For the better part of the post-war era, the structure of global governance and the flow of international capital have been shaped by one in which the Global South was often the subject of policy rather than a participant in its formation. However, the contemporary geopolitical landscape is undergoing a profound and irreversible transformation. Speaking with Pan-African Frequency, about Africa’s growing influence in the emerging world order, Chisala Chichi Bwalya, Director of Research and Development at the Zambian Research and Development Center, framed the multi-polar shift as a fundamental restoration of African agency.
“The basic thing is that a multipolar world for Africa restores agency, a sense of agency. And of course, this allows us to move from a posture of dependency to one of sovereign alignment. What this means is that we're not in a time where only one country is calling the shots. Africa has an option to align herself with different powers, different countries, based on its development agendas, development needs. But then this is trickled down to the major domestication that is happening on the continent through the major alignment with different regions, SADC, ECOWAS, EAC, countries in the Sahel region, North Africa, and of course, our mother institution, the African Union. So the level of domestication that is happening on continent should basically be aligned to the number of partnerships that we make with whatever countries we want to work with,” Bwalya explained.
To explore the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence as a catalyst for enhancing public service delivery in Tanzania, Valentina Yuda Kiyungi, a Tanzanian AI-engineer delved into how, as with all powerful technologies, the critical question is not whether Africa adopts it, but how it does.
“If we adopt AI the same way it's done in Silicon Valley or Europe, the biggest change for ordinary Tanzanians might not be convenient. It might be alienation. A farmer in Singida applies for a loan and an algorithm trained on foreign data rejects him. Not because he's untrustworthy. But because he does not fit a Western model [...] we have to ask, whose intelligence is this? If we rely entirely on foreign systems, our data, our voices, our lives flow outward and we buy it back,” She pointed out.
This episode also features:
Dr. Mohammed Hussain AbdAlwahid Mohammed, Senior lecturer, department of political science, Financial university, Russia
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