Caritas et veritas 2026, 16(1):103-116 | DOI: 10.32725/cetv.2026.010

Technological Hegemony in the Global South: epistemicide, Dehumanisation and Digital Domination

Chileshe Mulenga Nicholas¹, David Mutemwa²

¹ Cavendish University Zambia, Faculty of Art, Education and Social Science, Corner of and Elizabeth, Great N Rd, Lusaka, Zambia

² Cavendish University Zambia, Faculty of Art, Education and Social Science, Corner of and Elizabeth, Great N Rd, Lusaka, Zambia

This paper examines the dominance of Western technological systems in the Global South within an increasingly digitalised world where education, healthcare, governance, and social interaction are shaped by digital technologies. It argues that these systems reinforce epistemic inequality by privileging Western knowledge while marginalising indigenous epistemologies, thereby threatening human dignity, epistemic justice, and cultural identity. Drawing on Neil Postman’s concept of technopoly alongside African philosophical perspectives on relationality and communal knowledge, the study demonstrates how Western-controlled digital platforms and infrastructures operate as hegemonic systems that erode local knowledge traditions and subordinate human agency to technological efficiency and economic utility. Methodolog ically, the paper adopts a qualitative research design based on documentary research and secondary data analysis, using thematic content analysis and critical discourse analysis to ex amine academic literature, policy documents, and empirical studies related to technological inequality, digital capitalism, and epistemic marginalisation. The study concludes that the un critical adoption of foreign technological systems contributes to technological epistemicide and the emergence of a dehumanised society in which autonomy and indigenous knowledge are diminished. It therefore advocates an ethical, context-sensitive, and human-centred tech nological framework that integrates local epistemologies and promotes justice globally.

Keywords: Digital Divide, Technopoly, Inequality, Technological hegemony, technological epistemicide, Technology, digital imperialism, Human Dignity, Dehumanisation, Digital capitalism, Autonomy.

Received: December 30, 2025; Revised: April 29, 2026; Accepted: April 29, 2026; Published: July 2, 2026  Show citation