About the editors Ineke Buskens is a cultural anthropologist with a passion for research methodology and women’s empowerment, and a deep appreciation for cultural diversity and individual human uniqueness. She graduated in Leiden, the Nether­ lands, and has lived in Ghana, India and Brazil. In 1990 she arrived in South Africa and in 1996 she founded her company Research for the Future. She has worked since as an independent international research, gender and pro­ cess facilitation consultant. In her research she focuses on emancipatory approaches that envision a sustainable, just and loving world, in her research training on bringing out the genius in every participant, in her facilitation work on gender awareness and authentic collaboration. Ineke is cur­ rently leading the GRACE Network, which has twenty­eight research teams, located in nineteen countries in Africa and the Middle East, involved in gender research in information and communication technology for women’s empowerment. Ineke is a student of Ramtha’s School of Enlightenment in Yelm, Washington, USA and this learning journey inspires her to embrace the unknown in all aspects of her life. Anne Webb is the GRACE research coordinator. Her commit­ ment to feminist qualitive research is rooted in participatory action research approaches. She has worked with commun­ ities and research teams for the past fifteen years pursuing the reduction of inequalities. Trained in sociology, adult education and gender studies in Toronto (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and The Hague (Institute for Social Studies), her education has involved people from all walks of life and locations, formally and informally, in Canada, Europe and Africa, and is a continually enriching process. Anne currently resides in Quebec, Canada. This page intentionally left blank AFRICAN WOMEN AND ICTS investigating technology, gender and empowerment edited by Ineke Buskens and Anne Webb Zed Books london | new york International Development Research Centre ottawa | cairo | dakar | montevideo | nairobi new delhi | singapore African women and ICTs: investigating technology, gender and em­ powerment was first published in 2009 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9jf, uk and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa www.zedbooks.co.uk isbn 978 1 84813 191 0 hb isbn 978 1 84813 192 7 pb International Development Research Centre, PO Box 8500, Ottawa, on, Canada k1g 3h9 [email protected] / www.idrc.ca eisbn 978 1 55250 399 7 Editorial copyright © Ineke Buskens and Anne Webb, 2009 Individual chapters copyright © the contributors, 2009 The rights of Ineke Buskens and Anne Webb to be identified as the editors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 Set in OurType Arnhem and Futura Bold by Ewan Smith, London Index: [email protected] Cover designed by Andrew Corbett Printed in the UK by the MPG Books Group Distributed in the usa exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St Martin’s Press, llc, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available Contents Acknowledgements | vii Foreword by Heloise Emdon | viii Introduction | ineke buskens and anne webb . 1 1 Doing research with women for the purpose of transformation | ineke buskens . 9 ONE | ICT tools: access and use 2 Women’s use of information and communication technologies in Mozambique: a tool for empowerment? | gertrudes macueve, judite mandlate, lucia ginger, polly gaster and esselina macome. 21 3 Considering ICT use when energy access is not secured: a case study from rural South Africa | jocelyn muller . 33 4 Rural women’s use of cell phones to meet their communication needs: a study from northern Nigeria | kazanka comfort and john dada . 44 5 Egyptian women artisans facing the demands of modern markets: caught between a rock and a hard place | leila hassanin . 56 TWO | Female-only ICT spaces: perceptions and practices 6 When a gender­blind access policy results in discrimination: realities and perceptions of female students at the University of Zimbabwe | buhle mbambo-thata, elizabeth mlambo and precious mwatsiya . 67 7 An alternative public space for women: the potential of ICT | leila hassanin . 77 8 Using ICTs to act on hope and commitment: the fight against gender violence in Morocco | amina tafnout and aatifa timjerdine . 88 9 The names in your address book: are mobile phone networks effective in advocating women’s rights in Zambia? | kiss brian abraham . 97 THREE | Using ICTs: making life better? 