Rotich speaks to The Observer’s Ally Carnwath on how Ushahidi has
helped ordinary Africans take control of their lives
Juliana Rotich chuckles down the line from Nairobi at the
suggestion that she is one of the people helping to shape a new image of
Africa. “Well, I’m a big nerd,” she says. “So if a nerd can be part of the
future, let’s do this.”
In 2008, when the post election violence erupted in Kenya,
Rotich was trapped at home in the Western town of Eldoret, where some of the
worst fighting was taking place.
A blackout on live news broadcasts had left Kenyans unable
to get basic information about what was going on. Leading to Rotich and a group
of friends to create a website called Ushahidi, Swahili for ‘testimony’ that
used updates from ordinary people, via emails and text messages, and plotted
these on an interactive map.
“We did something which was pretty natural for us but it was
very cathartic,” Juliana explains. “It was important to share what I knew.”
Within days, Ushahidi was providing the much-needed information
about the spread of fighting to thousands of Kenyans across the country. And
throughout the conflict and its aftermath, it helped to document the scale of
the violence, despite the attempts of politicians to play it down.
Since then, the Ushahidi model has
been adapted for humanitarian crises worldwide – it was credited with locating
survivors under the rubble following the Haiti earthquake – and also found a
variety of other, less dramatic uses – a recent application mapped small UK
businesses keen to promote themselves during the Olympics.
35-year-old Rotich bubbles with excitement when talking
about its global reach: “The platform has been translated into 20 languages.
Can you imagine?” But she’s cautious of the kind of breathless post-Arab-spring
rhetoric about the power of information-sharing technology to bring sweeping
political change.
For Rotich its primary role, at least in Africa, is a more
prosaic one: helping people get better and cheaper access to basic goods and
services rather than inspiring revolution. “Democracy is an alluring idea,” she
says. “And we do hope that our technology plays a role but I want to keep that
in the context of some of the challenges that are on the ground and the
opportunities for technology to help with some of the inefficiencies.”
She is proud of the way Ushahidi gave a voice to ordinary
Kenyans to explain what was happening in their own communities. “Africans tell
their story better and represent the reality that they live better. When you
have a view on a situation from on the ground, it can complicate the narrative
in an important way. It wasn’t easy for the rest of the world just to say, oh
that’s another genocide happening.”
As a regular speaker at global technology events such as
Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) talk, she is all too conscious of
how Africa is perceived by the outside world. “I usually dive straight into the
technology and people are shocked, because they are thinking, ‘She’s an African
woman, I expected her to talk about how things are terrible or tell a sad
story.’
“But in my world, the reality is very exciting. I see young
people here in Nairobi and they come up and they say this is my startup idea.
People have the option of creating something, filling a need, scratching an
itch.”
So how would an Africa that has shaken off its negative
image appear to the world?
“When you see those online adverts, those ones that say, ‘Volunteer
in Africa – come and work in an orphanage or a game park’, and there’s usually
a picture of a lion,” she says. “There might be a future where you’ll see an
advert that says, ‘Come and work in the hi-tech sector’.”
Innovators she
admires
Lukonga Lindunda, the founder of BongoHive in Zambia.
Rachel Gichinga of the 125/100 project and Co-founder of
Kuweni Serious
Dr. Sheila Ochugboju, Co-founder of a popular photography
website www.africaknows.com and TEDxNairobi
Ally Carnwath writes on Africa & Music for The Observer
and The Guardian
Adapted from: The Guardian
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