Running head: MOBILE MOMBASA 1
Mobile Mombasa:
Female Youth Cultural Productions,
Global Media and Communication Technologies on the
Coast of Kenya
By Chelsea Hansen
University of Florida
1
1 Young women gathered in a living room with cell phones, a typical scene of socialization. MOBILE MOMBASA 2
Acknowledgments:
Thank you to everyone who made my stay in Mombasa so memorable and exciting. To
Mama Ken and Miss Grace for showing me around and taking care of me. To Wakesho and Njiti for feeding me. To Sijah for entertaining me. To Mary for being my constant companion. To all of “The Crackers” for their insights, time, and friendship. To Ednah for picking me up at the airport. To Mwalimu Rose for helping me to organize the trip and giving me the opportunity to meet and become part of her family. To Dr. Brenda Chalfin for guiding me through the experience of doing anthropological research, for reading and editing drafts and patiently going along with last minute deadlines. To the University Scholars Program for helping me fund this project. To my parents for their unending emotional (and financial) support.To David and Ori, my post-human informants. To 250 for his spiritual inspiration. Thanks, you all rock mad hard!
MOBILE MOMBASA 3
Table of Contents
Abstract 4
Chapter One Introduction: Formulating and Ethnographic Study and Entering a Community 5
Chapter Two Community: Virtual Sociality and New Strategies of Connection 37
Chapter Three Identity: Conceptualizing the Self through Technology 72
Chapter Four Conclusion: Summary of findings and Thoughts for Future Research 92
Epilogue 99
References 105
MOBILE MOMBASA 4
Abstract
Information and communication technologies play a significant role in much of the developing world including Africa. Furthermore, Africa is currently experiencing what is termed a “youth bulge,” resulting in a myriad of cultural productions. This research demonstrates how female youth in Mombasa have incorporated communication technologies into their daily lives in innovative ways thus creating for themselves a space of youth expression. Rather than focusing on these technologies as they have been implicated in strategies of development, this research highlights the social roles of communication technologies in the lives of youth. More specifically, this paper argues that the increasing popularity of cell phones and Facebook serves to revitalize social connections and provides an avenue for youth self-creation and reflection.
MOBILE MOMBASA 5
Chapter 1 Introduction: Formulating an Ethnographic Study and
Entering a Community
2
2 Chelsea at Fort Jesus, a fearless anthropologist ready to conquer her ethnography. MOBILE MOMBASA 6
Formulating an Ethnographic Study
3
When I first started to consider doing research in Kenya I had no idea what to expect. It is difficult to formulate a research proposal when you have never been to a place and do not know what you will find or what your access to the community will be. I began meeting with Dr.
Chalfin to formulate a broad research plan that would be open to adaptation as necessary. She pointed me towards several articles to read in order to formulate some ideas about the types of research I could do. Studying communication technologies was not something that occurred to me until I had been in Mombasa for about a week or two. Towards the end of my stay I sent Dr.
Chalfin a summary of my findings and the direction that my research had taken. She assured me that “research proposals can only get one so far. Responding to the conditions of fieldwork is essential for relevant research”(Dr. Brenda Chalfin, personal correspondence, June 10, 2009).
Therefore, this research has largely been a personal experiment in learning to be responsive to the conditions of the field and understanding that things will never necessarily turn out as
3 Map of Kenya retrieved from http://ourdems.org/kenya/pix/KenyaMap.jpg MOBILE MOMBASA 7 expected. It has also forced me to consider myself as an anthropologist, which has been both frustrating and exhilarating and continues to be an ongoing negotiation.
Although researching communication technologies did not occur to me until I had arrived in Mombasa, I did go into my research with the intention of studying youth cultural productions.
The reasoning for this is attributed largely to two factors. First, my original interest in studying youth arose simply because of their vast demographic importance within Africa as a whole. Most of sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing what is termed a “youth bulge,” meaning that people aged
15 to 24 constitute up to 40 percent of the population. This demographic structure is typically found in populations with both high rates of fertility and mortality (Gavin, 2007, p.69). The second reason I chose youth as the focus of my research was more pragmatic and was simply because it was the community I had the greatest access to as an anthropologist. In making plans for my trip my Swahili professor, Dr. Rose Lugano, told me that she had a niece and a nephew around my age who would be available to travel with me and show me around. Her niece, in particular, became invaluably important to the development of my research. Once Dr. Lugano gave me the names of her niece and nephew I immediately found them on Facebook, at her suggestion, to introduce myself. Therefore, although I did not consciously realize it at this point, the foundations for my research into communication technologies among the youth in Mombasa had actually begun before I even left the U.S.
