Democratising access to space

Is the African space industry boom, a boom in all directions ?

By Rorisang Moyo Space Professional & Independent Strategy Consultant

Democratising access to space holds a layered meaning.The world is redefining its values about how to carry out business ethically. The world no longer means the West. Finally, states have a chance to fully participate in the global economy across all nations and creeds. Participating in the global economy is not about being offered a seat at the table, or waiting for those who started before you to open the door and ask you to come in. In a continent of emerging space nations, every step has to be calculated and disruptive in order for them to be competitive and to compete at global level. It is about forcing the door open or creating your own room where you can own the room and open the door. In fact, build the house and own your doors.

The space industry is growing and fast. It needs quick thinkers, people who think outside of the box, big picture thinkers. If you are only thinking in terms of where you are now and what you can see,you are not ready for space business. This piece will implore readers about how Africa should occupy the space economy and the values that African strategy should strive to hold dear in the never ending task of strategy definition.

Africa’s potential is sensationalised and reduced to buzzwords such as booming and Africa needs to reap the benefits from a world that is running and ready to do business in Africa.

This article seeks to investigate an ideal scenario for democratising space for Africa. At the end of this article, one should be able to see that where there is a gap in the global market, one does not need to look up to those who are known to have independent capacity to start the project. This article calls for an Africa that is not just full of emerging space faring nations but emerging space faring nations that are also independent in their own right and can define their own future.

Current State of Space in Africa

Presently, while there is a growth of the private industry due to the capital intensive nature of the space industry, Africa is still like the rest of the world where the government is more likely to have the financial pool to have market dominance and to provide meaningful investment. The disadvantage is the form of the space activities through offering services for free and at non competitive pricing. This has been referred to as lacking commercial bite.Simply put, governmental priorities are to have accessible services and to serve the people and this is in direct contrast to the private industry which does not have the moral burden and can target clients who have the financial capacity they need. When this is considered in the bigger pool of democratising access to space, a nation that has a successful and lucrative private industry is a nation that is open to ideas and stands to profit from them. The role of government is not just to monopolise the space economy but rather to create an enabling environment thus the lack of commercial bite can be cured.

One of Africa’s space priorities is to build a connected Africa. Obviously a connected Africa means access to the rest of the world in ways that are more cost effective and affordable. It also means having access to a well of information and perspectives which means that space can be used to improve the life of the ordinary person. Most importantly it means that it opens a portal to accessing emerging technologies. Emerging technologies offer a chance to exploit the full value chain of the space industry. That is what the true democratisation of space means. The word democracy means representation in its entirety. In the next section, the article seeks to deconstruct what democratisation means through the three categories of buzzwords that should never be ignored when one is thinking of access to space within the African continent.

You cannot say an industry is booming if it's booming within very small parameters. Using the buzzwords that media uses to speak about the African space industry, the categories are critical,positive and neutral. These words are what I will use to create a picture of what a successful democratisation of space in Africa can look like in the real world.

Africa is defined as an emerging market thus the point of analysis is the critical factors that the industry should look at in order for Africa to transition from being in a perpetual state of being emerging. One of Africa’s priorities is to bridge the digital divide and the way to do that is through disruptive innovation as well as capacity building.For what will be said below to have meaning, the reader is implored to think of my proposal of how Africa can lead even though they are said to be at the bottom and emerging. To bridge a gap, one has to realise that they are already not at an equal position with space powers and have to be creative in order to bridge the gap. It is also helpful to note that Africa should also be thinking beyond capacity building and think rather of capability building. Capacity building can happen in a variety of ways, you can have the capacity to do something through another and your capacity is only enabled through that other entity. However with capability building, one develops the ability to carry out the activity independently and promotes self sufficiency.

Critical words to consider

The critical words include neo-colonialism, militarization, sustainability paradox and digital colonialism. Neocolonialism seeks to evaluate how present day African states still operate according to colonial values thus reinforcing the unequal power dynamic between them and former colonising states. Concerns that would arise would be exploitation of Africa’s resources and African talent for the benefit of space powers. True democratisation of space would have a focus on regulating Africa’s relationship with super powers to lead to a result that is mutually beneficial.

Militarisation is characterised by potential destruction and turning space into an arms race. What Africa would have to consider are the ethics behind profiting from weapons of war.In the same light expanding space services to military intelligence would be important for space security. Strategically investing in the military for the greater good such as national security would be adhering to the values of democracy where the military exists to protect the nation and the freedoms of its people. This would be a big contrast to fabricating the necessity for military

Digital colonialism is the mischaracterisation of what Africa’s industry is and what it is not through a lack of media outlets . Media influences the power of perception and has historically been used to inspire public fascination and funding allocations intervention in order to justify defence technology in civil wars that some nations have no business getting involved in. Democratising space would be for space to be used for goods and to use it as a chance to reimagine values as we know them.

Sustainability paradox is centred around the impact of space activities on the environment and sustainable development. Africa has reflected their values and their strong stance on sustainable development in Agenda 2063, AU handbook, the Africa Free Continental Trade Agreement and the Digital Transformation strategy for Africa 2020 to 2030. These documents are sensitive to the needs of a young population as well as a population that takes the hardest fall when disaster strikes.

Digital colonialism is the mischaracterisation of what Africa’s industry is and what it is not through a lack of media outlets. Media influences the power of perception and has historically been used to inspire public fascination and funding allocations. Digital colonialism also looks like a lack of space media outlets in Africa where there is one voice and general media is left to fill in the gap. This constricts the space for reimagining the media industry in job creation and innovative solutions for the space industry. It undervalues the value of other sectors besides STEM in fully contributing to the space economy through emerging technologies. Africa should reevaluate who their space stakeholders could be.

Positive Indicators

If you find yourself at any discussion or you are listening to a speech about the African space industry and the following words do not appear. You are in a room where democratisation of space is clearly not part of the agenda.

Leapfrogging refers to the adoption of cutting edge technologies to overcome historical advantages and to adapt rapidly. What would that look like? We need to exploit our large population, to use their creativity to come up with creative and innovative solutions to Africa’s problems. This means that Africa cannot only be thinking within the parameters of what has already been created, to do that will mean they are playing it too safe and under estimating Africa’s power to Pan African collaboration will be to start forming and maintaining relationships at home. Collaborating within a continent has reaped benefits and this has been seen in Europe. Examples of these are African scholarship opportunities, knowledge sharing, tech collaborations, building consolidated knowledge hubs and the African Space Agency is in a strategic position to coordinate and lead valuable Pan African collaboration.

Participation in Newspace is a positive indicator of Africa correcting what has hurt the private industry in other parts of the world, an industry that is dominated by the government. Private industry promotes innovation and creativity, the private industry is where organisations create and think from a place of hunger and the knowledge that they have to assert their dominance through the best work.

Conclusion

Many things have always been framed as none of Africa’s business; space exploration, space mining to name a few. This kind of thinking has led to setting limits to innovation where Africans have not used their full potential in ways such as emerging technologies to access those sectors that have been said to be out of reach. If an industry is booming it has to boom in all directions because a boom cannot be quantified.