Document(s) 5 of 11

Exclusion and Inequity

• The Internet creates a gap between individuals, organizations, and countries, in the sense that those who already possess knowledge and financial resources benefit more than those who do not.
• It is clear that the computer illiterate, groups of nonconsumers, and territories that are poorly equipped with the means of communication are excluded from the Internet.

Was the Internet Designed for the Privileged?

The Internet causes gaps between various categories of people in both the North and the South. This phenomenon is by no means specific to Africa. Nonetheless, to avoid being held responsible for those gaps, the South should take special precautions against these inequities. It would be all the more perverse for the South to fall into these traps, as it has had ample opportunity to see the consequences elsewhere. When establishing the Internet, African countries must take all measures to reduce these risks. Some informants went so far as to suggest that the Internet should be used to reduce inequities because “it is a tool well suited to that purpose,”

keeping in mind that the North’s view of the South is often a distorted one: “in the Southern countries, the poor are very poor, extremely poor.” The greatest illiteracy is found among the poorest. “While nearly everyone is very poor, about 80% of The Gambia’s population is illiterate.” A mere handful of families are rich, perhaps no more than 2% of the population. But though the correlation between wealth and culture is anything but strong, the one between poverty and illiteracy is blatant.

Information is also causally related to culture. Unfortunately, according to the head of an independent newspaper, 10% of the population is entirely illiterate, and this includes their native tongue; 70% more or less understand the locally spoken English; and it would be generous to say that 30% of the population would be able to read English newspapers. In the North, there exists an entire middle class that, although perhaps not rich, is capable of using the new technologies. This is true of a good number of adolescent and student users, for example. The poor of South and North have little in common, and the rich of the South are likely to travel frequently and lead lives of leisure, rather than work with a computer. In general, the rich have staff to take care of everything related to computers, communications, and telecommunications. Comments included the following: “They are not particularly interested in either the development of the Internet, or of their country, except perhaps as it relates to their businesses” and “unfortunately, permanent Gambian expats are not terribly concerned with improving the quality of life here.” In the North, a student may be very poor but still have access to a computer at a friend’s home, at an organization of some kind, or at school. In The Gambia, only primary education is mandatory, and the most optimistic figures suggest that only 65−70% of children attend school at all. Of these, 65−70% are boys. A great number of students leave school well before the age of 17 years. Attendance at kindergarten is climbing, especially in towns and cities. But few classes of any sort boast computer equipment. Furthermore, just as in the Francophone countries studied, “there is a huge difference between urban and rural life, and for many the gap is more likely to increase than decrease.”

The main problem is that some of the population is unaware of the Internet’s existence and what it represents. Among those who are aware of it, “the Internet is not considered a necessity. It is considered a tool available to civil servants, and to some of the most affluent by virtue of personal wealth.” But we have noted that, for example, local newspaper businesses are fully computerized and maintain up-to-date Web sites. Nonetheless, Internet use is still uncommon in The Gambia, including in its capital, Banjul.

Consequences

All of our informants stated that they often or very often considered the fact that the Internet might exacerbate societal gaps and inequities. This occurred mainly in the workplace when they could not use traditional means to locate information they knew they could find on the Internet. People have few local sources of information, and archives tend to be poorly maintained, if at all. Few conditions required for adequate conservation of records are met. Much information has disappeared without a trace. This situation is regrettable, because the more information one has, the better the potential for handling conflicting points of view: “in a certain sense, information only increases the thirst for information, promoting cultural development.” The Internet is a wellspring of information; therefore, those who lack access to a computer and a network connection are penalized.

Journalists and teachers, as well as leaders and members of development or women’s organizations, considered this issue each time they wanted to disseminate information. Rarely could they provide sources other than those they were personally aware of and had to direct clients to obsolete, sparse reference materials with already well-known contents.

Researchers were particularly affected by this problem, especially when writing articles or submitting dossiers.

Closing the Gap: Means of Action

As elsewhere, some professions in The Gambia offer more opportunity than others for Internet promotion. Also, as elsewhere to various degrees, The Gambia’s press is particularly well positioned to exert influence at both the decision-making level (pressing for appropriate political measures, for example) and that of users (readers). This is the extent to which The Gambia Press Union feels able to influence the government and media regarding Internet use. As well, the national commission responsible for media has adopted a general information and communications policy emphasizing Internet promotion.

