ABSTRACT
In a novel set in apartheid South Africa, titled To Every Birth its Blood, by Mongane Serote, the link between blood and birth is reenacted and politicised. The role played by technology and by extension, big technology companies in alienating Africans from their data cannot be overemphasised. In this coloniality era, there is a form of alienation, which is produced by technology through what German-American philosopher, sociologist, political theorist, and Frankfurt School theorist Hebert Marcuse termed, “technical rationality”. Capitalism never ceases to capitalise on what Africa possesses. African resources are pilfered to service the ever-increasing resource appetites of developed economies, in the process, further marginalising and hindering development in Africa. Digital slavery, also known as data slavery, is occurring globally, but is more pronounced and more effective and instrumentalised in Africa.
