The Lost Palaces Expedition - Connect AfricaConnect Africa

Many of Zambia’s remote rural areas are not connected and don’t have access to modern technology © Georgina Smith / Magic of Zambia

21st century technology meets rural village life

If you can’t see yourself getting through a whole week without checking your emails, firing off a quick text or googling something, close your eyes and take a deep breath. Try, for a minute, to image a life without any coverage at all – ever. No phone calls, no emails, no texts, no google searching, no facebook status updates.

It’s probably difficult to image the far reaching consequences that this virtual blackout could have on your life. That’s because beyond organising an after-work drink with your mates or sending off that vital proposal to your boss, we often forget the fundamental advantages of being connected.

Being connected means having access to an abundance of information for free. It means the potential to get educated, to speak your mind, to communicate with long lost friends and make new ones, to build your professional network, to transform your potential and open the door to more possibilities than ever before.

When cultures collide

Connect Africa is embarking on an exciting new project. In Zambia, where rural infrastructure is under-developed and electricity, not to mention internet and mobile phone coverage, is restricted to more urban areas, CA will be following an exclusive story.

From today, a team of “Connected” women will embark on a journey to start the process of documenting and locating all the Palaces of rural Chiefs whose people do not yet enjoy the benefits of access to technology.

The Palace locations will be marked using GPS technology with a view to connect them to the information highway and our team of women will be actively writing, blogging and tweeting our experiences to highlight the benefits – and drawbacks – of access to today’s technology.

Connect Africa on the road

We will bundu bash in convoy through rough terrain and traverse city nightlife tar to reach ambling and sleepy remote villages. Inching past herds of cattle while roadside vendors go about their everyday business, or admiring the glances and giggling excitement of the hordes of children that crowd around the arrival of anything new, this promises to be an inspirational story of what happens when 21st century communication technology meets rural culture.

Over the next few weeks, visiting Chiefs in Central Province and documenting the stories of their local communities, the expedition will explore the hopes, dreams and aspirations of communities as they are introduced to new technology as part of their daily life.