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Cell Phones or Computers ? Brief Notes on Some Social Aspects of ICTs

Use in Africa.
Gado Alzouma
Global Media Research Center
803 S Oakland, USA
Abstract
This paper examines the specific appropriation and adoption process of cell phones and
computers in the African context. It shows that there is no need to prefer cell phones over
computers and that only a superficial observation can let us think that computer adoption
is not on its way in Africa. Indeed Africans are active recipient communities and are
inventing multiple ways to cope with the introduction of new ICTs in their societies and
to transform the use of computers and cell phones so that they can fit their own
expectations.
Introduction
In March 2005, a plan to provide high-tech tools for poor nations was launched in
Geneva. The plan was an initiative of the Senegalese president and was called The
Digital Solidarity Fund. The idea was that 1 percent of the companies profits were to be
deducted and diverted toward aiding poor countries set up public technology projects
and, in so doing, to reduce the information gap among states. The fund was destined to
provide Internet access and computers to poor nations, in addition to mobile and satellite
phones.
It is believed that providing poor countries with digital technologies will help them
become rich rapidly. But many people are questioning the opportunity of this digital
utopia in countries which lack basic health and education. Moreover, it is not clear
whether computers or cell phones should be the priority for Africans when considering
the African context, as discussed in the Economist, for example:
The digital divide is not a problem in itself, but a symptom of deeper,
more important divides: of income, development and literacy. Fewer
people in poor countries than in rich ones own computers and have access
to the internet simply because they are too poor, are illiterate, or have
other more pressing concerns, such as food, health care and security. So
even if it were possible to wave a magic wand and cause a computer to
appear in every household on earth, it would not achieve very much: a
computer is not useful if you have no food or electricity and cannot read.
[2005]
Cost and literacy are obvious factors differentiating the use of computers and cell phones
in Africa. The spread of cell phones has been very rapid because of their manipulability
and their relatively low cost but also because they do not require literacy.

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Cell phones: the unprecedented success of a technology in Africa

According to the International telecommunications Union (ITU), Africa is now the the
worlds fastest growing mobile market (ITU, 2004, p.1). Between 1998 and 2003, the
increase of subscriptions to cell phones outpaced one thousand percent (1000%) those of
fixed lines. More than 51.8 million people in Africa have cell phones (and this figure is
expected to be 90 million in 2005) while only 25.1 million own fixed lines. ITUs report
affirms also that cell phone penetration in Africa extended to 6.2 per 100 inhabitants by
the end of 2003 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. In subSaharan Africa especially, three out of four subscriptions were done by cell phones users:
this is the highest ratio of mobile to total telephone subscribers of any region in the
world, the report states. The annual average growth rate of cell phone use in Africa is
65% compared to 33% for the rest of the world.
Reasons for ICTs use
Among the reasons why cell phones are rapidly spreading all over Africa is the fact that
they fit better in the African domestic environment than computers do. They are also in
accordance with the mental dispositions of illiterate people, who, in order to use
computers, need to know not only how to read but also how to arrange a text and,
possibly, how to understand or construct tables and diagrams, in addition to mastering a
foreign language. With cell phones, Africans can speak their own languages with the full
emotional content and the rational, the logic of verbal communication between
themselves and others. To the contrary, computers impose a logic of communication;
they are also the manifestation of pre-determined mental dispositions to which the user
has to comply. In the same way that, according to Goody, the writing manifests
differences in modes of thought (1977:111), computers carry values; they are linked to
very particular social values and common representations: historically constituted
particular knowledge and scientific practices, and a particular way of interacting with the
world. As such, they manifest particular social and mental dispositions which necessarily
differ from African ways.
One such a difference is the concept of the computer as a repository of data, information,
and knowledge, which is mostly of foreign origin. The user of a computer is to comply to
set gestures and procedures; he or she has to adapt to the machine. More importantly, he
or she has to seek information in an already constituted repository, whose logic and
content are not under his or her control. Sarakakis notes, for example, that the content of
the Internet not only is mostly of Western origin but also tends to be overwhelmingly
commercialized:
Just like securing newly conquered colonial spaces through the re
organisation of space and administration through a legitimatisation
process, so does the Internet become re-defined and re-organised as a
borderless and timeless trading space. . . . Thus, it is estimated that by

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2007, consumers will account for 60 percent of all Internet traffic
generated. [2004:3]
What can be sought on the Internet is, therefore, not decided by the user. This is not the
case with cell phones, which impose no content and allow their users to freely articulate
what they want to express. Cell phones are in line with orality and oral cultures in which
language, narration, memory, and the way the world is understood are all distinct from
those of the print cultures (Ong, 2002). Although the Internet includes sounds,
interactivity, and oral and visual exchanges, it remains fundamentally text-based
(Goldhaber, 2004). Moreover, the overwhelming use of the Internet as a communication
device in Africa (particularly through e-mails), makes reading and reading competency
the main characteristics of this technologys users. This creates a symmetrical opposition
to the speaker, the verbal communicator (Goldhaber, 2004).
Another characteristic of cell phones is their versatility. Cell phones can be more easily
shared than computers. In every African family, the cell phone is more the familys cell
phone than a distinct individuals phone. When at home, the cell-phone owner usually
puts it where it can be accessed by everybody. In the same way, all family members give
the number to their callers. Wherever he or she is, the cell-phone owner can receive
multiple messages addressed to other family members. Moreover, in African airports, the
traveler is always approached by mobile-phone owners who offer their phone if he
wishes to call. In most villages, village phones exist in the form of cell phones owned by
private operators.
This collective use of cell phones is in contrast with what we observe in Western
countries, where it is a highly individualistic tool. In Africa, it is often rented and
constantly borrowed by relatives and family members. Although the use of the Internet
and computers is mostly collective and principally done in libraries and cybercafs, it
should be noted that computers lack mobility and are rarely borrowed. Their domestic use
is collective (family use), but only a few families have computers in Niger, and even
fewer have access to the Internet.
The importance of the mobile character of these technologies as compared with that of
computers is even more obvious with the satellite phone, which permits people to stay in
touch regardless of whether they are in Africa. In Niger, three-quarters of the country is
desert, and towns are scattered thousands of miles away from each other. In this context,
many travelers used to get lost and to die without any means of reaching help. A drastic
drop in the number of people who get lost and number of people who die has been
observed since the advent of the satellite phone, commonly known by the brand noun
Thuraya. Each transport vehicle is now equipped with a satellite phone, and numerous
people have been saved in this way.
Satellite phones are also the preferred way of communicating with relatives abroad, in
other African or European countries. Villagers now have the opportunity to gather each
night around the phone and to speak with their relatives, thousands of miles away.
Therefore, we can say that a distinctive feature of cell phones and satellite phones is that

