Africa on the Internet: Starting Points for Policy Information

Map of Africa

email icon Email this citation

CIAO DATE: 9/00

Africa on the Internet: Starting Points for Policy Information

Background Paper
June 6, 1997

Africa Policy Information Center

Electronic networks—and particularly the new tools of e-mail and the World Wide Web (see below for an overview of basic concepts and a glossary with short definitions)—have great potential for enhancing global democratic access to policy- making processes. But de facto access to effective use of these technologies is biased in all the predictable directions: by race, gender, economic status, and location. Africa, to date the least connected continent, is particularly disadvantaged. By cutting the costs of long-distance communication, however, the information revolution is also opening up new possibilities. How well Africa and Africa's friends take advantage of these opportunities will depend at least as much on our collective capacity to learn as on the material resources available to us.

The pace of change in information technology is breathtaking. "Surfing the Internet" is in fact not very hard, once one has the right connection. Making practical use of the technology, without getting lost in trendy bypaths or costly repeated upgrades, is admittedly more difficult. But communicating via words and pictures over computer networks is probably as fundamental an innovation as the printing press. Learning how to use the new medium is inescapable for anyone needing to get or send information at a distance.

The fundamental difference between words and images on networks and on paper is that—after the initial investment in a computer and the connection—the cost is dramatically less than moving paper around the world, or making a direct telephone connection through a fax. The cost trends are consistently downwards—an average drop of as much as 50% every 18 months. As individuals, we may decide how much we need or want to keep up. For organizations and countries, however, failure to make the Internet connection will be a certain recipe for increasing marginalization as the new century approaches.

This background paper is designed as a quick-start guide for anyone interested in Africa who is seeking policy-related information via electronic networks. It is not intended to substitute for general guides to the Internet. It doesn't provide comprehensive listings of Internet Africa resources, or even of the "best" sites. It doesn't tell you how to get on-line (that depends very much on where you are). What it does do—like one of those "How do I find ?" leaflets available at the entrance of any good library—is try to answer the common question "Where do I start when there is so much (too much) information available?"

Many details of such a resource guide will inevitably become outdated. The printed, typeset version was published in July 1996; this on-line version is the most recent, and will be updated as soon as possible whenever corrections are received. We would appreciate notifications of outdated links or other corrections, which should be sent to apicdata@igc.apc.org.

Section 1: What is the "Internet"?

Increasingly, the "Internet" is best understood as a generic term, like the postal system or the telephone system. If you have a postal address anywhere in the world (and your local postal service is working), you can receive mail. If you have a telephone number, the same for telephone calls. If you have a computer, a telephone, a device for connecting them (generally a modem), the appropriate software, and a service provider, you can get "on the Internet."

This means that you can make connections to all the computers also connected, wherever they are in the world. A connection may go through many intermediaries, just as a letter or a phone call. Just as with the post office or telephone, its quality and speed depends largely on your local service. However you connect, the fundamental idea is the same: computers in different places exchanging messages with each other. A computer with an Internet connection can be used to send a note to a friend. It can also serve as the equivalent of a instant printing press or an open-access library.

The "core" Internet is made up of computers (service providers, or host computers) that are "on-line" 24 hours a day (except for maintenance "down-time"), ready to receive or send out messages at any time. Service providers may range from large commercial services (America Online) to universities or government agencies to small commercial companies or non-profit agencies.

The "consumer" Internet consists of those computers that can "dial-up" over telephone lines and make a live interactive (conversational) connection with computers in the core group. To do this, you must have appropriate interactive software (Netscape Navigator is one example) plus an account with a service provider ready 24 hours a day to serve as your link to the rest of the world.

Finally, there are users connected by e-mail only, who can dial-up to leave messages and get the replies later, but do not have interactive access to a service provider with a full connection. (Some people call this larger group the "Matrix" rather than "Internet." Most commonly, however, those with "e-mail only" connections are included in the "Internet," but distinguished from those with "full" connections.)

