The end of the 20th Century poses a lot of challenges for Africa. The rapid spread of computers and computer-based technology in the West and other developing countries is creating a 21st Century barrier between Africa and the rest of the world, given the limited access to personal computers or a community computer center. This digital divide poses one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century for Africa.
According to the United Nations, the fastest growing youth population in the world is in Africa and yet, less than 15 percent of the population is educated. The road to development is laden with further difficulties. As the electronic media ascends the prefered status of transacting business and providing information on resources, the ability to use a computer is becoming a necessary tool for mass education, especially to disadvantaged populations around the world. A growing youth population without access to education and appropriate information is a time bomb waiting to explode.
The lives of young people in this category thrives on the periphery of civil society. In the majority of the civil wars in Africa, they have been transformed into brutish participants in meaningless wars waged on their own population across the continent. The availability of computers will provide the necessary skills to a major population of youth for education of other youth in a youth-to-youth educational approach. With the availability of computers with internet capabilities, youth participants will have acess to internet based e-mail services which will in turn give them access to social media, contributing immensely in building a link to other people of African descent in the Diaspora and the rest of the world.
