Pipes without Water – And Where Are the Pipes? Information and Communication Technologies in Africa HENDRIK BUSSIEK N o doubt about it, the spread of the Internet is an unprecedented suc­cess story in the history of communications. It has gained acceptance much faster than any other electronic medium before it. Radio needed 38 years to reach more than 50 million users, television 23, but the Inter­net only 5. While so far it has made its greatest strides in the rich countries of the North, it is often punted as the communication solution of the fu­ture in developing countries as well. And that future has already begun. Doctors in Africa communicate with their colleagues and specialists around the globe, sending patient in­formation and digital images for diagnosis when they do not have the equipment to come up with their own solutions. High school learners and university students are not bound by the confines of their under­resourced campuses and libraries; they meet in cyberspace to work on common research projects. Agricultural officers in the field can upload or have immediate access to vital data on the spot. Only with the help of the World Wide Web is it possible to get information out of and into coun­tries where governments are closing down democratic space by banning independent media: Zimbabwe and the hugely successful online daily ZimOnline – operating from South Africa – is a case in point. Access to information through communication technologies is rightly seen as a prerequisite for economic and social development, much as elec­tricity was in the industrial era. Those who are not connected are likely to remain marginalized, powerless and poor. The Internet with all its components and its various uses can indeed be a powerful tool, especially in poor countries: not just for the individual user, but more generally to promote development, good governance and democracy. That is why many in the business of development coopera­tion, not least media experts, have become fervent proponents of infor­mation and communication technologies as the key to solving most of the overwhelming problems faced by the poor majority in the world. They argue that only a rapid extension of access to information and com­ipg 3/2005 Bussiek, Pipes without Water 97