Whichever definition is used, the Internet is growing by exponential leaps. By one estimate, the total number of Internet host computers, less than 200,000 at the beginning of 1990, grew to over a million by the end of 1992, and topped twelve million by July 1996 ( www.nw.com/zone/host-count-history). Users with interactive or e-mail only access were together estimated at 27.5 million in October 1994, and at 40 million only a year later ( www.mids.org/ids3/pr9510.html).

Section 2: Internet Communication Tools

Since the Internet is a general medium for transferring words and images between people, the ways it is used will be just as varied as the multiple ways different individuals use words and images printed on paper. How you can and should use the Internet depends on (1) what kind of access you have, and (2) what your needs and preferences are.

The tools that are the most relevant for the ordinary user are e-mail, bulletin boards (or conferences), and the World Wide Web. Even if you have full access, it is your communications and information needs that determine which tools are most useful to you. Getting information by e-mail, as by a subscription to a mailing list, is like subscribing to a magazine or a newspaper. You will do it when the information is important enough to you to want to receive it regularly. Using the Web is like going to libraries, bookstores, or a mall filled with hundreds of libraries and bookstores. Your time spent doing it will depend on what information you want, how quickly you can find it, and how much you like browsing.

Graphic by Free Hand Press (freehandle@aol.com)

The minimal level connection, available to any dial-up user to any computer with an Internet link, is sending and receiving e-mail. The mechanics of this differs dependent on the host system, the software you are using on your own computer, and the type of communications connection. But the principle is the same, and has many parallels to post office operations. You send a message (with your return address and the address of the recipient), and it is passed from one computer system to another until it arrives at its destination (or returns saying address unknown). The message goes most quickly along the Internet backbone of high-speed communication lines, and slows down or waits when it is dependent on intermittent phone lines or on the recipient dialing in to check for mail.

Remember: To send and receive e-mail, you need an e-mail address. The standard format is: anyname@anycomputer.locationofcomputer.typeofserviceprovider.country

Graphic by Free Hand Press (freehandle@aol.com)

Mailing lists, or electronic distribution lists, are just like subscriber or membership lists kept for sending mail through the post office: lists of addresses all of which get the same messages. There are different automatic methods for maintaining such lists, known generically as listservs, from the name of the earliest software to do this. Other popular software packages which do the same thing include listproc and majordomo. The right to post to a list can be limited to a list-owner, opened up to anyone who wants to send a message to the list, or restricted to messages approved by a moderator.

Graphic by Free Hand Press (freehandle@aol.com)

Bulletin boards or conferences may be available on the system one is signed up with, or, in some cases, reachable through the Internet for public free access. Electronic conferences are collections of messages left for anyone with access to read. They may deal with any subject and, like mailing lists, have more or less restrictive limitations on who can read or write messages. The terminology varies from system to system: forums on CompuServe, conferences on Peacenet, meetings on Ecunet, news groups on Usenet, and so on.

Graphic by Free Hand Press (freehandle@aol.com)

The most popular and rapidly growing Internet tool is the World Wide Web. If you have an interactive connection and a Web browser (such as Netscape Navigator), and know the location of a document on the Internet, you can go to that document, read it and/or copy it to your own computer. The document is on a computer on the "core" Internet, in a section of the computer that the owner has decided to make open to the visiting public. The ease of going from one file on one computer to another file on another computer around the world has led to the term surfing used for following such leads as one wishes—similar to browsing at a newsstand, in a bookstore or in the stacks of a library (but more quickly). The Web can also be used to access a gopher, which gives access to files by choosing from consecutive menus. The address of a gopher file begins with "gopher://" instead of "http://".

