ICTs as Juju: African inspiration for understanding the compositeness of being human through digital technologies

Abstract

In this article, I liken information and communication technologies (ICTs) or digital technologies to what we in West and Central Africa have the habit of referring to as Juju. I invite as scholars of the digital humanities to see in the region’s belief in incompleteness and the compositeness of being human, as well as in the capacity to be present everywhere at the same time an indication that we have much to learn from the past on how best to understand and harness current purportedly innovative advances in ICTs. The idea of digital technologies making it possible for humans and things to be present even in their absence and absent even in their presence is not that dissimilar to the belief in what is often labelled and dismissed as witchcraft and magic that lends itself to a world of infinite possibilities – a world of presence in simultaneous multiplicities and eternal powers to redefine reality. The article argues in favour of incompleteness as a normal way of being. It challenges students of humanity to envisage a relationship between humans and digital technologies that is founded less on dichotomies and binary oppositions, nor on zero-sum games of conquest and superiority. If humans are present in things and things in humans, thanks to the interconnections, the flexibility and fluidity of being that come with recognition of and provision for incompleteness, it is important to see things and humans not only as intricately entangled, but also as open-ended composites.