How Ghanaians had to walk to Accra central to make a phone call in the 1970s - Prof Quaynor details

In the 1970s, people were practising interpersonal communication and sending letters to their families, loved ones, and friends across the country and beyond.

They also responded to the messages by writing back to them via post office as that was the only resort to communicate with them due to geographical barriers.

But to hear the voice of the person, you'll have to meet face to face.

This problem was partly solved in 1970 when telephone was introduced in Ghana.

Inasmuch as it was pretty inconvenient for others, people preferred that means to connect with people in other parts of the country and the world at large.

According to the man who brought internet to Africa, Professor Nii Narku Quaynor, Ghanaians had to walk miles away from their homes to Accra Central to place a phone call.

He said he was inspired by the technological gap to solve the problem of techno-colonialism.

Prof Quaynor explained that techno-colonialism was where the lack of a person's knowledge of technology can be used to dominate the person economically and socially.

He told GhanaWeb's Ernestina Serwaa Asante in an interview on the BizTech programme, "If you’ve seen the gap like I did in the 70s when I was already quite specialized, It will be difficult if you are a serious person to walk away. It was so bad that while visibly I was using these things in building them, designing them, we have to walk from here to central Accra in order to even make a call."

"I had a mission and the mission was principally to help avoid techno colonialism where your lack of knowledge of technology can be used to dominate you economically and socially," he stated.

"In 1993, the only means of message exchange were telex and some voice but the number of phones were very limited, less than 100,000 at that time…the killer app was email," Prof Quaynor pointed out.

Meanwhile, in the early 1970s, Motorola and Bell Labs were in a race to produce the first handheld mobile phone.

That race came to an end when Martin Cooper, the General Manager of Motorola's Communications Systems Division, made the first modern mobile phone call from handheld equipment on April 3, 1973.

Today, mobile devices are at our disposal with several brands flooded on the market.

Internet connectivity, on the other hand, has been made simple to make the connection to people easier and faster.

Watch the video below;



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