It is most likely that the organizers of the Digital Citizen Indaba on Blogging in South Africa did not anticipate the controversy that has dominated the African blogosphere for about two weeks now. The controversy, for the most part, has centred around the words, African and indaba. Indaba is a Zulu word, which means a council where indigenous people of Southern Africa meet to discuss important matters. So, a week before the indaba, a Kenyan blogger, AB&H, in a post entitled, (White) African Blogger Conference in a Week, writes: From the list of speakers, listed below, it appears to my untrained and possibly quite mistaken eye that their last names are not very black African; at least they wouldn’t be in East Africa. (Whisper: Will it be a roomful of white folks working for the betterment of the African? Please, I beg you, do not tell massa that I asked cause I know how much he is trying to help me speak and develop into a full, happy human being.) Apart from the racial composition and national origin of the conference speakers, AB&H was also concerned about the idea of Africa Citizens Code of Conduct: It appears from the program that the attendees will be treated to dispositions from lawyers versed in internet issues – whatever those are – and that there is even a session to establish ‘an African Citizens Code of Conduct.’ Now that last one I find weird. The power of the internet and blogging is precisely that it is not being planned or coordinated centrally or even subject to a particular point of view. In any case are Africans so misbehaved or even depraved that they are always being subject to codes of behavior? Is the governance agenda and its associated funding buzzwords now to seek us out even in the digital world? The post caused quite a stir in the African blogosphere. According to White African, this controversy was inevitable. It was brewing long before AB&H wrote the first post that set the stage for the debate. White African writes: It started off with the MMK declaring the Digital Indaba on Blogging taking place in South Africa as a potential play by whites trying to take hold of the upper ground in African blogosphere. The week prior, Chippla had posted thoughts on whether White Africans are actually Africans. On top of all that, the African Womens Blog had some interesting articles on racism, a particularly good one was the one talking about how as whites we don’t even realize we are privelaged. So, this whole debate was brewing and coming to a head. more Vincent Maher, the head of the New Media Lab and one of the conference organizers, entered the debate referring to AB&H post as a racist and sour response to the digital indaba. Responding to AB&H concern about the code of conduct, Vincent (whom MMK calls Vincent “Madiba” Maher. Madiba is an affectionate nickname for the former South African President, Nelson Mandela) writes: As the person who put this idea forward in the first place, I am going to defend it simply by pointing out that the idea behind the code of conduct is to create a framework of credibility that will enable citizen journalists using blogs to be taken more seriously by the media when they report on blogged news. It’s a completely opt-in system designed to avoid exactly the kind of loss of credibility this person has just achieved for his/her own blog. Cool Breeze disagrees with Vincent’s contention that AB&H post was racist, “I am not attacking the work you're doing… Vincent baby… love your efforts, think they're important for the continent 'cause… we wouldn't be having this discussion if you hadn't organized the conference now, would we? So you get an A+ (with stars and glitter) on that front. I just take exception to your use of the word “racist” in this context.” AB&H wrote a follow-up to his first post, using the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 as a metaphor for understanding what was taking place at the digital indaba. In a post entitled, “Is the Digital Indaba the Internet Berlin Conference of 2006?, AB&H asks: Does the African blog-space – if there is such a thing – need codification, a coming together, a corralling under the auspices of a code of conduct or a common front? I do not think so and yet I have noticed a recent trend toward this end of trying to create a ‘mainstream’ African blog-space that confers ‘legitimacy’ on its members. Implying, if only gently, that those outside its auspices are illegitimate at worst or at best might be irrelevant to goals as varied as civil society ‘empowerment’, the creation of alternate media, etc.