Imagine that, overnight, your essential digital tools (messaging, software, data storage) stop working, at the behest of a foreign state. This is a scenario we must already find possible solutions for. Because the economic war between the West and the BRICS is no longer waged solely with tariffs or financial sanctions. This war is also being waged with lines of code and software licenses.
The Myth of Apolitical Technology
Let’s take a recent case that should serve as a “mini-test” for all African leaders. Nayara Energy, an Indian oil refining giant, was notified by Microsoft of the termination of its services contract, which included the very common Microsoft 365. The reason? Nayara is backed by Russian entities, and Microsoft is complying with the sanctions imposed by the European Union.
As Reuters reports, Nayara is scrambling to urgently migrate to a local solution. A former Indian army officer, quoted by the Economic Times, called the incident a “wake-up call,” denouncing India’s “total dependence on foreign operating systems.” Imagine for a moment if the same thing happened to a defense ministry, a central bank, or a national electricity company on the African continent. The black screen. Chaos.
This event exposes a myth that “development” experts and apostles of globalization have been selling us for decades: that of a flat, open, and neutral technological world. The reality is quite different. Big Tech isn’t simply multinational corporations floating in a borderless cyberspace. They can also be instruments of power for their home states (Big State).
The “cloud” isn’t in the clouds. It’s located on real servers, under very specific jurisdictions. In this case, dependence on technological ecosystems like those of Microsoft, Google, or Amazon is nothing more than a modern form of vassalage. It’s version 2.0 of the “failed state-building”: no need to send mercenaries to destabilize a country; all that’s needed is to cut off its access to its own data and its communication and management tools. It’s a form of digital neocolonialism where the “service” can be revoked at any time, not for an unpaid bill, but for geopolitical misalignment.
Sovereignty in “subscription” mode
We have thus arrived in the era of sovereignty by subscription, with unilateral termination clauses based on the whims of American foreign policy. For African countries, the lesson is as brutal as it is clear. Advocating economic emergence while entrusting its entire digital infrastructure (governmental, economic, security) to foreign actors aligned with one bloc is, at best, naive, and at worst, “betrayal of the elites.”
The verdict is clear: digital dependence is a major strategic vulnerability. It effectively nullifies any claim to political independence and self-determination. Every contract signed with a foreign Big Tech company for critical services is a bit of sovereignty that evaporates.
So what can we do? Passively wait for our nations to be “unplugged” as tensions between Washington, Moscow, and Beijing ebb and flow? The only viable response lies in an “insurrection of consciences” leading to the reconquest of our technological sovereignty.
This implies:
-Massively investing in local and pan-African alternatives (operating systems, office suites, cloud services).
-Training young people capable of building and maintaining these ecosystems.
-Adopting public policies that promote free (open source) software and sovereign solutions for administrations and strategic sectors.
It’s difficult to build the future when someone else, thousands of kilometers away, can turn off the light with a single click.
By Esimba Ifonge