought to the forefront as it is a fundamental ethical principle similar to freedom of
speech and freedom of the press. Some of the rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, such as the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Art. 18), the right to freedom
of opinion and expression (Art. 19), and the right to peaceful assembly and association (Art. 20), need
to be explicitly interpreted and defined, taking the new and unique affordances of digital media into
consideration. Lawrence Lessig envisaged a situation in which the universality of cyberspace is
endangered by local codes of the market, the software industry, the laws of nation states, and moral
traditions. He writes:
If we do nothing, the code of cyberspace will change. The invisible hand will change it in a
predictable way. To do nothing is to embrace at least that. It is to accept the changes that

Information Ethics in the African Context


Page 9

this change in code will bring about. It is to accept a cyberspace that is less free, or
differently free, than the space it was before (Lessig, 1999:109).
A free Internet can foster peace and democracy, but it can also be used for manipulation and control.
For this reason, I consider it a necessity to strive for a future Internet governance regime on the basis
of intercultural deliberation, democratic values and human rights. I advocate for the expansion of
human rights to include the rights of non-human life and nature (Capurro, 2008a). The present
ecological crisis is a clear sign that we have to change our lives in order to become not masters, but
keepers of our natural environment.
2. Information Ethics
Societal debates on ethical issues have rapidly increased, particularly since the rise of the Internet. I
define Information Ethics in a narrower sense as dealing with the impact of digital ICTs on society and
the environment, as well as with ethical questions about the Internet digital information and
communication media (media ethics) in particular. Information Ethics, in a broader sense, deals with
information and communication, including, but not limited to, digital media. The main topics of
Information Ethics are: intellectual property, privacy, security, information overload, digital divide,
gender discrimination, and censorship (Ess, 2009; Himma & Tavani, 2008). They are objects of
ethical scrutiny not only on the basis of universal rights and principles, but also with regard to cultural
differences, as well as historical and geographical singularities leading to different kinds of theoretical
foundations and practical options. This field of ethics is called intercultural Information Ethics
(Capurro, 2008; Capurro et al., 2007; Hongladarom & Ess, 2007; Capurro, 2006). It deals, for
instance, with the question of how human cultures can flourish in a global digital environment while
avoiding uniformity or isolation. The idea of intercultural Information Ethics emerged in October 2004
during the international symposium ‘Localizing the Internet. Ethical Issues in Intercultural Perspective’
(Capurro et al., 2007).
3. Privacy
An example of the relevance of the intercultural approach concerns the concept of privacy from
Western and Buddhist perspectives. While in Western cultures privacy is closely related to the self,
Buddhism relies on the tenet of non-self; therefore the social perceptions, as well as the concept of
privacy, are different (Nakada & Tamura, 2005; Capurro, 2005; Capurro et al., 2013). However, a
justification of privacy from a Buddhist perspective, based on the concept of compassion, seems
possible and plausible (Hongladarom, 2007).
4. Surveillance
Digital surveillance of public spaces is supposed to ensure safety and security facing unintentional or
intentional dangers, for instance from criminal or terrorist attacks. But, at the same time, it threatens
the autonomy, anonymity and trust that build the basis of democratic societies. New technologies
allowing the tracking of individuals through Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) (or ICT implants are
similarly ambiguous with regard to the implicit dangers and benefits, therefore they need special
scrutiny and monitoring (ETICA, 2011; ETHICBOTS, 2008; EGE, 2005 and 2012).
5. Robotics
Recent advances in robotics show a wide range of applications in everyday lives beyond their

R. Capurro


Page 10

industrial and military applications. Robots are mirrors of ourselves. What concepts of sociality are
conceptualised and instantiated by robotics? An intercultural ethical dialogue – beyond the question of
a code of ethics to become part of robots to make them ‘moral machines’ (Wallach & Allen, 2009) –
on human-robot interaction is still in its infancy (Capurro & Nagenborg, 2009).
6. Information overload
The issue of information overload has a major impact in the everyday lives of millions of people
(Capurro, 2005b). We lack a systematic pathology of the information society (Capurro, 2012).
Similarly, the question of Internet addiction, particularly in young generations, is worrisome. For
example, there is a growing need for cell-phone-free times and places, in order to protect ourselves
from the necessity of being permanently available.
7. Digital divide
The so-called digital divide should not be considered just a problem of technical access to the
Internet, but an issue of how people can better manage their lives using new interactive digital media
while avoiding the dangers of cultural exploitation, homogenisation, colonialism, and discrimination.
Individuals, as well as societies, must become aware of different kinds of ‘assemblages’ between
traditional and digital media, to be able to relate them to their needs, interests and cultural
backgrounds (Ong & Collier, 2005; Scheule et al., 2004). The vision of an inclusive Information
Society, as developed during the WSIS, must be global and plural at the same time. Concepts like
hybridisation or polyphony are ethical markers that should be taken into account when envisaging
new possibilities of freedom and peace in a world shaped more and more by digital technology.
8. Electronic waste
Electronic waste (e-Waste) has become a major issue of digital ethics (Feilhauer & Zehle, 2009). It
deals with the disposal and recycling of all kinds of ICT devices that already, today, have devastating
consequences on humans and the environment, particularly when exported to Third World countries.
Issues of sustainability and global justice should be urgently addressed, together with the
opportunities offered by the same media to promote better shelter, reduce hunger and combat
diseases.
The ethical reflection on these issues belongs to a theory on the art of living, following some
paths of thought by the French philosopher Michel Foucault, who distinguishes the following kinds of
technologies: ‘technologies of production, which permit us to produce, transform, or manipulate
things, technologies of sign systems, which permit us to use signs, meanings, symbols, or
significations, technologies of power which determine the conduct of individuals and submit them to
certain ends or domination, an objectivising of the subject’, and ‘technologies of the self, which permit
individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on
their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in
order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality’ (Foucault,
1988:18). How can we ensure that the benefits of information technology are not only distributed
equitably, but that they can also be used by the people to shape their own lives? (Capurro, 2005a).
In a report on Being Human: Human-computer interaction in the year 2020, the result of a
meeting organised by Microsoft Research in 2007, the editors write:
The new technologies allow new forms of control or decentralisation, encouraging some
forms of social interaction at the expense of others, and promoting certain values while
dismissing alternatives. For instance, the iPod can be seen as a device for urban

Information Ethics in the African Context


Page 11

indifference, the mobile phone as promoting addiction to social contact and the Web as
subverting traditional forms of governmental and media authority. Neural networks,
recognition algorithms and data-mining all have cultural implications that need to be
understood in the wider context beyond their technical capabilities. The bottom line is that
computer technologies are not neutral – they are laden with human, cultural and social
values. These can be anticipated and designed for, or can emerge and evolve through use
and abuse. In a multicultural world, too, we have to acknowledge that there will often be
conflicting value systems, where design in one part of the world becomes something quite
different in another, and where the meaning and value of a technology are manifest in
diverse ways. Future research needs to address a broader, richer concept of what it
means to be human in the flux of the transformation taking place (Harper, Rodden, Rogers
& Sellen, 2008:57).
This remarkable quote from a meeting organised not by anti-tech humanists, but by one of the leading
IT companies, summarises the main present and future tasks of digital ethics as a critical
interdisciplinary and intercultural on-going reflection on the transformation of humanity through
computer technology. Humanity is experiencing itself, particularly through the digital medium, as a
totality or system of interrelations. Who are we and what do we want to be as humanity? This
question asks for a historical, not a metaphysical, answer. A negative vision of such unity is
balkanisations and imperialisms of all kinds, including digital ones.
On the occasion of the presentation of ‘In your hands: A Guide for Community Action for the
Tenth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ on 27 March 1958 at the United
Nations, Eleanor Roosevelt said:
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so
close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the
world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he
attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man,
woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without
discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning
anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in
vain for progress in the larger world (Roosevelt, 1958).
Sixty years later, we are much more aware of how important this declaration was and how difficult it is
to put into practice – to make human rights come alive ‘in small places, close to home’. This
Declaration was not only the right ethical and political answer to the atrocities of World War II, but it
was also the start for a new kind of international policy based on common ethical values and
principles facing the challenges of a digitally globalised world. Nevertheless, today we are facing
additional global challenges expressed in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG), namely:
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Achieve universal primary education
• Promote gender equality and empower women
• Reduce child mortality
• Improve maternal health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development
These goals begin ‘in small places, close to home’ too. They can be achieved only if we continue and
expand the freedom campaign towards nature, i.e. if we expand the goals of human rights to nature
as well. Digital globalisation should make us aware of the human interplay with each other in a

R. Capurro


Page 12

common world instead of making the digital perspective over our lives, and over reality, a kind of
digital metaphysics or (political) ideology. I call this relativisation of the digital perspective ‘digital
ontology’ (Capurro, 2006).
Who are we in the digital age? As human cultures become digitally hybridised, this process
affects social life in all its dimensions, as well as our interplay with nature. The key task of Information
Ethics is to make us aware of the challenges and options for individual and social life design. The
digital medium is an opportunity for the subjects of the 21st century to transform themselves and their
relations in and with the world (Capurro, 2005a; 1996). This implies allowing each other to articulate
ourselves in the digital network, while taking care of historical, cultural and geographical singularities.
An ethical intercultural dialogue is needed to understand and foster human cultural diversity, therefore
we must look for common ethical principles so that digital cultures can become a genuine expression
of human liberty and creativity. In the next section I deal briefly with the history of Information Ethics in
Africa.
9. Information Ethics in the African context
Information Ethics in Africa is a young academic field. Not much has been published on the role that
African philosophy can play in thinking about the challenges arising from the impact of ICTs on
African societies and cultures (Brunet et al., 2004; Okpaku, 2003). An important landmark was the
first African Conference on Information Ethics, which was held in Pretoria, 3 - 5 February 2007, under
the auspices of United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The
conference was sponsored by the South African Government and the Department of Communications
and organised by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Pretoria, the University of
Pittsburgh, and the International Center of Information Ethics. The following issues were discussed2:
Topic 1: Foundations of African Information Ethics (Top facilitator: Dennis Ocholla, South Africa)
• Respect for human dignity – information-based rights
• Freedom of expression
• Freedom of access to information
• Information wrongdoings, information corruption, information injustice
Topic 2: Cultural Diversity and Globalisation (Top facilitator: Peter Kanyandago, Uganda)
• Protection and promotion of indigenous knowledge
• Global security, human security, privacy, transparency
• E-Government and related topics
• Cultural diversity and development
Topic 3: Development, Poverty and ICT (Top facilitator: Kingo Mchombu, Namibia)
• Using ICTs for a better life in Africa: case studies
• Internet and exclusion (socio-political and economic exclusion)
• North-South flow of information and information imperialism
• Flight of intellectual expertise from Africa
The conference produced tangible results such as the Tshwane Declaration on Information Ethics,
which was adopted by the participants of the conference as a genuine African contribution to the
UNESCO Code of Ethics for the Information Society, and the creation of the African Network for
Information Ethics (ANIE), which gives African scholars a platform to exchange and realise their ideas
in the field.
On 6 - 7 September 2010, the second African Conference on Information Ethics was held in
Botswana and dealt with teaching Information Ethics in Africa, the current status of Information Ethics,

2 The proceedings were published in the International Review of Information Ethics (IRIE) http://www.i-r-i-e.net/issue7.htm.

Information Ethics in the African Context


Page 13

and the opportunities and challenges. It was organised by the University of Botswana, the University
of Zululand, the University of Pretoria, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the International
Center of Information Ethics, under the auspices of UNESCO, and co-sponsored by UNESCO, the
University of Botswana, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the South African Government
(Department of Communications) and the software company SAP.
On 5 - 7 September 2012, the third African Conference on Information Ethics was held in
Pretoria (South Africa). It dealt with Online Social Networks (OSN) in Africa (Capurro, 2012a). The
conference was preceded by two workshops, one from 2 - 3 June 2012, taking place in Nairobi
(Kenya) on information for sustainable development and another one on 3 - 4 September 2012 in
Pretoria, dealing with basic concepts of Information Ethics.
Most research on ICT, from an ethical perspective, takes its point of departure from Western
philosophy. Let us briefly review some recent works on African philosophy that are potentially relevant
to the development of Information Ethics in Africa. African oral and written traditions of philosophy
have a long and rich past, going back as far as 3000 BC, which includes the Egyptian Ma’at-
Philosophy of ancient Egypt; the Afro-Hellenic tradition of Greek and Roman Antiquity and the early
Middle Ages (Amasis, Plotinus, Philon, Euclid, Apuleius, Tertullian, Augustine); the Afro-Islamic
tradition (Al-Farabi, Averroes, Ibn Battuta); the colonial break with contributions in the Amharic
language (Zara Yoqob, WaldaHawat, Amo, Hannibal); the anti-colonial philosophy (DuBois, Garvey,
Césaire, Senghor); the ethno-philosophy of the 70s (Kagame, Mbiti); Afrosocialism (Nkrumah,
Nyerere); universalistic theories (Houtondji, Wiredu, Towa), and contemporary representatives of
different schools such as hermeneutics (Okere, Ntumba, Okonda, Serequeberhan, Kinyongo); Sage
philosophy (Oruka, Kaphagawani, Sogolo, Masolo) (Oruka & Masolo, 1983); and feminism (Eboh,
Oluwole, Boni, Ngoyi); to mention just a few names and schools. These traditions have been
analysed by Jacob Mabe in his book on oral and written forms of philosophical thinking in Africa
(Mabe, 2005:276-278; Ruch & Anyanwu, 1981; Neugebauer, 1989; Serequeberhan, 1996). He also
edited the first comprehensive lexicon on Africa in German (Mabe, 2004), with more than 1000
keywords, including entries on ‘media’ and the ‘Internet’ (Tambwe, 2004a).
The Department of Philosophy at the University of South Africa published a comprehensive
reader entitled Philosophy from Africa, which was edited by Pieter Coetzee and Abraham Roux
(Coetzee & Roux, 2002). Of the 37 contributors, 33 were Africans speaking for themselves on the
topical issues of decolonisation; Afrocentrism in conflict with Eurocentrism; the struggle for cultural
freedoms in Africa; the historic role of black consciousness in the struggle for liberation; the restitution
and reconciliation in the context of Africa’s post-colonial situation (Eze, 1997); justice for Africa in the
context of globalisation; the pressures on the tradition of philosophy in Africa engendered by the
challenges of modernity; the reconstitution of the African self in its relation to changing community;
the African epistemological paradigm in conflict with the Western, and the continuity of religion and
metaphysics in African thought. The second edition contains themes on gender, race and Africa’s
place in the global context. Although the book addresses a broad variety of themes, there is no
contribution specifically dealing with information and communication technologies from an ethical or
even philosophical perspective, although Paulin Houtondji does address the problem of “Producing
Knowledge in Africa Today”’ (Houtondji, 2002). The terms ‘information’ and ‘communication’ are
absent, and are not even listed in the index.
Is there a specific African philosophic and ethical perspective with roots in African languages,
social experiences and values as analysed, for instance, by John Mbiti (1969), Chyme Gyekye
(1996), Mutombo Nkulu (1997), Luke Mlilo and Nathanael Soédé (2003) and Jean-Godefroy Bidima
(2004)? Yes, there is, if we follow Mogobe Ramose’s work (Coetzee & Roux, 2002) that bears the title
‘Globalization and ubuntu’ (Ramose, 2002), but also, for instance, Kwasi Wiredu’s contribution of
‘Conceptual decolonization in African culture’ through an analysis of African languages and

