African Culture or E Culture

If the medium is the message, the user is the content. Is the computer revolution more like a musical instrument or more like the printing press? …If it’s like a musical instrument, then we don’t have to worry about it too much, because people who are tuned to the music will find it, and good things will happen as a result. But if it’s more like the printing press, then we absolutely have to understand what it is about the music and what it takes to learn that music.

It is not my primary aim to educate you on the meaning of culture though to grasp this discourse some definition will suffice. The first definition would be that the word is a noun denoting the appreciation and understanding of literature, art, music etc, customs & traditions it could also be used to mean improvement by care & training. Another source gives a more exhaustive definition though starting at defining “Cultural” recorded as relating to the culture of a particular group, country or society: an improved understanding of ethnic & cultural diversity * respect for racial or cultural identity * the cultural traditions of our society * relating to music, literature, & other arts. The source would then continue to define Culture as activities involving music, literature & other arts. A set of ideas, beliefs & ways of behaving of a particular organization or group of people or a society that has its own set of ideas, beliefs & ways of behaving…,or a set of ideas, beliefs & ways of behaving of a particular society, societies that share the same language & culture. In Science, Culture would mean a group of bacteria or cells that have been grown in a scientific experiment. Another Scientific explanation is the process by which a group of bacteria or cells are grown in a scientific experiment. Technical – the process of growing crops or BREEDING animals as in the culture of genetically modified crops.

You might now be asking what that has to do with ICT and yes this column? It has everything, everything to do with ICT as our Culture also forms a basis of how we relate to ICT and its use. To understand the level of impact we would also need to take a look at Hofstede’s model on culture depicted in the Onion Diagram but first things first, Hofstede defines organizational culture as “the collective programming of the mind, which characterize the members of one organization from others,…” and national culture as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members in one human group from another” ... By “collective programming” Hofstede refers to four concepts that together make up culture and can be viewed and explained by using an “onion” metaphor. These concepts are: Symbols, Heroes, Rituals and Values. (See diagram below for a graphical representation of these concepts.)




DIAGRAM HERE




Symbols: The words and jargon of language, gestures, dress, pictures, objects, and status symbols
all carry a particular meaning to people of the same national culture. Symbols disappear and new
ones are easily created or copied from other cultures, thus symbols are placed at the outer and
most superficial layer in the “onion” as they are not always unique to any particular culture.
Hence, they are less significant when comparing culture.

Heroes: People, dead or alive, real or imaginary, have the ability to influence behavior based on
their status, skills, or charisma. Managers can be examples of heroes if they have qualities that
are highly valued and hence they actually model expected behavior in a given organization.

Rituals: These are activities that supposedly are unnecessary to the achievement of organizational
goals, but they are something within a culture that is considered socially essential.

An example of Practices, a ritual can be daily coffee-breaks in the morning, a pay-day beer, or a manager that is known for walking around talking to employees throughout the day.
Hofstede calls these three concepts practices. Practices are observable and visual to an outside
spectator, and can thus be measured and compared to practices in other cultures (Hofstede, 1991).

Values: At the core of the onion are values, or in Hofstede’s words: “broad tendencies to prefer
certain states of affairs over others” (Hofstede, 1991, p. 8). These values form the most hidden
layer of culture, and represent the ideas that people have about how things “ought to be.” As such,
Hofstede emphasizes the assumption that values strongly influence behavior. Basically, values
deal with feelings or preferences (e.g. evil vs. good, ugly vs. beautiful, abnormal vs. normal, etc.)
and they influence the choices we make as we act in everyday situations.
Contrary to practices, values are acquired at an early age—in the home, from friends and kin, and
at school. As values are not learned consciously, people are not mindful of them, nor can they be
directly observed by outsiders. The only way to “measure” values is by inference—observing
how individuals act in particular circumstances. Therefore, by observing or talking about actual
practice—such as ICT user behavior—the values component of culture is included.
What can be summarized so far is that organizational culture can best be studied and compared by
its practices, while national culture is best suited for study and comparison at the values level.

With that background, let’s now get into the meat of things and see how ICTs, their adoption and use continue to suffer under the burden of our Culture.
1. There is a lack of follow through in our Policies at the Implementation Stage.
We do not have a problem in coming up with well researched, rationalized and well polished policies. If only policies were the final product, Africa would be a Utopia, heaven on earth, but nothing could be further from the truth as the well documented policies do not see the light of day as regards implementation. If they are implemented, this takes ages, but don’t forget that in ICT the only constant thing is change. By the time the relevant people want to implement, chances are that it will be too late and all the research has gone to waste.

