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Rethinking Technology Through African Philosophy


Author(s) : Yamikani Ndasauka
African Mind, Culture, and Technology

Abstract


This chapter interrogates mainstream Western and African conceptual frameworks of technology. As emerging technologies spread across Africa, clarifying appropriate philosophical foundations for empowering innovation becomes imperative. Dominant technical rationality paradigms are shown to reduce nature to raw materials for atomised control and exploitation, severing dignity and collective advancement. However, African thought traditions articulating communal, ecological, and humanistic ethics are highlighted to envision technologies harmonising with people and the environment, not dominating. Constructing an African philosophy of technology guided by care, solidarity and co-evolution, not just efficiency, provides vital resources for transforming policies, education and design. Principles extracted from African knowledge systems offer guidance to shape technology focused on holistic human development rather than material accumulation or technocratic control alone. This exposition of African conceptual wisdom and its contemporary relevance aims to spur discourse on reforming innovation ecosystems to express shared moral values and collective aspirations. Beyond ethical cautions, African perspectives reveal possibilities for purposeful, liberatory technology strengthening social fabrics and ecological resilience. The chapter calls for grounding technology production and governance within the human dignity, care ethics, and communal values at the heart of Africa’s knowledge heritage.


Original language en
Pages (from-to) 81-104
Publication status Published - 2024

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