Social Aspects of Cell Phone Use in Africa Gado Alzouma

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1 Social Aspects of Cell Phone Use in Africa Gado Alzouma

2 Trends of the Internet and cell phones use in Africa In Africa, Internet and cell phone use has grown at a near-exponential rate over the last five years.

3 INTERNET USERS AND POPULATION STATISTICS FOR AFRICA Source: Africa Region Population ( 2005 Est. ) Pop. % in World Internet Users, Latest Data Penetration (% Population) % Users in World Use Growth ( ) Total for Africa 896,721, % 23,917, % 2.5 % % Rest of the world 5,523,380, % 948,910, % 97.5 % % World Total 6,420,102, % 972,828, % % %

4 Mode of connectivity and appropriation in Africa Number of users far higher than indicated by the figures because of the. Collective mode of connectivity predominant (cybercafés). Workplace access becoming important. Domestic access less important: in most countries, only few families and individuals own computers (affordability; prohibitive cost of connection; bandwidth issues, etc.).

5 Obstacles to connectivity Equipment and electricity. Decentralization issues (infrastructure concentrated in urban settings). Community multipurpose telecenters in some rural areas (Senegal, Uganda, South Africa ) Education and gender issues.

6 Mobile phone use in Africa ITU: Africa is now the the world s fastest growing mobile market (ITU Report, 2004:1). Between 1998 and 2003, the increase of subscriptions to cell phones outpaced one thousand percent (1000%) those of fixed lines. 90 million cell phone users in 2005; while only 25.1 million own fixed lines (2003). Cell phone penetration in Africa extended to 6.2 per 100 inhabitants by the end of 2003 (10% in 2005; 20% for Senegal and 40% for South Africa) while fixed line penetration stood only at 3 per 100 inhabitants. By 2003, almost 70 percent of telephone subscribers in Africa were using cell phones. The annual average growth rate of cell phone use in Africa is 65% compared to 33% for the rest of the world.

7 QUESTIONS How can we explain this unprecedented phenomenon? Social and cultural factors? Is the rapid adoptionof cell phones the result of some cultural determinants? Is cell phone use changing Africans relations to each other? Is it changing communication styles?

8 Economic aspects Affordability: Cost lowering over time (between 1967 and 2003, the average price of a computer = 1,000 times cheaper). Constant innovations. Let s s connect them!: Obsolete computers being shipped to developing countries (especially in Africa).

9 Social aspects = My arguments The success of cell phones in Africa is in line with some social aspects African life (illiteracy; domestic life; disintegration effect of urbanization and the necessity to maintain communal ties, etc.). A choice socially determined. Social representations exercise an influence on technology adoption and uses.

10 Findings Cell phone users belong to all strata and ethnic groups in Africa. Illiterate cell phone users certainly outnumber literate ones.

11 Reasons for cell phones use Cell phones do not require full literacy or reading in a foreign language. Cell phone = ubiquitous technology (Age and gender aspects of mobile phone use vs. computer use).

12 Reasons for cell phones use (Continued) Cell phones fit better in the African domestic environment than computers do. Collective, family use of cell phones.

13 Reasons for cell phone use (continued) In Africa: unprecedented urbanization (15% per year in Niger). inadequacy of social services and public infrastructure = anomic effects of low income and shanty towns on social life. In this context strong need to retreat to their primary groups of affiliation (Recourse to "community" as a response to the challenges of urban life). Practical aspects: coping with distance and cost of transportation in urban settings (informants).

14 Reasons for cell phone use (Continued) Nigerien culture, especially among the Songhay-Zarma, is structured by the concept of hawi (avoidance and separateness among some relatives). Cell phones introduce a new way of managing interactions, of coping with traditional restrictions in face-to-face relationships.

15 Reasons for cell phone use (continued) With cell phones, Africans can speak their own languages with the full emotional content and the rationale, the logic of verbal communication between themselves and others. Cell phones impose no content and allow their users to freely articulate what they want to express. On the contrary, computers impose a logic of communication; they are also the manifestation of pre-determined conceptual formats with which the user has to comply.

16 Cell phone use and social time Changes in habits of communication (management of time). The rules of the marketplace govern verbal exchanges imposing a "rational" use or management of time. In the process, part of African habits, habits, when it comes to interpersonal civility and politeness are being erased.

17 Conclusion class and "cultural differences. Different ways of communicating: writing (computers) versus orality (cell phones). Level of education of people who communicate (literate versus non-literate). social characteristics: Cell phone users belong to all strata while computer users do not. Cell phones = "popular" while the computer is a sign of distinction.

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