When I arrived in Nairobi Dr. Lugano had arranged for her sister and brother-in-law to pick me up from the airport. I spent the afternoon at their home, and later that evening they drove me to the train station so I could continue on to Mombasa. I had asked them to pick out a cell phone for me so that I would be able to contact my host family when I arrived in Mombasa, and so that I could enjoy a general sense of connectedness while traveling. I gave them no MOBILE MOMBASA 8 specifications, as I was unfamiliar with the cell phone situation in Kenya at the time, and simply trusted their judgment. When I arrived they had for me a sleek Nokia with a camera, MP3 player, and Internet capabilities.4 They had also gotten me a SIM card (phone number/service provider) from the local service provider, Safaricom. I had no idea that these seemingly mundane details would in fact come to form the basis of my research. What I came to discover, and even participate in as a youth myself, is that for the middle class and upwardly mobile youth in Mombasa the cell phone is one of the most important objects of material culture in their lives.
In fact, throughout Kenya cell phones have led to tremendous growth in the communications sector with an estimated 7.3 million subscribers as of October 2006. This number is staggering when one considers that in 1999 there were merely 24,000. (Van Buren, 2008, p. 604).
4 I often joke with my parents about how much nicer my cell phone in Kenya was compared to the one I have here in the U.S. MOBILE MOMBASA 9
Brief Historical Overview of Mombasa and the Kenyan Coast
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Before I begin discussing my own experiences and observation in Mombasa, some brief information on the area may be helpful. As this was meant merely to be an historical overview, all of the information presented here, except where cited otherwise, was pulled from Robert
Maxon’s East Africa: An Introductory History (2009). I have therefore not used citations throughout this section unless to indicate an additional source.
Mombasa is a bustling urban center on the eastern coast of Kenya. It is the second largest city in Kenya smaller only than the capital of Nairobi. As of the 1999 census it held a population of 660, 800, however, it was projected that by 2005 the population would be approximately
817,000 so it is likely that by now the population is much greater (Europa Regional Surveys,
2008, p. 608).6 Geographically, Mombasa is an island formed from old estuaries that have turned
5 Map of Mombasa, image retrieved from: http://www.eapc09.org/assets/images/mombasa_map.jpg 6 Current and reliable census data was hard to find broken down by city, but after examining several sources there was enough consensus for me to accept these figures. Furthermore, it was unclear if data took into consideration only Mombasa Island or the entire city of Mombasa. MOBILE MOMBASA 10 into deep inlets. Therefore, the city of Mombasa consists of this island (Mombasa Island) as well as the northern and southern coastal regions surrounding it. I myself stayed on the northern coast, best known for the area of Nyali, a region famous for its upscale tourist resorts and a high concentration of Europeans. The major religions are Islam and Christianity (with some other
African religious traditions and Hinduism as well) and it is not uncommon to see a church and a mosque right down the road from one another, a true testament to Mombasa’s important historical role as a place where the East and the West have met.7
Historical evidence suggests that as early as the end of the eight century a Swahili speaking people had emerged in small towns along the East African coast influenced largely by trade across the Indian Ocean. Small trading towns began to develop along the coast including
Mombasa by 1000A.D. In addition to trade in goods, contact with regions across the Indian
Ocean exposed the East African Coast to Islam which was largely accepted there by the thirteenth century. The different trading town scattered across the coast went through periods of increased importance and by the middle of the fifteenth century Mombasa had become the most important of the northern towns with ivory as a significant export.
By the sixteenth century the Portuguese had begun stopping in East Africa on their way to trade with India. Although they did not ultimately leave much cultural legacy, their presence on the east coast of Africa was violent and devastating to trade. The largest factor aiding in
Portuguese conquest was the inability of the East African coastal trading towns to organize together, thus giving the Portuguese a clear strategic advantage. In 1505 a Portuguese fleet led by
Francisco de Almeida attacked Mombasa. Although the damage was great, Mombasa quickly recovered. After this, however, the distaste for the Portuguese grew, and in 1585 when Amir Ali
7 Having spent the summer in a place where these religions were able to get along so amicably in such close and persistent proximity, I was particularly struck when I returned to Gainesville, Florida to be told that some scandals had erupted over the summer over a local church touting signs and shirts that read “Islam is of the Devil.” MOBILE MOMBASA 11
Bey (a Turkish adventurer) arrived to join the coastal cities to fight against the Portuguese he met with strong support in Mombasa. Understanding the risk posed by Amir Ali Bey, the Portuguese sent a large fleet to Mombasa in 1589. This coincided with an attack from the Zimba, a group of people from the African interior known for their war prowess. The Portuguese were able to use this to their advantage and by cooperating with the Zimba took the city of Mombasa. After these events, the Portuguese decided to maintain a more permanent presence in East Africa and in
1593 handed control of Mombasa to the ruler of Malindi (with whom they had long standing allegiances) and constructed Fort Jesus at the entrance of Mombasa harbor. This in itself, however, did not serve to ensure Portuguese control over East Africa.
