“One size fits all”: Does Europe impose its data protection regime on Africa?

Abstract

Just before the Directive 95/46/EC on the regulation of processing of personal data in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA) came into force, a debate had ushered that Europe wanted to legislate for the whole world. The debate was and is still dominant among European and American scholars. This article sets to interrogate this debate and more particularly discuss the place of Africa in the debate. The article also assesses the overall impact of the trans- Atlantic debate in the development of data protection laws in Africa.