R. Capurro


Page 14

terminology (Wiredu, 1995; Weidtmann, 1998).
I am not making a plea for ethnophilosophy as criticised, for instance, by Houtondji (1983), but
for a dialogue between both cultures and languages, and the global and the local as envisaged in the
2004 symposium of the International Center for Information Ethics. My perspective concerning
Information Ethics in the African context is close to Wiredu’s and Oladipo’s “third way in African
philosophy” (Oladipo, 2002), as well as to Oruka’s “sage philosophy” (Oruka, 1990). A critical analysis
of the oral and/or written African traditions is needed, as done, for instance, by Anthony Appiah in his
article for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Appiah, 1998). We can explicitly acknowledge
modern reason without assuming that its Western manifestations are inviolable, particularly when they
serve purposes of colonialisation or oppression. The ethical discourse is located between the
particular and the universal. Following the Kantian tradition, ethical discourse aims at universality, but
it must be aware, with Aristotle, that human action is contingent and subject to different interpretations
and applications based on power plays. It envisages the good and seeks a humane world free from
the dogmatic fixations of norms that merely reflect, implicitly or explicitly, particular points of view. In
other words, ethics reflects on the permanent flow of human life and its modes of empirical regulation
that make possible, on the basis of mutual respect, manifestations of humanity in unique and multiple
forms. We are all equal, and we are all different.
According to Ramose, ubuntu is “the central concept of social and political organisation in
African philosophy, particularly among the Bantu-speaking people. It consists of the principles of
sharing and caring for one another” (Ramose, 2002:643). Ramose discusses two aphorisms “to be
found in almost all indigenous African languages”, namely: ‘Motho ke motho ka batho’ and ‘Feta
kgomo tshware motho’. The first aphorism means that “to be human is to affirm one’s humanity by
recognising the humanity of others and, on that basis, establish humane, respectful relations with
them. Accordingly, it is ubuntu which constitutes the core meaning of the aphorism”. The second
aphorism means “that if and when one is faced with a decisive choice between wealth and the
preservation of life of another human being, then one should opt for the preservation of life” (Ramose,
2002:644). Following this analysis we can ask: what is the role of ubuntu in African Information
Ethics? How is the intertwining of information and communication technology with the principles of
communalism and humanity expressed in aphorisms such as ‘Motho ke motho ka batho’, which can
be translated as ‘people are people through other people’? What is the relation between community
and privacy in an African Information Society? What kind of questions do African people ask about the
effects of information and communication technologies in their everyday lives?
One of the few detailed analyses of the relationship between ubuntu and Information Ethics or,
more precisely, between ubuntu and privacy, was presented by H.N. Olinger, Johannes Britz and
M.S. Olivier at the sixth International Conference of Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE).
They write:
The African worldview driving much of African values and social thinking is ‘Ubuntu’
(Broodryk, 2004). The ubuntu worldview has been recognized as the primary reason that
South Africa has managed to successfully transfer power from a white minority
government to a black majority-rule government without bloodshed (Murithi, 2000). The
South African government will attempt to draft a Data Privacy Bill and strike an appropriate
balance within the context of African values and an African worldview (Olinger et al.,
2005:292).
According to the authors, ubuntu ethical principles have been applied in South Africa in the
following areas:
• Politics (the African Renaissance)
• Business (through collective learning, teamwork, sustainability, a focus on local community,
and an alternative to extractive capitalism)

Information Ethics in the African Context


Page 15

• Corporate governance (through the attitudes of fairness, collectiveness, humility)
• Restorative justice (through the use of dialogue, collective restitution and healing)
• Conflict resolution and reconciliation (through the Ubuntu ethos of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, TRC) (Olinger et al., 2005:295)
The authors emphasise the specificity of the ubuntu worldview as a community-based mindset,
opposed to Western libertarianism and individualism but close to communitarianism. For more on this
topic, the Nigerian philosopher Simeon Onyewueke Eboh has written a profound study on African
Communalism (Eboh, 2004). Olinger, Britz and Olivier critically remark that the population of Southern
Africa has to rediscover ubuntu because many have not experienced it, and also because many live
in two different cultures – practising ubuntu in the rural environments and Western values in the urban
environments. If this is the case not only in South Africa, but in other African countries, then there is a
great deal of theoretical and practical work to be done. The authors translate the aphorism ‘Umunto
ungumuntu ngabanye abantu’ (Nguni languages of Zulu and Xhosa) as ‘A person is a person through
other persons’ (Olinger et al., 2005:293). According to Broodryk (2002), ubuntu is an African
worldview “based on values of intense humanness, caring, respect, compassion, and associated
values ensuring a happy and qualitative human community life in a spirit of family”. This means that
personal privacy – being a key ethical value in Western countries – might be considered as less
important from an ubuntu-based perspective, even if we accept that there are several conceptions of
privacy in both the West and the East (Capurro, Eldred & Nagel, 2013; Buchmann, 2012; Ess, 2005;
Capurro, 2005). In a comparative study of ethical theories in different cultures, Michael Brannigan
addresses African ethics with the utterance “To Be is to Belong” (Brannigan, 2005). An analysis of this
thesis could lead to a foundation of African Information Ethics based not upon the abstract or
metaphysical concept of ‘Being’ of some classical Western ethical theories, but upon the experience
of ‘Being’ as communal existence. The task of such an analysis would be to recognise the uniqueness
of African perspectives, as well as commonalities with other cultures and their theoretical expressions.
This analysis could lead to an interpretation of ICT within an African context and, correspondingly, to
possible vistas for information policy makers, responsible community leaders and, of course, for
African institutions.
Johannes Britz chaired a session on ICTs in Africa at the Ethics and Electronic Information in
the Twenty-First Century (EE21) symposium at the University of Memphis (Mendina & Britz, 2004).
He said that an important condition of Africa’s finding a place in the 21st century is a well-developed
and maintained ICT infrastructure. Britz and Peter Lor, former Chief Executive of the National Library
of South Africa, believe that the present North-South flow of information should be complemented by
a south-north flow in order to enhance mutual understanding. They plead for a shift toward the
recognition of the ‘local’ within the ‘global’, following the idea of ‘thinking locally and acting globally’. In
ethical terms, this means respect for different local cultures and strengthening their active
participation in intercultural dialogue (Lor & Britz, 2004:18; Britz, 2004). Although Africa is still far from
a true knowledge society, there is hope of success on certain fronts, such as investment in human
capital, stemming the flight of intellectual expertise, and the effective development and maintenance
of IT infrastructure (Britz et al., 2006). Dick Kawooya (Uganda Library Association) stresses the
ethical dilemma confronting librarians and information professionals in much of sub-Saharan Africa,
namely concerns about general literacy, information literacy and access to the Internet on the one
hand, and ‘dwindling budgets’ for educational institutions, particularly libraries, on the other (Kawooya,
2004:34). Michael Anyiam-Osigwe, chief executive of the African Institute for Leadership, Research
and Development, stresses the importance of ICT towards attaining sustainable democracy in Africa
(Anyiam-Osigwe, 2004). According to Coetzee Bester, a former member of parliament in South Africa
and co-founder of the African Institute for Leadership, Research and Development, the problem of

R. Capurro


Page 16

ICT in Africa includes all stakeholders. He writes:
A program to reconstruct communities as holistic entities is necessary. This should include
leadership, followers, agreed-upon principles and values as well as effective interaction
among all these elements (Bester, 2004:12).
A value-based reorientation implies personal awareness, an understanding of information, effective
interactions between leaders and their communities without limitations of time and space, and mutual
confidence in representative leadership.
In the study Ethics and the Internet in West Africa (Brunet et al., 2004), the authors identify six
types of ethical issues related to the development of the Internet in Africa but also relevant for other
countries:
• Exclusion and inequity
• Culture (Internet content)
• Internet costs and financing
• Sociotechnical aspects of Internet integration (resistance, uses)
• Political power
• Economic organisation
There is no such thing as a morally neutral technology. This is not to say that technologies can be
used and misused, but to express the deeper insight that all technologies create new ways of being.
They influence our relation with one another, and they shape, in a more or less radical way, our
institutions, our economies, and our moral values. This is why we should focus on information
technology primarily from an ethical perspective. It is up to the African people and their leaders to
question how to transform their lives by these technologies. African educational and research
institutions should also critically reflect on these issues. As Bob Jolliffe, senior lecturer in computer
science at the University of South Africa, has pointed out, there is an implicit connection between free
software, free culture, free science, open access, and the South African Freedom Charter (Jolliffe,
2006). A major task of Information Ethics is to align such ideals with concrete social, political,
economic and technical processes. ICT in Africa should become a major contribution for opening “the
doors of learning and culture”, to use the wording of the South African Freedom Charter. The space of
knowledge as a space of freedom is not, as Jollife rightly remarks, an abstract ideal. It has a history
that limits its possibilities. It is a space of rules and traditions of specific societies that is in dialogue
with their foundational myths and utopian aspirations. We are morally responsible not only for our
deeds, but also for our dreams. Information Ethics offers an open space to retrieve and debate these
information and communication myths and utopias.
10. Prospects
The main moral responsibility of African academics is to enrich African identities by retrieving and re-
creating African information and communication traditions. From this perspective, cultural memory is
an ethical task if we want to create a humane community based not just on the number of people, but
on the relations between them, as the German Egyptologist Jan Assmann remarks following Friedrich
Nietzsche in his Genealogy of Morals (Assmann, 2000; Nietzsche, 1999:294-300). Cultural memory
must be re-shaped again and again to build the core of a humane society. This means no more and
no less than basing morality on memory and communication, thereby establishing Information Ethics
at its core. The function of cultural memory is not just to express what belongs to the collective
memory of a community, but to engage the will of its members to connect themselves through the
task of creating it. Cultural memory is connective, therefore it is related to our myths and to our
dreams. We remember Nietzsche’s ambiguous warning: “You want to be responsible for everything!
But not for your dreams!” (Nietzsche, 1999a:117). I call this warning ‘ambiguous’ because Nietzsche,

Information Ethics in the African Context


Page 17

no less than Sigmund Freud, was well aware of the limits of human will and our tendency to repress
or forget what we consider painful. The Egyptian god Thot is a symbol of cultural memory as a social
task. He is the god of wisdom and writing, as well as messenger of the gods, particularly of the sun
god Re, and is associated with the goddess Ma’at, the personification of justice. Thot, the Greek
Hermes, was represented as an ibis- (or a baboon-) headed man with a reed pen and a palette,
known in the Western tradition through Plato’s criticism of writing in his Phaedrus.
To retrieve the African cultural memory with regard to information and communication norms
and traditions is the main information challenge for African Information Ethics. It should recognise the
different strategies of social inclusion and exclusion in the history of African societies, including
traumatic experiences such as slavery and apartheid. Since the emergence of the Internet, this
challenge is discussed under the heading of the digital divide. However, African Information Ethics
implies much more than just the access and use of this medium. The problem is not a technical one,
but one of social exclusion, manipulation, exploitation, and annihilation of human beings. It is vital that
African Information Ethics be developed from this broader perspective.
There is a short and a long history of Information Ethics in Africa. The long history concerns
Africa’s rich oral and written traditions, throughout many centuries, about different kinds of information
and communication practices, using different moral codes and media, and based on dynamic and
complex processes of cultural hybridisation. Critical reflection on this history promotes greater
awareness of Africa’s cultural legacy, which provides the foundations of the digital Information and
Communication Technologies that will create unique and genuinely African Information Societies for
the future. Information Ethics opens a space for the critical reflection on established customs and
values. It works as a catalyst for social change. It is a space for retrieving the rich African cultural
memory that allows the reshaping of African identities and contributes to the world’s information and
communication cultures.
References
ANIE (African Network for Information Ethics). Retrieved January 3, 2013, from
http://www.africainfoethics.org.
African Information Ethics Conference (2007). Tshwane Declaration on Information Ethics in Africa adopted
on 7 February, Pretoria, South Africa. Retrieved December 14, 2012, from
http://www.africainfoethics.org/ tshwanedeclaration.html.
Anyiam-Osigwe, M.C. (2004). Africa’s New Awakening and ICT: Toward Attaining Sustainable Democracy
in Africa. In: T. Mendina and J. J. Britz (Eds.): Information Ethics in the Electronic Age. Current Issues in
Africa and the World. North-Carolina: McFarland, 36-46.
Appiah, K.A. (1998). African Philosophy. In E. Craig (Ed.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London:
Routledge. Retrieved December 20, 2012, from http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/Z018.
Assmann, J. (2000). Religion und kulturelles Gedächtnis. Munich: Beck.
Bester, C. (2004).The New Morality and Democracy in Africa: The Role and Responsibilities of Leadership
and Governments for ICT Development in the African Union. In T. Mendina and J.J. Britz (Eds.):
Information Ethics in the Electronic Age. Current Issues in Africa and the World. North-Carolina:
McFarland, 7-14.
Bidima, J.G. (2004). Ethik. In J.E. Mabe (Ed.): Das Afrika-Lexikon. Stuttgart: Metzler, 157-159.
Brannigan, M.C. (2005). Ethics Across Cultures with Power Web Ethics. McGraw-Hill.
Britz, J.J. (2004). Africa and Its Place in the Twenty-First Century: A Moral Reflection. In T. Mendina and
J.J. Britz (Eds.): Information Ethics in the Electronic Age. Current Issues in Africa and the World. North-
Carolina: McFarland, 5-6.
Britz, J.J, Lor, P.J. & Bester, C. (2006). Africa as a knowledge society: A reality check. In The International
Information & Library Review, Vol. 38, No. 1, 25-40.
Broodryk, J. (2002). Ubunto: Life lessons from Africa. Ubunto School of Philosophy. Pretoria, 2nd. Print.
National Library of South Africa.
Brunet, P., Tiemtoré, O. & Vettraino-Soulard, M.C. (2004). Ethics and the Internet in West Africa. IDRC
(International Development Research Centre). Ontario.

