ABSTRACT
The rapid appropriation of information and communication technologies in Africa has sparked an abundant literature centered on the “transformative” character of computers and mobile phone technologies. For many authors (Davison et al., 2000; Steinmueller, 2001; Fleming, 2003; Waverman et al., 2005) ICTs use will enable Africa to achieve leapfrogging development. That is why a number of international organizations and agencies have now placed ICTs at the heart of their development strategies through programs and projects centered on education, health, trade, governance, gender, etc. In recent decades these initiatives have been particularly concerned with the way computers and the Internet can be used to promote and foster both the economic and the social well-being of African communities. However, with the advent of the mobile phone, it is around the possible leveling effect of this technology, that much developmentalist discourse tends now to focus (Hyde-Clarke and van Tonder, 2011). It is argued that the mobile phone, unlike the computer, is ubiquitous, cheap, offers innovative functions (such as the ability to access the Internet), and presents few barriers to adoption by all social strata and classes, including the poorest. More and more scholars and development actors now believe that it will be the use of the mobile phone that will finally reduce, if not eliminate, the digital divide. Authors like Geser note, for example, that “by being adopted, irrespective of education and family background, the cell phone bridges at least some gaps between different social classes” (Geser, 2004, p. 6). For his part Boyera writes: “One of the most promising directions to bridge the Digital Divide is to provide eServices on mobile phones” (2007, p. 1). In those arguments, the underlying assumption is that having or not having the technical object is the main barrier or inequality between users.
