expert generalist

Swaziland. The last absolute monarchy in Africa, led by King Mswati III, famous for choosing new wives at the annual Umhlanga (Reed Dance) of bare-breasted virgins. Traditional healers, sangomas, who channel ancestral spirits and pound herbs into potions. A country with one of the highest rates of…mobile phone penetration in the world. Up to 90% of the population, even in rural areas, lives within range of a mobile network. Most people have access to mobile phones, but not computers. Youth constantly send SMS messages, check MXit or Facebook through their phones, and send airtime to each other.

Tibusiso Msibi, a stylish 18-year-old with long braids who is hoping to study multimedia at university, was asked in a BarCamp Swaziland session if she uses Facebook:

“I use Facebook, Hi5, everything. But Facebook is my favorite.”

When asked how many Facebook friends she’s got, she responded:

“Oh my gosh, I’ve lost count.”

Tibusiso, along with over 1900 Swazis, is a Facebook fan of Swazis Rock, which has as its motto “Stomp Your Feet, Shake the World”, and throws an annual bash that it bills as a “Facebook party” that draws hundreds of young people from around Swaziland, who do a lot of feet stomping.

Swazis Rock says that it is their “fundamental belief that through imagination, information and innovation, we can build a company that utilizes cutting-edge technologies to portray to the outside world the positive attributes of our collective Swazi identity.” 

Swazis are using social networks such as Facebook to express themselves. Official Swazi media websites may be pressured, for example, to remove user comments that are critical of the government (“Mr Editor, why aren’t the comments visible anymore? What’s the point of the comments section if they can’t be viewed?”). In May, Swazi dissident Mfomfo Nkhambule, who beseeched King Mswati to keep his promise to provide free primary education to Swazi children, had his controversial column dropped by the Times of Swaziland newspaper, but he has a profile on Facebook as well as a blog.

In the verdant Ezulwini Valley, where you’ll often pass King Mswati III’s motorcade zooming down the road, Swaziland’s first technology conference, BarCamp Swaziland, was held on Saturday, June 27th. It took place at the House on Fire venue, a fanciful, mosaic-encrusted amphitheatre which often hosts local performances. About sixty people attended, including local engineers, ISP’s, artists, music promoters, software developers, and non-profits including SangoNet and the Grameen Foundation. BarCamp Swaziland was sponsored by YouthAssets.org, which empowers youths heading households in Swaziland. Other sponsors included Real Image Internet (Swaziland’s leading ISP), Swazis Rock, i.t. solutions, PoeTree, and Comparatio USA. Several rural youth who head households due to the loss of their parents attended and helped document the conference with Flip video cameras.

The IT guru at House on Fire, Mark Fulton, although he found out about the barcamp just the night before (suitably enough, in the actual bar where he was nursing a Windhoek), did a fantastic job of taking care of the attendees’ wireless connectivity needs and managing the conference multimedia presentations. In addition, he gave Swazis a window into the truly geeky world of computer gaming – especially inspiring the youth. American video blogger Katrina Heppler and I helped document the conference.

Key takeaways from BarCamp Swaziland:

1. There is a vibrant group of very smart geeks and creatives in Swaziland who want to form a technology community.
2. There is lots of interest in blogging tools such as Twitter. Prediction: a year from now Africa watchers will have heard of some Swazi bloggers (maybe some will attend Kelele?).
3. Local developers are developing software for the local business market – Wandile Nxumalo of Maestro IT showed off his new accounting software.
4. Technology coming soon to Swaziland includes WiMax, mobile banking, and local mobile search – Ali Resting of Real Image Internet was a great resource for what’s coming next.
5. There was interest in using social media to promote local artists and musicians.
6. There is a strong interest in using technology for social good – especially to help the many children orphaned because of HIV/AIDS.

What people learned:
“How important is technology in our community and to the world at large.”

” There is a community out here of especially young people interested or involved in IT – I need to network with these people.”

“How to use Facebook and Twitter.”

“About open source software and online community development.”

“That programming is not a joke and I’m into it!”

“That there are other IT folks around.”

“There is a lot happening in the mobile development sector in Swaziland.”

“There is more happening in technology than what meets the eye!”

“Women in Swaziland or around the world can contribute in technology.’

What was your favorite part of BarCamp Swaziland?
“Learning how we can develop IT in our community. The discussions were very informative, everyone giving input was great.”

How would you make the next conference better?
“I would try to bring something that I have made myself – like my own program.”

“Introduce barcamp to the community (friends and relatives).”

If you would like to help organize future technology conferences in Swaziland, join the BarCamp Swaziland Facebook page.

I am on Delta Flight 200 from Atlanta to Johannesburg, on the way to the first technology conference in the last absolute monarchy in Africa, the kingdom of Swaziland. The flight is 15 hours across the Atlantic. Somehow flying so far over the churning sea makes my stomach drop, more than if we were flying over land. The woman sitting next to me looks near retirement and is from a rural town in Oregon. She is going with her husband to a hunting reserve in South Africa. I ask her if it costs extra to kill an elephant. Yes, she says, they’ve looked into it, elephants cost $80,000.

In the seat in front of me, 38G, sits Katrina Heppler, a video blogger from San Francisco whom I now officially have met in person. Before I got on the flight, I was not quite sure I hadn’t actually met her in the flesh, since we had exchanged a plethora of tweets before and during the first BarCamp Africa at the Google campus, where she was helping to live blog. I was running around trying to stream video from our panels about social change in Africa, as well as streaming video to Mountain View from no fewer than four African countries in the space of a few hours. I was laden with gear at that conference: Nikon D50, Sony PD100, iPhone, MacBook Pro, Flip, analog-to-digital video converter for translating the official Google video into a web-based uStream video for people all over the world to watch. Our idea was to connect people and opportunities in Silicon Valley and African countries. Continue reading »