Mobile phones

De Bruijn, M., Nyamnjoh, F., & Nyamnjoh, F. (Eds.) (2009). Mobile phones: The new talking drums of everyday Africa. Langaa RPCIG

Preface

An except from Married but available, A novel by Francis B. Nyamnjoh
1.	Introduction: Mobile communication and new social spaces in Africa by Mirjam de Bruijn, Francis B. Nyamnjoh, & Inge Brinkman
2.	Phoning anthropologist: The mobile phone's (Re-) shaping of anthropological research by Lotte Pelckmans
3.	From the elitist to the commonality of voice communication: The history of the telephone in Buea, Cameroon by Walther Game Nkwi
4.	The mobile phone, “Modernity” and change in Khartoum, Sudan by Inge Brinkman, Mirjam de Bruijn,, & Hisbam Bilal
5.	Trading places in Tanzania: Mobility and marginalization at a time of travel-saving technologies by Thomas Molony
6.	Telephonie mobile: L'apporpriation du SMS par une “societe de L'oralte” by Ludoric Kibora
7.	The healer and his phone: Medicinal dynamics among the Kapsiki/ Higi of North Cameroon by Wouter ran Beek
8.	The mobility of a mobile phone: Examining “Swahilness” through an object's biography by Julia Pfaff
9.	Could connectivity replace mobility? An analysis of Internet café use patterns in Accra, Ghana by Jenna Burrell

List of authors

Product Description 'We cannot imagine life now without a mobile phone' is a frequent comment when Africans are asked about mobile phones. They have become part and parcel of the communication landscape in many urban and rural areas of Africa and the growth of mobile telephony is amazing: from 1 in 50 people being users in 2000 to 1 in 3 in 2008. Such growth is impressive but it does not even begin to tell us about the many ways in which mobile phones are being appropriated by Africans and how they are transforming or are being transformed by society in Africa. This volume ventures into such appropriation and mutual shaping. Rich in theoretical innovation and empirical substantiation, it brings together reflections on developments around the mobile phone by scholars of six African countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania) who explore the economic, social and cultural contexts in which the mobile phone is being adopted, adapted and harnessed by mobile Africa.