The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Africa: A Cure Which Kills the Patient

Everisto Benyera ()
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Everisto Benyera: University of South Africa

A chapter in Africa and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 2022, pp 145-158 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This summative chapter is organised into two broad perspectives, one presents the prospects of Africa in the 4IR and the other presents the challenges. It gives an overarching background in which the 4IR will unfold. This background to the 4IR is presented as the world order which was inaugurated in 1492 with the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula. The second background given is that of the modern nation-state in which the 4IR unfolds. The genealogy of the modern nation-state is traced to its problematic birth as a result of conquest, epistemicides, and genocides which occurred from 1492 onwards perpetrated by western Europeans on many, including these who later became their colonial subjects. The chapter outlays the two trajectories ahead of Africa. That of the 4IR becoming a resource or a curse. The conclusion of the chapter is that, if something does not drastically change in Africa, the 4IR will not cure the African problem but will become a source of agony. Epistemic freedom, just leadership, and ethical leadership are presented as prerequisites for Africa’s autonomous participation in the 4IR.

Keywords: Reconquista; Epistemicides; Nation-state; Curse; Cure; Decoloniality; Epistemic freedom (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:aaechp:978-3-030-87524-4_8

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-87524-4_8

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