R. Capurro


Page 18

Buchmann, J. (Ed.) (2012). Internet Privacy. Berlin: Springer. Retrieved December 15, 2012, from http://
www.acatech.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Baumstruktur_nach_Website/Acatech/root/de/Publikationen/Pro
jektberichte/ acatech_STUDIE_Internet_Privacy_WEB.pdf.
Capurro, R. (1996). Information Technologies and Technologies of the Self. In Journal of Information
Ethics, Vol. 5, No.2, 19-28. Retrieved January 3, 2013, from http://www.capurro.de/self.htm.
Capurro, R. (2005a). Passions of the Internet. In Wolfgang Palaver, PetraSteinmair-Pösel (Eds.): Passions
in Economy, Politics, and the Media in Discussion with Christian Theology. Vienna: Lit, 331-343.
Retrieved December 7, 2012, from http://www.capurro.de/passions.html.
Capurro, R. (2005b). Between Trust and Anxiety. On the moods of information society In: Richard Keeble
(ed.): Communication Ethics Today. Leicester: Troubadour Publishing Ltd., 2005, 187-196. Retrieved
January 2, 2013, from http://www.capurro.de/lincoln.html.
Capurro, R. (2005c). Privacy. An intercultural perspective. In Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 7,
No. 1, 37-47. Retrieved December 12, 2012, from http://www.capurro.de/privacy.html.
Capurro, R. (2006). Towards an Ontological Foundation of Information Ethics. In Ethics and Information
Technology, Vol. 8, Nr. 4, 175-186. Retrieved December 14, 2012, from
http://www.capurro.de/oxford.html.
Capurro, R. (2008a). On Floridi’s Metaphysical Foundation of Information Ecology. In Ethics and
Information Technology, Vol. 10, Nr. 2/3, 167-173. Retrieved December 15, 2012, from
http://www.capurro.de/oxford.html.
Capurro, R. (2008b). Intercultural Information Ethics. In: K.E. Himma, K. Einar and H. Tavani (Eds.): The
Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 639-665.
Capurro, R. (2012a). Ethical Issues of Online Social Networks in Africa. Retrieved December 13, 2012,
from http://www.capurro.de/OSNAfrica2012.html.
Capurro, R. (2012b). Medicine 2.0. Reflections on a Pathology of the Information Society. Retrieved
December 14, 2012, from http://www.capurro.de/Medicine2_0.html.
Capurro, R., Eldred, M. & Nagel, D. (2013). Digital Whoness: Identity, Privacy and Freedom in the
Cyberworld. Frankfurt: Ontos.
Capurro, R., Frühbauer, J. & Hausmanninger, T. (Eds.) (2007). Localizing the Internet. Ethical aspects in
intercultural perspective. ICIE Series 4, Munich: Fink.
Capurro, R. & Holgate, J. (Eds.) (2011). Messages and Messengers. Angeletics as an Approach to the
Phenomenology of Communication. Munich: Fink.
Capurro, R. & Nagenborg, M. (Eds.) (2009). Ethics and Robotics. Heidelberg: Akademische Verlagsanstalt.
Coenen, C., Hofkirchner, W. & Díaz Nafría, J.M. (Guest Editors) (2012): New ICTs and Social Media:
Revolution, Counter-Revolution and Social Change. In International Review of Information Ethics, vol.
17. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www.i-r-i-e.net/archive.htm.
Coetzee, P. & Roux, A. (2002). Philosophy from Africa. A text with readings. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Eboh, S.O. (2004). African Communalism. The Way to Social Harmony and Peaceful Co-Existence:
Onuganotu Lectures Vol. 3. IKO Verlag für interkulturelle Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved
January 4, 2013, from http://catalog.lib.washington.edu/record=b5625354.
EGE. (2005). Ethical Aspects of ICT Implants in the Human Body. Opinion No. 20. Retrieved January 4,
2013, from http://ec.europa.eu/bepa/european-group-ethics/publications/opinions/index_en.htm.
EGE. (2012). Ethics of Information and Communication Technologies. Opinion No. 26. Retrieved January
3, 2013, from http://ec.europa.eu/bepa/european-group-ethics/publications/opinions/index_en.htm.
Ess, C. (2005). “Lost in translation”?: Intercultural dialogues on privacy and information ethics. Introduction
to special issue on Privacy and Data Privacy Protection in Asia. In Ethics and Information Technology,
Vol 7,1-6.
Ess, C. (2009). Digital Media Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Books.
ETHICBOTS. (2008). Emerging Technoethics of Human Interaction with Communication, Bionic and
Robotic Systems. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://ethicbots.na.infn.it/index.php.
ETICA (2011). Ethical Issues of Emerging ICT Applications. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://
ethics.ccsr.cse.dmu.ac.uk/etica.
Eze, E.C. (1997). Postcolonial African Philosophy: A Critical Reader. Cambridge: Massachusetts:
Blackwell.
Feilhauer, M. & Zehle, S. (Guest Editors). (2009). Network Ecologies: Ethics of Waste in the Information
Society. In International Review of Information Ethics, Vol. 11. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://
www.i-r-i-e.net/issue11.htm.
Foucault, M. (1988). Technologies of the Self. A Seminar with Michel Foucault. Edited by L.H. Martin, H.
Gutman & P.H. Hutton. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press.
Gyekye, C. (1996). African Cultural Values: An Introduction. Philadelphia: Sankofa.

Information Ethics in the African Context


Page 19

Harper, R., Rodden, T., Rogers, Y. & Sellen, A. (2008). Being Human: Human-Computer Interaction in the
Year 2020: Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http:// research.microsoft.com/en-
us/um/cambridge/projects/hci2020/downloads/beinghuman_a4.pdf.
Himma, K.E. & Tavani, H. (Eds.) (2008). The Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics. Hoboken:
Wiley.
Hongladarom, S. (2007). Analysis and Justification of Privacy from a Buddhist Perspective. In S.
Hongladarom and C. Ess (Eds.): Information Technology Ethics: Cultural Perspectives. Hershey: Idea
Group, 108-122.
Hongladarom, S. & Ess, C. (Eds.) (2007). Information Technology Ethics: Cultural Perspectives. Hershey:
Idea Group.
Houtondji, P.J. (1983). African Philosophy: Myth and Reality, Trans. Henri Evans. London: Hutchinson
Univ. Library for Africa.
Houtondji, P.J. (2002). Producing knowledge in Africa today. In P. Coetzee & A. Roux (Eds.): Philosophy
from Africa. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 501-507.
Joliffe, B. (2006). Aligning the ideals of free software and free knowledge with the South African Freedom
Charter. In: First Monday, Vol 11, No 7. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_7/jolliffe/index.html.
Kawooya, D. (2004). The Digital Divide: An Ethical Dilemma for Information Professionals in Uganda? In T.
Mendina & J.J. Britz (Eds.): Information Ethics in the Electronic Age. Current Issues in Africa and the
World. Jefferson, North-Carolina: McFarland, 28-35.
Lessig, L. (1999). Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books.
Lor, P.J. & Britz, J.J. (2004). Information Imperialism. Moral Problems in Information Flows from South to
North. In: T. Mendina & J.J. Britz (Eds.): Information Ethics in the Electronic Age. Current Issues in
Africa and the World. Jefferson, North-Carolina: McFarland, 15-21.
Mabe, J.E. (Ed.) (2004). Das Afrika-Lexikon. Ein Kontinent in 1000 Stichwörtern. Stuttgart and Wuppertal:
Metzler and Peter Hammer.
Mabe, J.E. (2005). Mündliche und schriftliche Formen philosophischen Denkens in Afrika. Grundzüge einer
Konvergenzphilosophie. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.
Mbiti, J.S. (1969). African Religions and Philosophy. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers.
Mendina, T & Britz, J.J. (Eds.) (2004). Information Ethics in the Electronic Age. Current Issues in Africa and
the World. North-Carolina: McFarland.
Mlilo, L.G. & Soédé, N.Y. (Eds.) (2003). Doing Theology and Philosophy in the African Context. Frankfurt
am Main: IKO, Verlag Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Bd. 17.
Murithi, T. 2000. Practical peacemaking wisdom from Africa: Reflections on ubuntu. New York: United
Nations Programme in Peacemaking and Preventive Diplomacy.
Nakada, M. & Tamura, T. (2005): Japanese conceptions of privacy: An intercultural perspective. In Ethics
and Information Technology, Vol. 7, 27-36.
Neugebauer, C. (1989). Einführung in die afrikanische Philosophie. Munich, Kinshasa: Presses Univ.
Africaines.
Nietzsche, F. (1999a). Morgenröthe. In: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Edited by G. Colli & M. Montinari.
Munich: dtv, Vol. 3, 9-331.
Nietzsche, F. (1999b). Zur Genealogie der Moral. In ibid.: Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Edited by G. Colli &
M. Montinari. Munich: dtv, Vol. 5, 245-412.
Nkulu, M. (1997). The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights: An African Contribution to the
Project of Global Ethic. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from
http://astro.temple.edu/~dialogue/Center/mutombo.htm.
Okpaku, J.O. (Ed.) (2003). Information and Communication Technologies for African Development. An
Assessment of Progress and Challenges Ahead. New York: Third Press Publishers.
Oladipo, O. (Ed.) (2002). The Third Way in African Philosophy: Essays in Honour of Kwasi Wiredu. Ibadan:
Hope Publications.
Olinger, H.N., Britz, J.J. & Olivier, M.S. (2005). Western privacy and ubuntu: influences in the forthcoming
data privacy bill. In P. Brey, F. Grodzinsky & L. Introna (Eds.): Ethics and New Information Technology,
CEPE 2005, Enschede, The Netherlands, 291-306.
Ong, A. & Collier, S.J. (Eds.) (2005). Global Assemblages. Technology, Politics and Ethics as
Anthropological Problems. Malden: Blackwell.
Oruka, H. (1990). Sage Philosophy. Indigenous Thinkers and Modern debate on African Philosophy.
Nairobi: Acts Press.
Oruka, H. & Masolo, D.A. (1983). Philosophy and Culture. Nairobi: Bookwise Ltd.
Ramose, M.B. (2002). Globalization and ubuntu. In Coetzee, P. & Roux, A. (2002). Philosophy from Africa.
A text with readings. Oxford University Press (2nd edition), 626-650.

R. Capurro


Page 20

Roosevelt, E. (1958). In Your Hands. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from
http://www.udhr.org/history/inyour.htm.
Ruch, E.A. & Anyanwu, K.C. (1981). African Philosophy. An Introduction to the Main Philosophical Trends
in Contemporary Africa. Rome: Catholic Book Agency.
Scheule, R.M., Capurro, R. & Hausmanninger, T. (Eds.). (2004). Vernetzt gespalten. Der Digital Divide in
ethischer Sicht. Munich: Fink.
Serequeberhan, T. (1996). African Philosophy: The Essential Readings. St. Paul: Paragon House.
Tambwe Kitenge bin Kitoko, E.(2004a). Medien. In J.E. Mabe (Ed.): Das Afrika-Lexikon. Stuttgart: Metzler,
386-387.
Tambwe Kitenge bin Kitoko, E. (2004b). Internet. In J.E. Mabe (Ed.): Das Afrika-Lexikon. Stuttgart: Metzler,
260-261.
United Nations (2008). Millenium Development Goals. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2008highlevel/pdf/newsroom/MDG%20Overview%20FINAL.pdf
Weidtmann, N. (1998). Der gemeinsame Weg der Kulturen zu größerer Wahrheit. Eine Einführung in das
Den-ken von Kwasi Wiredu. In polylog, 2. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from
http://them.polylog.org/2/fwn-de.htm.
Weizenbaum, J. (1976). Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation. San
Francisco: Freeman.
Wiener, N. (1989). The Human Use of Human Beings. Cybernetics and Society. London: Free Assoc.
Books.
Wiredu, K. (1995). Conceptual Decolonization in African Philosophy. Selected and introduced by Olusegun
Oladipo. Ibadan: Hope Publishers.
WSIS (2003). Declaration of Principles. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www.itu.int/wsis/index.html.
WSIS – Tunis Commitment (2005). WSIS-05/TUNIS/DOC/7-E. Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://
www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/7.html.

Ocholla, D.N. (2013). What is African Information Ethics? In Information Ethics in Africa: Cross-cutting Themes.
Pretoria: ACEIE, 21-28.


Page 21

Chapter Three
What is African Information Ethics?
Dennis N. Ocholla
Department of Information Studies, University of Zululand, SA
1. Introduction
Information Ethics (IE) as a field of applied ethics “provides a critical framework for considering moral
issues concerning informational privacy, moral agency (e.g. whether artificial agents may be moral),
new environmental issues (especially how agents should behave in the infosphere), problems arising
from the life cycle (creation, collection, recording, distribution, processing, etc.) of information
(especially ownership and copyright, digital divide)” (Information Ethics, nd: np). The role or purpose
of ethics in society is to promote what is good in people, avert chaos, and provide norms and
standards of behaviour based on human morals and values that are inclusive as opposed to exclusive
by creating better moral agents. The development of this rapidly growing field since the 1990s is
largely associated with contributions of eminent scholars such as Rafael Capurro, Luciano Floridi and
Robert Hauptman (see Froehlich, 2005) and the development of IE education by the University of
Pittsburg through the initiative of Toni Carbo and others. The three dominant ethical theories that
define IE (as also highlighted by Johannes Britz in Chapter One) such as consequence-based,
deontology/duty and virtue-based theories often demonstrate the difficulties and contradictions that
arise in the conceptualisation and contextualisation of ethics (see Fallis, 2007; Froehlich, 2005;
Ocholla, 2009; Ocholla, Onyancha & Britz, 2010 and Britz & Buchanan, 2010). For example, an
excellent consequence that brings happiness to an individual, community or an institution may not
necessarily be either right or virtuous. Similarly, the way people understand duty varies and the
question therefore is, duty to whom – family, religion, employer, government or nation? Some of the
most virile conflicts in family units, workplaces, governments and international relationships have
largely arisen from conflicts in the interpretation of normative ethics. This also applies to the
contradiction between mores, ethics and laws (see Froehlich, 1997:1-2), particularly if the three do not
match or lack harmony, which quite often happens. Thus, “Laws most often find their origin in the
ethics and mores of a given nation or region” (Froehlich, 1997:2). But contradictions have occurred in
recent years regarding, for example, gay marriage, abortion, ordaining women priests, legalisation of
prostitution in some countries and many more related examples.
A relevant email exchange between Rafael Capurro (2010, March 3) and me on
multiculturalism also gives another dimension to ethics and Information Ethics. In his response to my
question on whether globalisation can also mean multiculturalism, he wrote:
“Yes, I think so. We can make a difference between: multicultural analysis which means ‘just’
describing cultures without relating them to each other – intercultural analysis which means
comparing and ‘translating’ cultures – transcultural analysis which means looking for what is common
‘beyond’ the singularities of each culture. If you connect this with ethics (and IE) then you get a better
overview of the different dimensions. The key question is, of course, whether cultural differences are
important or not when dealing with morality as well as with ethics as theory/ies of morality/ies”.
While recommending that I read the contribution by Philip Brey1 at the European IE Conference in
Strasbourg, he agreed with Brey: Cultural differences have a deep influence on moral values and

1 http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=25455&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.