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they connect mostly rural people with their relatives abroad, while the Internet and
computers are used by literate urban people to communicate with other literate people
around the world. Thus, the use of cell phones reveals a kind of class difference in
technology use but also cultural differences, since the ways of communicating (writing
versus orality), the level of education of people who communicate (literate versus nonliterate), their locality (urban settings versus rural settings), and their social
characteristics (mostly rural farmers and herders versus a heterogeneous category of
urban people made up of traders, civil servants, and young educated people) are all
different.
We can even say that, while cell phones are becoming increasingly popular (meaning
an object anyone can access), the possession of a computer is still undoubtedly a sign of
distinction. It is possible to draw the profile of computer owners in Niger and to
characterize them in a way which distinguishes them from common Nigeriens.
To be implemented, computers need an infrastructure (permanent electricity supply),
which is not necessary with cell phones. All these advantages of the cell phone over the
computer have made it the preferred choice of development agencies for fostering
communication technologies in Africa.
Plenty of evidence suggests that the cell phone is the technology with the
greatest impact on development. A new paper finds that cell phones raise
long-term growth rates, that their impact is twice as big in developing
nations as in developed ones, and that an extra ten phones per 100 people
in a typical developing country increases GDP growth by 0.6 percentage
points. [Economist 2005]
It is undeniable that cell phones are the most popular technological devices in todays
Africa. No other technology has had such widespread success. There are, of course,
millions of cars in Africa, but they are not as affordable as are cell phones. In my own
experience, I can recall only torch lamps as having been as popular in Nigerien villages
as are cell phones. Torch lamps were made popular by seasonal migrants from Ghana and
Ivory Coast before being widespread on Nigerien markets. They responded to an obvious
necessity and were not, in their shape and manipulability, very different from cell phones.
Cell phones are smaller than most torch lamps.
But do the cell phones characteristics justify a preference over computers? More
importantly, are not computers and cell phones, although they respond to particular
needs, very similar in some respects?
The tendency to prefer cell phones over the Internet is first justified by the cost of
computers. However, in African urban settings, access to computers has been made
cheaper by the numerous cybercafs opening everywhere. Moreover, thousands of
secondhand computers are being shipped to African countries through various projects,
making them more affordable for poorer people (ICT). From a development point of
view, it just seems to me that Africans need computers as well as education and cell

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phones. They are all necessary. Moreover, computer and cell-phone use is similar in
many respects in Africa.
First, they are both used principally as communication devices which link people to their
relatives; although, the use of the Internet is extended to foreigners, international business
companies, and global virtual communities. Regarding this, the importance of the
diaspora in the access to information technologies should be noted. The link between
African diasporic communities and Africans who stayed on the continent is maintained
through travels, phone calls, and e-mails. But it tends also to be reinforced through
money sent at home and, more and more, material objects, among which computers and
cell phones are playing a growing role. Secondhand computers and cheap cell phones are
among the preferred gifts sent home. More importantly, some of the migrants return
home with new skills and resources and may implement technological projects, such as
CATI, a PC manufacturing plant which is producing more than 500 computers per month
in Dakar, Senegal. It was created by a returning migrant, Viviane Dieye, who convinced
Canadian entrepreneurs to help her fund her project (Sciamma, 2003). The African
diaspora is, therefore, playing a growing role in the diffusion of new information and
communication technologies, and this holds true for both computers and cell phones.
References
Economist (The), (2005). The Real Digital Divide, March 10th, 2005.
Geser, H. (2004). Towards a Sociological Theory of the Cell phone. University of Zurich.
Electronic document, http://socio.ch/mobile/t_geser1.pdf.
Goldhaber, M.H. (2004). The mentality of Homo interneticus: Some Ongian postulates,
First Monday, Volume 9, Number 6 7 June 2004, Electronic document,
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_6/goldhaber/index.html.
Goody J. (1977). The Domestication of the Savage Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press 1977.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (2004). African Telecommunication
Indicators 2004. Electronic document. http://www.itu.int/ITUD/ict/publications/africa/2004/material/AFTI04.pdf
Ong, W. J. (2002). Orality and Literacy. London: Routledge, 2002.
Samuel, J., Shah, N., and W. Handigham, (2005), Mobile Communication in South
Africa, Tanzania and Egypt: Results from Community and Business Surveys, in Gough,
N. and C. Grezo (eds.), The Impact of Cell phones in Africa, Vodafone Policy Papers
Series, Number 2, March 2005
Sciamma, I. (2003) PC made in Senegal, Electronic document,
http://www.afrik.com/article6314.html

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Sarikakis, K. (2004) Ideology and Policy: Notes on the Shaping of the Internet. In First
Monday 9(8). Electronic Document,
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue9_8/sarikakis/index.html