Abstract
This chapter evaluates the use of digital communication in contemporary Africa with the goal of rationalizing its effects on structural layers of African culture. Digital communication has impacted African culture, especially at the material and behavioral layers. This impact is arguably beneficial in terms of easing quality of life and enhancing communication. Nonetheless, the African reinvention of the use of telephone, which incorporates elements of African culture, demonstrates that cultural effect is not a one-way event where the inventor completely influences a passive culture. Instead, Africa has adopted digital communication through a process of rationalization and reinvention that has changed digital communication to satisfy Africa’s cultural needs. Thus, the changes that Africa experiences demonstrate this choice making that is not uninformed, passive, or without agency.
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Onwumechili, C., Amulega, S. (2020). Digital Communications: Colonization or Rationalization?. In: Langmia, K., Lando, A. (eds) Digital Communications at Crossroads in Africa. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42404-6_2
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