Mobile phones and the transformation of society: talking about criminality and the ambivalent perception of new ICT in Burkina Faso

Abstract

Global impacts on Africa have been widely discussed regarding their consequences for development and poverty reduction. Development seems to work as the concrete implementation of road networks, markets, communication networks and so on. Although mobile phones have not been implemented by development agencies, they count among the most efficient tools for development in Africa. Anthropologists, however, quickly started to point out some ambivalent aspects of the new ICT in general and mobile phone usage in Africa in particular. Based on fieldwork in Burkina Faso, this contribution goes beyond the present criticism. It links the logic of implemented and well-established structures representing global impacts, i.e. tarred roads and the booming mobiles, with everyday usages. In particular the sometimes malicious entanglements between road networks and mobile networks play a crucial role in public awareness. Road networks as well as mobile networks count among the most popular adaptations of western knowledge. Although everybody uses both network structures and consequently public opinion is highly affirmative of these innovations, public awareness is strongly focussed on new kinds of highway hold-ups which seem to be out of the control of police, politicians and the public in general. This contribution presents an extended interpretation of these problematic entanglements. Media awareness is approached as a comment on the network logic of these two major structures. Thus, the public's concern about the uncontrollable intermingling appears to be a mode of expressing sharp criticism of the promoted ideologies of developmental use of these networks.

Keywords:

• anthropology of media
• mobile phones
• security
• innovation
• anthropology of development

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper have been presented at the Conference “ICT Africa's Revolutionary tools for the twenty-first century” in May 201 at the Centre of African Studies (Edinburgh) and in a research seminar at the Department of anthropology at University College London in January 2011. I wish to express my gratitude for these opportunities to discuss the argument and in particular to Tom Molony, Jonathan Donner, Daniel Miller and Victor Buchli for the invitations and inspiring comments. I further thank the anonymous reviewer for clarification and contributions to the interpretation.

Notes

 1. Jaffré is the founder and first president of a NGO campaigning for low priced access to telecommunication in Burkina Faso (cf. http://www.csdptt.org/).

 2. These findings are confirmed by the research of Tom Molony (2007, 2009) and Julie Archambault (2009) in Tanzania and Mozambique respectively. Both are dealing with the wide range of uses for mobiles, stretching its use beyond a device for gathering information.

 3. Cf. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uv.html

 4. Cf. http://burkinaphonebook.com/galleryimg/l/print-advert-203.jpg

 5. This is for example the name of governmental bulletin ‘Carrefour Africain’ (http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Burkina-Faso-MEDIA.html).

 6. This was one of the statements of a seminary, organized in Ouagadougou entitled ‘Transport of goods in West Africa’ (http://publications.piarc.org/ressources/documents/actes-seminaires05/c24-burkina05/01-Programme-F.pdf).

 7. The following section focuses on popular talks about crimes and the related use of mobiles. It requires some preliminary remarks concerning the methodology, and pointing to the fact that it is not possible to give any statistical information about the stories presented here. The Ministry of the Interior does not publish data about about the frequency of the crimes committed on national roads in Burkina Faso. Such information would not be relevant in order to understand the importance of these stories for the evaluation of mobiles as a communication device.

 8. The related research was realized in Ouagadougou and in the provincial town of Pô in January–April 2007. Furthermore, some of the information could be confirmed through interviews with police officers in November 2008. Due to the informal nature of these talks, the names of the interviewees cannot be revealed here.

 9. The police in Burkina Faso are conscious of the fundamental problem as far as non-registered SIM-cards in the country are concerned. Until recently, there has been no problem to buy a SIM-card from street sellers at the airport or at other places in the capital. Newspapers recently have focussed on the problem of the unidentifiable SIM-users. The habit, however, to buy a SIM-card on the roadside is considered as a customary right and still widespread.

10. The following newspapers have been taken into consideration: Sidwaya, L'Observateur Paalga, L'Evenement. Ludovic Kibora, who is a regular author in the weekly journal L'Evenement was helpful to direct the author's awareness to several articles dealing with highway hold-ups. See also Ouoba (2010).

11. This story had been told at the bus station in the provincial town of Pô by long-distance taxi drivers in March 2007.

12. This finding is confirmed through research in other countries, like Nigeria (Elegbeleye 2005) and Ghana (Slater and Kwami 2005). Leonardi, Leonardi, and Hudson (2006) insist that contradictions in understanding new technologies do not hinder a positive evaluation.