The most noteworthy resistance came in the 1630s from Yusuf bin Hasan. Although raised by the Portuguese and baptized as a Christian, he identified more with the Muslims of the
East African coast and in 1631 took control of Mombasa. Although the Portuguese were unable to defeat Yusuf they did regain control of Fort Jesus after he left to fight Portuguese ships elsewhere. However, by the 1650s the Portuguese control of the Indian Ocean had begun to weaken and they were eventually attacked by the Omani Arabs in East Africa. By 1698, due to intervention from the Omani Arabs, the Portuguese had lost control of Fort Jesus and Mombasa, effectively ending any significant Portuguese control in the northern regions of East Africa.
Despite their considerable presence very little remains in terms of Portuguese cultural influence on the east coast of Africa north of Mozambique. With the fall of the Portuguese the Oman became the strongest outside force in the region, though it was only able to exert loose control. It was during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, that Arab architectural and linguistic influence became more evident along the East African coast.
During the eighteenth century Mombasa remained one of the most significant coastal MOBILE MOMBASA 12 cities with Oman immigrants such as the Mazrui family taking up permanent residence there.
Additionally, the close relations Mombasa maintained with the Mijikenda people8 encouraged increased trade and stability in the region. Thus even under Oman rule, Mombasa maintained a certain autonomy and power. However, the power Mombasa held under the Mazrui family weaken once Seyyid Said took control of the Oman. Particularly, his alliance with the British
(who saw him as vehicle to stop the Indian Ocean slave trade) aided significantly in his quest for control of the East African coast. Moreover, Said used the resentment of other coastal cities to
Mombasa’s dominance to his advantage. As Mombasa’s position began to weaken due to attacks from other coastal cities, Said was able to move in and secure control. Said’s ambitions were halted, however, in 1824 when Mombasa became a British protectorate after Captain W.F. Owen provided protection for Mombasa from the Omani in exchange for the Mazrui agreeing to stop the slave trade. This protectorate only lasted until 1826, and in 1827 Said tried once again to take
Mombasa by making agreements with the Mazrui, but was forced out in 1828. He underwent two more unsuccessful attempts in 1829 and 1833. Finally, in 1837 Mombasa fell to Said, thus establishing Omani rule over the East African coast. Said did not remain in Mombasa, however, but instead took up permanent residence in Zanzibar.
With their increasing efforts to stop the slave trade, European influence (particularly
British and German) became more visible in East Africa. By the middle of the nineteenth century several European missionary groups had established themselves throughout East Africa including along the coast, and between 1880 and 1895 Britain and Germany divided East Africa between themselves. Initially unwilling to take over direct control of these regions, the governments of
8 Spear (1974) describes the Mijikenda as “nine closely related but distinct people who share a common history, language and culture” (p.68). They include the Kauma, the Chonyi, the Jibana, the Giriama, the Kambe, the Ribe, the Rabai, the Duruma and the Digo. They settled behind the Kenyan coast along a “ridge that runs parallel to the Kenya Coast from Kilifi Creek in the north to the Shimba Hills in the South” (p.68). They, along with the Swahili, the Bajun, the Pokomo, the Segeju and the Taiti, constitute the coastal peoples. MOBILE MOMBASA 13
Britain and Germany established charter companies to handle the administrative and financial affairs of the territories. In 1888 the Imperial British East Africa (IBEA) Company was set up. It initially established its headquarters in Mombasa, but later moved to Uganda. On July 1, 1895 the area today known as Kenya came under the control of the British government as the East
Africa Protectorate. The increasing attention towards the interior prompted colonial officials to build a form of transportation linking Uganda with the coast, and in 1896 construction for a railroad began in Mombasa. It was through the construction of this railroad that Nairobi became the capital of the protectorate. This railroad also encouraged colonial officials to seek greater control over the population of Kenya, an ambition which was met with resistance. One of the first serious challenges against increased British control came from the Mazrui of Mombasa in
1895 after the British lent support to a rival successor. However, by 1896 the threat was put down when imperial troops arrived from India to aid in securing British control. As an important urban center, Mombasa, along with Nairobi, became significant areas of nationalist activity as the twentieth century progressed. As the people of Kenya grew increasingly dissatisfied with
British rule, trade unionism began to flourish with strikes in Mombasa as early as 1947. The people of Kenya increasingly rallied around nationalist causes and formed groups to fight against colonial domination, the most famous in Kenya being the Mau Mau Association. In June of 1963
Kenya became self-governing under Jomo Kenyatta with full independence coming in December of that same year.
