Current challenges regarding the frame of reference and control of African digitisation projects pose serious questions about their future direction. The author suggests practical strategies aimed at mainstreaming resources and increasing African control, including the need for readers of Innovation – librarians, information scientists, archivists, and historians – to engage in the
"politics" of securing this control. By maintaining ethical approaches and flexibility, by listening closely to priorities of African partners, by continuing to
initiate worthwhile projects in the North yet also practically supporting African initiatives and by directing limited-end pilot projects towards mainstreaming,we can help to turn expropriation of African resources towards the harvesting of
African (and Northern-based) resources for mutually beneficial use.