Do you mean a general use, family or individuals computer, business, school?
Businesses throughout Africa buy and use computers same as the rest of the world, same complaints, likes and dislikes. They tend to get used longer because of the cost to buy new: generally requires foreign currency cash money and import taxes are very high. Often the procurement channel is indirect: business owner’s cousin’s brother in law in Washington, Copenhagen, etc.
Schools have few computers because of the cost, both hardware and software, and lack of readily available computer literate teachers. Southern Africa school curriculum generally uses a pseudo British teaching method: teacher tries to engage students in mostly rote learning. North Africa generally uses an Arabic model of a teacher requiring students to hand copy, stand and deliver.
Many schools lack power or power outlets or desks or walls. Schools don’t have the same regiment of antiseptic hygiene we are used to, so a computer in a classroom shared by a bunch of kids will get beyond filthy. A typical PC or laptop in a schoolroom will probably very quickly become a nest for lizards, spiders, snake, bats, moths, various rodentia, etc. Also, it’s beyond hot; my boot sole melted in Tanzania, and while being laughed at I was told it’s much hotter in Ethiopia.
Theft is rampant, you can not imagine how pervasive is large and small scale theft. In just about all cities power goes out frequently. In smaller towns power regularly goes off at dusk, back on sometime in the morning, maybe. I think landline telephones are still rare; it’s past my time there but supposedly cell phone service is surprisingly wide ranging.
People walk, walk, walk, wait in lines for hours, walk, walk, walk. Men rule everything, women do most of the work and are really treated poorly, more so the smaller town or village she is in. So if she were to get a computer, almost guaranteed her brother, father, cousin, in-laws, will take and sell it.
Objects that break down, major flaw or the most inconsequential detail, immeditely become permanently disregarded, broken up and repurposed or stolen because spare parts are not available or too expensive. Odd example: throughout sub-Saharan African cities are little dirt mounds, at night vehicles back up on them so as to get a running start because car batteries don’t last long in sub-Saharan Africa and replacements aren’t available, etc.
So that’s alot of generalizations about mostly sub-Sahara African lifestyles, maybe helpful. I’ve seen the OLPC and so far it seems to be proving me wrong: I thought it was a bit fragile and dirt and filth prone being bright white and yellow. What I noticed that may be it’s raison d’etre is all the specialized applications it comes with, that was brilliant.
