Doctor Mama Amon
JF-Expert Member
- Mar 30, 2018
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Our drivers toward the vision of Digital Tanzania since 1961: From the Late Julius Kambarage Nyerere, through the late John Pombe Magufuli to President Samia Suluhu Hassan
Abstract Today, we are celebrating the 22nd anniversary since the demise of the Tanzania’s Father of the Nation, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, who died in 1999, after having introduced ICT in Tanzania in early 1960s.
The slogan that governs youth dialogues is "ICT is the foundation of a sustainable nation. Let us use it properly and responsibly." This slogan is a call upon every body to reflect intensively and extensively about ICT and its impact in all sectors of human life.
Historically, the first computer, an ICT 1500, was installed in Tanzania at the Ministry of Finance in 1965, under the reign of Nyerere. By 1974 there were seven computers in the country and the Ministry of Finance had already acquired a new computer, an ICL 1900. In 2019, the late John Magufuli formed a full-fledged Ministry for steering the nation from the third to the fourth industrial revolution.
Against this background, this essay frames an argument for vigorously expediting the process of framing a national digital strategy toward digital Tanzania, the latter being a gateway to the world of nations that truly belong to “the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
The argument shall unfold through the discussions of the following issues: Dating the four social revolutions; the impact of science, technology and innovation on society; periodizing our industrial revolutions; understanding the fourth industrial revolution; framing industrial revolutions by using Maslow’s theory of human needs; the dimensions of digital revolution; measuring the extent of digital revolution; assessing the impact of digital revolution; benchmarking digital revolution outside Tanzania; Benchmarking digital revolution inside Tanzania; SWOT analysis related to the digital revolution in Tanzania; TOWS analysis related to the digital revolution in Tanzania; summary, conclusions, and policy recommendations.
Key Words: Science, technology, innovation, digital innovation, industrial revolution, social revolution, digitization, digitalization, digital ecosystem, digital governance, digital economy, digital innovation, digital citizenry, and digital security.
Introduction
The human race has existed on earth for about one million years. In this period, it successively experienced four major social changes as it made a transition from one social revolution to the next. Each transition marked a change in the mode of social, economic and political organization.
Chronologically, gatherers-hunters transformed into pastoralistic societies around 1500 BC. Then pastoralists were replaced by agricultural societies around 800 BC. And finally, agriculturalists were substituted by industrial societies around 1700 AD.
For the 300 years the human race has lived in industrial societies we have further experienced four transformational stages. In the 1760s, we started living in the first industrial revolution, that used coal, water and steam power to mechanize production.
In the 1900s, we began living in the second industrial revolution, that used petroleum and electric power to create mass production knocked. In the 1960s, we commenced living in the third industrial revolution, that used electronics, telecommunications and computers.
And in the 2010s, we entered the fourth industrial revolution, where, we are reaping the benefits of the convergence of electronics, telecommunications, computers, and software possessing artificial intelligence.
Specifically, “the Fourth Industrial Revolution” was first defined in 2016 as an “industrial revolution” specified by “unprecedented and simultaneous advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the internet of things, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, nan otechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, quantum computing and others [which] are redefining industries, blurring traditional boundaries, and creating new opportunities” (Schwab 2016:7).[1]
So, science and technological innovations as dominant factors in determining beliefs and practices in various sectors of human life have existed for only 300 years.
Yet, in this brief period they have proved incredibly powerful social revolutionary forces, which have moved societies from the valleys of ignorance and basins of passive fatalism to the mountains of near-omniscient knowledge and highlands of near-omnipotent actions.
They are forces which together enable humans to get a two faced coin, one face showing empirical knowledge about the nature of reality while the second face reveals practical skills for doing things that can transform reality for the good of humanity.
Tanzania’s Father of the Nation, Julius Kambarage Nyerere (1922-1999), was strongly opposed to superstition and a toughly inclined toward science, technology and innovation.
This claim is evidenced by his speech in 1971 before the Mariknoll Sisters in New York, in which he strongly opposed a “religion” whose doctrine is similar to “a set of superstitions accepted by the fearful.” (Nyerere 1971).[2] Science is a dominant force that has acted as a solvent of superstition for the past 300 years.
Against this background, he resolutely inaugurated the era of science, technology and innovation in Tanzania, when he introduced computers in Tanzania. According to Mgaya (1994),[3] the first computer, called ICT 1500, was installed in Tanzania at the Ministry of Finance in 1965. By 1974 there were seven computers in the country and the Ministry of Finance had already acquired a new computer, an ICL 1900. Today we have millions of them in different forms.
I am writing under the inspiration of two factors. First, the general impacts of science and technological innovations on society under the first to the fourth “industrial revolutions.”
And secondly, the convergence of electronics, telecommunications, computers, and software possessing artificial intelligence under “the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
As a result, this essay frames an argument for vigorously expediting the process of framing a national digital strategy toward digital Tanzania, the latter being a gateway to the world of nations that truly belong to “the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
In Africa these nations include Kenya, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa, often referred to as the digital “KINGS” of Africa. (Osiakwan 2017:56).[4]
The dimensions of a digital nation include: digital ecosystem, digital governance, digital economy, digital innovation, digital citizenry, and digital security.
The argument shall unfold through the discussions of the following issues: Dating the social revolutions; periodizing industrial revolutions; understanding the fourth industrial revolution; framing industrial revolutions by using Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs; the impact of science, technology and innovation on society; the dimensions of digital revolution; measuring the extent of digital revolution; assessing the impact of digital revolution; Benchmarking digital revolution outside Tanzania; Benchmarking digital revolution inside Tanzania; SWOT analysis related to the digital revolution in Tanzania; TOWS analysis related to the digital revolution in Tanzania; summary, conclusions, and policy recommendations.
To be continued......
[1] Klaus Schwab, The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum, 2016).
[2] Nyerere (1971), “Poverty, Christianity and Revolution,” New BlackFriars Journal, 484-495. A paper read to the Congress of Maryknoll Sisters, New York, 1970.
[3] Klodwig Mgaya (1994), “Development of information technology in Tanzania,” in: Drew, E.P. & Foster, P.G. (editors), Information technology in selected countries: Reports from Ireland, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Chapter Four. Online access: https://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu19ie/uu19ie0i.htm
[4] Eric M.K. Osiakwan (2017), “The KINGS of Africa’s Digital Economy,” In: Bitange Ndemo and Tim Weiss, Digital Kenya: An Entrepreneurial Revolution in the Making (London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 2017), p.55-82, at 56.