10 Mobile phones in a time of modernity: the quest for increased self­sufficiency among women fishmongers and fish processors in Dakar | ibou sane and mamadou balla traore. .107 11 Women entrepreneurs in Nairobi: examining and contextualizing women’s choices | alice wanjira munyua . .119 12 Internet use among women entrepreneurs in the textile sector in Douala, Cameroon: self­taught and independent | gisele yitamben and elise tchinda . .133 13 ICTs as agents of change: a case of grassroots women entre­ preneurs in Uganda | susan bakesha, angela nakafeero and dorothy okello . .143 14 The mobile payphone business: a vehicle for rural women’s empowerment in Uganda | grace bantebya kyomuhendo . .154 FOUR | Creating new realities 15 Professional women empowered to succeed in Kenya’s ICT sector | okwach abagi, olive sifuna and salome awuor omamo. .169 16 Reflections on the mentoring experiences of ICT career women in Nairobi, Kenya: looking in the mirror | salome awuor omamo . .183 17 Our journey to empowerment: the role of ICT | ruth meena and mary rusimbi . .193 Epilogue | ineke buskens and anne webb . .207 Notes on contributors | 210 Index | 217 Acknowledgements We want to thank, in the first place, Heloise Emdon, International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Acacia Programme Man­ ager, who had the vision to have African women’s information and communication technology (ICT) stories told. We also want to thank Jenny Radloff, Chat Garcia Ramilo and Anriette Ester­ huysen, of the Association for Progressive Communications, for conceptualizing the idea of an African ICT gender research net­ work, together with Heloise. We want to thank IDRC for funding us and believing in us. Ramata Thioune and Edith Adera especially have been a source of inspiration and strength. It has been a privilege to work with the women respondents who have contributed to our understandings of women’s journeys towards empowerment, and what roles ICTs are playing and could play in these. We have been greatly enriched by our research encounters with you. We are thankful to those organizations that created pathways for us to reach the women we needed to speak with. It is impossible to mention all those who have been assisting us and nurturing us as individuals and as a network. We want to particularly thank Helena Bailey, Leverne Gething, Lois Gibbs, Richard Grant, Nancy Hafkin, Grant Marinus, Tamsine O’Riordan, Nidhi Tandon, Fatima Timjerdine and Tatjana Vukoja. We are grateful to our families and friends for your patience and for putting up with our absences. Your love was the hand on our back as we went forward. We also want to thank each other for staying true to our passion and each other, taking in our stride the tensions and conflicts which such a diverse collection of people inevitably creates. Our alignment with the purpose we all stand for has been our strength and our convergence. The GRACE Network Foreword Women in Africa are undeniably participating in the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution and they are doing so in many and varied ways; the changes that the use of these tools have brought about are visible everywhere. Furthermore, the prospects of ICTs for development and women’s empowerment seem promising. Yet women’s stories about their experiences and use of these tools are not heard: are their lives changing for the better because of these new technologies? If so, in what ways are they changing? Are there areas in which women could and should participate in this ICT revolution but are not, because they are women? How can women’s perspectives, insights and realities in relation to the use and potentials of ICTs be integrated into ICT policies that are currently being developed and implemented across the continent? These were the questions that led the Acacia Programme of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), which supports research in Africa on information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D), and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) to call together in 2004 in Johannesburg, South Africa, a collective of African academics and activists known for their passionate involvement with women’s empowerment and ICTs. The perspectives of the women of Africa needed to be narrated and this knowledge needed to be brought to the world by African researchers. It was envisioned that a research network would emerge from this group of individuals that would operate as a virtual research team. The idea was accepted and GRACE (Gender Research in Africa into ICTs for Empowerment) was born. While the research teams were all encouraged to follow their individual research passions, design their own methodology and formulate their own research questions, there was a common ground and an alignment to a shared purpose. The thinking in development studies has evolved: the idea that providing interventions in the form of infrastructure suffices in attracting the intended beneficiaries and brings about change is outdated. The trickle­down approach – which counts on the de­ veloped aspects of the economy uplifting the more disadvantaged – actually leads to greater inequalities.