Africa in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism and Neo-Imperialism

By Takura Zhangazha*

One of my first lectures in graduate school was on how ‘enlightenment era’ Europe imagined and mapped Africa.  And some of the first maps were silent about the interior save for pyramids to the north, elephants on coasts and an unknown ‘darkness’ in the centre.  All accompanied by myths of demons and subhuman creatures as dominating the same centre.  It was a rather awkward lecture on how expanding empires and then emerging mercantile capitalists viewed our continent at that time. The maps were to change with newer details being provided by explorers and missionaries.  A bit more detail about rivers, gorillas, giraffes, lions and the ‘natives’.  

In the contemporary I occasionally wince at what would be the historically familiar language of conquest when global superpowers (empires) talk about taking ‘man’ to Mars by 2023. But as far as we know there are no Martians yet.  If there are I would grimly try and tell them about what’s coming.

A friend also recently gave me a book as a gift. I could not put it down until I finished reading it in about two weeks.  The title of the book is ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.  The Fight for a Human Future at the Frontier of Power.’ In it, the author, Shoshana Zuboff, makes reference to a practice that was at the heart of colonial conquest called the ‘requirimiento’ or the Spanish Monarchial Edict of 1513.  It turns out that upon arriving in a foreign land, Spanish conquerors were required to read this edict to ‘natives’ informing them that they were now vassals of the king.  This is despite the fact that the natives neither understood the language in which the edict was read nor assumed that the visitors had intentions of vanquish. Zuboff calls it ‘conquest by declaration’. 

The colonial reference in the book is in order for us to have an easier understanding of the contemporary fact of ‘surveillance capitalism.  The latter being defined as ‘ a new economic order that claims human experience as free raw material for hidden commercial practices of extraction, prediction and sales.’  Or ‘A rogue mutation of capitalism marked by concentrations of wealth, knowledge and power unprecedented in human history’.  All this being done via our increasingly ubiquitous use of the internet and mobile telephony. 

I mention this book because it defines an important epoch in the global political economy via the internet, its elite private company owners (Google, Facebook, Microsoft) who are not just providing services for global connectivity.  In particular its intention to enhance behavioral modification as well as to construct specific certainties to human behavior.  Or an acquisition of ‘total information’ for the purposes of surveillance capitalism which ‘replaces mystery with certainty’. 

Africa does not feature much in the book except where it refers to ‘surveillance as a service’ (SaaS) and how our online or mobile telephony behvaiour (texts, messages, contact lists) helped in making ‘unbanked’ people to qualify for loans.  It turns out most of us Africans have no problem with ‘sharing personal details for much needed (loan) funds’. 

I have quoted at length from the book I got as a gift from a friend because it is highly relevant to how we as Africans think and imagine of ourselves in an increasingly interconnected by the internet (and the behemoth companies that enable access),  global world. 

My primary fear as an African is whether or not our behavior is not being engineered, predicted with certainty in almost a similar fashion as the colonial old.  And I will give an example of whence my fear stems from.  Some five years ago, I attended a Global Cyber Security Conference in the Hague, Netherlands via a sponsored scholarship.  I chose to listen in on a session that included the then chief executive of Microsoft in Europe whose name I cannot recall (though he did mention that had also served in the first Obama administration.)

He had mentioned the Augustinian ‘city state’ with reference to the expansion of the internet in Africa and how his company does not quite view the continent by way of state borders but cities.  Of particular interest for companies such as Microsoft  were the markets of largely populated cities such as Lagos, Cairo, Algiers, Addis Ababa, Kinshasa, Nairobi and Johannesburg.  And how to find ways of introducing the ‘internet of things’ (IoT) to such cities. 

I asked a question during the plenary as to whether the intention for companies such as Microsoft was that ‘we all become the same?’  That is we all become city dwellers with similar behavior from Cape to Cairo.  The response I got was, as expected, diplomatic and evasive. 

With hindsight I now realise that that it is the probable intention of those that mine our personal data on the internet in order not only to know our private data enmasse but to also potentially modify our behavior (especially in the cities) with a increasing degree of predictability and certainty. 

This is however not just Africa’s problem.  It’s an emerging reality in the global north especially after the scandal revealed by whistleblower Chris Wylie on Cambridge Analytica’s role with the United Kingdom’s referendum on the Europeans Union amongst other emerging examples. 

The only difference is that Africa is unchartered and unmonitored territory in relation to privacy and behavioural modification.  Indeed, there were reports of again Cambridge Analytica trying to influence Kenyan, Nigerian and Tunisian elections but continentally we are not sure where we are placed in this now global surveillance capitalism.  What we do know is that social media is an increasingly integral part of how we, particularly young and urban Africans, think, feel and act about our quite literal existential circumstances.   Sometimes genuinely but more often based on the 'emotional contagion' effect anticipated by those that create and control algorithms at Facebook, Apple and Google. 

