On March 14, most of West and Central Africa, as well as some countries in the southern part of the continent, were unable to provide Internet services due to the failure of four fiber optic cables laid under the world’s oceans. Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Ghana, Burkina Faso and South Africa are the most affected countries. As of noon on March 15, the problem had not yet been resolved. Microsoft is warning its customers that cable repairs are delayed. South Africa’s News24 reported that while the cause of the damage has not yet been confirmed, it is believed “the cable broke in shallow waters off Côte d’Ivoire where fishing boats may be operating”.
Jess Auerbach Jahajeeah, associate professor at the University of Cape Town Business School, is currently writing a book on fiber optic cables and digital connectivity. She spent time aboard the ship in late 2023, with a crew responsible for maintaining much of Africa’s undersea network. She spoke to Africa Conversation about the importance of these cables.
1. What is the current geographical extent of undersea networks in Africa?
Fiber optic cables literally surround Africa now, although some parts of the continent have much better connectivity than others. This is because both public and private organizations have made significant investments over the past decade.
Based on this interactive map of fiber optic cables, it’s clear that South Africa is in a relatively good position. When a failure occurs, the network is affected for several hours before Internet traffic is rerouted; a technical process that depends both on whether alternative routes are available and on whether there is corporate agreement to enable the rerouting. This is the same as driving using a tool like Google Maps. If there’s an accident on the road, it’ll find another way to get you to your destination.
However, in several African countries, including Sierra Leone and Liberia, most cables do not have spurs (the equivalent of off-ramps on the road), so there is actually only one fiber optic cable entering the country. When cables break, Internet traffic in these countries essentially stops.
Of course, this has huge implications for every aspect of life, business and even politics. While some communications can be rerouted via satellite, satellite traffic accounts for only about 1% of global digital transmissions. Even with interventions such as satellite internet distribution service Starlink, it is still much slower and more expensive than connections provided by undersea cables.
Jesse Auerbach, Provided by the author (not reusable)
Basically all the internet for the average person relies on fiber optic cables. Even landlocked countries rely on the network because they have agreements with countries that own landing stations, which are highly secure buildings near the ocean where cables are brought out of the ground and plugged into above-ground systems. For example, the Internet in Southern Africa is primarily connected through Melkbostrand outside Cape Town and Mtonzini in northern KwaZulu-Natal, both in South Africa. It is then routed overland to various neighbors.
Each fiber optic cable is extremely expensive to build and maintain. Depending on the technical specifications (cables can have more or fewer fiber optic wires and offer different speeds for digital traffic), there are complex legal agreements about who is responsible for which aspects of maintenance.
2. What prompted you to write a book on the social history of fiber optic cables in Africa?
I first visited Angola in 2011 to start work on my PhD project. The internet barely existed at the time—sending an email took minutes. I went back in 2013 when the South Atlantic Cable System came into operation. It made an incredible difference: Angola’s digital ecosystem was suddenly up and running, and everyone was online.
Read more: In our Wi-Fi world, the internet still relies on undersea cables
At the time I was researching social mobility and how people in Angola could improve their lives after a long war. Not surprisingly, digital access has made possible all kinds of things that were previously unimaginable. Once my career was established, I renewed my interest, which I have now turned into a book, The Volatile Connection. The title refers to the fact that cables won’t do anything if they don’t have infrastructure that plugs into different points.
Landing hubs like Sangano, Angola are fascinating both for what they do technically (connecting and routing internet traffic across the country) and because they often highlight the complexities of the digital divide.
Sangano, for example, is an excellent high-tech facility run by Angola Cables, a highly capable and socially engaged company. However, the school a few hundred meters away from the landing station still does not have electricity.
When we think about Africa’s digital divide, this often remains the reality: you can bring the internet anywhere, but without the infrastructure, skills or framework to make it accessible, even for those who live next to it, It may also remain something abstract.
Historically, fiber optic cables follow a variety of fascinating global precedents. For example, in 2012 a cable connecting one side of the Atlantic Ocean to the other lay almost exactly on the route of the transatlantic slave trade. Most basic cable maps cover the routes of the copper telegraph network, which was vital to the British Empire in the 1800s.
Most of Africa’s cables are maintained at sea by the exceptional crew of the Leon Tevenant. In late 2023, I joined them during a maintenance operation off the coast of Ghana. These craftsmen and technicians have unique skills that allow them to recover and repair cables, sometimes kilometers deep under the sea.
Jesse Auerbach, Provided by the author (not reusable)
When I was with staff last year, they recounted a time when they accidentally retrieved a length of Victorian cable while trying to “catch” a newer fiber optic line. (There are many ways to recover a cable; one method is to use a grapple-like hook and drag it along the seabed into roughly the right spot until the cable is hooked.)
Some very interesting questions now arise about what is commonly referred to as digital colonialism. In an environment where data is often referred to as the “new oil,” we are seeing important changes in digital infrastructure.
Previously, cables were often jointly financed by public and private sector partners, but now large private companies such as Alphabet, Meta and Huawei are increasingly providing financing for cable infrastructure. This has serious implications for the control and monitoring of digital infrastructure.
Given that we are all so reliant on digital tools, poorer countries often have no choice but to accept the terms and conditions of wealthy corporate entities. This could be extremely dangerous for Africa’s digital sovereignty and we should see more public discussion.