Pieces of Africa in Pockets of the World: Extractive Practices of Media and Technology Innovations

• In Event: Technology and Communication Then and Now

Description for Program

As the proposed title, inspired by Benjamin Bratton’s reference to the role of the exploitative extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the supply chain of electronic devices, teases, this paper engages the extractive practices of media and technology innovations and transformations, aligning with the subfield of “Black freedom and ecological justices.” While Marshall McLuhan imagined, in the 1960s, that future technology would create a “Global Village” and eliminate racism, contemporary technology practices are more fulfilling of Stuart Hall’s position that likens globalization to imperialism, grounded in Eurocentric capitalist patriarchal dominant ideologies, serving the economic and power interests of Western hegemony, while objectifying Black bodies and exploiting African nations.
In the critical cultural tradition, I argue that the contemporary innovative practices of media and technology industries (artificial intelligence, media technologies, and mobility technologies) rely on exploitative, extractive practices (mining, labor, experimentation, and disposal) driven by Eurocentric capitalist patriarchal interests. They cultivate a cannibalistic ecology of consumption and profit, adversely affecting nature and those who rely on it for sustenance. I cite the examples and implications of exploitative practices from oil and gas exploration contaminating the waters of the Niger Delta in Nigeria to mineral extractions fueling conflict in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo and to the exploitative experimentation for artificial intelligence. I argue for a decolonial approach to production that considers the pre-colonial African restorative ecological practices rooted in philosophical traditions that esteem nature and its resources, for example, the Ifa corpus and the tradition of appeasing the Irunmole/Orisa and other primordial forces to ensure balance and harmony in the universe.
Name: Faith Ebiere Eguolo Odele
Institution: Texas A&M University

Author

• Faith Odele, Texas A&M University