T H E  T H I N K E R10

What is a revolution?

A 
revolution is change that happens over a 
length of time. This type of change is driven 
by human beings. It starts as an idea in 

the minds of a few, and then spreads out into the 
minds of more people so that it gains momentum 
to force a change in the world. A political revolution 
is often forced through protests or policies, where 
the majority of the affected people drive this 
change in their desired direction. An industrial 
revolution is a change in economic power, where 
the main driver of the economy is changed from a 
certain technological sector to another. 

Industrial Revolutions’ main fields
The various industrial revolutions have always 

depended on changes in the main technological 
fields. During the first industrial revolution, the 
mechanical engineering field was the main driver 
of the revolution. During the second industrial 
revolution, the field of electrical engineering was 
the main driver (in collaboration with mechanical). 
During the third industrial revolution, computers 
were the main drivers (in collaboration with 

mechanical and electrical engineering). In today’s 
fourth industrial revolution, the internet and AI are 
the main drivers (in collaboration with mechanical, 
electrical and computers). Each industrial 
revolution then contains elements of the previous 
ones and thus builds upon them.

What influences these changes or industrial 
revolutions that happen over time 

I believe that these changes are natural. The 
various industrial revolutions are a result of natural 
changes, or in scientific terms, these changes are 
called evolution. The source of innovative ideas 
are a type of intellectual evolution as technological 
advancements or developments are part of leaps 
in thought. Every revolution is then part of the 
evolutionary process. Evolution is not just about 
natural changes over millennia but it is also about 
change in human behavior over a shorter period 
of time that can be witnessed by people over the 
course of their lifespan. This can be illustrated with 
current ideas of generations: we have the  silent 
generation (born 1945 and before), Baby Boomers 
(born 1946 – 1964), Generation X (born 1965 – 1976), 
Millennials (born 1977 – 1995) and Generation Z 

Concepts 
A beginner’s guide to the Fourth industriAl revolution in AFricA:

By Abel Matheba

and Debates

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(born in and after 1996). All of these generations 
have a different view of life, they approach life in 
different ways and that is why people of certain 
generations usually think that people belonging 
to a different generations are ‘weird’. This kind of 
change in human behaviors is influenced by nature 
(evolution), and it first starts in the mind (where 
every type of change is initiated). So by simple 
definition, a revolution can be seen as basically the 
evolution of consciousness. 

Adapting to a revolution (change)
Charles Darwin’s theory of the survival of the 

fittest still applies to revolutions in industrial ages; 
he defined it this way: “It is not the strongest 
species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but 
the ones most responsive to change” (Vergata, 
1994). We have witnessed the rise of various nations 
who have been able to take advantage of or adapt 
to the changes in technology that each industrial 
revolution brought about, in order to become the 
powerful nations in this world. Africa has largely 
been behind with these developments, and that 
is partly why Africans have been spectators rather 
than leaders for so many years. Africa’s history of 
subjugation has led to this predicament. It started 
with the international slave trade, when Europeans 
used more technologically advanced means of 
transportation and weaponary to subjugate and 
then transport millions of Africans across the 
world as slaves. Had they found Africa with similar 
weapons, Africans’ international enslavement 
would have been difficult to establish in the way 
it was done.  If Africa had had more advanced 
technologies for the mining of minerals, it would 
have been a wealthier continent as it is a fact 
that Europeans found Africans already mining for 
minerals (Mapungubwe’s golden rhinoceros being 
the evidence) (Moffet, 2014) when they arrived on 
the continent. China is one of the leading nations 
in terms of technology globally today, and they 
have been investing and loaning funds to many 
of African countries. Some analysts see this as a 
strategy that China is using to recolonize Africa, 
just in a friendlier way (Kinyondo, 2019). This begs 
the question of what the African continent would 
look like with its own technological innovations.

Shaping Africa for the 4IR
African leaders today have to be careful when it 

comes to working with other nations in the wake of 

the 4IR - that is, if they want to lead the continent 
into a better position, where it could be a globally 
competitive continent and have no other nations 
colonizing it again in any form. This new industrial 
revolution can work to Africa’s advantage, since 
Africans are now exposed to technological 
information and education which they were 
deprived of during the past industrial revolutions. 
To achieve this, African leaders must give more 
attention and invest more in technologies 
and  innovations in Africa. An example of such  
technological innovation is ‘Libby’ – a robot that 
was introduced at the University of Pretoria’s 
library in South Africa. South African developed, 
‘Libby,’ is used to help students with library usage 
such as to finding books or accessing content. The 
fact is that while  this robot has put some jobs at 
risk as there is no longer a need to have a human 
do this kind of work manually, there are other 
benefits to be had here. If the robot is developed 
and manufactured locally, it would create more 
jobs for the manufacturing and maintenance of 
the robot. This means that while one job sector 
shrinks, another grows. The method of relying 
mostly on locally produced innovations will be the 
beginning of Africa’s self-reliance, which is one of 
Pan-Africanist ideologies’ important goals. 