D.N. Ocholla


Page 22

theoretical views on them. I [Capurro] also think that the richness of human cultures is expressed in
human moralities. This does not necessarily mean a moral relativism but I think that a transcultural
morality for humanity is something Kant would call a ‘regulative idea’. Kant, as you know, never
proposed a dialogue of do/do not but gave ‘just’ a basic criterion for any moral maxim which is its
universalization. This Kantian formalism in ethics (ethical theory) might allow us to better handle an
intercultural and transcultural dialogue even if such presupposition (I mean Kantian formalism) is itself
product of a specific culture, a specific European epoch and also a specific understanding of ethics.
2. What is unique or uniqueness?
African in this context refers to a native of Africa, normally an indigenous person or a person of
African nationality or origin, while Africa refers to the geographical and physical space occupied by
the continent of Africa. Africa’s uniqueness depends on how it is perceived: in isolation or with others,
as a single identity or multiple identities, or as a multicultural, intercultural or transcultural society.
There is a lot that Africa shares with other continents and that Africans share with other cultures
when Africa is not viewed through the lenses of colonial history and the socio-political and economic
challenges it faces in modern times. How can this be explained within the context of political,
economic, social and technological (PEST) environments in which the people and the continent exist
and thrive?
2.1. Political issues
Africa consists of 54 countries with diverse geo-political, economic, social and technological
backgrounds and dispensations. Politics through democracy plays a major role in the development of
a country’s information institutions and systems. However, democracy is a dilemma in Africa, where
its interpretation and understanding is not always “of the people, by the people and for the people” as
Franklin Roosevelt, in 1930 wanted us to understand; quite often, it is designed and applied only in
circumstances where it largely suits the political and economic interests of individuals and
nations/countries. We have a few countries that have fully embraced democracy as a system of
political governance and are struggling admirably to keep it that way, e.g. most Southern African
Development Community2 (SADC) countries. Such countries have a popular constitution, strive to
respect and adhere to the rule of law for all its citizens, are open and tolerant to competitive
multiparty and parliamentary democracy, and ensure that popular elections are held regularly and
elected political leaders leave office when their terms in office end. This is not a situation where one
person ‘rules forever’ as has occurred and led to political turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Libya
and Zimbabwe, or where leaders are removed from office forcefully (e.g. Tunisia, Egypt) or removed
from office with power of bullets (e.g. in Libya). On the extreme end of the scale are dictatorial
regimes that do not follow democratic principles of political governance or, even worse, lead to a
state of political anarchy as has been the case for a long time now in Somalia.
Africa frequently blames its past for its present ethical predicament, sometimes justifiably so.
The colonialists left socio-economic and political poke marks on the face of Africa that included painful
periods of invasion, war, servitude, divestment, racial segregation and the denigration of indigenous
communities. African political structures, cultures and traditions have been significantly influenced by
foreign occupation and colonialism, whose approach, as Senghor puts it, was cogitative or well
thought about. The relationship to Africans was that of assimilation. Leopold Senghor (1964:72-73)
explains this relationship in sad and derogatory tones that in some ways also define our Information

2 Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Seychelles (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Southern_African_Development_Community#Member_states).

What is African Information Ethics?


Page 23

Ethics: In contrast to the classic European, the Negro-African does not draw a line between
himself and the object, he does not hold it at a distance, nor does he merely look at it and
analyze it. After holding it at a distance, after scanning it without analyzing it, he takes it
vibrant in his hands, careful not to kill or fix it. He touches it, feels it. Thus the Negro-
African sympathizes, abandons his personality to become identified with the other, and
dies to be reborn in the other. He does not assimilate; he is assimilated. He lives a
common life with the other; he lives in a symbiosis.
It is generally agreed that most of the continent’s problems were initiated by slavery and occupation.
Slavery3, which unfortunately still continues in different forms today (slavery statistics count 13 to 27
million slaves in the world today), is an abhorrent, dehumanising and agonising practice that
displaced people and destroyed the culture, traditions and leadership structures of Africans. The latter
were further destroyed by wars and occupation culminating in further displacement, the relocation of
communities and families, division, and assimilation through religion and education. Religion and
education became mass weapons of enlightenment, assimilation, and intellectual and spiritual
invasion into the souls and minds of the African people, leading to the gradual erosion of cultures and
traditions and what we now call the “mass society”4. The outcome of this mental and physical
occupation of African space has led to intellectual transformation through Western education, the
marginalisation of indigenous knowledge, mass conversion to Christian and Islamic religions, and the
transformation of governance structures to Western democratic systems, all of which have contributed
to African Information Ethics in different ways. Religion5 is supposed to be an ethical tool for
supporting normative behaviour and healing the mind and soul. But it has also acted as a weapon for
destruction and alienation.
Although globalisation6, meaning integration in all spheres, is considered to be a social,
economic, political and technological concept, it is, in my view, more of a political construct that
influences African Information Ethics – whether it is approached from a positive, neutral, negative or
constructive paradigm. With respect to information services, globalisation means connectivity,
accessibility, visibility, assimilation and ‘inclusivity’ in the access and use of information worldwide. We
do not forget its negative consequences such as culture and language loss, among others. I would
think that globalisation is defined by the level of networks (inflows and outflows) or connectivity within
Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world. At government levels, such linkages occur largely
at PEST levels, e.g. within the African Union, United Nations, South African Development Community
(SADC), East African Community (EAC), Common Wealth, Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), etc., while at private level, mass media dominates. Access to and the use of non-
African mass media, particularly television, the Internet, film industry and social media is quite
common. Socially, globalisation brings Africa closer to the world and the world closer to Africa by
creating useful social, private, business and government networks for information and knowledge
sharing. However, globalisation is enabled through ICTs, and access to and the use of these
technologies is minimal in Africa (see 2.4).
2.2. Economic environment
The economies of African countries are not the same; of 54 African countries, the ten richest in terms

3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery.
4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_society.
5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion.
6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization.

D.N. Ocholla


Page 24

of GDP per capita are (in descending order) Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, Gabon, Libya, Mauritius,
South Africa, Angola, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, while the 10 poorest (from N.43) are the Central
African Republic, Eritrea, Niger, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Somalia, Liberia, Burundi, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and Zimbabwe. A sound economy and economic management supports
resource and infrastructural development and sustainability. Unfortunately, not all the richest countries
in Africa have good resources and infrastructure, due largely to economic mismanagement. Some
richer countries such as South Africa (rated number six in Africa and 24 in the world) have better
access to resources and the infrastructure is far more developed, leading to better access to ICTs,
libraries and information centres, mass media, telecommunications networks, and the human capacity
to manage them. Such amenities come on board with unique IE issues that would normally not be
significant in an impoverished environment such as in Somalia. However, there is no link between
wealth on the one hand and good governance and civil freedom/liberty on the other, as it occurs.
2.3. Social issues
The social aspects of African diversity are embedded in culture and traditions, language, literacy
levels, education, ethnicity, religion and belief systems, and indigenous knowledge (IK) (as also
expressed by Dick Kawooya in Chapter Five). Unfortunately, the African cultural/social paradigm has
suffered significant loss due to its alienation and weak development, which raises serious information
ethics concerns regarding, for example, access and exploitation. However, it would be foolhardy, as
Maurice Makumba (2007:18) puts it, to “talk of a pure indigenous Africa engaged in a completely
detached reflection on reality. There was always the influence of the surrounding world, which
involved a cultural in-flow and out-flows” that is represented by the way people from Africa live and
function. For example, while there are many languages spoken in most countries, the dominant
languages are still the languages of the colonialists whose languages – (21 English-speaking
(Anglophone), 24 French-speaking (Francophone), five Portuguese-speaking (Lucophone), seven
Arabic-speaking and two Spanish-speaking) are widely spoken either as national or official languages
alongside other local dialects such as Kiswahili in Eastern Africa. We also have cultures within
countries that developed in most cases alongside non-African religions such as Christianity, Islam:
Africa of antiquity had contact with the Jewish, Greco-Roman and, to a certain extent, the
Near Eastern worlds. Mediaeval Africa came face-to-face with mediaeval Christian Europe
and Islamic influence from the Middle East. Modern Africa, or at least a part of it, had
contact with modern Europe (Makumba, 2007:18).
As Kwasi Wiredu (1998:15) notes, “Through the twin historical facts of Western colonisation and
Christian evangelisation, African cultures have been profoundly impregnated with ethical,
metaphysical and epistemological ideas of Western provenance.”
Traditional African information access, transfer and use systems are largely based on the oral
tradition and indigenous knowledge (IK) where word of mouth (WoM) is predominant. Sources of IK
thus include songs, folklore, proverbs, dances, myths, cultural rituals (e.g. during birth, transition to
adulthood – circumcision, cultural weddings, deaths/funerals, etc.), beliefs/religion, customary laws,
local languages, indigenous people, the natural environment, community intermediaries/gatekeepers/
community sages, traditional healers, community courts, and more recently, African churches. With
the exception of the latter, many of these information access and transfer systems are fast
approaching extinction. Perhaps Munyaradzi Murove (2009) is right when writing on Preserving our
collective memory: An ethical inquiry into the future or archival tradition in Africa by questioning
whether what is in the [African] archives is a collection of African memory and whether African people
have access to their archival memory. He argues that African morality is a morality of memory where
IK plays a significant role. There are concerted efforts being made in Africa to resurrect and
reconstruct a number of lost information access and transfer traditions, albeit mostly through cultural

What is African Information Ethics?


Page 25

activities during national or cultural festivals and events in order to preserve and disseminate
knowledge, also to attract tourists and for entertainment purposes.
The reasons behind why oral traditions have been marginalised are closely tied to the
marginalisation of IK. Maurice Makumba (2007:37-45) argues that early European thought on African
philosophy, as represented by Kant, Hegel (Philosophy of History: Myth and Reality) and Levy-Bruhl
did not seem to recognize African philosophy because Africans were considered to be primitive or
uncivilised, and primitive people had ‘no sense of thought’ or were unable to think/reason logically.
With this type of thinking, which still permeates some parts of our modern society, it may be that
African ethics or African Information Ethics would be branded the same. Despite this, Oruka (1991)
among others (also Hountondji, 1996), defends the existence of African philosophy and distinguishes
the ‘folk sage’ (conformist inclination – who stands/ goes by what culture and tradition say without
questioning) from the ‘philosophic sage’ (critical inclination, open to discourse on cultural issues).
Oruka uses these two opposite philosophical paradigms to question or disapprove of the three
European philosophers’ viewpoints. My recent (2011) encounter with a philosophic sage (a 90-year-
old Senior Chief in Kenya) who was open to discussions on any traditional matter including
Information Ethics, confirms Oruka’s point on the two philosophic paradigms.
I (Ocholla, 2007) have referred to marginalisation to mean exclusion – a state of being left out
or insufficient attention being given to something – and argue that the marginalisation of IK is a
legitimate Information Ethics issue because it restricts access and also defines a tragedy to the
uniqueness of African Information Ethics. The marginalisation of IK has occurred over many years
and has retarded its development and integration. There are many speculative reasons behind why
this occurs (Ocholla, 2007). Of these, some stem from the characteristics of IK, associating IK with the
poor. For example, the World Bank Group (n.d.) states: “Indigenous knowledge is also the social
capital of the poor, their main asset to invest in the struggle for survival, to produce food, to provide
for shelter or to achieve control of their own lives.” Families and communities are becoming
increasingly disintegrated and globalised, fuelled by stereotypes, in the way we define IK in relation to
broader knowledge or in the context of knowledge management. For instance, Bell (1973:176) defines
knowledge as “that which is objectively known, an intellectual property, attached to a name or a group
of names and certified by copyright or some other form of social recognition (e.g. publication)”.
Marginalisation has also occurred because of the impact on the global sharing of knowledge as
families and communities are becoming increasingly disintegrated and globalised (integrated), a trend
that may have stemmed from the increased supply of mass products, services, mass media gadgets
and content to private spaces where IK once thrived. During periods of domination, which have been
varyingly described with terms such as ‘forced occupation’, ‘invasion’, ‘colonialism’, ‘servitude’,
‘apartheid’, ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘imperialism’, IK was subject to yet another level of marginalisation.
It was often referred to in a negative or derisive manner, with phrases such as ‘primitive’, ‘backward’,
‘archaic’, ‘outdated’, ‘pagan’ and ‘barbaric’. This demeaning reference did not create space for IK’s
integration with other forms of knowledge, commonly referred to as ‘scientific’, ‘Western’ or ‘modern’
or ‘exogenous knowledge’ (largely products of explicit knowledge). Put simply, a person or community
practising or using IK was stigmatised and often abandoned IK practices even if they could be helpful.
As a result, IK was vilified, illegitimated, illegalised, suppressed and abandoned by some
communities, and the countries and people practising it were associated with out-datedness, a
characteristic most people find demeaning. This form of marginalisation produced a generation which,
for the most part, does not understand, recognise, appreciate, value or use IK. Arguably, this situation
has produced an intellectually ‘colonised’ mindset. These are communities that the celebrated world
novelist, Ngugi wa Thiongo (1986), in his essay Decolonizing the mind: The politics of language in
African literature, considers intellectually colonised.
Marginalisation has also been fuelled by stereotypes. There has been a tendency to

D.N. Ocholla


Page 26

associate IK with traditional communities (Ocholla, 2006). Studies on IK tend to focus on the poor, the
developing countries, the Aborigines of Australia, the Maoris of New Zealand, the native Canadian
and Americans, the Maasai of Kenya, and so on. The nature of these studies raises problematic
questions on their negative and positive intentions, such as: Are the studies done to improve the
welfare of the communities, or are they done to demean such communities? Would such studies be
done in order to gain and share knowledge on how well the communities can solve their problems by
using IK systems and methods? Are studies done to unravel or demystify the stereotype paradigm?
Alternatively, are such studies merely adventurous outlets justifying where research money has been
spent? Would it not perhaps also be interesting to study the IK of Western or industrialised
communities as information access and use for development is our ultimate goal?
Whereas much can be gained from IK studies conducted on any community in the world (since
each community contains elements of IK), the demeaning tendency to focus IK studies on traditional
and poor communities has been an added cause of marginalisation that raises serious ethical
questions.
2.4. Technological issues
I would like to start this section with a quote from the editorial of International Review of Information
Ethics (Hongladarom & Britz, 2010) that has implications for the understanding of intercultural
Information Ethics and its dimensions on modern society where ICT-driven cultures increasingly clash
with regular/traditional cultures and where the boundary between universalism and particularism is
increasingly blurred:
It is well known that information and communication technologies have permeated all
corners of the world [...] Moreover, the Internet has continued to penetrate deeper and
deeper into the everyday world of ordinary people, so much so that it is fast becoming an
ubiquitous medium present in different cultural contexts […] An inevitable result of the
global penetration of the Internet and the mobile phone (in fact the two technologies are
fast merging into one device only) is that presuppositions of the world’s cultures could
clash with those accompanying these technologies. This has given rise to an emerging
field called ‘Intercultural Information Ethics’, where the cultural presuppositions of the
world’s cultures are seen as an important factor in consideration of ethical theorization and
the search for ethical guidelines [...] In terms of theory, many questions still remain: How
are we to come to terms with the age-old philosophical problem of universalism and
particularism? In other words, are values embedded in the use of information and
communication technologies culture specific or are they universal? Or are there some
values that are specific to time, place and culture, and are there some others that are
more universal? Does the term ‘universal’ admit of degree, so that one can be more
‘universal’ than another?
Technological development is closed linked to the three factors (see 2.1 - 2.3) that also differ from
country to country, and from urban to rural areas in Africa. A democratic country with a sound
economy and developed social systems (e.g. education and literacy) would do exceedingly better
technologically than those with less or none of the above, which brings us to the digital divide7 .
The digital divide is a popular concept or phrase used to explain the inequality of information
access and use, largely with respect to ICTs within or between individuals, families, communities,
nations and regions. It is another way of defining the knowledge ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ that is dealt
with under information poverty by Johannes Britz in Chapter Seven. The digital divide statistics in
Africa are alarming. For example, ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database (2012)

7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide.

