By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
VICTORIA FALLS — For centuries, the Mosi-oa-Tunya has roared. Not merely as water, but as a voice. A voice that has called Africa together.
On Monday, that voice called again.
Honourable Tatenda Anastacia Mavetera, Zimbabwe’s Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, stood before the ITU Regional Development Forum for Africa 2026 at the Cresta Sprayview Hotel — just kilometres from the falls themselves — and reframed the entire gathering. This was not, she said, a meeting of isolated nations trading technical jargon and policy papers.
“This is a family gathering,” Minister Mavetera declared. “And as a family, we must speak honestly about what Africa needs, and then decide on it.”
The Minister’s address was punctuated by proverbs, a rhetorical choice that grounded high-level digital policy discussions in the oral traditions that have bound African communities together for millennia.
She opened with an old African saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
The message was unmistakable. No single African nation can build the continent’s digital future on its own. Cross-border fibre optic cables require neighbours to cooperate.
Harmonised spectrum allocations require regional agreement. Shared data protection standards require continental coordination.
“The smoke that thunders at Victoria Falls is the voice of an awakening continent,” Minister Mavetera said. “Let us listen, and then let us act — together.”
The Minister’s choice of Victoria Falls as the setting for this “family gathering” was not accidental.
The falls, known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, are shared by Zimbabwe and Zambia. They are a natural wonder that belongs to no single nation and to all nations at once.
They draw visitors from across Africa and around the world. They are, in a very real sense, a symbol of what Africa can achieve when it does not allow colonial-era borders to divide what nature has united.
Minister Mavetera leaned into the metaphor throughout her speech.
She invoked an Ethiopian proverb: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.”
“The lion we face is digital exclusion,” she said. “But if we unite our policies, our investment, and our infrastructure, we will tie that lion down.”
She closed with another proverb: “Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”
Between these proverbs, the Minister delivered concrete policy. She laid out five pillars for Africa’s digital transformation: universal access, affordability, digital skills, locally relevant content, and digital sovereignty.
She detailed Zimbabwe’s domestic investments, including connecting 8,000 schools by satellite, launching a $200 million communications satellite project, and establishing a National AI Strategy.
She outlined the five Regional Initiatives for Africa adopted during WTDC-25 in Baku. She announced that the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition has secured over USD 82 billion in global pledges.
But the proverbs were not decoration. They were the frame through which Minister Mavetera asked her fellow Africans to see the moment.
Because the digital divide is not merely a technical problem. It is a problem of collective action. It is a problem of political will.
It is a problem of whether Africa’s nations can see themselves as a family — with shared struggles, shared aspirations, and a shared destiny — rather than as competitors.
The Minister made clear that Zimbabwe sees itself as part of that family. She noted that POTRAZ, Zimbabwe’s regulator, has been nominated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat to lead Data Protection Capacity Building across Southern Africa. She noted that Zimbabwe’s Data Protection Officer Training Program, developed with the Harare Institute of Technology, has become a leading model in the SADC Region.
These are not acts of national self-interest. They are contributions to the family.
As the Minister declared the Forum officially open, she returned to the image that had opened her address: the falls themselves, roaring in the background, unseen but unmistakable.
“The smoke that thunders at Victoria Falls is the voice of an awakening continent,” she said. “Let us listen, and then let us act — together.”
Outside, the Mosi-oa-Tunya continued its ancient roar. Whether Africa’s leaders will answer as a family — or continue to go fast, alone — is the question that will determine whether the continent’s digital future arrives at all.
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