DotAfrica

DotAfrica (.africa) is a proposed New gTLD for the promotion of African Identity (businesses, people and culture) on the Internet. There are currently several known applicants vying for the TLD. These entities include Dot Connect Africa (DCA), a Mauritius based not-for-profit, non-partisan organization founded by Sophia Bekele; the Africa Top Level Domain (AfTLD) Organization, a non-profit organization also established in Mauritius headed by Vika Mpisane; and the African Registry Consortium (ARC), owned and operated by Domain Name Services (Pty) Ltd. and Convergence Partners (Pty) Ltd..

Background

DotAfrica was originally proposed by non-African companies during ICANN's first new gTLD application round in 2000. The application was strongly opposed, however, by some African professionals. They perceived that the application was not beneficial for the African continent. Subsequently, in 2002, those professionals who were in opposition to the original application began development of a draft operational model for a DotAfrica managed by Africans. Since then, several African entities has been interested in the implementation of DotAfrica as a new gTLD, including DCA, AfTLD, and ARC.

During the 2009 African Union conference at Johannesburg, South Africa, the AU Ministers expressed their support of the DotAfrica proposal and acknowledged its possible benefits for the development of the Internet within the African continent. The Ministers adopted a resolution to establish .africa as a continental TLD for use by organizations, businesses and individuals with guidance from African Internet agencies. In addition, the African Union was mandated by its Member States to establish cooperation and partnership with Internet stakeholders, as well as in the preparation and submission of an application for DotAfrica as new gTLD to ICANN.

DotConnectAfrica Bid for DotAfrica

In 2006, Sophia Bekele, initiated the proposal to develop the DotAfrica gTLD through her non-profit organization DotConnectAfrica (DCA), which would serve as the sponsor and registry operator. She first presented her proposal to the African Members of the ICANN Board as well as to African members from various different groups within the ICANN community at ICANN 28 in Lisbon. In her presentation, Bekele emphasized the need and significance of the .africa domain name to reach and enrich the global internet community. She pointed out that .africa would enable users to express their membership in a larger Pan-African and African community, and also allow Africa to take its rightful place alongside .asia and .eu. In addition, Bekele cited that the DotAfrica proposal complies with the objectives of the WSIS to empower developing countries using ICT, as well as to the policies of the African Union, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and the Africa Drive Project for the development of the continent.

Since then, Bekele has actively campaigned for the .africa proposal among organizations and communities in the African region. In 2008, Bekele announced DCA's DotAfrica initiative during the public forum at the ICANN Paris Meeting.

AUA Letter of Endorsement to DCA DotAfrica Project

On August 27, 2009, the African Union Authority (AUA) expressed its support for DCA's DotAfrica Project, also expressing a willingness to provide assistance in the coordination of the initiative with the African Ministers and Governments. Furthermore, the AUA endorsed the DCA initiative as a while. The letter was signed by AUA Chairman Jean Ping.

On May 12, 2011, however, the African Union Commission retracted the endorsement made by AUA Chairman Jean Ping to DCA. The AUC clarified that during the Members States meeting, the African Union Ministers in charge of Communication and Information Technologies had decided to allow competition among organizations interested in sponsoring and operating the proposed .africa gTLD. The AUC pointed out that it was not supporting or endorsing any individual or organization. In addition, the AUC announced that entities must submit an Expression of Interest (EOI), on which they would base their selection and endorsement.

DCA Reaction to African Union EOI

DCA criticized the decision of the African Union to implement the process of submitting EOI before giving its endorsement to a particular entity related to the ICANN application to become the registry operator of DotAfrica as a new gTLD. In a statement, DCA pointed out that AU's objective to implement transparency and accountability in the EOI process "sounds hollow and unbelievable" and emphasized that "the AU clarification is untruthful to the extent that it does not acknowledge that DCA was given an endorsement by the AU." DCA also said that the EOI process was already tainted because the AU Task Force openly expressed its support to the AfTLD during the 2011 annual African ccTLD event in Ghana.Furthermore, DCA encouraged all entities to ignore the AU EOI process and requested the AU Commission to stop the process immediately.

DCA Yes to DotAfrica Campaign

DCA and its delegation from Africa attended the ICANN 40 Meeting in San Francisco on March 13-18, 2011. Apart from participating to the different activities of ICANN, DCA also took the opportunity to introduce its Yes to DotAfrica campaign and talked to registry vendors about DCA's EOI to apply for DotAfrica to become one of the new gTLDs. During the ICANN 40, DCA claimed that it received support from majority of the members of the ICANN society on its DotAfrica initiative. Sophia Bekele, Executive Director of DCA said that collaboration and non-competitive collaboration is possible and should be considered. Her organization is open to work out a discussion in order to identify roles and responsibilities. She further said, "We will welcome guidance from all African Internet agencies in our organized effort; as well as the same from our international partners”.

AfTLD Bid for DotAfrica

On March 9, 2011, AfTLD Chairman Vikas Mpisane announced that it will seek the endorsement of the African Union in connection with AfTlD's application with ICANN to become the registry operator of the proposed .africa as a new gTLD. According to Mpisane, its organization is interested managing both DotAfrica and its French version .afrique since 50% of Africans speak French. The organization is confident that it will be successful on its bid for the DotAfrica project because the support expressed to them by the African community, African governments and its close relationship with other Africa internet organizations such as AfNOG, AfriNIC and AfrISPA.

Following its announcement to seek the AU endorsement, during the 5th Annual African ccTLD Event in Accra, Ghana on May 2011, Ghana Minister of Communications Haruna Iddrissu and Dr. Nii Quaynor, Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Internet Task Force expressed their support to AfTLD's bid to become the registry operator of DotAfrica.

Meanwhile, the African Registry Consortium (ARC) expressed its willingness to partner with AfTLD and provide technical, operational and financial resources to prepare a good application and gain the approval of ICANN to sponsor and manage the DotAfrica registry.