00:00Today we are tackling a hot topic in the Global South, technological sovereignty and media
00:07infrastructures.
00:08We are joined by an expert academic and a friend of our channel, Professor Razigham Maharaj,
00:14Professor of Public Affairs and member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa.
00:20Welcome back to Finbricks.
00:22Thank you very much.
00:24Well, let's go straight to the point.
00:27You say, Africa must be a subject, not an object of knowledge.
00:34What does technological sovereignty mean in practice of Bricks and the Global South?
00:39So by that, we really need to accept that all acronyms have agency.
00:48In other words, it's through their actions that the world around us is created.
00:52Once we accept that, we also accept there's a responsibility attached to that agency itself.
00:59Within this, world systems have operated to the extent that the marginalization of Africa
01:05has been perpetuated institutionally.
01:09It's not because myself as an African doesn't want to develop.
01:13It's because the array of institutions thrown at us reduces our capacity to do that.
01:20So a key part is, with respect to Africa itself, not only gaining control over science, but the
01:28contribution to science being recognized as such.
01:31Africa is not objectified to the extent that it is seen as a place of despair.
01:42We live ordinary lives like the rest of the world.
01:45We are confronted by similar challenges itself.
01:48But what's critically important is the institutional burdens that have been placed upon us.
01:54These include issues of indebtedness.
01:57These include issues of unbeefal exchange that's perpetuated through trade agreements, et cetera, whereby
02:04Africa, up to the 21st century, continues to export raw materials and import value-added finished goods.
02:13When this changes, the world will at least start moving towards equity on a basis that's sustainable and enduring.
02:24You criticize intellectual property rules that block industrial development.
02:29Can you explain a little bit more what's your position?
02:33So, our world is premised on our ability to produce things.
02:38On our ability to produce things, we draw upon a global knowledge confidence.
02:43This is our legacy, what we inherit from our ancestors.
02:48All the way from us, martial military power to control fire, right through to us writing
02:55code that comes to us as artificial intelligence today.
02:59In all these processes, people from Africa have been to power differently.
03:04But their recognition thereof has been very slant.
03:10What we have seen, very much like how capitalism evolved in Western Europe, a key component was the enclosure of
03:18common lands.
03:19We all know that in the stories.
03:21What we are seeing now, as we move into the second quarter of the 21st century, is a similar move
03:27towards the enclosure over our intellectual space.
03:31And this is done through intellectual property regimes.
03:35These regimes don't seek to widen the diffusion of new ideas through technological artifacts.
03:43What they do is constrain and put in place the privilege of needing to pay first.
03:51When you are faced with the challenge like for example a global pandemic, you would expect our first response is
03:59how to save lives.
04:00That's how to save the balance sheets that bought the lives of parts of national corporations that own the intellectual
04:07property rights itself.
04:10Do you think that BRICS should build its own knowledge commerce?
04:16Yes.
04:17What's the first step to do that?
04:20So, within this perspective, I think us appreciating the fact that BRICS represents, to a large extent, the world majority
04:29at present.
04:30Towards that end, we live in a global community of 8.3 billion of us.
04:37Within this, as we mentioned before, our knowledge has been brought together.
04:43It has been collectivized, to some extent socialized.
04:47But, the appropriation of the benefit has been specifically through institutions steered towards this global minority that largely exists in
04:58those countries.
05:01Towards that end, I am not so sure BRICS wants to or has the capacity of creating an autonomous knowledge
05:08system.
05:09But, what BRICS can do is challenge those that continue to maintain very high fences around property inside, and open
05:19that up so that we all benefit from it.
05:23We attended an event called Dialogue About Fakes.
05:28Oh.
05:29Of Fakes.
05:29Fakes.
05:30Dialogue About Fakes 4.0.
05:33Okay.
05:33Event here in Moscow.
05:36One key takeaway from that event was that to beat Western fake news, we shouldn't just build counter-information.
05:45We need to stimulate critical thinking.
05:48Absolutely.
05:50Do you agree with that?
05:51So, I think there is an element of truth embedded within what's being.
05:56And, I mean, the clearest example is what all of us as humanity have been assailed with for the last
06:03three years.
06:04We've watched genocide take place in front of our eyes.
06:07But, in terms of our agency to respond, it's been muted.
06:11But, other than BRICS countries, as an example, very few other multilateral or transnational agglomerations have actually spoken out as
06:22firmly against what's taking place in the United States.
06:25So, our ability to critically analyze needs a filter.
06:30And that filter itself should prevent us from getting locked into the kind of self-fulfilling prophecies.
06:40How can Global South or Global Majority even build media that doesn't just replace one narrative with another, but genuinely
06:52empowers people to think?
06:55So, I think, again, we need to learn from history.
06:59So, we've had many examples of attempts at international responses to the dominance of certain media outlets.
07:08This is all the way back to the Soviet system.
07:12We've seen it with Chavez and Telesur, but we've not seen that gain the momentum that we would like to
07:19see.
07:20As an example, I'm a citizen of South Africa.
07:24Officially, I do not watch RT.
07:27Why?
07:27Because our feed of RT comes through Europe, and Europe blocks its transmission.
07:32We all watch RT because we have the internet.
07:35But, you see, that step institution prevents it from being mainstreamed.
07:41So, I do agree with the component that we need to be more active in responding.
07:46Part and parcel of that is widening the spread of information sources.
07:51And as a consequence of that, if we widen that, we bring in the diversity that constitutes the work.
07:57A minority cannot continue to maintain its power itself.
08:01We've seen that South Africa is the clearest example.
08:04The 350 years of racial discrimination, the country was able to transcend that.
08:11And during those times itself, we were fed with information developed from a grassroots perspective now.
08:18And that's where I think increasingly, especially amongst the younger people,
08:21we should not be negative about the way in which media is being used by them and created by them.
08:28It's a smaller attention span that maybe my generation we are more accustomed to.
08:33But those offer bites, and I use that specifically, of the future that's coming at us.
08:40Our ability to respond rapidly to the vast array of information requires a level of schooling that may not be
08:48the same that we've inherited.
08:50These institutions itself.
08:53Towards that end, more should be done towards breaking, if you'd call it the strictures of the current education system,
09:01encouraging a wider diversity of that.
09:04But most importantly, empowering people not only to be the consumers of media, but also to be the producers of
09:11media.
09:11Absolutely right.
09:12Thank you very much, Professor.
09:14It was a pleasure of always.
09:15Absolutely.