Remember: To locate a file on the Internet, you need its URL (uniform resource locator or universal resource locator). The standard format is: http://anycomputer.locationofcomputer.typeofserviceprovider.country/di rectory /filename

Section 3: The Web by E-mail

For persons with e-mail access only, it is possible to obtain documents on the Web using one of a number of mail servers set up for this purpose. You send a command by e-mail, such as "get" or "send" followed by the URL of the Web page you want. The server then retrieves the file from its location, and sends it to you by return e-mail. This should in turn give you URLs of other linked pages, which you can request next. The process is slow compared to Web "browsing," and response times may vary significantly depending on your location and network traffic. Nevertheless these services, which in effect do your browsing for you, are now being used regularly.

The major sites providing this service are currently w3mail@gmd.de, agora@dna.affrc.go.jp, agora@kamakura.mss.co.jp, webmail@www.ucc.ie, and agora@info.lanic.utexas.edu. A "help" message to any of the servers will bring you a file explaining the particular commands it uses. In addition to the basic "get" or "send" command, most servers have additional commands to select whether to receive the files as html (which can be displayed by a Web browser, even if you are not on-line) or as plain text, or even to get images as well.

If you do have Web access, please be moderate in your use of these servers, which are provided as a public service by volunteers. Excessive traffic has caused the abandonment of at least one such effort in the past. These servers are experimental, and you may have to try several before you find one which is currently working satisfactorily.

Example:

To get the file http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/elecnet.html, as a text file, including URLs of linked sites, write an e-mail message to agora@dna.affrc.go.jp with the following text in the body of the message:

send http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/elecnet.html

To get the file from w3mail@gmd.de, the message should instead be:

get -t -u -a http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/elecnet.html

For more information:

To get an up-to-date list of available e-mail Web servers, send any message to agora-l@mas-info.com.ar.

To get an extensive guide to "Accessing the Internet by E-Mail," send the following message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
(for U.S., Canada, and South America):

send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email

Elsewhere in the world send the following message to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk:

send lis-iis e-access-inet.txt

Section 4: Internet Glossary

Browser: a software program that displays files from the Web on your local computer; popular browsers include Netscape Navigator, Mosaic, Microsoft Explorer, and Lynx (for text-only display).
Client computer: an individual computer you are working on, when connected to a "host" or "server" computer.
Conference: a group of related messages on a host computer, arranged by date and/or subject; on different systems referred to by other terms such as forums, meetings, bulletin boards, or news groups.
E-mail: electronic mail; exchange of messages between computers.
Gopher: a menu-based system for accessing files over the Internet; now often reached through the Web.
Host computer: a computer which provides or "serves" files to "client" computers that are linked to it.
html: hypertext markup language; a set of standard codes used in preparing pages for display on the Web.
http: hypertext transport protocol; the set of rules regulating transfer of files over the Web.
Internet (restricted definition): all the computers in the world that can communicate with each other using a standard set of rules called TCP/IP.
Internet (broader definition): all the computers in the world that can communicate with each other by e-mail; same as the Matrix.
Listserv: one of a number of automatic software programs for maintaining a mailing list; others include majordomo and listproc.
Mailing list: a set of e-mail addresses all of which receive the same message.
Matrix: all the computers in the world that can communicate with each other by e-mail.
Modem: a device for transferring electronic signals between computers and telephone lines.
Service provider: a company or organization which makes its host computer(s) available to clients for Internet access; examples include PeaceNet, CompuServe, and AOL.
TCP/IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; the set of rules by which computers on the Internet communicate.
URL: uniform (or universal) resource locator; the address of a file on the Internet.
World Wide Web (WWW or Web): documents on computers around the world that are linked to each other using a set of standard procedures called http, or the hypertext transfer protocol.

Section 5: Africa and the Internet

The continuing growth of the Global Information Society, as it is being termed, will have profound implications for African countries. Some fear that it will only accelerate the marginalization of Africa, as the pace of growth accelerates even more and the gap between those who are linked up and those who are not grows larger. Africa's disadvantage is a function of its underdevelopment in general, and of the low density of telephone connections in particular—as South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki remarked in 1995, there are more telephones in Manhattan than in all Sub-Saharan Africa.