What is African Information Ethics?


Page 27

provides amazing statistics:
Table 1 Key statistical highlights: ITU data release June 20128
Mobile cellular Mobile broadband Internet
Total mobile-cellular subscriptions
reached almost 6 billion by end
2011, corresponding to a global
penetration of 86%. Growth was
driven by developing countries,
which accounted for more than 80%
of the 660 million new mobile-cellular
subscriptions added in 2011. By the
end of 2011, there were 105
countries with more mobile-cellular
subscriptions than inhabitants,
including African countries such as
Botswana, Gabon, Namibia,
Seychelles and South Africa.
Countries where mobile-cellular
penetration increased the most in
2011 include Brazil, Costa Rica,
Kazakhstan, Lao P.D.R. and Mali.
By end 2011, there were more than
1 billion mobile-broadband
subscriptions worldwide. Although
developing countries are catching up
in terms of 3G coverage, huge
disparities remain between mobile-
broadband penetration in the
developing (8%) and the developed
world (51%). In Africa there are less
than 5 mobile-broadband
subscriptions per 100 inhabitants,
whereas all other regions have
penetration levels above 10%. In
2011, 144 million mobile-broadband
subscriptions were added in the
BRICS (Brazil, the Russian
Federation, India, China and South
Africa), accounting for 45% of the
world’s total subscriptions added in
2011.
The percentage of individuals using
the Internet continues to grow
worldwide and by end 2011 2.3
billion people were online. In
developing countries, the number of
Internet users doubled between
2007 and 2011, but only a quarter of
inhabitants in the developing world
were online by end 2011. By end
2011, 70% of the total households in
developed countries had Internet,
whereas only 20% of households in
developing countries had Internet
access. Major differences in Internet
bandwidth per Internet user persist
between regions: on average, a user
in Europe enjoys 25 times as much
international Internet capacity as a
user in Africa.
3. Conclusion
This chapter has posed more questions than answers. A question that is also posed by Bernd
Frohman (2007:135) is: is there an Information Ethics that is solely pursued in Africa to be called
African Information Ethics? To what extent has colonialism, within the context of religion, occupation,
education, slavery, marginalisation of indigenous knowledge, language (e.g. Francophone,
Anglophone, Lucophone) political democracy and PEST linkages and affiliations to the former colonial
states, influenced African Information Ethics either positively or negatively? Similarly, how does the
conceptualisation and contextualisation of IE theories and relationships between ethics, laws and
morals, on the one hand, and multiculturalism, transculturalism and interculturalism, on the other
hand, define and explain our understanding of African Information Ethics? Our quick answer to the
first question, based on the second question, is yes, there will be Information Ethics solely pursued in
Africa given its geographical, historical, cultural and technological background and development. But
this does not isolate such Information Ethics from the rest of the world as long as interaction between
Africa and the rest of world occurs. We believe that reasons that inform regional social studies (e.g.
European/African/Asian/American history/philosophy/languages) also emerge when we tackle African
Information Ethics on its own to create better/in-depth knowledge and understanding of its uniqueness
and environment. For example, the understanding of African communalism that is often represented
by Ubuntu (see also Mabovula, 2011), a paradigm highlighted by Rafael Capurro in Chapter Two
(citing related studies), provides a unique dimension for understanding African Information Ethics.
Justifiably, then, through the initiatives of the African Network of Information Ethics “[t]he attendees
agreed to form a network of professionals interested in Information Ethics from an African perspective
– the ANIE, African Network for Information Ethics, to further research in this area and to contribute to

8 Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database 2011, see http://www.itu.int/ITU-
D/ict/statistics/material/pdf/2011%20Statistical%20highlights_June_2012.pdf.

D.N. Ocholla


Page 28

fulfil the ideals as spelled out in the Tshwane declaration”9. Many positive activities worth noting have
taken place since that time. Among them are the establishment of the ANIE website; organisation of
regular Information Ethics conferences and workshops; enabling IE research and open access
publications; supporting an IE curriculum development forum, and the creation of African Centre of
Excellence in Information Ethics (ACEIE) at the University of Pretoria.
References
Bell, D. (1973). The coming of post-industrial society: A venture in social forecasting. New York: Basic
Books.
Britz, J. & Buchanan, E.A. (2010). Ethics from the Bottom Up? Immersive Ethics and the LIS Curriculum. In
Journal of Information Ethics, 19, (1), 12-19.
Capurro, R. (2010). Multiculturalism and globalization. Email exchange between Dennis Ocholla and Rafael
Capurro, March 3.
Fallis, D. (2007). Information ethics for twenty-first century library professionals. In Library Hi Tech, Vol. 25
(1), 23-36. Retrieved April 15, 2008, from http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/1820/01/ fallislibraryhitech.pdf.
Froehlich, T. (2005). A brief history of information ethics. Computer Society of India (CSI) 11-13. Retrieved
April 15, 2008, from http://www.capurro.de/csiJune2005infoeth.pdf.
Froehlich, T.J. (1997). Survey and analysis of legal and ethical issues for library and information services,
UNESCO Report (Contract no. 401.723.4), for the International Federation of Library Associations. IFLA
Professional Series (Munich: G.K. Saur, 1997).
Frohmann, B. (2007). Assembling an African Information Ethics. International Review on Information Ethics
(IRIE), Vol. 7. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from http://www.i-r-i-e.net/inhalt/007/14-frohmann.pdf.
Hongladarom, S. & Britz, J. (2010). Editorial, IRIE, Vol. 13. Retrieved January 10, 2011, from http://www.i-r-
i-e.net/ inhalt/013/013-full.pdf.
Hountondji, P.J. (1996). African Philosophy: myth and reality. Paris: Hutchinson & Co Ltd. Information
Ethics. (n.d). From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopaedia. Retrieved July 12, 2010, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Information_ethics.
Mabovula, N.N. (2011). The Erosion of African Communal Values. A Reappraisal of the African Ubuntu
Philosophy. In Inkanyiso: JNL Humanities and Social Sciences Vol. 3 (1), 38-47.
Makumba, M.M. (2007). Introduction to African Philosophy. Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa.
Murove, M.F. (2003). Preserving Our Collective Memory: An Ethical Inquiry into the Future of the Archival
Tradition in Africa. In SA Archives Journal, 13-23. Retrieved February 13, 2010, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ informatio_ethics.
Ocholla, D.N. (2007). Marginalized Knowledge: An Agenda for Indigenous Knowledge Development and
Integration with other Forms of Knowledge. In International Review on Information Ethics, Vol. 7.
Retrieved January 4, 2013, from http://www.i-r-i-e.net/inhalt/007/26-ocholla.pdf .
Ocholla, D.N. (2009). Information Ethics Education in Africa. Where do we stand? In International
Information and Library Review, Vol. 41 (2), 79-88.
Ocholla, D.N., Onyancha, O.B. & Britz, J. (2010). Can information ethics be conceptualized by using the
core/periphery model? In Journal of Informetrics. Vol. 4, 492-502.
Ocholla, D.N. & Onyancha, O.B. (2006). The marginalized knowledge: An informetric analysis of
indigenous knowledge publications, 1990 - 2004. South African Journal of Libraries and Information
Science, 71, (3), 247-248.
Oruka Odera, H. (1991). Sage Philosophy: Indigenous Thinkers and the Modern Debate on African
Philosophy. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1990. Rpt. Nairobi, Kenya: African Center for Technology Studies
(ACTS) Press.
Shengor, L. (1964). LibertéI: Négritude et humanisme. Paris, Le Seuil.
wa Thiong’o Ngugi. (1986). Decolonizing the mind: The politics of language in African literature. Nairobi:
Heinemann.
Wiredu, K. (1998). Anglophone African Philosophy. In: E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopaedia of
Philosophy Vol. 1. London: Routledge.
World Bank. (n.d.). Indigenous knowledge (IK) program. Retrieved June 10, 2010, from http://
www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/.

9 http://www.africainfoethics.org.

Mutula, S.M. (2013). Ethical Dimensions of the Information Society: Implications for Africa. In Information Ethics in Africa:
Cross-cutting Themes. Pretoria: ACEIE, 29-42.


Page 29

Chapter Four
Ethical Dimension of the Information Society: Implications for Africa
Stephen M. Mutula
School of Social Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, SA
1. Introduction
Information Ethics (IE) concerns the responsible use of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) in the Information Society as enunciated by the World Summit of Information Society Action
Line C10 (WSIS, 2005). The Internet, social media, computers and associated applications, such as
e-Government and social networking, are having a tremendous impact on society. The laggard
technological adoption behaviour that has characterised Africa and its people for many years is
gradually being overcome in the wake of new technologies. New information and communication
technologies have quickly gained acceptance and use in education, research, business, government,
politics, professional practice and in the general society, which raises several ethical issues such as:
protection of users’ rights; user privacy guarantees; methods of enforcing compliance with the
policies; user compensation when rights are violated; sanctions for errant users; verification of the
credibility of information uploaded by users; methods of conflict resolutions; roles and responsibilities
of users; dealing with cybercrime; user training; dealing with intellectual property rights; guarding
servers against invasion and more. In Africa, cultural practices form part of the daily norms of the
people and, consequently, the ethical issues concerned with the use of new technologies can never
be over emphasised. In addition, Africa is endowed with people of diverse and heterogeneous norms,
cultures, languages, religions, and governance systems that answer to different ethical and moral
interpretations. This environment has created increased concerns about the moral and ethical
implications for society, especially with regard to people’s legitimate rights. This chapter provides an
attempt to address the responsible use of ICTs in the Information Society.
Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, and Meyer (2010) state that ethics is not about somebody’s
feelings, one’s religious beliefs, or doing what the law requires, or the standards of behaviour our
society accepts. Instead, ethics refers to wellfounded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what
humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific
virtues. In this regard, ethics implies those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain
from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. In addition, ethical standards support virtues
of honesty, compassion, and loyalty; and the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right
to privacy. Fallis (2007) explains that the concept of ethics means distinguishing right actions from
wrong actions based on the premise that [right actions] have better outcomes. However, Fallis is
quick to point out that there are ethical duties that human beings must obey, regardless of the
outcomes. The right thing to do is determined by the rights that human beings have, such as the
universal human rights or the commonly held value system of persons, despite different moral or
cultural backgrounds and inclinations. Carbo (2007) asserts that ethical conduct dictates that
individuals should be treated with love, affection, kindness, gentleness, generosity of spirit, and warm-
heartedness.
While ethics is a concept that has come of age, Information Ethics is fairly new in literature,
having gained prominence after the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005,
respectively, as articulated in Action Line C10 of the Plan of Action (WSIS, 2005).

S.M. Mutula


Page 30

By definition, Information Ethics may be perceived as a branch of ethics which Chuang and Chen
(1999) consider being a much larger philosophy known as social ethics. They consequently define
Information Ethics as a discipline dealing with the moral conduct of information users with respect to
their responsibility. The WSIS Action Line C10 focuses on the ethical dimensions of the Information
Society. This Action Line holds that the Information Society should be subject to universally held
values and promote the common good, while preventing abusive uses of ICTs. Furthermore, the
Information Society should take steps to promote respect for peace and to uphold the fundamental
values of freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, shared responsibility, and respect for nature. In
addition, all actors in the Information Society should promote the common good, protect privacy and
personal data and take appropriate actions and preventive measures, as determined by law, against
abusive uses of ICTs for illegal and other acts such as racism; racial discrimination; xenophobia and
related intolerance; hatred; violence; all forms of child abuse, including paedophilia and child
pornography; and trafficking in, and exploitation of human beings (WSIS, 2005). Action Line C8 of the
WSIS Action Plan is also relevant, especially for Africa, as it focuses on cultural diversity and identity,
linguistic diversity, local content, traditions and religions. It also advocates for policies that support the
respect, preservation, promotion and enhancement of cultural heritage as well as diverse forms of
digital and traditional media (WSIS, 2005).
2. Responsible use of ICTs in the Information Society
Capurro (2008) underscores the value of Information Ethics in the Information Society in upholding
the fundamental values of freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, shared responsibility, respect for
nature, peace, justice, dignity of human persons, and respect for human rights. He also highlights the
importance of fundamental freedoms of others including: personal privacy, the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion, in conformity with relevant international instruments, and in ensuring
that all actors in the Information Society take appropriate measures, as determined by the law,
against abusive uses of ICT. Chuang and Chen (1999) note that the use of computers has created
new problems, involving cybercrime, unlawful acquisitions of private information and hacking, that
must be addressed.
The abusive use of new technologies has increased with the rapid spread of mobile phones
and social media worldwide, in general, and in Africa in particular, more than any other technologies,
such as radio, television, Internet and computers, have in the past. The rapid spread of social media,
for example, has raised several questions regarding the protection of legitimate rights of the users.
There are fears that information uploaded by users into social media networks will be passed onto
other sources by service providers without their consent. Besides, there have been attempts by
overzealous governments and organisations to restrict access to social media, especially when they
believe such new ICTs are being used for political agitation against governments in power, as it
happened during the Arab Spring. Rice (2011b) writes about other attempts to gag freedom of
expression through a draft social-media policy at Sam Houston State University that was intended to
force students with a campus-related Twitter, Facebook, or other online account to give university
administrators editing privileges. Elsewhere, Egyptian government officials in 2008 beat Ahmed
Maher Ibrahim, a 27-year-old civil engineer, for using Facebook to support calls for a general strike on
May 4 – President Mubarak’s 80th birthday. Lundsay (2010) therefore says new technologies,
especially social media, if not well managed, open the door to numerous risks such as the breach of
confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and misuse of organisational resources.
Late in 2011, the Hacktivist Group Anonymous threatened an imminent attack to bring down
Facebook. Hacktivists, who are ardent supporters of WikiLeaks, were targeting Facebook because
the social network has often been at the centre of privacy concerns regarding its users’ information.
Hacktivist Group Anonymous, in a decoded voice in a YouTube video, noted that “everything you do

