1. The document discusses the empowering effects of mobile phone use in Africa, focusing on identity construction among youth in Senegal. Studies show phones help with jobs, selling goods, and access to information, but can also marginalize the poor without access. 2. A study of SMS messages in Senegal found they blend French, Wolof, Arabic, and English to convey greetings, plans, and romantic expressions in ways that build ethnic, religious, and urban youth identities. 3. The use of African languages in texts may lead to their empowerment as written languages, though motivation also includes religion and relationships. Overall, while phones can empower, their impact depends on existing power structures.

1. MOBILE AFRICA –
IDENTITY, EMPOWERMENT
Media and Politics, HiL 12. sept. 2013
Kristin Vold Lexander

2. INTRODUCTION
“Mobile phones have enabled friends and families
to stay in touch over long distances, creating new
forms of connectedness; farmers are now able to
contact markets ahead of time to inquire about
prices for their produce; traders order stock from
their suppliers on the phone, cutting down on
travel costs; hospitals send medication reminders
to out-patients; sex-workers contact and warn
one another about dangerous clients. In addition,
the diffusion of mobile phones has created novel
employment opportunities, including phone
repair shops, airtime vendors and informal
phone-for-hire businesses” (Deumert&Lexander
2013)

3. OVERVIEW
Introductory questions
Mobile Africa – facts and figures
Empowerment – definition, results from
different studies
Identity – results from the Senegal study:
1.
2.
3.
4.




Presentation of the study
What is identity?
Identity construction and expressions in SMS
messages
African language literacy -> empowerment?

4. INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
Is the mobile phone leading to empowerment?
Who are empowered and how?
How is mobile phone use related to young
Africans‟ identity construction?
Has the mobile phone had greater impact on
people‟s lives in Africa than in Europe?

5. MOBILE AFRICA – FACTS AND FIGURES
The population of Africa: > 1 billion
 Mobile phone subscriptions in Africa: 63,5 per
100 inhabitants
(2005: 12,4)
 Mobile phone subscriptions in Europe: 126,5 per
100 inhabitants (2005: 91,7)


6. The Digital divide perspective:
The divide created between those individuals, firms,
institutions, regions, and societies that have the
material and cultural conditions to operate in the
digital world, and those who cannot, or cannot
adapt to the speed of change (Castells 2001: 270).
The leapfrog perspective: developing countries skip
the fixed-line technology of the 20th century and
move straight to the mobile technology of the
21st.

7. ACCESS TO FIXED-LINE AND MOBILE
TELEPHONY, PER HUNDRED INHABITANTS
(ITU DATA, WWW.ITU.INT)
Fixed line
tel.
Mobile tel.
(subscriptions
)
(subscriptions
)
2005
2011
2005
2011
Côte d’Ivoire
1.43
1.33
13.04
86.42
Ghana
1.49
1.14
13.28
84.78
Nigeria
0.87
0.44
13.29
58.58
Senegal
2.45
2.71
15.91
73.27
South Africa
9.89
8.18
71.06
126.83
(From Deumert&Lexander 2013)

8. FACTS AND FIGURES
Countries with low coverage:
Eritrea and Somalia: < 10 %
Ethiopia and Burundi: ca. 15%
Central African Republic and the Democratic
Republic of Congo: ca. 25%

9. EMPOWERMENT
“An iterative process in which a person who lacks
power sets a personally meaningful goal oriented
toward increasing power, takes action toward
that goal, and observes and reflects on the impact
of this action, drawing on his or her evolving selfefficacy, knowledge, and competence related to
the goal.”
Cattaneo, Lauren Bennett; Chapman, Aliya R.
2010: The process of empowerment: A model for
use in research and practice. American
Psychologist, Vol 65(7), 646-659.

10. RESULTS FROM DIFFERENT STUDIES ON
MOBILE PHONE USE IN AFRICA
Getting a job and a status in the community (Tall
2002)
 Operating freer but within the norms (Brinkman
et al. 2009), weaker social control (Dibakana
2002)
 Selling farm products more easily (Kibora 2009)
 News and information circulate faster (Kreutz
2010)
 Convergence with other media (internet, radio)
(Kreutz 2010)
 NGO software has improved rural healthcare,
political discussion, banking transactions
(FrontlineSMS, Banks 2010, M-Pesa


11. BUT…
The poorest are increasingly marginalized when they
do not have a mobile phone (Overå 2008)
 Confidence in commercial relations is weakened
(Molony 2009)
 ”Breaking up because of the phone” (Archambault
2011)
 SMS campaigns may replace more appropriate forms
of communication (Kreutz 2010)
 Text messages fuelled the violence that followed the
Kenyan elections in 2007 (see Etzo&Collender)
 The mobile phone is only a tool, it does not change
power relations or stop oppression (Molony 2009)
 The use of the mobile phone is often only social, not
related to economic goals (Molony 2008, Brinkman et
al. 2009)


12. 
Is the mobile phone leading to empowerment?
Who are empowered and how?

13. SMS STUDY IN SENEGAL
French - official langauge
African languages – spoken
languages (Wolof, Pulaar)
Arabic – religious language
English – Amercian, young
Spanish – ”telenovelas”
Urban Wolof – mixed language
How are African languages used
in text messages and how does
this influence their status as
written languages?

