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Mobile Phone Communication in the Mobile Margins of Africa: The ‘Communication Revolution’ Evaluated from Below

In: The Palgrave Handbook of Media and Communication Research in Africa
Bruce Mutsvairo (ed.)
Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2018), pp. 225-241

ISBN 978-3-319-70442-5 (print); 978-3-319-70443-2 (ebook)

"In this chapter we have offered an interpretation of the first twenty years of mobile telephony in marginal zones in Africa. With case-studies from central Mali, anglophone Cameroon and south-east Angola, we focused on the changes in both communication and mobility patterns, specifically in connection with marginality and social hierarchies. We started the chapter with a discussion of the concepts of marginality and mobility. The two next sections offered both positive evaluations of mobile telephony and more balanced or even negative views. Our subsequent discussion of social hierarchies made it clear that the mobile phone has indeed offered possibilities for marginalised people in Africa. Yet at the same time, social hierarchies have been reinforced through the new means of communication, and in some cases even deepened. We then showed that the changes in the realm of mobility have not overcome the patterns of inequality. Social hierarchies may even be exported into new contexts, and the possibilities therefore have not increased." (Conclusion, page 237)