These dangers should not be underestimated, but lamenting them will not stop the rushing train of information technology. And rapidly dropping costs offer the potential for leapfrogging some development obstacles, and for Africa's civil society, governments, and entrepreneurs to take advantage of new technologies. If the minimum infrastructure is put in place, that presents those on the global "periphery" and even in remote rural areas with new opportunities for participation.

Providing this infrastructure for international communication in African countries is currently the subject of wide debate and major initiatives by a host of institutions. The broader issue of universal access within countries is also on the agenda, highlighted particularly by South Africa's stress on this issue at the global Information Society and Development Conference it hosted in May 1996.

Keeping Up with Africa's Connections

Overview

www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/elecnet.html: Links to a wide range of sites with data and debate on African e-mail access and related issues
www.aaas.org/international/africa-guide/index.html: Second edition of User's Guide to Electronic Networks in Africa, by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Analytical Articles

www.oneworld.org/panos/briefing/internet.htm: Panos, "The Internet and the South"
http://thing.at/texte/hegener1.html: Michiel Hegener, "Telecommunications in Africa"
www.knight-moore.com/html/telematics_in_africa.html (no longer available): Peter Knight, "The Telematics Revolution in Africa and the World Bank Group"

Information Society and Development Conference

www.csir.co.za/isad/ (no longer available 10/99): Conference site in South Africa
www.usia.gov/topics/gii/gii.html (no longer available): U.S. government position and related information

Connectivity by Country

www.nsrc.org/codes/bymap/africa.html: clickable Africa map
www.nsrc.org/AFRICA/africa.html: text data for each country, in separate directories based on two-letter country codes
(The codes can be obtained by sending the message
send usenet/news.answers/mail/country-codesto mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu).

In many countries, state monopolies in telecommunications with vested interests in obsolete technologies and a high cost structure are clearly one of the obstacles to more rapid development. The precise role of the private sector, the state, and the voluntary non- governmental sector in expanding access are still the subject of debate. What is certain is that change is coming quickly, and that its pace will depend on how quickly the cost to the user can be reduced.

E-mail access, although often too expensive, too slow, and hampered by phone lines inadequate in both number and quality, is spreading rapidly in Africa. There are only a few countries now where there is no known connectivity. Web access is more limited, but is also spreading rapidly. Within the continent, South Africa is comparable to most European countries in the level of connectivity. In general, Southern Africa is the most advanced region, but countries all over the continent are getting connected. Even the Central African Republic's telecommunications company went on-line with a full Web connection in April 1996.

At present the cost of connection is still relatively high, and availability limited. But e-mail communication is already far cheaper than fax and phone. Currently, with the exception of South Africa, the majority of information and messages about African countries and issues on the Internet still comes from host computers in Western countries. Policy and advocacy information concerning Africa available on-line at present comes primarily from international governmental and non-governmental organizations, a few national governments (particularly the U.S. and South Africa), and academic centers in Western countries.

Africans overseas, however, particularly at universities, are already significant as information providers, making use of constantly expanding e-mail connections to home countries. Press sources in Africa, including African newspapers, news stories from the Pan African News Agency and InterPress Service, and others, are available on-line around the world, transmitted by e-mail and gatewayed to higher-volume sites in Western countries. As communications costs continue to drop, the share of information coming from African non- governmental organizations and businesses as well as governments is certain to increase rapidly.

Guides to information sources in a constantly changing medium can never be comprehensive or totally up-to-date. What is most important for the reader is to find starting points most appropriate for his or her information needs, and to learn search strategies for finding new relevant material in the most efficient way.

The best way to start and to search for new information, if you have access, is by using the Web. Its ease of use is largely responsible for its explosive growth, and one of the most rapidly developing areas of software development is in tools for making it even easier to turn up new information ("search engines"). Once you find a source that is consistently valuable to you, however, you will often find it more convenient if it is available as a distribution list or a conference which you can arrange to receive or visit without having to remember to drop by the Web site regularly to see if it has any new information.

