Digital sovereignty is a fluid and complex concept. This chapter highlights the necessity to consider digital sovereignty strategies, policies, and governance mechanisms from a holistic and long-term perspective. Digital sovereignty plays a pivotal role in fostering self-determination, while remaining critical to cybersecurity and the control capabilities of the “digital sovereign.” The “sovereign” can be an individual, a community, a corporation, a state, or a group of states. Taking an agnostic approach to digital sovereignty, the authors explore diverse practices and provide insight into what this concept means in practical terms. Digital technologies can facilitate enormous advancements to be put at the service of people, but can also be weaponized against individuals, corporations, and nation-states. BRICS countries’ approaches offer telling examples of not only how and why the need for digital sovereignty can emerge but also how dysfunctional the implementation of digital sovereignty policies may become without a coherent and long-term vision. Ultimately BRICS experiences illustrate that enhancing a digital sovereign’s self-determination, cybersecurity, and control is likely to reduce the undue influence of other digital actors. However, the success of a digital sovereignty strategy largely depends on the understanding, consistency, resourcefulness, and, ultimately, organizational capabilities of aspiring digital sovereigns.

This chapter highlights South Africa, Tunisia, Mauritius, Morocco, and Kenya as the 4IR leaders in Africa. Each country is compared with the use of the GII and GCI scoring to explore their strengths and weaknesses in the 4IR. The GII is a measure of the components of innovation, while the GCI measures twelve specific components that determine a country’s long-term competitiveness. The two have similar overlaps, but the GII is the primary index of analysis with the GCI as a supplementary unit of information. Following the overall comparison of the five countries comes country-specific analyses that include noteworthy innovations and strengths and challenges. Each country analysis helps in looking at the overall digital maturity of the African continent. It also gives more insightful glance at specific sector reforms and policies.