Mothers of the Internet

MOTHERS OF THE INTERNET GUEST FEATURE BY BONFACE WITABA

An often frail point of our portrayals of the earliest and current Internet  pioneers resides in who we believe to be the main drivers of the Internet.  Often we turn to familiar faces, “fathers” and “godfathers” of this  precious and essential resource, but when we look closer we see that  the Internet grew with contributions from women and men alike, and  from around the world—not just from the United States alone. This article presents the faces, words and spirits of the women  who have been foundational to the development of the Internet  in Africa. Their experience ranges from law enforcement, policy  and hands-on engineering, and ICT development, but what  stands true of all of them is how important their contribution  has been and is to our lives