Change Makers What motivated you to become an advocate for Internet freedom in Africa, and how did you get started? What progress have you seen in the expansion of Internet freedom in Africa over the past ten years? When I graduated from law school, I decided to specialize in Civil Liberties at a time when the Zimbabwean Government was becoming increasingly autocratic and arbitrary in its treatment of those who were critical of its excesses. Lawyers were not spared from this intense brutality. On various occasions, I was harassed by politically connected parties. My work with the support of international and regional actors such as Privacy International, the Open Technology Fund (OTF), Citizen Lab, Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), and Paradigm Initiative, brought about critical attention to freedom of expression and privacy in the digital environment. For example, with the support of Amnesty International Kenya, Defend the Defenders, and others, we introduced the privacy discourse at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in Angola in 2014 and The Gambia in 2015. Civil society has become more aware of how rights violations now happen and offline, and both spaces have to be defended. Given Zimbabwe’s descent into further chaos following the controversial land reform exercise, I migrated to the United Kingdom in 2002, where I held several important legal and other positions, including with the Refugee Legal Centre. Around 2012, the former United States National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden gripped the world’s attention spotlighted the world’s most powerful signals intelligence (SIGINT) agencies: the NSA, GCHQ, and their allies. I joined Carly Kind (Nyst), who was then the head of Legal at Privacy International, subsequently led the Ada Lovelace Institute, and now Australia’s Privacy Commissioner, to form a strong global alliance, not just to fight surveillance but to push for international standards and a United Nations (UN) mandate on the right to privacy. I then moved to Washington, DC, and through the support of Lindsay Beck, got a grant at the Open Technology Fund. Collaborating with Moses Karanja at Strathmore University, I was the first to run OONI probes in more than 15 African countries and visit some of the most dangerous ones, like Cameron, Sudan, and Djibouti. In the blog Ethical Roots and Routes to My Career Choices, I write about the ethical considerations that shaped my career choices. A CIPESA Series During my tenure in the OTF Advisory Council, we gave more funding than ever to African grassroots organizations, enabling them to expand their work and increase training. We began to witness an opening up in Ethiopia. There was increasing solidarity among grassroots organizations like CIPESA and Paradigm Initiative through online collaborative tools, which even improved during COVID-19. OONI��s mobile app probes also ensured we could take remote technical measurements without getting into harm’s way. I also witnessed the increase of younger advocates, especially girls and women, which is a plus. It pushed us, the older generation, from activism, which is a plus too. Also, the collaborations with the industry ensured that we got to get our voices to them, for example, collaborating with Ebele Okobi at Facebook on zero-rated issues made them rethink the issues of access and connectivity as a matter of human rights. I also witnessed the increase of younger advocates, especially girls and women, which is a plus. 7