Ethical Dimensions of the Information Scoiety: Implications for Africa


Page 31

on Facebook stays on Facebook, regardless of your privacy settings and deleting your account is
impossible, changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more private is a delusion
[...]” (Arico, 2011).
The issue of breach of privacy in online environments seems pervasive. Daily Nation (2012)
carried an article saying that companies that make many of the most popular Smartphone
applications for Apple and Android devices routinely gathered the information in personal address
books on the phone and, in some cases, stored it on their own computers and then transmitted it
without the knowledge of the owners of such information. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram
and others were reported to upload either users’ contact phone numbers or e-mail addresses to their
servers for matching purposes. These applications often perform this action without seeking
permission or informing the owner how long they plan to store this data. In 2012, the Path iPhone App
users were surprised to learn that the address books contacts of their e-mail addresses and phone
numbers had been uploaded to and stored on Path’s servers. Moreover, Google announced plans to
review its privacy policy that would legitimize releasing information of its clients to third parties without
their [clients’] consent (Google, 2012).
Currently, Africa has the fastest mobile phone growth rate in the world and there is also a
proliferation of social media users. However, the institutional capacity for African governments to
guarantee citizens’ legitimate rights relating to ethics and morality in their interactions with others
using new and emerging technologies, such as social media, seems neither to exist nor is it
prioritised. Mason (1986) raises several ethical issues in the electronic age, which include privacy;
accuracy; accountability for errors in information; how the injured party can be made whole;
intellectual property; ownership of the channels through which information is transmitted; and
accessibility. New information technologies, such as social media, largely rely on the trust of the users
for compliance with the provisions of the user policy. Trust is a critical dimension of ethics with an
interdisciplinary origin, including (but not limited to) management (Dirks & Ferrin, 2002) and
information systems (Salo & Karjaluoto, 2007; Lee, 2005 and Shao, Ma & Meng, 2005). Easton
(1965) explains that the presence of trust means that members will feel their own interests would be
attended to even if the authorities were under little supervision or scrutiny. Besides, the ability to trust
others and sustain cooperative relations is the product of social experiences and socialisation.
3. Social media penetration and uptake
The social media deserve special attention in the Information Society for two main reasons: 1) the use
of social media is the fastest growing online activity worldwide; 2) it has had the most significant
impact, in the shortest possible time, among people of diverse professions, ages and genders. Weiss
(2008) observes that the social media are a global phenomenon happening in all markets, regardless
of wider economic, social and cultural development. The growth areas of the social media, the world
over, are in video clips (83%); social networks (57%) and the widget economy (23%) (social network
users with installed applications); and the blogging community (42 milion bloggers) (Smith, 2011).
With regard to individual social network usage, Facebook was, in 2011, rated as the most popular
social networking space with an estimated 55 0750 million unique monthly visitors (eBizMBA, 2011;
Arico, 2011). Moreover, the largest demographic group on Facebook was the age group 35 to 54,
followed by the 18 to 24-year-olds (Y & Z generation respectively) (Corbet, 2010).
In South Africa, MXit and Facebook in 2011 led the way in user numbers, followed by Twitter
and BlackBerry Messenger. A social media 2011 survey found that there were about 3.4 million users
online using Facebook in South Africa. This number translates to 64% of the online population
Facebook users in South Africa (Socialmedia blog, 2012). Onyango (2012), citing results from a
survey of Twitter users in Africa, found that Kenyans are the second highest users of Twitter in Africa,

S.M. Mutula


Page 32

surpassing countries in the Maghreb that had used the facility to stage political revolt. Kenyans were
ranked behind South Africans, but tweeted more than Nigerians, Egyptians and Morrocans, despite
having a lesser population. The survey found that 60% of those who tweet are aged between 20 and
29 years. The study also found that 57% of these tweets are from mobile devices and are driving the
growth of social media in Africa.
Social media activity that started on intranets and private networks has since evolved to
become a web-based social networking tool. The social media platforms are proliferating and include,
among others, MySpace, Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook. Social media are used for
interaction, enabling users to add friends, comment on profiles, join groups and have discussions.
Photo and video supporting social networks include, among others, YouTube and Flickr. They enable
users to share and comment on other users’ submissions. On the other hand, Wikis, such as
Wikipedia, support social interactions by enabling users to add and edit existing articles. Most social
media service providers are based in Europe and North America and are subject to the legal
framework of those jurisdictions with regard to the legitimate rights of users.
Lundsay (2010) observes that though the social media are relatively new compared to cell
phones, using social media is now the number one online activity, with its use accounting for 10% of
all users’ time on the Internet. In addition, social media use is growing three times faster than the
Internet’s overall growth rate. The factors driving social media proliferation need not be over
emphasised. Expectations and user online behaviour is rapidly changing, with people existing in the
world of instant, real-time communication, where immediate access to partners, customers and
information is now the norm. Mathen (2012) observes that today’s employees create and receive
information from a host of different sources and formats that cannot be met by typical corporate
intranets. Furthermore, since organisations house the data people require, their network capabilities
fall short of supporting new work environments and working styles. Besides, with globalisation,
employees now routinely work with people outside their territories and different business units.
The rapid penetration and use of the social media is also being driven by the rise of affordable
handsets and broadband connectivity. Farmington (2012) notes that the availability of cost-effective
mobile and wireless solutions and the greater demand for access to the social media platforms are
becoming the most important factors driving the rapid growth of the media. Chauke (2012) supports
this assertion by arguing that more people are now connected to the Internet through their cell phones
than through computers. Gosier (2008) notes that mobile phone penetration is higher in Africa than in
any other region in the world, providing an enhanced environment for the growth of social media.
Mathen (2012), citing a social media report from Portland Communications (USA), notes that Africa
has 48 million social media users distributed as follows: 30 million on Facebook, 6 million on LinkedIn
and 12 million on Twitter. Moreover, in 2011, the number of Facebook users in Africa exceeded the
use of this medium in Eastern Europe and, for this reason, Facebook enabled a Swahili language
version, while Hausa and Zulu versions were in the review process (Viralblog.com, 2009).
The impressive growth of social media in Africa, compared to the broadband and e-
Government innovations, is evident in the relative positions of the South African Development
Community (SADC) in the world ranking, which show that South Africa, which is ranked 23rd in social
media global penetration, was ranked 91st in the Digital Opportunity Index in 2006 and this position
has not significantly changed. The Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) is used to measure and evaluate
the opportunity, infrastructure and utilisation of ICTs by government and its people. DOI monitors
recent technologies such as broadband and mobile Internet access, the falling price of broadband,
and increasing broadband speeds (World Information Society Report, 2006).
Since the social media have evolved into a global phenomenon, they have progressively been
adopted by people of all ages and persuasions. The fast acceptance of social media is, in part, fuelled
by the fact that traditional collaborative technologies such as e-mail and telephone, which are largely
text and document-centric, have become increasingly less efficient to drive innovation and productivity

Ethical Dimensions of the Information Scoiety: Implications for Africa


Page 33

(Mathen, 2012). Social media is being applied in business as a new competitive tool with companies
adopting social software as a strategic part of their IT investment to improve business collaboration.
Companies have also embraced social software to bring about integration of disparate organisational
units and to create a workforce free of geographic constraints. Mathen (2012) is of the view that
businesses are using social media to facilitate more customer interaction, as well as for marketing
purposes.
4. Social media use in society
Ngetich (2011) observes that many people use social media to contact their friends using e-mails,
while others use it to chat. At places of work, social media are reportedly being used to cut phone bills
by chatting and getting news updates on the outside world. Besides communication and sharing of
information on various issues, including jobs, social media enable people to market their products.
Bob Collymore, an ardent user of social media and the chief executive of Safaricom (the market
leader mobile service provider in Kenya), says “social media is a place for people to tell you what’s
good and what’s bad about what you are doing as well as a place for people to vent their frustrations”.
Collymore further says people join social media for three reasons, 1) for identity; 2) to get connections
and 3) to socialise within a community. He says people have secured jobs and others lost theirs on
social media. Moreover, a number of individuals in the private sector and government are turning to
social media platforms to promote their brand.
5. Social media use in education
Rice (2011) points out that in education, college students in the United States are taking social media
to a new level by using websites like Facebook to communicate with other students about their
coursework. In a survey, nine out of ten college students said they use Facebook for social purposes,
like writing status updates and posting pictures. The majority, 58%, said they feel comfortable using it
to connect with other students to discuss homework assignments and exams. More than 30% of
students said they use sites such as Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Google+. Nearly a quarter of
students reported using social studying sites, such as CourseHero and GradeGuru, and 11% said
they wish instructors would incorporate these sites into the curriculum more often.
Social media has also great potential as a delivery conduit for Massive Online open Courses
(MOOC) or Massive Online Crash Courses (MOCC) that are increasingly being offered by many
leading universities especially in North America and Europe. McAuley, Steward, Siemens and Cormie
(2012) define MOOC as “an online phenomenon integrating the connectivity of social networking, the
facilitation of an acknowledged expert in a field of study and a collection of freely accessible online
resources”.
The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) phenomenon is leveraging the development of
new social software and Internet technologies. Zhu (2012) observes that MOOC in the past year has
emerged to be a major trend in education space, witnessed by the rapid take-off of online universities
such as Stanford on one hand and Harvard, MIT and Berkeley on another. These courses are being
offered on such platforms as EdX, Coursera and Udacity. Stanford Report (2012) announced that the
University would offer 16 online courses on three platforms (Class2Go, Venture Lab and Coursera)
for the fall quarter. During the spring, Venture Lab platform hosted 37 000 students for the
Technology Entrepreneurship course while another 29 000 students were hosted on Coursera in the
Writing in the Sciences course. The courses being offered as MOOC virtually for free include among
others computer science, finance, mathematics, linguistics, science writing, sociology, engineering
and education. Each of the platforms has peculiar features and pedagogies and capabilities that
include video lectures, discussion forums, peer assessment, problem sets, quizzes and team projects.

S.M. Mutula


Page 34

The University of Manitoba in Canada is credited to have been the first to offer MOOC to 24
credit students and 2 200 non-credit students in 2008, but Stanford University in 2011 surpassed
expectations when it offered a free online course on artificial intelligence to 160 000 students across
all countries except North Korea (Mail & Guardian, 2012).
The MOOC offering has both positive and negative ethical implications. On the positive side,
MOOC create opportunities to enhance access and participation in higher education among the many
students who are normally excluded from mainstream higher education by the inflexible campus
model universities and the high cost of tuition associated with them. All the work within the MOOC
courses (readings, discussions, and repurposing of material) is shared with everyone else. The idea is
that the more you engage with the courses with other participants, and with distributed content, the
more you will learn. The MOOC model universities free up resources and require fewer lecturers. The
MOOC provides a way for universities to increase their intake in degree courses to help meet their
widening participation obligations.
On the negative side, it is claimed completion rates in MOOC are poor compared to traditional
universities (Mail & Guardian, 2012). For example, of the 160 000 that were enrolled in the artificial
intelligence course at Stanford University in 2011, only 23 000 completed successfully. MOOCs raise
issues of credibility due to lack of real-world interactions between professors and students. For
example, how does one engage with a lecturer in a class of thousands of students? Those who offer
to pay for the courses are given meetings with facilitators, a privilege which non-credit students do not
enjoy (McAuley et al., 2012). Besides, though MOOCs are free for non-credit purposes, tuition is
charged for students taking them for credit. The ownership of the content created by learners in
MOOC environments remains unclear, yet this has intellectual property implications. Largely, MOOC
programmes along with pedagogies have been developed in the Western universities. The
implications for relevancy in a developing country context cannot be wished away. The need to tailor-
make curricula to address the peculiarities of developing countries in terms of ICT infrastructure,
access to digital networks, digital literacy, and more should form part of the African scholarly
endeavour.
Moreover, MOOC offerings presuppose access to electronic resources such as e-books and
electronic journals. However, while electronic journal infrastructure has in recent years improved in
developing countries, the e-book industry is not well developed. For example, in South Africa, the
Publishers Association of South Africa estimates that e-books constitute about 1.5% of the overall
book market in the country (Jones, 2011). Besides, the contribution of e-books to revenue is even
less considering that online e-books retail at less than 50% of the price of the traditional print books
(Jones, 2011). Besides, a lack of standardisation of metadata makes access to e-books difficult
(Jones, 2011). E-books are also criticised for poor onscreen presentation, restrictive licensing, high
cost and the limited range of titles offered. This is exacerbated by the fact that because of the need
for more licences at peak hours, often the number of titles for access is limited. In addition, during
peak hours, users are often turned away. For these reasons, the uptake of e-books is quite low (Cox,
2004) and incapable of sustaining MOOC model universities especially in developing countries, the
majority of which are in Africa.
6. Social media use in politics and government
Social media has become an important agent for social, economic and political transformation,
especially in developing countries. Social media is finding increasing use in politics and government
among other sectors. The Ghanaian government is one of the pioneers in Africa to utilise social
networking tools such as Facebook and YouTube to offer services at its Ministry of Information.
Onyango (2011), citing the Twitter Survey in Africa, found that several Kenyan political leaders have
set up social media accounts to ‘woo’ voters in preparation for the next (2013) general election.

Ethical Dimensions of the Information Scoiety: Implications for Africa


Page 35

7. Ethics and social media
Social media providers expect users of their services to adhere to some basic standards of ethical
behaviour, but the mechanisms for enforcing compliance remain weak. For example, Facebook has a
Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and a user privacy policy that governs their relationship with
users and others who interact with their social media platform. The privacy policy provides guidelines
of how interaction with others takes place and how Facebook collects and uses clients’ content. The
content owner is required to grant Facebook exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free,
worldwide licence to use the content (Facebook, 2012). This intellectual property licence, in theory,
ends when a client deletes the content or the account, unless the content has been shared with
others, and they have not deleted it. However, in practice, removed content may still exist in backup
copies for some time, while not being made available for access. Consequently, once information is
out of the hands of the contributor, there is limited guarantee that even if it is deleted from the
contributor’s account, the information becomes permanently unavailable because it is likely to have
been accessed by other users who would still be keeping it.
Facebook says it relies on client trust and goodwill in an attempt to protect other people’s rights
and to enhance safety (Facebook, 2012). Furthermore, Facebook in its user policy says it does not
allow the under 13 age groups or sex offender convicts to use their services. However, there are no
explicit ways of ensuring only legitimate users register to use their platform. In addition, Facebook has
no way of verifying the integrity, honesty, reliability or accuracy of the information they receive from
users (Facebook, 2012). This also applies to Twitter, which does not require e-mail verification or
identity authentication (Twitter, 2012). Generally, the user policy guidelines of major social media
platforms explicitly indemnify service providers from liability in the event of any litigation arising out of
breach of rights of their users or other parties. For example, Facebook’s user policy says “[…] If
anyone brings a claim against us related to your actions, content or information, you will indemnify
and hold us harmless from and against all damages, losses, and expenses of any kind (including
reasonable legal fees and costs) related to such a claim” (Facebook, 2012). Facebook’s user policy
also says there are no guarantees for the service providers to ensure strict compliance with ethical
provisions, either through policy or technological interventions. In this respect, Facebook is explicit
that “[w]e do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee […] [o]ur platform is bug free,
safe, and secure” (Facebook, 2012).
In contrast, most Twitter profile information is public, so anyone can see it. According to Twitter
(2012), non-public information about its users is only released as lawfully required by appropriate
legal processes such as a subpoena, court order, or other valid legal processes. Twitter
acknowledges that the information they store from users may not be accurate. LinkedIn (2012), in
contrast, states that the information the client provides is used to create and distribute advertising
relevant to the [client’s] LinkedIn experience. Moreover, the responsibility for compliance with all these
provisions is left solely to the user. LinkedIn’s policy acknowledges that whereas personal information
the user provides will be secured in accordance with industry standards and technology, the Internet
is not a 100% secure environment, consequently there is no guarantee that information may not be
accessed, copied, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of their physical, technical, or
managerial safeguards. The YouTube Team (2012), on the other hand, states that every community
that features on its platform involves a certain level of trust. The customer is therefore expected to be
responsible as millions of users respect that trust. The policy advises users to know that YouTube
works closely with law enforcement agencies.

