ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book develops the coloniality of data as an analytical framework and builds on the work of Monika Halkort, Nick Couldry, and Ulises Ali Mejias to develop the notion of coloniality of data. It traces the history of Africa’s subjugation, historicise and contextualise the colonial project in Africa by exploring Africa’s problematic relationship with what is termed Euro-North America plus China. The book offers more background to how Africa became vulnerable to plunder, enslavement, and pilferage. It deploys the coloniality of data to analyse how Africans are dispossessed of their social resources through data mining and harvesting. The book traces the various destructions and the concomitant accumulation over the past three industrial revolutions and maps a trajectory of how the 4IR will not bring reprieve for Africa and Africans.