Increasingly, information on the Internet provided in one form is often available in another form as well, just as you can get most printed magazines at a newsstand, at a library, or by subscription. Tools for accessing the Web by e-mail are also available (see below), although the process is less directly interactive and requires more patience and planning.

The selective listings in the following sections concentrate on starting points for information relevant to policy issues concerning peace, sustainable development, democratization and human rights in African countries, and how those issues are affected by major actors in the international community as well as on the African continent.

Section 6: Africa Policy Information on the Web

You may find the information you need in likely or unlikely places on the Web. Or it may not be there at all, but even in that case you might find a useful clue (phone number or e- mail address) to someone who might be able to put you on the right track. There is, unfortunately, no one right search strategy. Among the best starting points: (1) going to a site with a lot of Africa information and/or links to other relevant sites; (2) going to a site of a governmental, non-governmental, or media organization you know or guess to be involved on the specific issue or country; or (3) using one of the Web search engines.

General Africa Sites

Africa News Online (www.africanews.org/) is the gateway site with the greatest volume of up-to-date current news covering the entire continent. It serves as an outlet for dispatches from the Pan African News Agency (PANA) in Dakar, which provides news from around the continent, and for features from the All African Press Service (AAPS) in Nairobi, affiliated with the All Africa Conference of Churches. Provided by Africa News Service, a non-profit agency which for two decades has been a leading information source on Africa in the United States, the site also includes selected stories from African press sources such as South Africa's Mail and Guardian and Nigeria's Newswatch, as well as original stories and a wide variety of reports on current issues.

The University of Pennsylvania African Studies Site (www.sas.upenn.edu/Afri can _Studies/AS.html) is the most comprehensive academic site for Africa information, fully searchable, and with a wide range of accumulated material and many links to other sites. It is a measure of how rapidly new information sources are becoming available, however, that even this site's popular "Country-Specific Pages" ( www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Home_Page/Country.html) often list only a fraction of the sources that turn up using an Internet-wide search engine (see below).

(3) Stanford University's Africa South of the Sahara: Selected Internet Resources
( www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/guide.html) is maintained by librarian Karen Fung for the Electronic Technology Group of the African Studies Association. Each entry is annotated, and a wide range of categories of information are included. Under "Regional," the guide contains sections on African regions and many individual African countries, which cite both resources available on the Web and those available by e-mail.

(4) The Middle East Network Information Center at the University of Texas (http://menic.utexas.edu/menic/) covers North African countries not included in the Stanford guide, as well as much other relevant topical material. The site is very well organized and systematic in its presentation of material.

South African Resources

In January 1996, South Africa had over 48,000 host computers connected to the Internet, ranking 18th world-wide. The range and quality of information resources on the Web in South Africa is fully comparable to, and quite possibly better than, that in most industrial countries. Almost any entry point among these well-connected computer sites, which concentrate on South Africa-specific information, will lead to the others. Among the best starting points for comprehensive policy information is the site of the African National Congress (www.anc.org.za/).

The ANC, the ANC-led government, and related organizations have all given high priority to putting policy documents on line for public reference and public debate. Institutions such as the Truth Commission, to give only one example, quickly set up a Web site (www.truth.org.za/) and a mailing list (trc.comments@pop.onwe.co.za). The most comprehensive media site is the Mail and Guardian (www.mg.co.za/mg/), while the leading non-governmental computer network is Worknet/Sangonet ( http://wn.apc.org/), which includes its own links on "open government" issues. South Africa also has Ananzi, its own search engine (www.ananzi.co.za/).