S.M. Mutula


Page 36

8. Gaps in social media user policies
The social media environment reviewed reveals several gaps that leave room for infringements on
users’ legitimate rights, as a result of service providers’ inaction, technological inefficiencies,
predatory behaviour, lack of government policy intervention, exclusive rights of social media service
providers, user abuses or users’ outright criminal behaviour. The following acts of commission and/or
omission within social media environments should be of ethical and moral concern:
• All social media platforms rely on user trust to achieve compliance with policy
provisions.
• Users have no say in policy-making processes that affect their interactions in social
media environments.
• There are hardly any government policy interventions with regard to social media,
especially in the developing world.
• No provision is made by service providers for compensation when users’ rights are
violated.
• LinkedIn acknowledges that prevention of illegitimate access, copying, alteration of
users’ information cannot be guaranteed. It also tracks its clients’ activities and uses
clients’ information for advertisements.
• All social media service providers require users to indemnify them from any liability
arising from use of their platforms.
• All social media service providers are required by law to disclose clients’ information
should a court of law request such information.
• None of the social media service providers have any effective means of verifying the
integrity, reliability, accuracy and authenticity of information provided by clients.
• Clients’ information is still held for some time with servers of service providers after
users have deregistered their membership.
The preceding analysis of the social media use policies reveals that users have limited protection of
their rights while interacting in a social media environment. Collymore says no-one is safe on social
media because some people use it to spread rumours, release naked pictures, or just poke fun at a
celebrity. Lundsay (2010) observes that social media can be misused in many ways, such as wasted
work time; misuse of company resources; risk to company computer systems, network or data;
disclosure of confidential or other non-public information; disparagement or harassment; conflicts of
interest; espionage or fraud; privacy and damage of personal reputation.
9. Ethics of social media use in politics and government
The increasing use of social media in politics and government is raising a number of ethical and moral
issues that need to be addressed. The release of WikiLeaks by Julian Assange, the founder, in 2010
raised animated debates and criticism in equal measure for revealing sensitive information such as
reports about war in Iraq and classified US military information. The US Secretary of State Hilary
Clinton called the release of US secret reports on the war in Iraq an attack on US foreign policy
interests and the international community (National Public Radio, 2010). The US Attorney General
Eric Holder announced an ongoing criminal investigation into the leaks and those responsible.
WikiLeaks called its revelation public disclosure (whistle-blowing), arguing that the public has a right
to know what its government is doing. Those against WikiLeaks aver that secrecy is not a bad thing
since releasing secrets puts lives at risk, while others think the ethics of revealing secrets lies in the
nature of what is being revealed (Radford, 2010; Somerville, 2010). The debate about the ethics of
WikiLeaks is so complex that it would distract the focus of this article to be covered in depth. There is

Ethical Dimensions of the Information Scoiety: Implications for Africa


Page 37

perhaps a need to revert to the fundamentals of ethical theories to help provide a systematic
approach and understanding the debates surrounding WikiLeaks.
10. Ethical dimension of Information Society: Implications for Africa
Africa has unique challenges of an ethical nature in the Information Society. Capurro (2010) observes
that ethics, in general, and Information Ethics in particular, is a young academic field in Africa. He
attributes this to the fact that not much has been published on the role that African philosophy can
play in thinking about the challenges arising from the impact of ICTs on African societies and cultures.
Capurro (2008) further points out that because ubuntu principles have underpinned the African
Renaissance, Black Economic Empowerment, corporate governance and conflict resolution, similar
principles or philosophies should be foundational to the African ethical and moral traditions. The
widely used Eurocentric ethical traditions such as consequentialism, deontology and virtue-based
theories do not sit well with African traditions. Ocholla (2011) explains that consequentialism
emphasises outcomes, while duty-based theories or deontology emphasises rules. Virtue-based
theories, on the other hand, place emphasis on the character of the personal moral agent. The
dominance and use of Eurocentric ethical traditions in studying African philosophy is being challenged
by African scholars who realise that African ethical and moral traditions cannot adequately be
investigated or studied through an exotic lens.
The quest for harnessing Information Ethics tradition in Africa is gathering pace catalysed by
the WSIS Action Line C10. However, the technological revolution brought by mobile communication
and now social media, is taking place in an environment where there is little integration of Information
Ethics in the education curriculum (Mutula & Braman, 2011). Conway (n.d.) observes that the field of
scholarship and teaching of Information Ethics is concentrated in developed economies such as
Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, with Africa lagging behind. The laggard
position of Africa with regard to Information Ethics has caused African scholars to make proactive
attempts to infuse Information Ethics in the education curriculum, especially at the university level.
Besides Information Ethics, ethical aspects of e-Government in Africa have been extensively
discussed by African scholars and recommendations have been made to national government for
action. The first African Conference on Information Ethics was held in February 2007 in Tshwane,
South Africa, to discuss the impact of the use of modern Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) on the African continent. This was followed by the high-level Workshop on Ethics
and e-Government in February 2009 that was held in Pretoria and addressed, among other subjects,
global perspectives of Information Ethics with regard to transparency, secrecy, trust, rights,
responsibilities, and accountability. The third Information Ethics forum followed and was held at the
University of Botswana in September 2010, resulting in the development of an Information Ethics tool
kit for the Information Ethics curriculum. The fourth forum of Information Ethics in Africa was held in
September 2011 at the University of Pretoria focusing on generating an Information Ethics curriculum
for undergraduate study at the university (Mutula, 2011). The fifth workshop on Information Ethics
focusing on social media was held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 3 June 2012. The sixth conference followed
on 3 - 7 September 2012 at Kievits Kroon Conference Centre, Pretoria, which further elaborated on
the responsible use of social media in Africa.
Despite the current efforts to institutionalise Information Ethics in Africa, there is also a raging
debate about the prudence of focusing on ‘African Information Ethics’ and/or ‘Information Ethics for
Africa’. Ocholla (2011) poses the question: “Should African Information Ethics be unique”? In contrast,
Gordana and Hofkirchner (2011) ask: “Are computing ethics issues unique or are they simply moral
issues that happen to involve ICT?” Carbo (n.d.) asserts that each individual belongs to a number of
different cultures at different levels, such as living in one country; speaking different languages; and

S.M. Mutula


Page 38

adhering to policies and practices of different religions and political parties. Gorniak-Kocikowska
(1996) argues that the diverse ethical systems embedded in other cultures of the world all derive from
local histories and customs and are unlikely to be applicable worldwide. Mason (1986), while
underscoring the importance of intellectual property, regrets that current protocols regarding
legitimate rights of the people have not effectively espoused indigenous knowledge. Hoesle (1992)
states that computerised information systems’ use requires people to act and think in prescribed ways
that privilege Western cultural traditions because of the origin of computers in these cultures, while
marginalising the cultural traditions of others. Capurro (2010) observes that sensitivity to a diversity of
cultural traditions and local contexts is needed when considering the impact of ICTs.
Floridi (1999) points out that the Information Ethics theory of ‘macro-ethics’ was designed to
address all ethical situations in all traditions. Floridi's argument is that everything which exists can be
described as an information object and that all information objects have intrinsic value and therefore
deserve moral respect (Brey, 2008). However, this viewpoint has been criticised because since
people do not normally seem to assign intrinsic value to information objects, strong arguments must
be adduced for us to start valuing them as such (Brey, 2008). Besides, Floridi fails to provide an
objectivist ontology for information objects’ properties because, as Brey (2008) points out, such
information properties must be inalienable and not subjective and contingent. Floridi’s macro-ethics
therefore falls short of a universalist theory and is not suitable in explaining and studying ‘African
Information Ethics’.
Therefore, current efforts by African scholars to entrench Information Ethics in the education
curriculum, founded on African traditions, are well intentioned and could go a long way in re/validating
indigenous ways of thinking which, hitherto, have been overshadowed by the continent’s colonial past
and Eurocentric or Western ethical traditions such as that of Floridi. Through the ongoing debate on
‘African Information Ethics’ and/or ‘Information Ethics for Africa’, African scholarship has a unique
opportunity to solidify a knowledge system based on African realities in the Information Society.
However, the aim should not be to isolate African values from the global culture, but rather to develop
Information Ethics models that have wider applicability and validity beyond national, regional and
continental boundaries. The Information Ethics models for Africa should be founded on African values
but remain alive to the diversity of African culture, individual country needs and the international
sensitivities.
The peculiarity of Africa in the Information Society with regard to the ethical concerns and
issues raised in this chapter about the responsible use of social media platforms requires
multipronged interventions. Africa is vulnerable to ethical and moral breaches with regard to the use
of ICTs, in general, and social media in particular, because of its diverse cultures, languages and
people; the novelty of emerging information and communication technologies; and poorly developed
technology and policy infrastructures. During the official opening of the second Information Ethics
Conference in Gaborone, Botswana, on 6 September 2010, the Minister for Transport and
Communication, Hon. Frank Ramsden, urged the participants to interrogate policy and infrastructure
concerns facing the African continent. In particular, he highlighted policy issues facing national
governments in Africa in achieving universal access to digital networks and computing technologies
and also the use of ICTs as a strategic tool in economic development and governance. He noted that
socio-cultural, political and economic differences across countries in Africa required prudent
approaches to address them. This view was also shared by Capurro (2010) who added that sensitivity
to a diversity of cultural traditions and local contexts was needed when considering the impact of ICT
in Africa. Besides, Africa could, while not completely espousing the models from the West, learn from
the United States, Canada and Germany regarding how these jurisdictions are dealing with ethical
and moral issues relating to the application of ICT in the Information Society. For example, in these
jurisdictions, the claim to privacy is protected in a variety of different ways through various statutes. In
the United States, for instance, the claim to privacy is protected primarily by the First Amendment on

Ethical Dimensions of the Information Scoiety: Implications for Africa


Page 39

guarantees of freedom of speech and association.
The annual WSIS forum established to monitor progress being made in the context of Action
Lines (of the plan of Action) provides a framework for examining emerging issues of ICT use,
including ethical aspects in the Information Society. This forum makes appropriate recommendations
for action by national governments. For example, the May 18, 2011 WSIS forum on Cyber and
Information Ethics: Freedom & Security, Privacy, Malice & Harm, Property (UNESCO & WSIS 2011)
was convened as part of Action Line C10 to provide the opportunity to interrogate the ethical
dimension of social media, especially the design of information systems, which may impede the
creation of just, peaceful, inclusive societies and the full expression of human rights. Issues around
trust and the control of and use of personal data, particularly bio-data, were also examined, as was
the presence of new threats to human freedoms. The ethical dimensions of ICTs have also been
addressed through Action Line C3: Access-ICT and Persons with Disabilities; Action line C7: E-
learning: Teachers Count; Action Line C8: Indigenous peoples and education; and Action Line C9:
Media Regulation: Broadcasters and Social Media. Collectively, the efforts being made through these
Action Lines should by and large guarantee ethical and moral compliance by users while interacting in
social media environments.
Scholars and other stakeholders should debate and engage in open dialogue on the ethical and
moral issues in social media and develop appropriate interventions. The Communication and Media
Research Institute (CAMRI) (2012) points out that the Arab Spring (earlier referred to) that culminated
in the overthrow of repressive regimes in the region was catalysed by social media and brought to the
fore manifestations of tension and struggle among governments, citizens and terrorists, which calls for
debates on social transformation in the context of new media and ICTs.
Lundsay (2010) says that social media is a challenging topic because it crosses over so many
ethics and compliance issues. However, like any other ethics and compliance topic, it can and must
be proactively managed. UNESCO (2008) states that promoting ethical aspects and principles that
espouse creative multilingual content and universal access to information and communication should
be encouraged among users and service providers. Policies to enhance ethical values in social media
environments should provide commitment to the free flow of information. The dialogue and debates
that have been aroused by the African Network for Information Ethics (ANIE), since 2007, should be
encouraged and supported.
11. Conclusion
This chapter set out, through literature reviews and content analysis of social media user policies, to
discuss issues and debates around the responsible use of ICTS in the Information Society, as
enunciated by the World Summit on Information Society Action Line C10. The emphasis was placed
on social media because it is the latest powerful online activity that results from the convergence of
various technologies, especially the Internet, the computer and mobile phones. Four aspects were
addressed in this chapter, namely 1) responsible use of ICTs in the Information Society; 2) social
media contributions to the Information Society; 3) ethics and social media and 4) the ethical
dimension of the Information Society. The chapter generally asserted that the laggard technological
adoption behaviour that characterised Africa and its people for many years is gradually giving way in
the wake of new technologies epitomised by social media. The chapter demonstrated that social
media has gained acceptance and use in education, research, business, government, politics,
professional practice, and in the general society, thus raising several ethical issues such as protection
of users’ rights, user privacy guarantees, methods of enforcing compliance with the policies, user
compensation when rights are violated, sanctions for errant users, verification of the credibility of
information uploaded by users, role and responsibilities of users, cybercrime, user training, and more.

