ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to explore the digital divide in the context of global inequality and its attendant problems for the African university student. Society in the 21st century is a knowledge society characterised by advancement in technology. The new technologies have brought significant changes in the way education is conducted. In education, e-learning was adopted and its usage by institutions of learning, including universities, surged in the recent past due to COVID-19 lockdowns. The concept technological divide refers to the unequal development of new technologies between different places and regions. It is acknowledged that some places or regions are highly developed technologically, for instance the Global North, whereas the Global South lags behind. There is also a digital divide between urban and rural, a divide which is tilted against the rural areas. The technological inequality advantages some learners who can access the new technologies while learners in the Global South, and particularly in rural areas, are on the receiving end. To interrogate this technological dichotomy and its ramifications on the education of learners, Wallerstein’s World System theory on global inequality was applied in the discourse. The chapter focuses specifically on challenges faced by students in African universities in accessing the new technologies. It emerged that students in African universities, particularly those with a rural background, are not catered for in adopting e-learning as a mode of instruction and that strategies that take disadvantaged learners on board should be sought.
