In just a few hours I'll be heading down to South Africa for the Digital Citizen Indaba and Highway Africa. If you're not familiar with these events, they comprise the biggest gathering of African journalists which happens every year in Grahamstown, South Africa (700 in 2007). Highway Africa is a partnership between Rhodes University (School of Journalism and Media Studies) and the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), with the support of several partners, development agencies and sponsors. This is how they described this year's theme:

The theme of this year’s HA conference will be 2010, Development & Democracy and it will offer journalists a reflection on 2010 in the new media environment. In 2010, South Africa hosts the FIFA World Football Cup. As we head for the world’s biggest spectacle, taking place in Africa for the very first time, it is imperative that African journalism and media prepare on how the 2010 Story will told. The Highway Africa Conference 2009 will be both a celebration and an interrogation of journalism and media and their role in sport, identity and the African agenda.

The Digital Citizen Indaba, which takes place shortly before Highway Africa, was established in 2006 after it was recognised that Highway Africa could do more to encourage new media take-up by non-journalists. As a side note, indaba means 'gathering' in Zulu.

Itinerary

I will arrive in Johannesburg on the 1st and will then go to Grahamstown on the 4th for the start of the Digital Citizen Indaba which takes place on the 5th and 6th. I will then attend Highway Africa on the 7th and 8th, leaving Grahamstown on the 9th back to Johannesburg to try to meet up with a bunch of people until leaving South Africa on the 14th.

If anyone would like to meet with me to discuss what we're doing with Maneno, citizen journalism, blogging in low bandwidth, multilingual issues, or any number of other things, please let me know. I'll tweet my mobile number in SA once I pick one up, but any messages sent through our contact page will be forwarded to me.

Presentation

On September 5th at 15:30, which is the first day of the Indaba, I will be part of a panel discussion on “Digital Media and the Right to Language”. This will be a great topic of debate as only now people are starting to realize the importance of language on the web. Naturally, I'll be focusing a good deal on what is needed to grow local African languages online. You can read the full program for the Digital Citizen Indaba here, or you can download the full brochure [in pdf] here. Their general working theme for this year's event is ‘digital civil society and journalism in Africa’, focusing on the complex interaction between the mainstream media and civil society.

I'm really looking forward to attending as many sessions as possible both in the Indaba as well as in the Highway Africa conference, as they all look like they'll spur great discussions both during and after the panels. You can download the full Highway Africa program [in pdf] here. It's going to be a dizzying, yet wonderfully immersing number of days interacting with African journalists.

Coverage

I'll try to liveblog the sessions I attend as much as possible at my personal blog on Maneno. I'll be of course tweeting from our Maneno account, as well as the Highway Africa account since I've been giving them a hand with their social media outreach. The hashtags for the events are #dci09 for the Indaba and #ha09 for Highway Africa. Stay tuned!