S.M. Mutula


Page 40

It was found that cultural practices in Africa form part of the daily norms of the people and ethical
issues in the use of new technologies needed to be debated while taking cognisance of this fact.
The chapter established that Africa does not seem to have any clearly documented ethical and moral
traditions. Consequently, African scholars are advocating an African philosophy that will underpin
ethical behaviour in an Information Society. The chapter proposed multipronged approaches to
address ethical issues in the Information Society such as government providing an enabling policy
and legal environment for dealing with ethical breaches; training of users on the responsible use of
ICT by service providers; the use of more enhanced technological tools to make the Internet a safe
and secure place; effective and rigorous monitoring of online behaviour by service providers, etc.
References
Arico, J. (2011). Hackers Threaten to Take Down Facebook. Retrieved March 26, 2012 from
http://www.mobiledia.com/news/115338.html.
Brey, P. (2008). Do we Have Moral Duties Towards Information Objects? In Ethics and Information
Technology, Vol. 10, 109-114.
Capurro, R. (2008). Intercultural Information Ethics: Foundations and Applications. In Journal of
Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, Vol. 6. (2), 116-120.
Capurro, R. (2010). Global Intercultural Information Ethics from an African Perspective. Keynote Address
for the Second African Information Ethics Conference, September 6-7, 2010, Gaborone, Botswana.
Carbo, T. (2007). Information Rights: Trust and Human Dignity in E-government. In International Review of
Information Ethics, Vol. 7, (9). Retrieved December 8, 2008, from http://www.i-r-i-e.net.
Carbo, T. (n.d.). Understanding Information Ethics & Policy: Integrating Ethical Reflection and Critical
thinking into Policy Development. Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh.
Chauke, G. (2012). South Africa: The Power of Social Media in Education. Retrieved March 27, 2012, from
http:// allafrica.com/stories/201203130926.html.
Chuang, C. & Chen. J.C. (1999). Issues in Information Ethics and Educational Policies for the Coming Age.
In Journal of Industrial Technology, Vol. 15, (4), 1-6.
Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI). (2012). ICTs, New Media and Social Change in
Africa, Conference organised by the Africa Media Centre. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/ research/a-z/africa-media-centre/events/events-calendar/2012/icts-new-
media-and-social-change-in-africa.
Conway, P. (n.d.). Ethics, Information Technology and Today’s Undergraduate Classroom. Michigan:
University of Michigan.
Corbet, P. (2010). Facebook Demographics and Statistics Report 2010: 145% Growth in 1 year. [Online].
Retrieved April 3, 2012 from http://istrategylabs.com/2010/01/facebook-demographics-and-statistics-
report-2010-145-growth-in-1-year/.
Cox, J. (2004). E-books: Challenges and Opportunities. D-Lib Magazine, 10(10). Retrieved December 30,
2012 from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october04/cox/10cox.html.
Daily Nation. (2012). Cellphone Giving Away Your Personal Privacy. In Daily Nation, February 19, 2012.
Dirks, K.T. & Ferrin, D.L. (2002). Trust in Leadership: Meta-Analytic Findings and Implications for Research
and Practice. In Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 87. (4), 611-628.
eBizMBA. (2011). Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Websites. Retrieved April 3, 2012 from
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites.
Easton, D. (1965). A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York, John Wiley.
Facebook. (2012). Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Retrieved March 29, 2012 from
https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms
Fallis, D. (2007). Information Ethics for the Twenty-First Century Library Professionals. In Library Hi Tech,
Vol. 25, (1), 23-36.
Farmington, C. (2012). Social Media Boom and Rise of Affordable Handsets to Double Mobile Broadband
Market Revenue in West and Central Africa by 2017. Retrieved March 17, 2012 from
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/social-media-boom-rise-affordable-180000289.html.
Floridi, L. (1999). Information Ethics: On the Theoretical Foundations of Computer Ethics. In Ethics &
Information Technology. Vol. 1, (1), 37-56.
Google. (2012). User Content and Conduct Policy. Retrieved March 29, 2012 from
http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/ content.html.
Gordana, D.C. & Hofkirchner, W. (2011). Floridi’s Open Problems in Philosophy of Information, Ten Years
Later. In Information. Vol. 2. 327-359.

Ethical Dimensions of the Information Scoiety: Implications for Africa


Page 41

Gorniak-Kocikowska, K. (1996). The Computer Revolution and the Problem of the Global Ethics, in T.
Bynum and S. Rogerson (Eds.). Global Information Ethics. Guildford: Opragen Publications, 177-190.
Gosier, J. (2012). Social Media in Africa: Mobile Innovations. Retrieved March 28, 2012 from
http://www.readwriteweb.com/.
Hoesle, V. (1992). The Third World as a Philosophical Problem. In Social Research, Vol. 59., 227-263.
Jones, P. (2011). Digital focus: the global e-book market. Retrieved December 30, 2012, from
http://www.thebookseller.com/feature/digital-focus-global-e-book-market.html.
Lee, T.M. (2005). The Impact of Perceptions of Interactivity on Customer Trust and Transaction Intentions
in Mobile Commerce. In Journal of Electronic Commerce Research. Vol. 6 (3), 165-180.
LinkedIn Corporation. (2012). Privacy Policy. Retrieved March 29, 2012 from
http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=privacy_policy.
Lundsay, J. (2010). Managing the Workplace Ethics of Social Media. Retrieved March 26, 2012 from
http://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/managing-the-workplace-ethics-of-social-media
Mail & Guardian (2012). Massive Open Online Courses Challenge Higher Education’s Business Models.
Retrieved December 30, 2012, from http://mg.co.za/article/2012-09-21-massive-open-online-courses-
challenge-higher-educations-business-models.
Mason, R.O. (1986). Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age, Management. In Information Systems
Quarterly, Vol. 10, (1), 5-12.
Mathen, M. (2012). Social Media: Enhancing Customer Experience. Botswana Guardian, March 16, 2012,
p. 8.
McAuley, A., Steward, B., Siemens, G. & Cormie, D. (2011). The MOOC Model for Digital Practice.
Retrieved December 31, 2012, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/MOOC_Final.pdf.
Mutula, S.M. (2011). Proposal for Funding for the Pre-SCECSA Conference Workshop, Nairobi, Kenya.
Mutula, S.M. & Braman, S. (2011). Feedback from Second Information Ethics Conference. Presentation
made at the Information Ethics Research Workshop, 4-5 July 2011 at University of Pretoria, South
Africa.
National Public Radio (2010). Is WikiLeaks Release Brave or Unethical? Retrieved December 27, 2012,
from http:// www.npr.org/2010/11/30/131699467/is-wikileaks-release-brave-or-unethical.
Ngetich, P. (2011). Hackers Pledge to Deliver New World Without Facebook. Daily Nation, Thursday 3
November 2011.
Ocholla, D. (2011). Is African Information Ethics Unique? Paper presented at University of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, June 2011.
Onyango, E. (2012). Kenyans Second Top Tweeters in Africa. Daily Nation, 26 January 2012.
Rice, A. (2011). Students Push Their Facebook Use Further Into Course Work. The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Retrieved March 26, 2012, from http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/students-push-
their-facebook-use-further-into-academics/33947.
Rice, A. (2011b). University’s Proposed Social-Media Policy Draws Cries of Censorship. In The Chronicle
of Higher Education. Retrieved March 26, 2012, from
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/universitys-social-media-policy-draws-cries-of-
censorship/33898.
Salo, J. & Karjaluoto, H. (2007). A Conceptual Model of Trust in the Online Environment. In Information
Review, Vol. 31, (95), 604-621.
Shao, B., Ma, G. & Meng, X. (2005). The Influence to Online Consumer Trust: An Empirical Research on
B2C ecommerce in China, in Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Computer and
Information Technology, IEEE Computer Society, Washington DC, pp. 961-965.
Smith, T. (2011). World Map of Global Social Media Usage. Retrieved March 27, 2012, from
http://wearesocial.net/ blog/2011/06/world-map-global-social-media-usage/.
Social Media Blog. (2012). Facebook Usage in South Africa. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from
http://www.socialmedialogue.com/facebook-usage-in-south-africa/302/.
Somerville, M. (2010). Wikileaks: An Ethical Analysis. Retrieved December 27, 2012, from
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/wikileaks_wikileakers_and_wiki-ethics.
Stanford Report (2012). Stanford Announces 16 Online Courses for Fall Quarter. Retrieved December 30,
2012, from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/september/online-courses-fall-090712.html.
The YouTube Team. (2012). YouTube Community Guidelines. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from
http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines.
Twitter. (2012). Guidelines for Law Enforcement. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from
http://support.twitter.com/entries/ 41949-guidelines-for-law-enforcement#
UNESCO. (2008). Ethical Issues of Information Society. Retrieved July 26, 2012, from
http://www.unesco.org/ webworld/en/ethic-information-society.
UNESCO & WSIS. (2011). Cyber and Information Ethics: Freedom & Security, Privacy, Malice & Harm,
Property, Action Line C10 Ethics Meeting, 18 May 2011, WSIS Forum, Geneva, Switzerland.

S.M. Mutula


Page 42

Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, T.S.J. & Meyer, M.J. (2010). What is Ethics. Issues in Ethics (IIE). Vol.
1, (1), (Fall 1987). Retrieved March 28, 2012 from http://www.westminster.ac.uk/research/a-z/africa-
media-centre/events/events-calendar/2012/icts-new-media-and-social-change-in-africa.
Viralblog.com. (2009). Facebook Adds 40-Million Users in 90-Days. Retrieved July 15, 2009, from
http://www.viralblog.com/social-media/.
Weiss, T. (2008). Social Media Still on Rise: Comparative Global Study. Retrieved March 27, 2012, from
http:// www.trendsspotting.com/blog/.
World Information Society Report. (2006). Digital Opportunity Index 2005. Retrieved February 13, 2012,
from http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/publications/worldinformationsociety/2006/World.pdf
WSIS. (2005). Plan of Action. Retrieved March 28, 2012, from http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/geneva/official/
poa.html#c10.
Zhu, A. (2012). Massive Open Online Courses – A Threat or Opportunity to Universities. Retrieved
December 31, 2012, from http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml.

Kawooya, D. (2013). Ethical Implications of Intellectual Property in Africa. In Information Ethics in Africa:
Cross-cutting Themes. Pretoria: ACEIE , 43-57.


Page 43

Chapter Five
Ethical Implications of Intellectual Property in Africa
Dick Kawooya
School of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, USA
1. Introduction
This chapter examines ethical issues emerging from ‘propertisation’ of information or ideas. It also
addresses the implications for introducing, applying and enforcing Intellectual Property (IP) laws in
Africa, which prior to colonisation had no culture of IP protection. In so doing, conflicts arising from the
collision between African socio-economic and cultural issues on one hand, and Western IP systems
and values on the other, are examined. More than ever before, IP impacts on all aspects of human
endeavours including access to information, medicine or healthcare, democracy, security, freedom of
expression, intellectual freedom, privacy and a host of other human rights issues. As citizens, we
encounter or interface with IP on a daily basis, consciously or unconsciously. While the focus of this
chapter is on the African context, it should be noted that the ethical issues arising from the
contradictory nature of the modern IP system go beyond Africa. Therefore, this chapter is an attempt
to localise as well as globalise the ethical challenges emerging from IP. Indeed, some of the ethical
issues arising from IP are the subject of intense reform processes of the international IP system at the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) known as the Development Agenda (DA). WIPO is a
specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) primarily responsible for the regulation of IP
internationally.
Before we discuss the specific ethical issues arising from IP and IPRs, it is imperative to briefly
discuss the theoretical and conceptual issues underlying IP as well as the different areas of IP law
(also known as Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)). The theoretical and conceptual issues are
followed by a discussion of three areas of ethical concerns surrounding IP in Africa. These are the
issues of Africans exploiting traditional African resources and expressive cultures; IP, Biopiracy and
patenting of Africa’s biodiversity and, finally, IP and access issues in Africa.
1.1. IP Conceptual and theoretical issues
Today, more than any other time in the history of mankind, information is part of every human
enterprise, so much so that society is characterised as an information or knowledge society. We also
encounter labels such as networked society. What is apparent today in comparison to past societies
is the increasing use of technology and reliance on information. Generally, there is emphasis on the
centrality of information and/or prevalence of information goods and services in economic and social
spheres. We also find emphasis on information workers or knowledge workers in the information
economy. As such, there is significant importance attached to what the WIPO refers to as the
‘creations of the human mind’ also known as Intellectual Property (IP).
Intellectual property is intangible property resulting from creative minds and/or innovation.
However, the notion of creations of the mind being characterised as property is a highly controversial
proposition as variously noted in this chapter. This is so because unlike physical property, IP entails a
wide range of information-related goods and services or ‘kinds of property’.

D. Kawooya


Page 44

Likewise, the laws and regulations designed to create, regulate and/or protect this kind of property are
numerous and varied. Collectively, the laws are referred to as the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).
Under no circumstances can a single chapter exhaustively discuss a broad and far-reaching
subject matter like IP, moreover examining the ethical implications in the Africa context. Nonetheless I
attempt to briefly but informatively introduce the main areas of IP before examining their ethical
implications for Africa. The main areas of IP discussed in the chapter are patents, copyright and
neighbouring rights and trademarks and trade dress.
2. Areas of IP1
2.1. Patents
Patents are legal instruments that grant the owner of ‘new’ innovative, novel, un/non-obvious and
commercially viable ideas the right to exploit the ideas without fear of exploitation by others. The
owner is granted exclusive rights in exchange for disclosure of the ideas. It is envisaged that such
disclosure allows others to develop the ideas further into new ‘patentable’ ideas and/or can be
licensed by the owner to exploit an existing patent. Normally the patent is granted for 20 years, after
which it falls into the ‘public domain’. Public domain means no one has control or ownership over
those ideas and, as such, they can be exploited commercially, or otherwise, by anybody with the
means to do so. This is a fairly simplistic description of an otherwise complex and wide area. It is
important to note, though, that the patent system is possibly one of the oldest if not the oldest form of
IP and IPR. Related to patent are utility models and industrial designs. Often these do not necessarily
meet the ‘novelty’ standards required of patentable ideas and as such tend to be protected for shorter
periods in comparison to patents. These usually represent ideas under development that will
eventually lead to patenting.
A patent must be applied for through a national patent office such as the Kenyan Industrial
Property Institute (KIPI) or the Department of Trade and Industry Companies and Intellectual Property
Commission (CIPC) which regulates patents in South Africa. Once approved, a patent is protected
and enforceable in the jurisdictions of the patent office. For instance, a patent filed and approved by
the KIPI or CIPC will apply to Kenya and South Africa respectively. Beyond that, there are regional
organisations like the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) which registers
patents from a number of English-speaking African countries2. The equivalent to ARIPO for
francophone Africa is Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI)3. WIPO also
administers the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). PCT is a system for filing international patents and
protects the patent in over 125 countries that are signatories to the PCT. However, much as the filing
is done through WIPO and the PCT, the actual granting of the patent is by a national or regional
patent office where the filer is located.
Briefly that is what patents are about, but I revisit the topic in greater detail especially in relation
to the ethical challenges of patenting software and biotechnology products. These are probably the
most controversial areas of patent today in Africa and elsewhere.
2.2. Copyright and neighbouring rights
Copyright and neighbouring rights are related to patents in the sense that protection is granted for

1 For a brief overview of IP, see http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/.
2 See ARIPO website for details about the organisation, its mandate and scope of work: http://www.aripo.org/.
3 See OAPI website: www.oapi.int.

Ethical Implications of Intellectual Property in Africa


Page 45

creativity but for reasons and mechanisms slightly different from patents. Copyright is different
because it protects ideas ‘expressed’ in some ‘physical’ form unlike patent rights which protect ideas
themselves.
Copyright serves a dual purpose. First, it serves as a reward for creativity (reward creative
individuals) providing an incentive for creativity as a return on intellectual capital. Second, it facilitates
access and use of information and artistic resources resulting from creative endeavours. As such, it
facilitates the sharing of intellectual capital so that it can be built upon by others.
Copyright, therefore, protects works of ‘authorship’ which must be expressed in some form
such as a book, journal article, web posting, software code, etc. Copyright grants the ‘author’ a set of
exclusive rights on activities like:
(i) Production and reproduction