14. METHODS
15 informants
500 text messages
(phtographs)
30 e-mails
10 instant messaging
conversations
Interviews and observation

15. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS I
LANGUAGE CHOICES IN THE SMS (N=450)
0%
1%
2%
1%
1% 1%
2%
French
French&Wolof
5%
4%
French & English
French & Wolof & Arabic
6%
47%
French & Wolof & English
French & Arabic
30%
French & Wolof & English & Spanish
Wolof
Wolof & Arabic
Wolof & English
Pulaar
Pulaar & other languages

16. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS II
TOPICS OF THE SMS (N=450)
2%
1%
Greeting religious feast
1%
Greeting non religious occasion
8%
18%
Greeting without occasion
8%
Personal information
4%
Professional/study information
Romantic messages
17%
15%
Different announcements
Arrange a meeting
Funny messages
10%
16%
Chain messages
Others

17. IDENTITY
Identity is elaborated during interaction –
talking identities - through co-construction and
co-articulation
(Androutsopoulos&Georgakopoulou 2003)
 Acts of identity (Le Page&Tabouret-Keller 1985)
– talking is invitation, asking for solidarity


18. ETHNIC IDENTITY
„Me too, I miss you, my dear little sister and my loved
one. I do not stop and I will not stop thinking of you.‟

19. PLAYING ON DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF
IDENTITY
’Thanks queen, I miss you a lot, have you started
the classes, are you staying on campus, I miss
you, where is your love, is he lost in the
traffic, next.‟

20. RELIGIOUS IDENTITY
Peace. I wish you get
well soon. May God
give you peace and
good health. Amen.

21. GLOBAL RESOURCES – LOCAL IDENTITIES
‟Hi! Forgive me my
sins, I have forgiven
you. May God forgive
us!‟
Texters draw on global and local
linguistic resources in crafting their
messages. Use of English is a marker
of youth identity.

22. ”SOMEBODY THAT SHOULD BE LISTENED
TO”
Je vois maintenant que tu
m’as complètement
abandonné, tu ne penses
même plus à m’appeler.
Pourtant « DARA JARU
KO FI » NDAXTE NAG
», je reste et resterai
toujours PAPA. MERCI.
„I see now that you‟ve left
me completely, you don‟t
even think of calling me
any more. Still, it
doesn‟t matter because I
am and always will be
Papa. Thank you‟.

23. URBAN IDENTITY – THE EMERGENCE OF A
WRITTEN MIXED CODE
Hi Mrs
NN, so, what’s new?
I seriously miss
you!! How is your
feast [marking the
end of Ramadan]?
Hey you, I was going
to call you, but, you
know, I didn‟t have
the time, because my
baby [boyfriend] is
back, sticking out
my tongue! I’ll call
you, kiss

24. VALUES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE LANGUAGES:
FRENCH AS THE ROMANTIC LANGUAGE, ”MAD
LOVE”
I can‟t sleep, cause you
haunt my spirit... My
honey [lit. flea], I‟ve
never loved like I love
you! You‟ve given me
everything, I‟ve offered
you everything, you are
made for me, I will live
for you, I love you, my
darling.

25. ”COUPLE IDENTITY” AND ALTERNATION OF
VOICES: THE ROMANTIC VOICE
My present will
dishonour my
past, even more so
my future, when it
comes to my love
for you. You, my
heart, you, who
make me want to
travel, to succeed
and make sure that
you don’t miss
anything. I love you.

26. EMPOWERMENT THROUGH AFRICAN
LANGUAGES LITERACY?
„Hello. Happy New
Year. Be clement to
me, forgive me, for all
that is invisible and
visible. May God
accept [our worship].
Thank you.‟

27. OTHER MOTIVATIONS FOR SWITCHING
LANGUAGES
May Almighty God
forgive us our
sins, accept our
fasting, may his grâce
and his mercy be upon
us. My mobile was not
working. I will always
love you, but you
have to call me or
send me messages.

28. 1.
2.
3.
Is the mobile phone leading to empowerment?
Who are empowered and how?
How is mobile phone use related to young
Africans‟ identity construction?
Has the mobile phone had greater impact on
people‟s lives in Africa than in Europe?

29. REFERENCES (IN ADDITION TO READING
LIST)
Archambault, Julie S. (2011) Breaking up Because of the Phone. New Media and Society 13 no. 3 444456.
Brinkman, Inge, Mirjam de Bruijn and Hisham Bilal (2009) The Mobile Phone, ‟Modernity‟ and
Change in Khartoum, Sudan, in de Bruijn et al. (eds.) : 69-91.
Bruijn, Mirjam de, Francis Nyamnjoh and Inge Brinkman (eds.) (2009a) Mobile Phones: the new
talking drums of everyday Africa, Bamenda (Cameroun)/Leiden, LANGAA/Africa Studies Centre.
Castells, Manuel (2001) The Internet Galaxy: reflections on the Internet, business and
society, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Deumert, Ana and Lexander, Kristin (2013) Texting Africa. Journal of Sociolinguistics.
Dibakana, Jean-Aimé (2002) Usages sociaux du téléphone portable et nouvelles sociabilités
au Congo, Politique Africaine, 85 : 133-150.
Katz, James E. (ed.) (2008) Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies, Londres,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Kibora, Ludovic (2009) Téléphonie mobile : l‟appropriation du SMS par une « société
d‟oralité», in de Bruijn et al. (eds.) : 110-124.
Molony, Thomas (2008) Nondevelopmental Uses of Mobile Communication in Tanzania, in Katz (ed.) :
339-352.
Molony, Thomas (2009) Trading Places in Tanzania: mobility and marginalisation at time of travelsaving technologies, in de Bruijn et al. (eds.) : 92-109.
Overå, Ragnhild (2008) Mobile Traders and Mobile Phones in Ghana, in Katz (ed.) : 43-54.
Tall, Serigne Mansour (2002) Les émigrés sénégalais et les nouvelles technologies de l‟information et
de la communication, in Diop, Momar Coumba (ed.) Le Sénégal à l’heure de l’information.