"I am because we are". Developing and nurturing an African digital security culture

Technical solutions fail if people experience difficulties using them. Sometimes these difficulties force people to work around the security solutions in order to achieve legitimate goals. Improving usability undoubtedly helps, but this has not improved the situation as much as anticipated. In this paper we consider a variety of other reasons for non-uptake. We argue that this situation can only be addressed by considering the person as a member of the wider community and not as a solitary agent. This aligns with the traditional African wisdom of Ubuntu: I am because we are. We propose improving the African Digital Security Culture (ADSC): collective knowledge, common practices, and intuitive common security and privacy behaviour, in a particular society. We suggest a set of approaches f or developing and sustaining ADSC in a society, for as members of a society we learn most effectively from each other, not from books, the media or by carrying out searches using search engines.