Other private businesses may also have a significant impact on Internet expansion: cyber cafés are a case in point. According to the manager of a café that opened its doors a few months before the survey was conducted in November 1999, three other cyber cafés had already opened in Banjul and Sera Kunda, with an additional 10 anticipated shortly in other parts of the country. “This tool must be as decentralized as possible,” we were told. Even if the very poorest people are not likely to be clients, at least the average Gambian could use the Internet, provided that prices are kept quite low. Currently, 30 minutes of Internet access costs the equivalent of 1 USD, and unlimited access is billed at 16 USD a month. It is possible to imagine what this means to people whose mean monthly income is 27 USD. These costs may seem fairly low, given that in comparable countries the same service costs 50 USD. Clients have to pay only for the Internet connection; e-mail addresses are free. “This is the point at which government should intervene: by absorbing the costs of Internet access and limiting subscription fees.”

Proposed Solutions

Most of our informants made suggestions in support of Internet access. They proposed that the first steps must be made at the national level, by reducing customs tariffs; and internationally, by negotiating the best prices with equipment producers. An incentive for equipment producers could be the fact that Africa, starting from scratch, may well become a highly lucrative market.

International organizations might also be called on for additional assistance. A senior civil servant indicated that joint projects are already under way with the United Nations Development Program to establish Internet access in educational institutions. These projects are to have the assistance of the national telecommunications enterprise, acting on behalf of the government. In 2000, the latter planned to promote rural access to the Internet by installing network terminals, because “Internet issues are financial, not technical.” (Our survey was completed in November 1999.) The Gambia should shortly have one network terminal per village. If the general population has access and adequate technical support, people would quickly acquire sufficient Internet know-how. Many of our respondents favoured raising the Internet’s visibility by providing training and free access to equipment in community centres. Some government departments may propose these steps, without waiting for the creation of private fee-for-service telecentres. In any case, becoming aware of Web-related issues is a positive first step. Of course, much work remains to be done to meet other needs, especially those of people living in the interior and in the countryside.

According to our informants, most Gambian government departments have access to the Internet. This should be extended to cover primary and secondary schools, universities, libraries, and information and documentation centres across the region. It is critical to identify the most important Internet products, because the Internet has the potential for becoming “the right and the best” way of reducing inequities within The Gambia, among Southern countries, and, ultimately, between the North and the South.

Optimism for the Future

All informants were convinced that if their wishes were somehow granted and their proposals led to decisions and concrete action, the measures applied would have a significant effect on both Internet development and the reduction of inequities. For many Gambians, “Web development would be ultrafast: 5 to 6 years to achieve adequate coverage. At the moment, there are about 1200 people connected.” A country’s level of development is not a function of its size. This is also true in the countries of the North: Luxembourg, Monaco, and Switzerland are all much smaller and far richer per capita than many much larger countries. “In Africa, we have the example of Botswana. Diamonds are undoubtedly the source of that country’s prosperity and, in particular, of its democracy. Gambians admire that country a great deal because it has managed to become self-sufficient in everything. Progress can been seen in all areas; for example, one can count an elephant for every four human beings. Nature is protected, and many people have access to the Internet.”

Potential Repercussions of the User Gap on Other Stakeholders

All of our informants felt that if inequities were reduced, thanks to the Internet, the impact would be felt throughout The Gambia, as “our future society will depend upon communication, and the power of individuals will depend upon their ability to control information and telecommunication systems.” For this reason, if a choice must be made, it is most vital to focus on training young people in computer sciences. Attempts to reduce these gaps may unfortunately contribute to the formation of others, such as between the young and the old and between those who have and those who have not received computer training. But of two evils, one must choose the lesser.

The general impact of the Internet on business could only be positive, particularly for certain professions. Even publishing businesses do not consider the Internet as competition but as an information and communications medium complementary to their own in function and operation. The Internet supports other media in two ways. First, as an information service, it allows the user to obtain data unavailable in The Gambia or anywhere else in Africa. Moreover, the Internet is an information dissemination service, complementing those already in existence. The Web is a partner that allows us to “make full use of our output and provides us with unequalled recognition, independence, and breadth of dissemination, even if for now that potential remains latent,” explained a private publications manager.

Culture (Internet Content)

• The Internet promotes the intrusion of content created in developed countries into developing countries.
• For example, the Internet is an open door to pornography.

