PhD Candidate Joseph Antwi-Boasiako publishes on Smart City Surveillance in Rwanda

Joseph is a PhD Candidate working on successes of Smart Cities in Africa with a focus on Rwanda and Ghana. He recently published a chapter on Rwanda in an edited report on “Smart City Surveillance in Africa: Mapping Chinese AI Surveillance Across 11 Countries”. This report is part of a team’s work that produces the most comprehensive mapping of the rapid expansion of public space surveillance across 11 countries in the African continent.

Joseph’s chapter focuses on the surveillance of public spaces in Rwanda and examines the why and how smart city technologies are used to surveil public spaces in Rwanda? He argues that Rwanda’s rapid deployment of comprehensive surveillance infrastructure across public spaces represents a critical case study for understanding the intersection of digital transformation, governance, and civil liberties, especially as Rwanda has become Africa’s poster child for digital transformation. While Rwanda has been referred to as “Singapore of Africa” due to its smart city vision, Joseph argues that Rwanda’s model of technology-enabled governance is in fact spreading across Africa, could become the blueprint for smart cities across Africa tomorrow. For more, see chapter here.

The full report of the 11 countries is available here.