History
The foundation of the ATU dates back to 1977 when its mission was a part of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which has since been replaced by the African Union (AU). The ATU was officially formed in 1999 as the successor to the Pan-African Telecommunications Union (PATU) and is headquartered in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, but due to war, the ATU has relocated to Nairobi, Kenya. At this time, the organization slightly transformed from primarily a coordinating body for government related activity to include private and public stakeholders in the information and telecommunications technology sector. The ATU now enforces a constitution and has added a secretary general along with a technical management team to ensure a more effective transformation from the PATU. Currently, the ATU attempts to provide a collaborative atmosphere for public and private stakeholders to formulate and negotiate policies that might increase the role of Africa in the booming environment of ICT. So, while the PATU previously only allowed public membership of government’s, the ATU now allows organizations from the private sector to become associate members.
Read more about this topic: African Telecommunications Union
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“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
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