Blogging among Africans: Is a Revolution Really at Hand?

For next few days, we will take a look how Africans at home and in the Diaspora are harnessing the Internet (particularly the power of weblogs) to build vibrant cyber-communities, provide alternative analyses of events in the continent, challenge oppressive national regimes, and express personal views on a variety of issues.

We will also attempt to look at the future of African blogging. Can the African blogosphere become as influential and dynamic as that of the United States where leading political blogs have become part of the mainstream media, and where leading political bloggers play a major role in shaping political discourse?

For those who may not be familiar with blogs, here are two definitions that capture their essence:

• “A blog a public web site where users post informal journals of their thoughts, comments, and philosophies, updated frequently and normally reflecting the views of the blog's creator.”
• “The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog.”

So which African countries are at the forefront of the ongoing blogging revolution in Africa and how did the get ahead of the pack? Why are most African countries still on the fringes of the blogging movement even though they have large Diaspora communities that are best placed to exploit the now ubiquitous blogging tools?

Tags: blogging African Bloggers Cameroon Africa

Comments

[Oluniyi David Ajao]

Nigeria is one of the countries at the forefront of the blogging revolution in Africa. This might not be un-connected to the fact that Nigeria's population of over 130 million is Africa's largest. The west African nation also has a sizeable Internet population though a meagre 2% of the total population.

There are several efforts to amplify the voices of African bloggers:

http://www.blogafrica.com
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org
http://www.nigerianbloggers.com
http://www.kenyaunlimited.com
and so on and so forth.

The high cost of computers and Internet access is one limiting factor as to "Why are most African countries still on the fringes of the blogging movement..."