2. Our Value System needs a major shift as we live for today and not the future.
We have consumer tendencies and as such would rather major in the minor and minor in the major. To showcase our disregard for productivity, one of our clients approached us with a view to discuss a deal for some odd 300 or so computers costing in the region of US$300 000. The intention was to spread such technology acquisition over a period of one year. What boggles my mind is that at the same time they were trying to “organize” such transaction the entity in question went ahead and bought a top of the range, luxury SUV for “one” of their key people valued at over US$150 000, and a fleet of brand new cars for other members of staff with a networth of over US$200 000. Here is an organization which is not operating to full productive capacity as they have realized that they truly need to beef up their ICT infrastructure, but hey because of misplaced “VALUES”, that can wait as one senior manager has to drive to and from work in “style”. Don’t worry about the three hundred people at least their Pentium 3 computers can still boot up though it takes an hour or two that will sort itself out! Our oversized egos and flamboyance comes first before real bread and butter issues. We would rather make a public showcase of how good we look outside though our undergarments are too worn out for wear. Cause for thought hey!

3. Lack of a cohesive and deliberate development framework from the grassroots.
There is need for an E-culture from Nursery School through to University level if we are to harness and fully exploit ICTs in their entirety. It is a positive move that Central Government through the President’s Office, has started the ball rolling by donating computer equipment to various schools within the country. There is need therefore for other entities Private and Public to step in and augment such effort thereby creating a culture of E-awareness from an early age within the country. Just to fire a broadside, I wonder why we are still trying to electrify some remote areas using the standard method which might just prove too costly and will not guarantee a consistent supply in the longer run anyway. Why can’t we focus on alternative sources of energy such as wind and solar to create a win-win situation for all involved? The simple point to be noted here is that we need to as a matter of urgency create an E-culture. It’s a known that we are among the most educated societies in the world but why can’t we re-engineer our education to focus on what the world is crying for? The direction which the world is taking is that of E-education with the drive being towards wall-less classes. Therefore to continue to focus on brick and mortar systems of education and ignoring Cyber learning will be to our demise. I am forced to wonder why we would worry about where to get salaries for our teachers when we can augment such through export of E-based learning material developed by the same teachers hence benefiting both the country and the individuals.

4.Duplication of duties and lack of information sharing.
ICTs have the impact that they can eliminate duplication of duties and hence leading to major labor lay offs. The concept used in ICT lingo is “being laid off to do better things” as opposed to retrenchment. African systems, impacted by our inherent cultures, tend to favor duplication of duties which has an adverse effect on productivity and general effectiveness. Consider the situation where one imports a car from Durban say, (that being a good example due to our inherent culture that there is little of car manufacturing in the country and yes the continent though our good people love the act of driving, especially muscle cars), the unnecessarily tedious and questionable process would be that the same vehicle is cleared at three different levels before it can be driven as duly registered and licensed in the country. A long process occurs firstly at the Zimbabwean side of the border, regardless of the fact that an almost similar process has occurred at the other side of the border on the South African side. When the relevant officials are satisfied that all conditions have been met the vehicle is “cleared”. The owner has to take it to yet another authority, for yet another process of “clearance” deriving and using the same data as that obtainable from the first authority. After that, the owner has to take the same vehicle to yet another authority, where the same vehicle is again “cleared”, and this time is given a set of number plates and is now fit to drive on our “roads” not before which it is taken to yet another authority for a temporary paid up permit to be able to drive on our “roads” for a set period of time. In contrast, that whole process ladies and gentlemen can be computerized or digitalized and be done at one entry point thereby eliminating the issue of redundancy and duplication of roles. Why can’t one clear their car at the border, get a set of registration numbers as well as the temporary disk at the same point and have all the four “systems” updated with the relevant information in real time?

5. Culture of ubuntu, hunu (I am because we are and you are because we are) while pursuing personal interests.
To date Africa has about 10 fibre optic cables linking it to the rest of the world. Compare that with Europe, North America and Asia which boast of over 500 cables. South Africa currently boasts of one cable the South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT-3/SAFE) with the East African Marine Cable System (EASSy) being expected before the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa. At face value that seems to be unworthy of your reading, but consider that markets have evolved with the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) providing a borderless market for commodities. The simple implication would therefore be that if our Internet connection is slow, that’s if we have such connection, by the time we find out which product is on demand in the world we would already be late in reaching such a market. By the way I am yet to find a Zimbabwean product selling on E-bay, Barnes and N’oble or Amazon. If there are any, the number is negligible in contrast to the amount of trade that takes place in those on-line stores on a daily basis. If only we would learn to do things for the common good of all and future generations our continent would develop and even at a faster rate. The long and short of things is that these cables are expensive to install but remember “chara chimwe hachitswanyi inda” (two is better than one) if we all put our resources together as Africans imagine the colossal damage we can inflict on the lack of technology.

GOD surely forbid if we are to keep such CULTURE and at what cost to us.

“Wherefore seeing we also are encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” Hebrews 12 verse 1.