Dead Media Objects and the Experience of the (Once) Modern. Ethnographic Perspectives from the Living Rooms of Kinshasa’s Old Aged

ABSTRACT

This article departs from the observation that in many living rooms of elderly Kinois (inhabitants of Kinshasa), old and defunctive radio and television sets are put on display. When their primary function, to inform, has been rendered obsolete, we are faced with the question why people continue to display these objects, often next to newer models, in their living rooms. The main argument is that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) commodities, old and new, defective and repaired, are primarily social objects that are embedded in complex webs of practices and expectations which unsettle the taken-for-granted associations between technology and time. ICT objects are shown to be metonyms of dynamics in social relationships between owners of these ICT goods and others; and, although seemingly paradoxically, these same objects, even when damaged, inhabit promises for a better future. The article thus offers an alternative perspective on electronic modernity, and in particular, the role of Africa therein.

KEYWORDS:

• DR Congo
• Kinshasa
• media
• waste
• debris

Acknowledgements

Previous versions of this paper have been presented at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association (2013) and during the African studies departmental seminar of the department of anthropology at the University of Oxford. I wish to express my thanks to the colleagues who have commented on the paper during and after these presentations. Also, Ch. Didier Gondola and Clapperton Mavhunga's reflections on the topic have been important. Isabelle de Rezende has helped me with the final editing. Ethnos reviewers and editors have given me valuable feedback. I especially acknowledge the participation of the elderly Kinois who allowed me to enter their house and who were never tired of answering my questions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Most of these recent ICT goods are of Chinese brands, whose names imitate wider known global brands (Sonic instead of Sony, etc.).

2 All names are fictive, in order to protect the privacy of my informants.

3 Interestingly, Africell is popularly known as the ‘network of the old people’ because of its low rates to call to the provinces. This idea suggests that elderly mainly use mobile telephony to make call to ‘the village’ and denies the idea that elderly also connect with ‘the West’.

4 I thank one of the reviewers for making this point clear.

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article (2011–2013) was funded by a Marie Curie IOF fellowship [PIOF-GA-2009–252331], awarded by the European Research Council, and carried in the anthropology and STS departments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Institute for Anthropological Research in Africa at the University of Leuven.