We will be told of the ‘inevitabilism’ of the internet and its appendant social media applications and how we must embrace the global north’s pre-determined future as Africans.  We don’t control the internet nor its surveillance capitalists.  While our governments occasionally shut it down in times of political trouble, they too are forever beholden to its capitalist intentions. 

Because again and again we , as in the colonial past, are required to listen to the ‘requirimiento’. Without understanding the language let alone the intentions of those that would conquer us.  Happy Africa Day cdes!
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)

Zupco Jokes, Economic Class and Hedonistic Individualism in Zimbabwe.

By Takura Zhangazha*

They can be a bit of a laugh, if you are on social media, the political-economic goings on in Zimbabwe.  They should not (strictly speaking) be.  But on social media they are and humour/satire is definitely a good thing.  Even if just for personal or collective catharsis.    Especially if it’s all about events that occur in the immediate. Or those that are ephemeral in their recurrence.   The recent fuel price increase (in local RTGS currency) and the announced expansion of the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) bus services for urban rural public transport.    

It was an announcement that sent Zimbabwean social media into apoplectic frenzy. Even the infamous choice of words by vice president Chiwenga at the recent Zimbabwe International Trade Fair  (ZITF) in a speech where he is reported to have said, and I am paraphrasing here, ‘it will work, it will not work’ in one sentence has been invoked to the greater extent be derisive of the announcement.  

And its all fair game.  Laughter, satire and angst are necessary elements for free expression and its cornerstone role in creating a culture of democracy in society.

The same elements also serve as indicators of what could be symptoms of what is ailing a society.   In our case and in light of the liberalization of fuel prices and expansion of ZUPCO services, the actual ailment is the political economy, class and hedonistic individualism in the country.

I will start with the political economy that Mnangagwa’s government is trying to construct.  While there may be varying labels given to it, it is clearly a pro-business, pro-(global) free market ideological framework of political economy.  Hence the clear prioritization of ‘organised’ private capital.  I mention ‘organised capital ’ largely because that is what this government is hoping it will satisfy with its latest monetary policy maneuvers. And true to form, in the media reports that have followed the changes to the fuel interbank exchange rate, private and relatively big/organized capital is not complaining. 

Nor are bus owners that are contributing to the Zupco fleet.  I am not sure about the owners of the smaller and less organized private kombis but it would be safe to surmise that they are probably not happy.  But government is not too concerned about the latter because they are not quite ‘organised capital’ .  In fact they are viewed with political suspicion as to their motives during industrial actions such as stay-aways and demonstrations. 

In turning to issue of class and class consciousness (if any), the evident increase in the use of the cheaper Zupco buses by the public is evidence of a pressing social and economic need.  That is affordable public transport by the urban formal and informal worker.  Never mind the discomfort or the inability of Zupco to meet the overwhelming public demand, the response is reflective of that least talked about component of our society, economic class differentiation and expectation. For the poorer working class high density suburb residents it is a question of dealing with what is affordable at a given moment.  They may not be a in a position to question the sustainability of the Zupco project but will most certainly put two and two together to realise its utilitarian value. For now.  Never mind the opinion of those that have cars or can afford other modes of urban transportation.

Speaking of private cars as current modes of urban transportation also helps us to arrive at the third aspect of our societal ailment which is what Zizek refers to as ‘hedonistic individualism’.  Or to put it more plainly, a narcissistic form of individualism that does not take into account any forms of a public interest collective.  

Or as some synonyms to hedonism help make it more clearer, ‘self-gratification; lack of self restraint, immoderation, overindulgence, overconsumption, excess, extravagance.’ 

In this individual anger which has a collective dimension to it only by way of quantitative measurement makes us long for lifestyles that do not reflect our economic and political realities.  Both individually and collectively.  What then becomes an issue is how to avoid having to be the one that gets on a Zupco or a kombi in the first place.  Because that would be a sure sign of ‘poverty’ in the eyes of many.  And not just material poverty but lifestyle poverty which in turn leads to assumptions of being individually unsuccessful in life. 

The irony of it all  is that the Mnangagwa government is not too much concerned with the public service role of the expanded Zupco bus services or talking the bad effects of its neoliberal economic policy framework.  Instead they anticipate resistance in one form or the other and all their actions are mitigatory measures intended to serve organized capital while keeping the masses at bay.  And even more striking is their very class oriented approach to the political economy by tacitly seeking to bring ‘order’ by reinstating social class to goods and services.  For example the rise in fuel costs means that depending on your income you will eventually opt for public transport- a development that a good number of young urban Zimbabweans may find to be a sign of individual failure. 

