The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated educational digitisation across Africa, exposing profound inequalities affecting marginalised learners. This conceptual paper examines how digital exclusion impacts psychosocial well-being in remote learning through a multigenerational African perspective. Drawing on digital divide theory, social determinants of health, and African epistemologies - including Ubuntu, Akan, Igbo, East African, and Islamic scholarly traditions - we analyze how digital exclusion perpetuates educational inequalities while compromising mental health, social connectedness, and community wellbeing across generations. We propose the Psychosocial Digital Exclusion Model (PSDEM), identifying five interconnected components: structural factors, technological access, digital capabilities, social support systems, and psychosocial outcomes. This framework reveals three critical intergenerational dynamics: cascade effects transmitting disadvantage across generations, reverse socialization disrupting traditional knowledge hierarchies, and collective coping mechanisms rooted in communal values. Our analysis demonstrates that digital exclusion encompasses complex intersections of historical inequalities, cultural values, and family systems, manifesting differently across age groups and creating cascading community effects. Importantly, both digital exclusion and poorly governed digital inclusion can harm well-being, emphasising the need for culturally responsive technology design and protective measures. These findings highlight the inadequacy of purely technological solutions, underscoring the need for holistic approaches integrating infrastructure development, culturally responsive pedagogy, psychosocial support, digital literacy education, regulatory frameworks, and community engagement. The paper extends digital divide theory through African epistemologies while providing practical insights for inclusive digital transformation strategies that honor collective responsibility while preparing learners for global digital economy participation.
Kpum et al. (Sat,) studied this question.