No More “Solutionism” or “Saviourism” in Futuring African HCI: A Manyfesto

Abstract

Research in HCI4D has continuously advanced a narrative of “lacks” and “gaps” of the African perspective in technoscience. In response to such misguided assumptions, this article attempts to reformulate the common and perhaps unfortunate thinking about African practices of design in HCI4D – i.e., largely as a function of African societal predicaments and Western technocratic resolutions. Through critical reflection on a range of issues associated with post-colonialism and post-development, I examine the possibilities that various historical tropes might offer to the reinvention of the African perspective on innovation. This leads to the consideration of how engaging in critical discussions about the future dimensions of African HCI can allow for grappling with the effect of the coloniality of being, power, and knowledge. Developing on the ideas of futuring as a way of dealing with the complexities of the present—in this case, the coloniality of the imagination—the article ends by discussing three tactical propositions for “remembering” future identities of African innovation where the values of autonomy are known and acted upon.