Information and communications technologies (ICT 1) are becoming widely accepted as integral means for transforming the path of development. As envisaged in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the importance of harnessing information and communication technologies for poverty eradication cannot be overemphasized. Yet, as statistics describing the growing digital divide demonstrate, women and girls are at particular risk for exclusion from opportunities presented by ICT to secure better livelihoods and other rights.

Although much has been written about the African Diaspora in the Atlantic Ocean, the Diaspora in the Indian Ocean is virtually unrecognized. Concerned with Africans, who lived south of the Sahara and were dispersed by free will or forcefully to the non-African lands in the Indian Ocean region, this book deals with a topic that has long been overlooked. Eight scholars, researching the African Diaspora in distinct geographical locations in the Indian Ocean region and with expertise in the areas of history, anthropology, linguistics, international relations, politics and sociology, have contributed papers to this book.