One of the other disadvantages of relying on 
technologies from elsewhere is that we are not 
sure if we are going to be ‘friends’ with these 
nations forever. Machines and AI in particular 
can be controlled from afar, so what will happen 
if we are no longer on good terms with whatever 
country a machine came from? Is it not a risk that 
the behavior of these machines can be remotely 
controlled and they become our enemies? We 
have already witnessed this kind of interaction 
happening between America and China with the 
Huawei scandal. This type of trade war could  
have a huge impact on everyday life if the scale 

This new industrial revolution can work to 
Africa’s advantage, since Africans are now 
exposed to technological information and 

education which they were deprived of during 
the past industrial revolutions. To achieve this, 
African leaders must give more attention and 
invest more in technologies and  innovations 
in Africa. An example of such  technological 

innovation is ‘Libby’.



T H E  T H I N K E R12

expands. 
Since we know that connection to the internet 

is based on transnational undersea cables 
running from continent to continent, what could 
potentially happen with the main servers based in, 
and owned by, other countries? If the countries in 
charge of the servers decide to stop Africa from 
using the internet due to political reason, what 
would happen? Imagine life without the internet… 
how will we communicate since we have already 
adapted to this kind of communication? 

Decolonizing technology
African leaders need to start giving more 

attention and invest more funds in local innovators 
working on new technologies relevant to this 
4IR.   I am talking about prioritizing investing in 
local research and innovation in the technological 
field. We are already educating people in this new 
age of technology where some institutions, like 
the University of Johannesburg, have placed 4IR 
technologies at the forefront of education. This 
innovative approach is part of a long history of 
calls for the decolonization of knowledge from 
the African continent. Both Robert Sobukwe and 
Steve Biko called for self-reliant economies in 
Africa.  This idea is not limited to land politics, but 
can also be achieved through a different way of 
using the 4IR to drive African economies into a 
better state. In fact, Africa is in a better position to 
turn things around than ever before by investing 
time, money and energy, however limited, in 
locally produced technologies.  The problem with 
the many analysts in this 4IR age is that they are 
talking about the impact this new industrial age 
will have on our lives, and not how Africans can 
use this new age to our advantage to take Africa 
forward and make it a better continent. 

But what can be done in using 4IR to improve 
Africa?

Africa is an economically poor continent and 
young innovators need to work at any job that 
they can find in order to merely eat, leaving little 
time for invention. Most African governments, 
South Africa included, are investing more money 
in conventional businesses than innovations,  
but conventional business models like the 
ubiquitous tender system in South Africa do not 
create real jobs. Many of the people running these 

tendering companies are not problem solvers and 
are more interested in gaining material wealth for 
themselves than actually creating value for the 
people that they are meant to serve; in addition, this 
system has proven to be filled with corruption as the 
Zondo commission has exposed and therefore this 
sort of business model does not really solve Africa’s 
economic problems. Another problem that delays 
Africa’s progress in general is corruption, but that is 
a topic for another day. Centers like the Innovation 
Hub in South Africa that are aimed at supporting 
innovation among youth,  but they do so at a very 
slow pace and with very minimal funding. They 
initially cover the funding needed to pilot an idea, 
but do nothing to support the innovators’ personal 
expenses, even basic ones, at that time. In reality, 
personal expenses are of extreme importance in 
poorer countries where most young people do 
not have surplus income from their families to 
support them through this process, regardless of 
the veracity of their ideas. This is a short sighted 
approach as innovation has long term potential to 
uplift people and countries out of poverty.

In technology leading countries like China, it 
takes a shorter time to take an invention from idea 
stage to commercialization stage, while in Africa it 
takes longer and that is only if the innovator does 
not lose hope and give up (Rees, 2018). This results 
in a lag for African countries in general when it 
comes to developments. African governments 
should give more support to innovators if they 
really want to take this continent forward and, 
they must do so at this early stage of the 4IR. This 
new industrial revolution is taking place at an 
exponential speed as compared to the previous 
revolutions, where a waste of more time will only 
lead Africa to becoming worse off as change 
will not wait for it. The only constant thing that 
remains unchanged in this world is change itself. 
Nothing remains the same forever. What we need 
to do as Africans is to adapt to this change as early 
as possible, and then drive it in our own direction 
for our own benefit. ■ 

References
Kinyondo, A., 2019. Is China Recolonising Africa? Some views from 
Tanzania. 182(2), pp. 128-164.
Maserumule, M. H., 2016. Sobukwe’s pan-Africanist dream. The 
Conversation, 16 February. 
Moffet, A., 2014. Iron Age mining links ancient SA to the world. Mail & 
Guardian, 22 August. 
Rees, L., 2018. Innovation is crucial to Africa’s development. Daily Maverick. 
Vergata, A. L., 1994. Herbet Spencer: Biology, Sociology, and Cosmic 
Evolution. In: Sociology of Sciences. s.l.:Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 192-229.

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