Are “Inclusion” & “Sovereignty” Enough? Reimagining Africa’s Technological Future

​NOTE: TRANSPORTATION WE ARE OFFERING TO AND FROM THIS EVENT IS NOW FULL.

​Tech and AI companies claim they will provide massive growth to African economies. But how can Africa's evolving relationship with technology prioritize not only development, but also equity and justice?

​Digital inclusion—the ability to participate in global digital economies—is a common priority across the Global Majority, but inclusion without critique allows Big Tech to gut public resources and accelerate inequity for profit.

​Digital sovereignty—the abstract idea that countries should build entire technical infrastructures themselves—is pitched as the fix. But sovereignty produces new tensions around ownership and deployment, enabling authoritarian governments or private actors to use social and financial technologies for surveillance and control.

​This Computer Says Maybe live podcast, hosted in partnership with Luminate, will convene practitioners to ask: are “inclusion” and “sovereignty” the right frames for our relationship with technology? What do our current approaches get right, and what alternatives can we envision for Africa's technological future?

​Please arrive for 3:15pm for cocktails and canapés. The live show will start at 4pm and, as it is being audio and video recorded, we may not be able to let you in if you arrive later than 4pm.

​OUR SPEAKERS

​Chioma Agwuegbo
Executive Director, TechHer

Chioma is a feminist advocate working at the intersection of women’s rights, media, and technology. She is the Executive Director of TechHer, where she leads programmes that support women and girls to access, understand, and use technology safely and meaningfully. TechHer’s work includes the School Tour, KURAM and the Volunteer Lawyer Network, Safe Space Africa, and the GBV Emergency Response Fund. Chioma is a Ford Global Fellow and a Transform Norms Fellow.

​Kavisha Pillay
Founding Director, Campaign on Digital Ethics (CODE)

​Kavisha Pillay is a social justice activist and founding director of the Campaign On Digital Ethics (CODE), a South African non-profit advancing public accountability in the digital era. Her work centers on ensuring that technology strengthens rather than undermines democracy, equity, and human rights. Through CODE, Kavisha leads research and advocacy on platform governance, data protection, and algorithmic justice, shaping national dialogue on digital ethics and Big Tech accountability. With a background in transparency and good governance, she has built initiatives that link civic action with systemic reform.

​Mercy Mutemi
Executive Director, The Oversight Lab

Mercy Mutemi is The Executive Director at The Oversight Lab. The exploitation of African minerals, data and labour underlies the euphoric rise of AI models and social media platforms globally. Despite their contribution to building these platforms, Africans are disproportionately harmed online. The Oversight Lab fights this exploitation by working with African communities to build a digital future anchored on human rights through through litigation and advocacy.

​Kenneth Matlawe
Political Education Organiser, The Housing Assembly

​Kenneth Matlawe is a Cape Town-based activist, organizer and leader in South Africa's housing justice movement. For over a decade he has worked tirelessly within the Housing Assembly, serving as Political Education Organiser, where he coordinates operations and strategy. He is dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and advocating for safe, affordable, dignified housing for all, through workshops, seminars and grassroots campaigns.

​Luminate is a global foundation working to ensure that technology serves our needs and wellbeing.

​The Maybe is a critical consultancy, collective and media studio that challenges the power and politics of tech.