A new high-frequency radio, capable of sending electronic mail and fax, will soon be installed, along with the equipment needed for a local radio station. Full of promise and backed by tales of the ever-greater efficiency it has brought to the developed world, high technology also has become a field of dreams for many development organisations. It conjures images of quick, unbureaucratic solutions that empower the masses and briskly whisk Africa into the modern age. The zeal for technology partly grows from the dynamics of funding. Development groups are constantly searching for donor funding, while donors distressed by decades of poor results from traditional development approaches are hungry for something that works effectively and cheaply.
Development means changing old ways, which means bringing new ideas from afar.
However, attention to technology is growing also from Africa's economic anxiety. Ten years ago, few African politicians thought about technology, bothered to invest in the continent's antiquated phone systems, or even contemplated privatisation. Today, private stakes have been sold in at least 10 state telephone companies, and 39 countries offer cellular telephone service compared with only six countries nine years ago. The change reflects a growing awareness among politicians that the pace of technological change is accelerating so fast in the developed world that Africa risks being left further behind than it already is. Such a notion seems at first impractical for Terrat, an impoverished village of dirt roads, huts and only a few concrete structures.