Organizational Sites

Often, however, the most relevant information on policy issues will be found not on geographically-specific sites, but at the site of an organization—governmental, non- governmental, or media—dealing with the particular issue. If there is an international organization you know to be involved with an issue, chances are it already has a Web site or will soon. Look it up using a search engine (below), or start with the selected sites listed here. Major media outlets such as CNN ( www.cnn.com/), Le Monde Diplomatique (www.ina.fr/CP/MondeDiplo/) and many others, have sites. The United Nations, the World Bank, and many other multilateral agencies have sites, as do most U.S. government agencies. With the exception of South Africa (see above), there are still only a few Africa-based Web sites, but this is likely to change rapidly over the next few years.

Although portions of some sites have keyword searches available, locating Africa information on these large sites generally requires following the menus to a specific department or organization you think likely to be involved with Africa issues.

(1) Web sites of the United Nations and other UN-linked multilateral organizations, including the World Bank, are listed at www.unicc.org/. Security Council resolutions and reports, archived at the UNDP site (www.undp.org/), are currently available by keyword search at www.un.org/News/Press/.

(2) Among U.S. government agencies, USAID (www.info.usaid.gov/) has the greatest volume of Africa-related information. Congressional information is searchable through http://thomas.loc.gov/. The Department of State (www.state.gov/) has relatively limited Africa-specific information available, although the annual human rights reports and current press briefings are accessible. Both USIA ( gopher://gopher.usia.gov/11s/current/news/geog/af/) and VOA (gopher://gopher.voa.gov/) make recent news reports available.

(3) A wide range of national and international non-governmental organizations, dealing with human rights, relief, development, relief, environment, conflict-resolution, and other issues can be found at or through the sites of the Institute for Global Communications (www.igc.apc.org/) in the U.S. and One World Online in the U.K. (www.oneworld.org/).

Search Engines

Web search engines, almost all free, offer the opportunity to enter one or more "keywords" to get a list of Web sites (or, in some cases, Usenet Newsgroups) containing those words. Each is based on a database built up in large part by automated searching of Web resources by programs called "spiders." Some are faster or more complete than others; some provide reviews or annotations, others only a listing. Most give the possibility of more complicated searches as well. None is complete, and the most comprehensive turn up much irrelevant material. Still the odds are high that almost any of them will turn up something of relevance that has not yet been included in the more organized resource guides which rely on human editors to collect and evaluate material.

Any printed list of search engines would be out-of-date almost as soon as it was written; Netscape's browser lists the most prominent in their "Netsearch" option. Infoseek (www.infoseek.com/) is generally one of the fastest and best at turning up relevant information. Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), one of the earliest, has well-organized subject, region and country sections as well as keyword searching. and Altavista (www.altavista.digital.com/) is at this writing the most comprehensive.

Section 7: Africa Policy Information in Conferences and Newsgroups

Conferences, bulletin boards, or newsgroups, as indicated by the different terms used to refer to them, are less standardized than the Web. What is available to you depends primarily on your service provider, which maintains separate areas accessible by software called a "newsreader" or by an interface specific to the particular system. These are essentially places where messages are grouped together on a "bulletin board" you can browse rather than put in a private mailbox. In comparison to Web sites they are less structured. The quality of the information you find depends entirely on what set of people have access to and decide to post messages on the particular conference. On almost all systems, however, you can check the titles of messages before deciding if you want to read them.

Some conferences are "read-only," used by an organization to provide bulletins to its membership, for example, or as channels for information carefully selected by someone. Others may be wide-open free-for-all discussions; others may be discussions filtered by a "moderator."

The largest set of such conferences are the Usenet "newsgroups," which are echoed around the world from computer to computer, with no central location, but with standard names, such as comp.infosystems.www.anounce or soc.culture.zimbabwe. On many technical subjects, particularly computer software issues, the Usenet newsgroups are one of the most important means of keeping up with current developments. Unfortunately many newsgroups, including most Africa-related ones, have a very low proportion of useful information, and are filled with random chatter and even significant doses of racist invective. Such groups as soc.culture.african may be worth watching for the occasional message with useful information, but only if your system makes it convenient for you to scan the message titles quickly and ignore the garbage.

