Everyday Use of Mobile Phones in Niger

Abstract

This paper critically examines the effects of mobile phone use on relationshipsamong people in Niger. The study is based on a fieldwork conducted during thesummer of 2003 and 2004 among Nigerien urban users of mobile phones inNiamey, the capital city. Semi-structured interviews were used to find out howpeople ‘experience’ the use of mobile phones in their everyday life. The authorargues that the use of mobile phones in Niger is expanding women’s sphere ofprivacy, challenging the disintegration effects of urban life, reinforcing communalties, changing social use of time and what Pertierra et al. (2002) call ‘discursivepractices.’ The paper concludes by explaining that the popularity of mobilephones in Africa and particularly in Niger lies essentially in the manipulabilityand low cost of those telecommunications devices, including the fact that mobilephones do not require a certain level of literacy among the users.