If the requirement is to download then you must do it to use it. I know how frustrating the internet speed in Africa is but that's the way it is.
However, if you just want to test it first, regardless of your location and internet speed, you could use a VPS hosting service. For example, like it is described in
this guide. For a couple of dollars per day, you can try it out first, and decide how to proceed from there. The money and time will be well spent, just to see how it all works even if you don't run the lightning network yourself.
