So, the Second Annual Tech4Africa Conference took place in Jo’burg, South Africa the past week (27-28 October 2011). The Forum (at the Campus in Brynston) was abuzz with techies, entrepreneurs, developers, and Internet gurus who all seemed excited by the promise of the conference. Tech4Africa is a mobile, web and emerging technology conference taking place annually, with the aim to bring international experience and perspective to the African continent and to provide a platform to showcase what African technologists are doing with mobile, web, digital media and other emerging technologies.
According to Gareth Knight, the brain behind Tech4Africa, the focus this year was to look at current trends, with an emphasis on social media and how it’s relevant to digital marketing, mobile convergence and the growing cloud, amongst others. This year’s event presented some of the best practitioners in Africa. Two keynote speakers who provided perspectives and inspiration, by sharing their stories and experience, were Herman Chinery-Hesse (popularly known as the Bill Gates of Africa), CEO of SOFTtribe, one of the best attractions to the conference, John Spear a globally recognized digital marketer from “the internet”. Some speakers came from Google, HP, amongst many others. Start-ups were given an opportunity to pitch their businesses in front of a panel and conference delegates for the grand price of $5000. But it was not all about the grand price, as some were looking for funding for their startups, while others were using the platform to validate their innovative ideas.
As I immersed myself on the conference happenings, regrettably, I realized that these conference participants (speakers, start-up presenters, panellists, and even the program director) were all men; and men only. As a woman in that room, I naturally noticed the event was practically a “boys club”. As you’d expect, this did not renovate well with the few of us that were there, not because we felt swallowed by the male overstated presence. Rather, it was the realization that women‘s presence was not just inconspicuous, but that women were practically missing at the conference.
A black guy tweeted about the absence of black entrepreneurs at the conference. Mongezi Mtati, a blogger on Tech4Africa, echoes him when he asks: Where are all the young black tech entrepreneurs in South Africa? I, on the other hand, am on the issue of Women tech entrepreneurs and developers that were clearly non-existent at the Conference. Tech4Africa brought the reminder home: that indeed the ranks of entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders in ICT are still rather devoid of women. As leading male entrepreneurs in from Africa and around the world inspired us with their entrepreneurship stories, and as aspiring male entrepreneurs pitched their startup ideas that are meant to solve Africa’s problems, I began wondering when (as a country and indeed as a continent) we are ever going to successfully address the disproportion within ICT disciplines, which clearly makes it unlikely for girls and women to be inventors of solutions to real-world problems. What will it take, beyond the current efforts, both from the public and private sectors, to encourage females to assert their role in the ICT landscape? As I took a glimpse of the school children that were invited to attend the conference (for inspiration, I suppose), I again struggled to lay my eyes on some girl kids. This picture makes me think.
Why is this picture of any concern? Primarily because it highlights that it is still too hard for women to penetrate the ICT sector. The problem of low participation of women in industry activities should be of great concern, not just to policy-makers and corporate South Africa. Instead, it should stimulate some determination amongst women already in the ICT sector to consolidate efforts that will help stimulate more innovation and economic growth. According to the South African Science and Technology indicators, produced by the National Advisory Council as recent as 2009, the overall picture of South Africa’s national system of innovation indicates there is still a long way to go in so far as national innovation is concerned. In 2004, the Number of South African Patent Applications in ICT was 21 in total, compared to 32 the previous year (2003). The question is, out of those small numbers, how much did women account for? With South Africa not being rife with stories about women entrepreneurs, innovators, or those about successful efforts to fuel growth of female-led high-growth businesses, what does it mean for women that have already entered the industry? How do ICT women get empowered in such a “difficult-to-crack” industry?
The empowerment of women needs not be understood one-sidedly to only mean women need to look at industry and government to create opportunities for advancement. As women already in the industry, in addition to self-organizing ourselves, advancing mentorship activities and networks amongst ourselves, we need to equally take interest in gender inclusive industry activities, enforce collaborations and networks that go beyond our gender divides. Yes, we need to recognize the strides made through empowering initiatives focused on women, which Women in IT (WIIT), The annual ICT Women Africa Summit are but two of them. However, in our quest for empowerment and greater equality, it is equally important to participate in community events like Tech4Africa, not just as a feel-good exercise, but fundamentally because Africa is faced with tremendous challenges that can be alleviated through effective ICT solutions. As women in ICT, we have a serious role to play in this regard. We need to use such platforms as springboards to launch out initiatives, promote ourselves, better understand our industry, learn, shape industry thinking an possibly discover potential partnerships aimed at delivering world-class solutions to Africa’s pertinent problems. We need to view such industry events as enablers of business opportunities and innovation for women in technology. Equally, with the understanding that women need to strive towards becoming creators instead of consumers of technology, we should be committed to a shared vision of a strong and vibrant women entrepreneurship period. And this involves making huge sacrifices on our part.