We can still laugh our tear ducts dry about Zupco and compare a bus ride to the price of an egg.  It is indeed very funny.  But it is in the final analysis an indicator of the fact that we are fast losing out on the value of the public in public services.  Not that the government intends to restore public services as a public good in the best public interest. Far from it. The intention is to reduce the influence of private urban transport's influence on demonstrations or stay aways.    But that we cannot bring ourselves to value public goods and services that are for the many and not the few is our primary public challenge. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)

ED’s New Establishment Project: An Attempt at Elitist Permanence.

By Takura Zhangazha*

When President Mnangagwa made overtures for ‘national dialogue’ to his political rivals in the 2018 harmonized elections, it was understandably viewed as some sort of political grandstanding.  Not least because the mainstream MDC-Alliance opposition, has not participated in the same while holding out for its own terms to be accepted. Even though of late it has been making overtures of reconsidering its overall position as reported in the mainstream media.  

   

The opposition political leaders that have been part of the national dialogue have now agreed, in tandem with Mnangagwa, that their outfit is to be called the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) whose programmatic intentions are to be publicly launched on 17 May 2019, according to media reports. 

Mnangagwa however has not stopped there.  He has also decided to get some special advisors through what he has called a Presidential Advisory Council  (PAC).  This is comprised of what have been referred to as prominent and successful Zimbabweans largely drawn from the private sector to advise and assist the president ‘in formulating key economic policies and strategies that advance Vision 2030.’  The latter being one that sees Zimbabwe being a ‘middle income’ country/economy by the same year. 

Beyond PAC and POLAD, Mnangagwa has also engaged big players in private capital (not just its associations) on not just price increases but also by actively encouraging and promoting private-public partnerships in line with his neo-liberal economic policy dubbed ‘ease of doing business’.

While the media has remained slightly elusive, government has also sought to engage it from a business interest angle to ensure that while a few editors and journalists of mainstream media platforms may not support him, the media owners are in step with the intentions of government.  Not only by way of a broad pro-business economic policy but also the caveat of opportunities for media ownership expansion into either radio, television, digital and print media subsidiaries. 

I have cited these four distinct categories of political parties (POLAD), PAC, private capital and the media because Mnangagwa’s engagement of all of them points to one hidden but probably anticipated creation of what can be called an ‘establishment’ (and not a new dispensation).  That is, a set of permanent political actors that will symbiotically work together to maintain their preferred status quo that benefits them mutually.

I also first learnt of this term from the excellent book by British journalist and activist, Owen Jones, titled, ‘The Establishment and How They Get Away with It’.  For Jones the establishment is comprised of powerful groups that need to protect their position and manage democracy to ensure it does not threaten their interests.  In doing this they are guided largely by the ideological precepts of neoliberal capitalism. 

While Mnangagwa’s intentions at establishment are not so nuanced, it is apparent that it would be one that is founded on the key ideological common ground of neoliberalism, i.e the ease of doing business while assuaging international expectations at the observation of human rights. 

The general unsaid objective is to give each of these players a place at the table of the state.  Not just in way of electorally determined government, but more how to be recognised as having a right to be seated at the table.  The point is however not to upset the apple cart.  Or quite literally overturn or smash the dinner plates through an understanding of a shared neoliberal functional framework and specific rules thereto under the aegis of the ‘ease of doing business’. 

Some might argue that I am seeing conspiracy theories here.  The truth of the matter is that this is a basic reading between the lines of political events as they unfold.  And yes, there is a new emerging political/economic establishment in Zimbabwe.  It has Mnangagwa’s ruling Zanu Pf (and the security services) as the power broker, opposition political party leaders as appeasable ceremonial players, private capital/business owners as beneficiaries of a ‘market motivated’ political benevolence and the media as purveyors of the establishment’s interests to the public. 

The intention is to create not just a new hegemony (dominant political, economic and cultural system) but also an ideologically permanent one.  That is, they intend to create a political system in which all other options are off the table except for neoliberalism, an ideological system that requires elite cohesion (inclusive of opposition political parties, all of which, you guessed right, are neoliberal, even if they don’t know it). 

The key question that should be answered is, ‘Will it work?’  It probably will not and by default. But what is certain is that Mnangagwa is definitively going to go all out and try through using largely the carrot and occasionally the stick method. That is why even more than ever, there is an urgent need for an alternative ideological trajectory in Zimbabwe.  For now that alternative  is non-dogmatic,  contextual democratic socialism.

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)