The North’s Cultural and Media Hegemony

There is a kind of tacit agreement between the North and the South regarding program dissemination, both by traditional means (newspaper, radio, television) and by the Internet. If the North and South are unequal, the South has only itself to blame, we were told, as it is quite capable of producing the content it requires. The Gambia itself knows best about its life conditions and its specific realities. Although it is a small country, it has every ability to design content that draws the interest of the entire world. Radio and television provide good examples: programs exported to the United Kingdom and the United States are on par with imports, according to a publishing executive. “And development-oriented programs that come from the North (mostly Great Britain and the United States) are ‘fair’.” This seems to be the majority opinion among our informants.

In the worst case, “we have decided that it is better to accept programing from the North than to have none at all, and after all, the world is a global village.” This is a very positive aspect, even at the local level, as the South can thus remain informed about what goes on in the North. Thanks to the Internet, the sole information and communications medium of its type, the South has access to everything produced in the North. If the South does not produce enough of its own programing, that is its own responsibility; it could play a more active role. However, the North should take greater responsibility for the choices made in technology transfer. Other informants were more radical: “The value of content is a question neither of technology nor of North versus South, but rather of the content-provider’s responsibility and the reader’s freedom.” Internet users are becoming more aware of these issues. They already see the cultural pitfalls. This is why the idea of integrating the Internet into school curricula, including coverage of Internet-related ethical issues, is becoming increasingly popular. Students will grow up using this tool, while taking care not to misuse it. The Gambia has no reason to become dependent on products from the North, as nobody is forced to consume them.

All issues should be considered globally, because the nature of the Internet is such that all its problems are worldwide, not merely national. In any case, Northern culture has already overwhelmed the rest of the planet: this is a fact, a part of reality. The North must now recognize the cultural biases inherent in systems design and implementation.

Consequences and Means of Action

Our informants said they thought about the issue of Northern dominance every time they were online. When searching for information, they tended to “fall upon” content produced in the United States (70%) and in English (85%), according to certain statistics. In this regard, our Anglophone informants were unquestionably at an advantage over French speakers. Clearly, the Gambians we surveyed much appreciated the fact that they had access to a great deal of content without linguistic barriers. Some said that they were pleased with the quality of the content; they considered that the North is “makin’ a good job.”

Almost all of our informants also stated they frequently considered the issue of inadequate Southern programing, but they were confident that the situation will improve. In 5 or 6 years, The Gambia will produce the content it needs to complement what is already available on the Web. In any case, the material currently available satisfies their needs, in terms of both content and language. Consequently, they expressed no strong desire to promote content-filtering in The Gambia. The heads of publishing enterprises and Gambian radio–television programing seem to be able to find what they need to fulfill their mandates: “we have a large enough selection of material.” Only at the state-managed Gambia Telecommunications (GAMTEL) was it suggested that perhaps content should be filtered when access is granted to schools. But our informants also took pains to point out that GAMTEL is “open to new ideas.”

How to Control the Internet Invasion?

Because Gambians are on the whole quite interested in foreign programing, we asked them how they could promote the Internet without doing harm to their cultural identity. “The best way to deal with that is to raise people’s awareness.” Awareness-raising programs must focus as much on students (through their teachers, professors, and parents) as on decision-makers. Some felt that the South, including The Gambia, should organize to create its own spheres of influence as they exist at the political and business levels in West Africa. For our informants, the proximity of Anglophone and Francophone countries was not problematic but enriching. “ Collaborative work is challenged not by language but by lack of will.” Sadly, Africa has no actual community, and divisive elements are plentiful. “One huge step would be for each country to offer all national radio and television programs and government press releases on the Web at no charge. Other media have begun doing this, so the government should follow suit.” Managers of independent publishing companies all shared this opinion. Their sites could be accessed free of charge from The Gambia or anywhere else in the world. Furthermore, providing this free access did not lead to a drop in revenues, because this service did not have many users and it is often difficult to establish a fee-for-service payment system. This solution seemed satisfactory to all players: local users and expatriate Gambians. Before the arrival of the Internet, Gambians often bought newspapers and sent them off by mail to friends or family abroad. Under the best possible circumstances, these newspapers would arrive one or two weeks later; in the worst case scenario, they would never arrive.

