Real Digital Sovereignty: Africa and Russia Build a New Architecture of Trust
Successful digital development depends on several key factors, including the adoption of AI, the development of smart cities and the shift of government services online. As countries go digital, many face the same question: how can they use technology to drive sustainable development without giving up their independence?
Participants in the round table “Practices of Implementing Digital Sovereignty” at the 2nd Global Digital Forum in Moscow sought to answer that question. Experts from Russia and Africa discussed the principles of building an independent digital ecosystem. At a time when data has become a new resource, the key question is how to integrate into the global network while maintaining technological independence.
For the past three years, HSE University (Moscow) and the Center for African Studies, with the support of the Government of the Russian Federation, have been running a knowledge-sharing program with more than 20 African countries. One result has been the inclusion of the concept of digital sovereignty in the strategic documents of many countries. Here, sovereignty is understood not as isolation, but as the ability to manage external relations independently and replace foreign technologies with homegrown solutions.
Among the priorities are data storage, cybersecurity and energy. The latter is a particular concern for African participants. AI’s energy consumption is growing, raising the risk that Africa’s power systems could end up serving not domestic needs but the “export” of computing capacity, turning electricity into a new commodity alongside oil. To avoid such an outcome, countries need to develop their technology policies with particular care.
At the same time, session moderator Andrey Maslov (HSE University) stressed the need to move away from external labels. “Digital sovereignty is not isolation. It is the ability to walk away from foreign products at any time so that the architecture of the ecosystem serves the interests of the people,” he said.
Nkundwe Moses Mwasaga, Director General of the Information and Communication Technologies Commission of the United Republic of Tanzania, added: “No country controls the entire technology stack. Sovereignty is the ability to manage dependencies on your own terms.”
Roger Andjalangji, Minister of Digital Development of the Central African Republic, described the harsh realities facing his country. For years, it has depended on satellite communications, and it is now facing sabotage of fiber-optic cable construction. “Our data passes through foreign servers only to come back to us. Building our own data centers is a matter of national identity,” the minister said.
Augustin Kibassa Maliba, Minister of Digital Economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said producers of the rare-earth metals needed for AI should be able to expect a share of the resulting technological development. Mahefa Andriamampiadanа, Minister of Digital Development, Digital Transformation, Posts and Telecommunications of the Republic of Madagascar, called for a shift from consuming foreign digital technologies to building domestic capabilities.
Barnabas Nawangwe, Rector of Makerere University (Uganda), pointed to the problem of “digital colonialism,” in which global platforms appropriate local data. Protecting intellectual property, he argued, is becoming a matter of national security.
A delegate from Nigeria warned that countries should not become so focused on infrastructure that they forget about educating their people. “If we educate our people, the question of sovereignty will resolve itself. Literacy knows no borders,” he said.
Andrey Maslov supported this conclusion, emphasizing that Russia offers its partners not “black boxes,” but a fundamental education. Human capital, he argued, is becoming the highest form of sovereignty in the new reality.
