SMS Uprising

Mobile Activism in Africa

Edited by Sokari Ekine

SMS Uprising provides a unique insight into how activists and social change advocates are addressing Africa’s many challenges from within, and how they are using mobile telephone technologies to facilitate these changes.

This collection of essays by those engaged in using mobile phone technologies for social change provides an analysis of the socio-economic, political and media contexts faced by activists in Africa today. The essays address a broad range of issues including inequalities in access to technology based on gender, rural and urban usage, as well as offering practical examples of how activists are using mobile technology to organise and document their experiences. They provide an overview of the lessons learned in making effective use of mobile phone technologies without any of the romanticism so often associated with the use of new technologies for social change. The examples are shared in a way that makes them easy to replicate – ‘Try this idea in your campaign.’ The intention is that the experiences described within the book will lead to greater reflection about the real potential and limitations of mobile technologies.

Edited by Nigerian activist Sokari Ekine, who runs the prize-winning blog Black Looks, the book brings together some of the best known and experienced developers and users of mobile phone technologies in Africa, including Juliana Rotich from Ushahidi in Kenya, Ken Banks of Kiwanja.net, and Berna Ngolobe of WOUGNET in Uganda.

Contributors: Nathan Eagle, Ken Banks, Redante Asuncion-Reed, Anil Naidoo, Amanda Atwood, Christiana Charles-Iyoha, Becky Faith, Joshua Goldstein, Christian Kreutz, Tanya Notley, Juliana Rotich, Berna Twanza Ngolobe, Bukeni Waruzi

Contents

Introduction ix
Sokari Ekine

Part I: The context

1 Economics and power within the African telecommunications industry 2
Nathan Eagle

2 Mobile activism in Africa: future trends and software developments 17
Christian Kreutz

3 Social mobile: empowering the many or the few? 32
Ken Banks

4 Mobiles in-a-box: developing a toolkit with grassroots human rights advocates 40
Tanya Notley and Becky Faith

Part II: Mobile democracy: SMS case studies

5 Fahamu: using cell phones in an activist campaign 56
Redante Asuncion-Reed

6 The UmNyango project: using SMS for political participation in rural KwaZulu Natal 71
Anil Naidoo

7 Kubatana in Zimbabwe: mobile phones for advocacy 86
Amanda Atwood

8 Women in Uganda: mobile activism for networking and advocacy 105
Berna Ngolobe

9 Mobile telephony: closing the gap 116
Christiana Charles-Iyoha

10 Digitally networked technology in Kenya’s 2007–08 post-election crisis 124
Joshua Goldstein and Juliana Rotich

11 Using mobile phones for monitoring human rights violations in the DRC 138
Bukeni Waruzi

About the Author

Sokari Ekine is an activist with a multidisciplinary background in technology, education and human rights. She has a postgraduate degree in human rights and education and has worked in adult education and several online publications including Pambazuka News. She is the author of the blog Black Looks.