`And give us more rain, health for our cows, plenty of food and new technology," prays a Maasai elder at a meeting called by three ruralbased communities in East Africa to discuss progress made in establishing resource centres and FM radio stations.
The elders, wearing brightly checked Maasai traditional attire, are conducting the official opening of a gathering of community representatives from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. They are collaborating on development policy issues, and the group from Tanzania - the Olkenerei Pastoralists survival programme - has established three resource centres in the district, to serve a population of 200,000.
Normally meetings such as these would invite the local government administrative representative to welcome the guests with an official speech. This time, they prefer a traditional blessing. But why would a community in the middle of rural Tanzania - where electricity, good roads and phone lines are way beyond the priorities of the central government - pray for new technology?
In debates around information and technology as tools for development, much has been said by development practitioners in Africa that the continent should focus on meeting local needs in water, health sanitation and shelter. While these are among Maslow's hierarchy of human priorities, day-to-day dynamics dictate that a people's priorities are not necessarily confined in a straitjacket.
For a community concerned with the survival of their land and cattle, it seems they recognise some kind of linkage between access to technology and the survival of themselves and the animals that are so intricately intertwined in their lives.
For almost a decade, this rural community has been marginalised from development priorities. To counter cultural subservience and alienation, they have decided to "leapfrog" development hurdles through access to appropriate modern technologies.
"For us the link is clear - technology can contribute to the survival of our cattle, our land, as well as ourselves, the women and children," says elder and chief Edward Manoti. "Sometimes our cattle contract diseases that we do not have a cure for," says Martin Sanin'go, a younger elder and programme coordinator. They need immediate access to up-to-date scientific information on animal and plant diseases; exchange of information with other pastoralist communities across Africa; and the combined use of email, other Internet tools and broadcasting for distance learning, done by themselves, for themselves.
The community is on the final lap of raising funds for resource centres and FM radio stations, in a project that includes Internet access for broadcasting purposes. They have sent staff members off for training in Tanzania and in South Africa to similar community radio initiatives.
Perhaps the most boggling aspect of this project to people in developed countries is how email access is possible without phone lines or electricity. The codeword here is appropriate technology. Inadequate telecommunications infrastructure in most of Sub Saharan Africa has made it imperative to develop wireless technologies for providing limited access to email (with satellite links making full Internet access possible).
With little government expenditure set aside toward increasing "tele density", particularly among the Maasai people, the need for accessing appropriate wireless technology to provide access to email and phone links with the local telephone exchange cannot be overemphasised.
Asked about access to electricity, Martin smiles: "We are blessed with the sun - we installed these solar panels complete with batteries and they power all the rooms of both the lighting of the resource centre and the 486 Pentium desktop computers."
Three locals have computer proficiency, and station manager Anna Sirikwa plans to have at least six more computer literate people. Currently, they communicate using a radio call system that meets a basic need, but is inadequate for the bulk of information exchange required by the community.
With a radio modem hooked to the PCs and linked to an HF radio email service provider, the staff can send and receive messages at a baud rate of 2400 - sufficient for basic email access.
Their further collaborations with the groups in Kibwezi in Kenya and Kagadi in Uganda will involve information exchanges for broadcasting purposes. Information officers and local journalists have been trained to package information on development and educational issues, entertainment, women's reproductive and health issues, land rights and a host of other policy related issues. They plan to disseminate information between the communities (by e-mail) and to public radio stations (through audio tape packages). With improved telecommunications infrastructure and increased government flexibility in the use of satellite technology, they also envisage the exchange of soundbites (from videos and audio tapes) via the Internet.
The prayer ends on a high note of praise to the God of the white mountain (Mount Kilimanjaro, which overlooks their land) and to one who they believe is also capable of ensuring they are not bypassed by important technology.
Later in the night, the elders sit with the guests outside in the moonlight around a 22-inch Sony TV screen, watching a 45minute video shot by one of their own. The video documents in the Ki-Masaai language the struggles with the government to secure their land - an issue that has beguiled them for years.
Mercy Wambui is Program Officer at EcoNews Africa. She is at: mwambui@iconnect.co.ke EcoNews Africa is at http:// www.web.apc.org/