THE DARK HOURS OF THE LOCKDOWN AND THE DRASTIC THIRD WAVE MEANT SOUTH AFRICANS INCREASINGLY TURNED TO TECHNOLOGY FOR SUCCOUR, SUPPORT AND SHARED EXPERIENCES.



BY NAFISA AKABOR



LEVEL 5 OF LOCKDOWN in South Africa was a particularly traumatic time, not just from loss but also watching the world see the underbelly of racism so openly. Living alone and not being able to see anyone and hearing that someone you care about has passed or is fighting for their lives seemed so surreal. There is only so much crying you can do over the phone, on video calls or by yourself.”



Mich Atagana, author of Moments and Love Hangovers, two books penned in lockdown about love, loss, women, and faith, chats to FORBES AFRICA about what it was like seeking digital solace during the darkest periods of lockdown.



“I spent a lot of time writing, thinking my feelings out like a To-Do list. On Tuesday mornings, I would allocate an hour just to listen and sing loudly to Celine Dion, cry and feel everything that my body, my mind, and heart was going through. No one could hug me, no one could sit with me, so I had to be there for myself and find strength in my own company,” says Atagana.



Lockdown also helped her focus on meditation, something she always incorporated into her life, but this time through an app subscription. “Headspace is a great way to center yourself and distract your mind from anything that could bring in negative thoughts. It’s helped me manage my sad moments and ground me so I can clearly look at my day.”



Headspace was not her only solace. Atagana also turned to a therapist app called Talkspace because seeing a psychologist was not an option.



“Having someone on the other side of chat, call, or voice note was very helpful. It made things easier and calmed my anxieties a lot.”



Grieving for loved ones was also challenging. Jamela Garda explains what she went through after losing a friend of over 30 years to Covid-19. A message board was created for her friend on Kudoboard.com, with over 80 entries and images posted on it.



Garda, who battled to find closure, tells FORBES AFRICA: “I could not make a speech or say a few words at the funeral but this way I could express my inner feelings and write from my heart instead of being huddled up in the corner of a room crying for her without saying a word.”



“A digital board is an amazing platform to honor someone who has passed away. We often listen to stories told to us about our parents, grandparents, etc. and we hang onto every word; it’s almost like we get transported to that era. This way, Fatima’s grandchildren and their children can all read it and say ‘wow, that was my amazing grandma’,” says Garda.



“The pain is still there but now that I documented it, I can always go back to it and remember how it made me feel,” she adds.



Dr. Leila Abdool Gafoor, a psychologist based at the University of Johannesburg, says with the onset of lockdown, mental healthcare workers had to find new means of connecting with patients.



“Mediums such as Skype, telephone and WhatsApp counseling became more prominent. Digital counseling has allowed us as humans to connect and have a shared experience, which is often missing in this time as we remain isolated at home,” says Gafoor.



“Video calls have been the most useful as it not only provides an auditory means of support but adds in a visual factor which increases an emotional connection between two people.”



“Initially there was a heightened anxiety related to the reliance on technology as a means of communication and for many South Africans, a means of income,” she says.



“As much as digital solace has been an invaluable means of moving towards acceptance, face-to-face counseling still has its merits as a means of connection.”



Kareema Mitha, a trauma release practitioner at Wellness on Alon in Johannesburg, says the digital option is most appealing to people under the age of 45 in South Africa and often the preferred choice due to the ability to remove transit time and complete an appointment from the comfort of your own garden or bedroom.



“On the flip side, if the space of the home office lacks complete privacy and interruptions are prevalent, sessions are rendered less effective.”



Digital solace in the past year has been the only option of the social grieving process for survivors, says Mitha.



“As humanity, we always surprise ourselves in our most primal ability to survive, adapt, and eventually thrive in the direst circumstances.”



Discovery Health has shared data with FORBES AFRICA that shows a 20-fold increase in virtual consultations for psychologists last year than the previous year. And its ‘young doctor and student’ mental health 24-hour hotline operated by SADAG has taken over 50% of calls for anxiety, depression, and stress in April alone.



Atagana’s parting words of wisdom is that people are trying to be strong during this time because they feel that’s what it means to survive it. “But I think this is the best time to show vulnerability because, for the first time in the history of the human race, we are all going through it together.”

Afro-caribbean woman working from home during the Covid lockdown

DIGITAL SOLACE: Tech And Apps In The Time Of Covid In South Africa

An insatiable hunger for programming and digital technology has led to an explosion of Over-The-Top (OTT) channels. An African perspective.



By Paula Slier



Broadcasting in Africa has come a long way in the past 20 years. Before smartphones, wireless internet, small cameras and non-linear editing became mainstream, the industry relied on a somewhat messy fusion of then ground-breaking technology like satellite transmission and old-fashioned communication.



I remember working in television in Nairobi in 1998. The video editor and I were seated in front of the editing suite. At the far end of the corridor waited the cameraman; after him, the passageway turned sharply to the right and 12 meters further on stood the producer. Another sharp right turn, another corridor and in the distance was the satellite operator.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">According to Digital TV Research, at the end of last year, collective OTT revenues in Africa reached $392 million and are set to rise to $1.7 billion by 2026. The bulk of the market is, and will continue to be, Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) packages</blockquote>



“Now” shouted the video editor from some 40 meters away as he pressed play on the machine.



“Now” repeated the cameraman from his corner.



“Now” echoed the producer.



“Now” confirmed the satellite operator as he uplinked the video.



