Contextualising Africa's Development Efforts from the Perspective of Technoliberalism: The Amputations of Technology.

The debate as to whether the introduction of the new ICTs and especially the mobile phone into Africa has spearheaded development is still on-going among academics, politicians, and development experts. Some scholars from the technoliberal perspective argue that the introduction of mobile phone into Africa has enabled economic and democratic "catch-up." Carmody from the other angle discusses in his paper how this argument is a failed one. He argues that mobile phone may have facilitated increased access and interaction in Africa, but has also wrought poverty and misery on the continent. My Paper (current discussion) shares in the argument of Carmody. It argues that technologies have 'amputations,' and that the technoliberal philosophy is an idea rooted in neoliberal thought, which principles are inconsistent with Africa's social, economic, and cosmological aspirations, and can hardly facilitate its development.