Journalists and publishing executives also expressed satisfaction concerning the invasion of foreign content on the Internet, “because complete freedom is always in conflict with censorship, whether extreme or moderate.” Filtering information with an eye to preserving cultural identity could give the government ideas, as “everything is a matter of perception, and dictatorial solutions can quickly arise.” As we mentioned above, all Gambians are completely opposed to content-filtering; instead, they insist on the value of training children and educating students about the issues. In related cases, parents have been known to make complaints and launch legal action on taking exception to content in other media.

Control of the Internet is a complex issue, because it is also necessary to respect freedom of information, and in particular, of expression. The decision to filter information can only come from higher authorities created specifically for that purpose; this role is not appropriate for the state. Parents who are particularly sensitive to this issue may purchase easy-to-use software allowing them to sort the Web sites visited and automatically filter undesired content.

Immediate Results

Most of our informants appeared to feel that any link between the content provided by the North and their use of the Web in professional and private life was only positive. This was particularly true of certain professional categories such as owners of computer businesses, political decision-makers, radio and television programing executives, teachers, trainers, and association executives. In short, few of our informants failed to point out the great benefits of Northern content for The Gambia. Many went so far as to regard this phenomenon as a unifying force: “we know what the others can know, what the others see.” Some compared the Internet to sport: “a significant comparison, because in both cases ‘development’ occurs, and around here we don’t joke about development.” Whatever the political leaning, sport unites individuals and suffuses them with many important life values: dynamism, courage, sharing, team spirit, and so on. Our informants considered the Internet as being based on a good number of these values. “This transcends all ideological trends. Like sport, the development of the Internet in The Gambia constitutes an essential element of global mobilization that surpasses ideological divisions. What’s more, the same is true of the North: we saw that clearly with the recent World Cup in Paris.” For others, the comparison with sport did not end there, because both sport and the Internet are the domain of youth, and the future belongs to the young. “We hope that sport and the Web remain strong elements of globalization.”

Internet Costs and Financing

• The Internet is a complex tool requiring huge financial investments. Although the importance of communications infrastructure is
  now recognized, it faces fierce competition from other investment priorities, such as hospitals and roads.
• It could be argued that the sole purpose of Internet integration is to increase the debts of developing countries: Internet-related costs are high, and most of the equipment is purchased in foreign currency (American dollars or French francs).

The Internet: Another Priority for The Gambia

In reference to the propositions above, 71% of our informants thought that the Internet did not compete with other investment priorities, just as it didn’t increase the nation’s debt. Instead, they felt, the Internet is a tool that complements other investment priorities. It is a training and teaching tool that should have a high priority, as it represents an investment in resources. For example, most teaching establishments used to order manuals from London, England; now, they can use the Internet to find the resources they need. This is also true of telemedicine, which can be facilitated over the Web. The Internet is an essential tool, itself an institution of learning and a global library at the service of the whole world.

A minority believed that Internet technology is not highly advanced in The Gambia and that it is not considered a high priority by the government, because “the Internet is just beginning to appear across Africa, a continent not yet aware of its full potential.” In developing countries, insignificant funds are allocated to the information technology sector, as it is not considered a priority. The current priorities of the government are health, education, and food safety.

A Few Figures

The question of the Internet’s competing with other priorities in The Gambia failed to elicit completely frank responses. Only one person stated that they often thought about the competition for investment resources between the Internet and other priorities and the potential for increased debt load represented by Internet investment. Two people claimed to think about this occasionally. The others did not provide answers to this question.

On this matter, again, 71% felt they were in a position to take action, each in their own capacity, to affect budget allocation and the management of debt. Some thought that by requesting assistance from international institutions, such as the United Nations, government expense could be practically eliminated.

Some informants considered making a few recommendations to the government to increase the visibility of the Internet in their programs. Significantly, the individuals who took this position were state media managers. The same people expressed the sentiment that these proposals could have a significant impact on the resolution of budget allocation problems. The private publishing executives insisted that the government would never take any of their proposals or recommendations into consideration.

With the exception of these private companies, all other informants thought their businesses or services were connected to the government’s budget allocation.

Sociotechnological Aspects of Internet Integration (Resistance, Uses)

• It is not a simple task to establish the Internet in a country, because many of the conditions required (for example, education or correct needs identification) may not be present.
• When discussing this topic, people often said that the North transfers its technologies to the South purely for monetary gain and not because there is any real need for it.

