Rachel Kagoiya & Anasuya Sengupta on the journey to DTI-EA and beyond

Our last episode is a special one, hosted between two friends. Rachel Kagoiya (FEMNET Communications Lead) and Anasuya Sengupta (Whose Knowledge? Co-founder and Co-director) sit down to speak about the journey from the first Decolonizing the Internet in Cape Town, to Decolonizing the Internet: East Africa (DTI) and so much more!

Reflecting on 2018’s DTI, Rachel says:

Being in that space and being deeply reflective, thinking and saying “Yaaa, this is the fire!”. This was the fire being lit for me in Cape Town and I kept thinking how do we keep fanning this fire until we’re able to have these conversations multiply.

The dream is to have these conversations for and about a feminist internet moving across different regions in Africa.

Anasuya walks us through some important terms, looking at why “feminist” and “decolonizing” are the words used to describe the work being done by and through the DTI gatherings Whose Knowledge? has convened yearly since 2018:

The internet is not one of those, you know, fabulous breaks with history as many people make it out to be. It’s a continuation of the histories and structures of colonial capitalism.

This makes an anti-oppressions lens compulsory when looking at the ways in which digital infrastructure and structures of power make themselves known.

Read the post-gathering summary report from the 2018 DTI and the 2022 DTI: East Africa.