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Corporate responsibility
It’s been more than two weeks since Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, roughly 20% of the country, has had the Internet shut down. Cameroon’s government pressured local telcos to switch off the internet after protests against the French-language dominated government’s marginalization of people from these Anglophone regions.
The government is keen to stop organizers of protests using apps like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter to get the word out efficiently. Activists in Cameroon’s big cities (notably French-dominant) Yaoundé and Douala have made their voices heard with the #BringBackOurInternet hashtag.
Much has been written about the role of the government in enforcing the shutdown. But this issue is bigger than the 34-year old government of president Paul Biya. Last year, the United Nations adopted a Human Rights Council resolution on promoting and protecting the freedom of users online. In 2016, Africa had 11 countries where the internet was switched off to stifle dissent.
Some have suggested democratic African countries should follow the UN’s lead and enshrine internet freedom in local laws. But there is well-placed skepticism as to whether countries with weak democratic practices would adhere to even their own laws in the event of a political crisis.
What’s interesting is that no one ever brings up the role of the phone companies in these shutdowns. Most Africans connect to the internet via mobile phone. In the case of Cameroon, there’s evidence the phone companies were worried about losing their licenses if they didn’t comply with the local regulator’s demands.
MTN is the dominant network in Cameroon, with a 51% market share. It is also easily one of Africa’s largest homegrown companies, with more than 229 million customers in Africa and Middle East and annual revenue of $15 billion. The second-largest network, with 35% market share, is France’s Orange, which is one of the largest networks in the world, bringing in more than $40 billion in annual revenue.
In dollar terms, these companies are larger than many of the small to medium-sized African countries they serve. They have real clout. They can push back. Phone companies may not be able to stop the shutdowns altogether, but they can certainly make it difficult for the next government to think about this strategy.
There should be more to being a telco license holder than just expanding service delivery and faster internet speeds. This is what corporate social responsibility needs to be about in Africa not an after thought tab on a website or annual report.
Yinka Adegoke, Quartz Africa editor
Stories from this week
How Trump’s immigration ban might hurt African visitors beyond the banned countries. Three African countries were included in president Trump’s executive order barring citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. But as Yomi Kazeem found, the ban has clauses that might hurt African travelers in countries such as Nigeria and Angola.
The lost continent beneath the island of Mauritius. Geologists from South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand found an ancient continent lying at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. The team found zircons, minerals found mostly in the granite found in continents, which were as many as 3 billion years on the island of Mauritius.
The double standards for exploding Ford SUVs in South Africa versus US. At least 39 vehicles caught fire before the American car manufacturer recalled the 2014 Kuga model in South Africa. But as Lynsey Chutel notes, the company recalled a similar model in the United States after fuel leakages were reported and before any fires occurred.
The narrowing path to a peaceful transition in DR Congo. The death of Etienne Tshisekedi, the prominent and veteran opposition leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Feb. 1 comes at an inopportune time for the country. President Joseph Kabila is still clinging to power despite the end of his term, and the opposition has lost a well-regarded leader, writes William Clowes.
How your phone’s camera changed lives across Africa. Digital image sensors have changed the way we communicate and share information all around the world. By taking an Africa-centric view, Harvard’s Calestous Juma explains how the technology has changed sectors such as education, healthcare and agriculture.
Tackling corruption in Nigeria through data transparency. Limited access to information on government spending has always made it hard to track corruption in Nigeria. But as Yomi Kazeem reports, local NGOs and social enterprises are working to combat this tradition of institutionalized opacity both from the outside and inside of government.
CHART OF THE WEEK
Kenya’s mobile ownership is lower than we thought. The new quarterly data on mobile subscriptions from the Communications Authority of Kenya show a 3% decline in penetration. As Lily Kuo reports, the decline shows Kenya’s vibrant mobile industry still has room to grow.
Other Things We Liked
South Africa’s sweet-sounding dish that has a not-so-sweet past. Bunny chow is an Indian dish found only in South Africa where a loaf of bread is taken, hollowed in the middle and filled with curry. But as Alan Greenblatt writes in NPR, the famous dish has roots in apartheid, and was started as a way to sell food to black people.
How black books lit my way along the Appalachian Trail. Eritrean-American essayist Rahawa Haile writes in BuzzFeed about hiking the Appalachian Trail and traveling through trail towns alone as a black woman. Along the way, she brought with her books by black people and left them behind for others to find them in shelters along the way.
The African country where girls learn way more than the boys. Lesotho has nearly 1.6 girls for every boy enrolled in secondary school—the most extreme ration in favor of girls in the world. The reasons? It has a lot to do with the history and uniqueness of Lesotho as a country, and not because it is a matriarchal society, explains James Watkins in Ozy.
What a century-old German ship says about trade in Africa. The MV Liemba was brought to central Africa by the German colonists in 1913. Over a century later, the Liemba still carries passengers from Kigoma, Tanzania to Mpulungu, Zambia and back. As the Economist notes (paywall), its importance to the regional economy and its operation today points to the failure to spread investment in infrastructure.
Keep an eye on
Zimbabwe court to rule on whether president Mugabe should step down (Feb. 8). For the first time, Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court will rule on an affidavit filed by activists Promise Mkwananzi, which states that president Robert Mugabe’s has violated the constitution and committed human rights abuses.
President Zuma to deliver state of the nation address (Feb. 9). In a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces, South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma will present his fourth state of the nation address since he was re-elected in 2014.
Our best wishes for a productive and thought-filled week ahead. Please send any news, comments, fire extinguishers for South African Ford SUVs and maps of Atlantis, to africa@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @qzafrica for updates throughout the day.
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