When asked to respond to these propositions, 51% of informants agreed that many of the requirements, such as education and the identification of user needs, were not met at the time the Internet was introduced in their country. In The Gambia, with a population of 1 million, of which roughly 15% are educated, these conditions are far from being met. Only 2−3% of that small subgroup had the means to buy a computer. The small size of the market, the limited purchasing power of the general public, and its low literacy rate constitute objective constraints on development in this area. A fair number of our informants spent considerable time reflecting on this problem, as they were aware that the level of computer knowledge regionally is quite low.

Here, too, people believed that they could make a difference, whether by writing articles to increase the visibility of the Internet or by providing training in their professional areas (newspapers, companies, or services). For the purposes of proper Internet integration, emphasis should be put on training users to use the Internet effectively; on facilitating access to, if not acquisition of, computers; and on providing access at community centres, as in Senegal. Some of our informants proposed advertising campaigns to run on television and in newspapers and introductory courses on the Internet for the public to convince people of the need for this teaching tool. Service providers and equipment retailers were equally ready to reduce their profit margins to convince as many people as possible to get connected to the Internet.

All informants believed that the above proposals would have a significant effect on the process of Internet integration in The Gambia. Furthermore, most informants saw a connection between the unmet conditions for Internet integration and the operation and management of their businesses or institutions.

Political Power

• In certain countries, the Internet is an indispensable tool for exercising political power.
• For example, computers and networks were installed in the administration, customs, taxation, and security sectors before they became common elsewhere.

The Role and Relevance of the Internet to the State

In contrast to their Ghanaian counterparts, the majority of our Gambian informants did answer the question of whether they considered the Web an essential tool in the political life of the nation. Again, optimism was the order of the day. The informants’ majority position can be summarized as follows. The first Internet connections were developed by the state at an erratic pace. The private sector, arriving later on the scene, was faster to develop both domestic and international networks. The government uses the Internet with the sole intent of computerizing its various departments and improving communications between them. This fact was viewed positively by both resident and nonresident Gambians, who also identified certain benefits. A significant number of Gambians live as expatriates in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where they are working at unskilled jobs without clear hope of ever returning to The Gambia. Thanks to government and private Web sites, they are able to maintain some connection with their native land.

The vast majority of informants believed that another potential application of the Internet – namely, the surveillance of individuals (government critics, among others) – is not on the government’s agenda. “Even if the government is connected, it doesn’t have the same significance as connecting private companies,” and “we don’t know who was connected first, public or private organizations, and what’s more, it’s not important; what is important is that we forge ahead.” Then each informant proceeded to offer more or less pertinent arguments based on this thesis.

In this tranquil and optimistic environment, only the publishing businesses have a fairly realistic view of the circumstances. They are convinced that, for the moment, “the government doesn’t really have the means to use the Internet for surveillance.” Freedom of expression and opinion may be guaranteed by the constitution, and a new law regarding communications may be in the works; however, “the press here is generally less free than in Côte d’Ivoire and considerably less free than in Senegal.” ¹ In The Gambia, any pressure is acceptable to make government journalists “toe the line,” regardless of the law: defamation, false accusations, threats by political and religious authorities, and so on. Moreover, “When imprisoned, the poor journalists are subject to the same appalling conditions as other detainees (wooden-plank bench in a sordid cell, infested by mosquitoes).” It is clear, then, how the government can use the Internet to its advantage to censor information and, over the long term, to monitor the actions of journalists and government critics, at home or abroad. Moreover, the religious would be even more drastic than the political censorship. Despite all this, it is also true that locally the Internet may have little impact, as many publishers and journalists are already experienced at practicing self-censorship: “it existed before, and it will exist after the arrival of the Internet. And you don’t need the Internet to practice surveillance. Plenty of surveillance was carried out before the arrival of the Web: all sorts of different methods have been used here and for ages.”

Private publishing is freer because it is the domain of the wealthy, who gravitate to power, and who are needed by those in power. The majority of journalists working in the private sector have studied overseas in universities or private schools: “when this is added to the fact that they have money, it makes them much harder to manipulate.”

The Internet in the Service of Political Power

For all the reasons given above, journalists and government publishers were practically the only ones who ever considered the issue of government surveillance and censorship, presumably because they were confronted with it every day. For people in other socioprofessional categories and individual users, “it’s not an issue,” and “the question hadn’t even occurred to me.” Others believed that “even when the government gets the equipment, they won’t have the know-how.”

Obviously, no one hopes that the state will use the Internet to put pressure on its citizens, critics, and media. The majority of our informants preferred to take the risk, because “nothing must stand in the way of Internet development” and “this technology offers far more benefits than costs.” All must do whatever is in their power to achieve this goal and contribute to the Internet initiative for Africa.

