The aim of this paper is to explore benefits and critics of the maker movement, in the perspective of its adoption in African context. The method used is a literature review, which reveals that the maker movement is embodied in hacker ethics, DIY and free software ideologies. These ideologies bring values like openness, sharing, inclusion, democratization, and collaboration which are the core of the social, economic and political benefits of the maker movement. Even if these benefits are infiltrated by capitalism, the quest of cognitive justice and the Commons philosophy, seems to be the right epistemological tools for the adoption of the maker movement in Africa.