I’m not going to write much so you can spend your time on some of these great articles on African women in technology.  (You’ll often see “STEM” mentioned. It’s short for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.)

At least read Kenyan Women Create Their Own ‘Geek Culture’ if you can’t read all of them.  Here’a a quote:

A group like Akirachix would have been unthinkable even five years ago. But Kenya is making a big push toward IT — part of a plan to create a middle-class country by the year 2030.

Kenya has laid hundreds of miles of fiber optic cable. Google and IBM set up shop here. The city even has plans for a $7 billion technology hub just outside the capital, Nairobi.

But you need more than tech giants and broadband and even money to launch a local tech industry. You also need a culture of computer geeks. That’s where Owigar and her collective Akirachix come in. They want to make sure that the girl geeks are encouraged as much as the guys.

More articles on Tech Women in Africa

•  Mentorship: Key in Increasing Participation of Women in STEM
• Where Are the Women in African Tech?

I’m encouraged and impressed by what some of these young IT women are doing.  Judith Owigar is interested in helping people with mobile apps. I love what Judith said in a blog interview:

“I believe that access to technology improves the lives of people. For this reason I would like to develop technological solutions that improve the lives of people. Technology is a great enabler in Africa, we just need to find ways to exploit it… We are the change we want to see.”

The video is about Susan Oguya’s company and app, M-Farm (reference source).

More Resources:

• Akirachix ~ A revolution for African Women and Technology. Networking | Training | Mentorship | Outreach. Implementing @mobilegarageke in Kenya
• Akirachix blog and Twitter feed
• WMIAfrica.org ~ Women who mentor and innovate in STEM in Africa
• WMIAfrica blog and Twitter feed
• iHub ~ Open space for technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in Nairobi.
• TechWomen ~Emerging Leaders in STEM fields from the Middle East and Africa are paired with their counterparts at innovative companies in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area.