JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 59(7):1162–1170, 2008 1 The following essay is adapted from a keynote address delivered at the Africa Information Ethics Conference in Pretoria, South Africa, February 5–7, 2007. Under the patronage of UNESCO, sponsored by the South African government, and organized with assistance from the Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria, the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and the supporters and members of the International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE), the theme of the conference was “Ethical Challenges in the Information Age: The Joy of Sharing Knowledge.” The full version of the address as well as selected articles from the conference were published in Vol. 7 of ICIE’s on- line journal, International Review of Information Ethics (for more informa- tion, visit http://icie.zkm.de) © 2008 ASIS&T • Published online 15 April 2008 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/asi.20850 The first part of this article deals with some initiatives concerning the role of information ethics for Africa, such as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, United Nations Information Communications Technology (ICT), and the African Information Society Initiative particularly since the World Summit on the Information Society. Infor- mation Ethics from Africa is a young academic field, and not much has been published so far on the impact of ICT on African societies and cultures from a philosophical perspective. The second part of the article analyzes some recent research on this matter particularly with regard to the concept of ubuntu. Finally, the article addresses some issues of the African Conference on Information Ethics held February 3–5, 2007, in Pretoria, South Africa. 1 “The fundamental cure for poverty is not money but knowl- edge.” Sir William Arthur Lewis The motto of the first-ever Pan-African Conference on In- formation Ethics, namely “The Joy of Sharing Knowledge,” echoed the core ideals and practical commitments of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) as stated in the Geneva Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action adopted at the first phase in Geneva in December 2003 as well as the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society. The following statements from the Geneva Declaration concern the “Ethical Dimensions of the Information Society:” 1. The Information Society should respect peace and up- hold the fundamental values of freedom, equality, soli- darity, tolerance, shared responsibility, and respect for nature. 2. We acknowledge the importance of ethics for the Infor- mation Society, which should foster justice, and the dignity and worth of the human person. The widest pos- sible protection should be accorded to the family and to enable it to play its crucial role in society. 3. The use of ICTs and content creation should respect human rights and fundamental freedoms of others, in- cluding personal privacy, and the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion in conformity with relevant international instruments. 4. All actors in the Information Society should take appro- priate actions and preventive measures, as determined by law, against abusive uses of ICTs, such as illegal and other acts motivated by racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related intolerance, hatred, violence, all forms of child abuse, including pedophilia and child pornography, and trafficking in, and exploitation of, human beings. The participants of the WSIS–Tunis Commitment (2005, November 18) summit stressed the Geneva vision with the following: 5. We reaffirm our desire and commitment to build a people- centred, inclusive and development-oriented Informa- tion Society, premised on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, international law and multilateralism, and respecting fully and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so that people everywhere can create, access, utilize and share infor- mation and knowledge, to achieve their full potential and to attain the internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including the Millennium Devel- opment Goals. President Mbeki of South Africa reaffirmed this commit- ment from an African perspective in his statement to the second phase of the World Summit on November 16, 2005: Our country and continent are determined to do every- thing possible to achieve their renewal and development, Information Ethics for and from Africa Rafael Capurro International Center for Information Ethics (ICIE), Stuttgart Media University–Hochschule der Medien, Wolframstr. 32, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany. E-mail: rafael@capurro.de