Aphrodice Mutangana: « Africa must also code its future »

When we talk about African narratives, we often think of media, cinema, and culture. Yet a deeper shift is underway: storytelling is moving into the digital infrastructure layer.

Artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and data systems now shape how African realities are perceived, interpreted, and valued globally. However, these systems are largely trained on datasets that do not fully reflect African contexts, languages, and social realities.

Controls data also controls perception

Even more critically, the technological infrastructures that structure these narratives are still mostly designed outside the continent. The tools that define tomorrow are largely built elsewhere.

This creates an invisible but powerful dependency: narrative dependency. Because whoever controls data also controls perception.

Building African technological sovereignty

At Belvance, we are committed to building African technological sovereignty. This starts with training talent through coding schools, but also extends to often overlooked environments, including refugee camps.

We also support African entrepreneurs developing local solutions to global challenges. Because Africa must not only consume technology — it must produce, shape, and define it.

Africa does not need its future to be written elsewhere. It must be able to code it itself

In the 21st century, narrative sovereignty is no longer confined to newsrooms or television studios. It is built in lines of code, in data governance, and in a continent’s ability to create its own digital tools.

The challenge is therefore both technological and political: who tells Africa’s story, with which tools, and under which logic?

Africa does not need its future to be written elsewhere. It must be able to code it itself.

Africa’s future narrative will not only be told. It will be built, coded, and owned from within the continent.

*Aphrodice Mutangana is a social entrepreneur and a recognized figure in Africa’s technology ecosystem. He previously led kLab for several years, one of Rwanda’s earliest innovation hubs, helping to shape a new generation of developers and entrepreneurs. Over five years at Digital Africa, he worked on structuring strategic partnerships and mobilizing resources to support the continent’s tech ecosystem.
Long committed to training young people and vulnerable communities, he has deployed coding school programs even within refugee camps.
He continues this commitment through the Belvance Foundation, which is building the next generation of African tech talent and entrepreneurs around three pillars: excellence in technology education (AI, ML, robotics, hardware), borderless learning, and entrepreneurial support of up to USD 300,000 — all in service of the continent’s digital sovereignty.