Your access to these newsgroups is determined by whether your service provider carries them or not, although there are ways to gain access on another provider through the Web or even through e-mail. Although some Web search engines can also search Usenet, the best results are currently available from Usenet searcher Dejanews (www.dejanews.com/). If you are searching for a very specific subject, and choose appropriate keywords to search, this can be a very useful tool.

Conferences within a particular network, such as the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) or other Association for Progressive Communications networks around the world (for more information write igc-info@igc.apc.org or apc-info@igc.apc.org), are more likely to provide useful policy information. The africa.news conference on the APC networks, for example, provides the regular InterPress Service news stories from Africa, primarily feature stories focusing on policy or grassroots development issues. (InterPress Africa stories arealso available on the Web by paid subscription at the IPS site— http://www.ips.org.)

If you find a mailing list that is particularly useful to you (see next section), but is too voluminous to receive regularly in your mailbox, many systems have the capacity to subscribe to the list and turn it into a conference that you can instead consult periodically through your newsreader.

Section 8: Africa Policy Information in your Mailbox

When you join a mailing list, you receive all the messages sent out to everyone on the list. As with newsgroups or conferences, what you get depends entirely on who has permission to "post" material to the list and what they select to post. Some lists are "read-only," the equivalent of magazines put out by one publisher. Others receive and automatically redistribute to the entire list messages submitted by any subscriber, or even echo all the discussions on one of the Usenet newsgroups. Low-volume lists may send out only one posting, perhaps the on-line version of a newsletter or magazine, once a month; others may send out hundreds of messages a day. Discussion lists are essentially like on-going conversations; their use to you will fundamentally depend on what conversations you want to listen in on or participate in.

The automated lists, generally identified by an address such as listproc, listserv, or majordomo, require very precise commands for subscribing, unsubscribing and, in some cases, for access to an archive of past messages. A listserver on a host computer sometimes maintains many different mailing lists. Messages to a discussion list for redistribution go to the address of the specific list itself; housekeeping messages go to the listserver address. Automated lists simplify some work for the list-maintainer, but they also result in error messages when subscribers use the wrong commands or the wrong address. They can also produce rapid automated repeats of mistakes if they are configured wrongly. For this reason, even some fairly large lists are maintained manually, simply as files of addresses kept up to date on a word processor.

There are e-mail mailing lists, either for discussion or for distribution of news and publications, for almost every African country or region. Many are mentioned under the appropriate topics at the Pennsylvania or Stanford sites (see Section 6). An extensive listing of Africa-related mailing lists is also available on the Web at http://mluwis17.wiwi.uni-halle.de/~wsebw/africa-region.html. List search engines are much less developed than Web search engines, but Liszt (www.liszt.com/) is searchable by keyword and is fairly comprehensive, at least for those mailing lists maintained by listserv, listproc, or majordomo. To hear about many of the manually maintained mailing lists, however, word of mouth (or e-mail) among people interested in the subject is often the only resource.

Of the policy or advocacy focused lists with a broad geographic scope, the Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List sends out a selection of policy-relevant documents (approximately 8 to 10 in a month) from APIC, the Washington Office on Africa and other sources (information requests to africapolicy-info@igc.apc.org; subscription requests to apic@igc.apc.org). Peacenet World News provides, for modest subscription fees, feature and news articles from InterPress Service's Africa correspondents, either on a continent-wide or regional bases (information requests to pwn-africa@igc.apc.org). The Africa Faith and Justice Network sends out their newsletter and occasional other action alerts (information by sending the command info afjn-infoact to majordomo@igc.apc.org). Also available is a monthly newsletter Africanews produced by the Koinonia Media Centre in Nairobi (information requests to afrinews@freeworld.it), which is also available on the Web at www.peacelink.it/afrinews.html.