Open AccessMobile apps for the illiterate
Author(s) -
Aimé Sègla
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
zeitschrift für technikfolgenabschätzung in theorie und praxis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2568-020X
pISSN - 2567-8833
DOI - 10.14512/tatup.28.2.s50
Subject(s) - functional illiteracy , yoruba , craft , information and communications technology , ethnography , mobile technology , indigenous , political science , sociology , geography , mobile device , world wide web , computer science , anthropology , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , archaeology , law , biology
Mobile phones and web digital tools contribute to the personal development of the individual and his or her capacity to develop initiatives e. g. for economic growth. Yet, many people cannotbenefit from new technologies as digital services in sub-Saharan Africa are mostly configured in foreign languages. Illiteracy and language barriers remain a major challenge for digitalization inAfrica. However, the case of Yoruba illiterates in the central Republic of Benin shows that indigenous people are innovative and create new procedural knowledge. They have developed alternative strategies to benefit from information and communications technology (ICT). Based on approximately 50 interviews with traders, peasants, art craft (wo)men, and members of convents, my ethnographic research explores how the Yoruba people of Benin utilize mobile phones in their mother tongue.