Means Available for Ethical Development of the Internet

The possibility that the government would set up databases did not seem to worry anybody; on the contrary, such a move was expected to yield highly positive results. All areas could benefit, certainly the health sector, where records could hold information on all primary health problems, all infected households, all means of combating disease, and so on. Data would be available not only to the medical profession but also to the general public, for preventive and therapeutic purposes. Local agricultural production would be tracked and managed more efficiently. Gambian business would be in a better position to negotiate favourable foreign-trade deals and overcome the present situation, which is one of mostly Northern countries setting the terms and the South being left in the dark about Northern motives and unable to put forward arguments to support their own interests. Once again, community access was the preferred model. One means of achieving this would be to make an Internet terminal available to the head of each agency, group, union, and so on. On this basis, the government should be able to obtain foreign aid and inject funding right away, which would have an immediate good effect and be cost-effective in the short term. “If we opt for community access, the costs associated with grass-roots access to the Internet will not be very high.”

All Gambian informants were highly optimistic about the prospects for the Internet in their country. The Internet is seen as a teaching and research tool that allows economic players and researchers to find information anywhere in the world and as a means to providing the world with information about The Gambia. To promote this tool, an effort is needed to train users to operate it effectively. Additional effort is required to reduce the costs of equipment, software, access, and communications. During interviews, we noted that the Internet held no special interest for the civil service or researchers. We also noticed that no organization had been established by the state to promote Internet development throughout the nation.

Economic Organization

• The Internet promotes the development of the very largest national and multinational corporations.
• For example, the first to computerize, after the government, were national businesses dependent on the state.

These propositions did not receive the full attention of our informants. They agreed that the state-associated corporations were most likely to be connected to the Internet. Recall that government workers have easy access to computers. The multinationals were connected as well, but many people emphasized that the government had passed legislation to regulate their activities in order to protect SMES. In any case, private enterprise would only become interested in the Internet when it becomes profitable.

Conclusion

In The Gambia, the statements we collected revealed unbridled optimism. Although we do not share these viewpoints, we suspect the reasons for this optimism lie in the novelty of the phenomenon, lack of experience, and failure to examine the risks. Just as in Ghana and the Francophone countries we visited, informants from rural areas and those from urban areas showed a great difference of opinion. But to a greater degree than in Ghana, we were told that the gap between the rich and the poor – and thus between the educated and the illiterate – was widening. Apart from giving the green light to computerization, which by itself is positive, the government is not employing all means at its disposal to gradually computerize itself. None of the informants considered the nature of the relationship between the government and the citizens, either with or without the Internet. A vicious circle may have formed because the administration fails to put much information online, considering the costs too high in relation to the number of potential users. Meanwhile, those connected to the Internet fail to develop the habit of consulting government and administrative Web sites. Expatriates seem particularly interested in “receiving news from home” by this means.

By contrast, the private sector appears much more dynamic in this area. Publishers, teachers, and association leaders are in a position to promote the use of the Internet by introducing the Web and explaining how it works. Political leaders can influence the government to promote measures to support Internet development. Using the political content of their columns, the press can perform a similar function. On cultural pages and with in-depth articles, it can support the development of the Internet and its use by its readers.

But the sheer scope of information issues far exceeds the ability of the press to serve as the primary, permanent educational tool on this subject. It will be necessary to call on all those potentially able to contribute to the cause, including teachers and trainers. “Mass education specialists are required, just as we now have mass media specialists.” All possible human resources available in the country, as well as in other countries, must be allowed to contribute. “Actions such as this would benefit the entire population. Brothers could talk to their sisters; sons, to their relatives (especially their mothers). There would certainly be a domino effect.”

Instead of trying to establish policies supporting economic development in general and information technology and Internet development in particular, “the ministers involved are spending most of their time looking for money from overseas, thinking that they are important and that they are assessed according to how much money they bring in.” Locally, many sectors could be developed to offer immediate benefits, such as jobs for people in certain segments of the population, and to support development in general. With more money in circulation in diverse sectors such as tourism – mentioned by many informants – the entire Gambian economy would prosper.

Endnote

¹ These interviews took place in November 1999, before the coup d’état of General Robert Gueï, who ousted president Henri Konan Bédié.

Document(s) 5 of 11