Fast-forward two decades and the industry has completely changed. The jobs of five people have amalgamated into one. Far from being the passive consumer of media, audiences are now producers and journalists in their own right.



“Gone are the days that the nuclear family would schedule time to watch something around the TV as a family unit,” says Christina Foley, Managing Director of United Kingdom-based Marvel Media Consultancy.&nbsp;



“Now you have an entire family watching different things in different rooms at the same time. We are digesting content in a very different way. We have a choice which gives us opportunity to watch when, how and what we want.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Christina-Foley.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50685" width="326" height="435" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Christina-Foley.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Christina-Foley-225x300.jpg 225w" sizes="(max-width: 326px) 100vw, 326px" /></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Now you have an entire family watching different things in different rooms at the same time. We are digesting content in a very different way. We have a choice which gives us an opportunity to watch when, how and what we want.” – Christina Foley, Managing Director of United Kingdom-based Marvel Media Consultancy</blockquote>



The result is an insatiable hunger for programming and digital technology. This has led to an explosion in the last few years of Over-The-Top (OTT) channels through which content is delivered via an internet connection rather than a traditional cable or broadcast provider.



According to Digital TV Research, at the end of last year, collective OTT revenues in Africa reached $392 million and are set to rise to&nbsp;$1.7 billion by 2026.&nbsp;The bulk of the market is, and will continue to be, Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) packages that allow users to consume as much content as they desire at a flat rate per month. Revenues from such services like Netflix and Disney+ will grow from a current $299 million to $1.5 billion in the next five years.



“Absolutely OTT is the future everywhere, not just Africa,” says Foley.



“News and entertainment will use OTT. A lot of the mobile companies like MTN and Cell C are putting together their own content packages so when they sign up new customers they can offer them this on top for a fee.”



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-50686" width="313" height="313" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann.jpg 800w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Dr-Amadeo-Rahmann-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 313px) 100vw, 313px" /></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We believe that the growth of digital streaming services in Africa means that the continent is primed for the democratization of content.” – Dr Amadeo Rahmann</blockquote>



But the&nbsp;switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting has been delayed in many African countries because of low internet penetration rates –&nbsp;the continent has a total internet penetration level of just under 40% compared with penetration in the rest of the world at 63.2% – limited WiFi and the high cost of data.



Martin Brasg, a broadcast consultant who’s worked with clients across the continent for the past three decades, blames this on internal politics.



“Traditional broadcasters hold monopolies over internet services and are not willing to let go. In South Africa, for example, for years they’ve been putting the brakes on cheap internet. Until a few years ago, Telkom, the country’s biggest provider of communication services, was the only company that could install fiber broadband connection. This was until the second network operator Neotel came on board. Since then a number of fiber-to-the-home operators started being more prolific in South Africa, enabling more consumers to have broadband at home.”



The potential for Africa is huge. According to Internet World Stats in December 2019, more Africans (526 million) accessed the internet than North Americans. But whereas Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria are ahead of the curve and have taken advantage of good quality internet and a deregulated internet industry, other African countries are lagging behind. Several are listed among those with the lowest internet speed and yet the most expensive communication and internet costs in the world.



“Things in South Africa started to change around three-to-five years ago,” reflects Brasg.



“Consumers have also been moving away to free-to-air operators like OVHD (open view HD) that offer a library of TV shows, films and original programming.”



The lack, and theft, of infrastructure in Africa has also set up OTT to expand enormously over mobile networks, points out Joanne Raphael-Katz, Managing Director of South African-based Exceptional Rights. Katz has been delivering OTT and VOD content to mobile and TV customers for the past two decades.



“Consider that in South Africa there are approximately 14 million TV households but 53 million smartphones. This makes OTT via mobile a force to be reckoned with,” she says.



“Mobile is so accessible and payment is by time, making it ideal for the underbanked. Phones are upgrading and always improving – a smart phone with a rich media screen doesn’t have to be the latest iPhone or Samsung. There are plenty of devices to suit all brackets of income and allow for OTT via mobile.” Africa is on record as having the fastest growing mobile telecommunication market but when it comes to content via mobile there’s still a long way to go.



User-generated content – content created by people rather than brands – like TikTok have become popular overnight.



“Apps and concepts like this will always change and shape the world and how we use our mobile. The spectrum is being opened and auctioned and will change the amount of content we consume. Content providers can also now supply their channels to DSTV via IPTV [internet television] to their platform, doing away with expensive satellite expenses,” says Katz.



But inevitably as more players enter the OTT market, competition is growing.



Dubai-based mobile technology company, Mondia, is one of many penetrating the market. In the last three months, it launched its time-based entertainment platform, Monsooq, in South Africa and Nigeria. Utilizing time as currency, users can buy entertainment time just as they would mobile airtime and use it to consume any content they choose. At the moment, the platform offers over 20,000 hours of entertainment.



“We believe that the growth of digital streaming services in Africa means that the continent is primed for the democratization of content,” says CEO Dr Amadeo Rahmann.



“Covid-19 has had such a dramatic impact on economies globally, deeply affecting consumers’ disposable income. We believe this model will have huge appeal in emerging markets.”



With a population set to double to 2.5 billion over the next 30 years, Africa also offers a vast and growing youth demographic for broadcasters and content producers. As the world of entertainment continuously evolves, consumers too will benefit greatly, accessing information as rapidly as they want – on demand and on the go.

Tag: Digital Technology

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