Today Mombasa remains an important urban center and location of trade, and its historical role as a meeting place of cultures remains a visible part of the city’s character. Arab architectural influence, although most prominent along the coastal area of Mombasa Island near
Fort Jesus, is evident throughout the city and is complemented with European style resorts. MOBILE MOMBASA 14
Although I was staying in a Christian home on the north coast, I was greeted each day with the
Muslim call to prayer from a neighboring mosque.9 With the largest port in East Africa,
Mombasa continues to link interior East Africa with the wider world and remains an important location of cultural exchanges and global flows of commodities. From the beach near the Likoni
Ferry10 one can see ships entering and leaving the port, and throughout the city vendors are scattered selling anything from DVDs to buibuis11 to cosmetics. In addition to independent vendors there are large chain stores such as Nakumatt.12 There is also a business district which consists of tall office buildings.13There are internet cafés and music shops and small restaurants peppered throughout all areas of the city, and perhaps the most ubiquitous images are cell phone advertisements. Cell phone service logos are painted on buildings, walls and fences and posters for them are plastered on nearly every surface.
14
9 Muslims pray five times a day. Usually a local mosque will announce over a speaker phone that it is prayer time. People will either go to a mosque or will have a place in their homes to do the prayer. They must always pray facing Mecca and in many buildings throughout East Africa there will often be arrows on the ceiling indicating the direction to face. 10 A ferry which goes from the south end of Mombasa Island to the south coast of Mombasa. There is a lookout point on a beach near the ferry stop on Mombasa Island. 11 The name used in East Africa for the long robe worn by Muslim Women. It is usually black and in Swahili the word literally means spider. 12 A shopping store which sells everything from groceries to clothing to books to furniture. The closest thing I can think to compare it to would be a super Wal-mart, however, it is considered an upper-end shopping center. 13 Maria’s mother had an office in one of these buildings and we would frequently go there to visit her and use the Internet from her computer. 14 Posters advertising cell phone companies stuck onto the side of a store MOBILE MOMBASA 15
Entering a Community
15
When I first arrived in Mombasa I was picked up from the train station by Dr. Lugano’s sister-in-law (her brother’s wife), Mama Ken, and we headed to her house where I would be staying. Dr. Lugano’s brother works in Nairobi, and he commutes to Mombasa about once a month to visit his family. On the way home we stopped by a grocery store to pick up “American snacks” because Mama Ken wanted to make sure I would be able to eat something in case I did not like the food they usually served in the house. She asked me if I liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because she had heard that this was a popular food in the U.S. We found the bread and the peanut butter fine, but the jelly gave us some trouble. I quickly learned that in Kenya if someone wants jelly they must ask for jam. If they ask for jelly they will be given jell-o. After our trip to the grocery store the idea of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made much more sense
15 Picture of Mombasa from on top of Fort Jesus. MOBILE MOMBASA 16 to Mama Ken who said she had always been a little skeptical of them. We continued home, jam and not jelly in hand, and we came across a woman walking down the road who we stopped to talk to. I was told that her name was Miss Grace and that she was married to Dr. Lugano’s brother and lived in the same house as Mama Ken and now myself. It took me about a week to realize that Dr. Lugano had two brothers and that Miss Grace and Mama Ken were not in fact in a polygamous marriage.16 It occurred to me finally when we went to Taita (the town Dr. Lugano is originally from) to attend Miss Grace’s bride price ceremony. To put it simply, despite my three years of Swahili classes, communication was a bit rough my first week in Kenya.
The house I lived in was in a neighborhood called Shanzu. It is on the northern coast of
Mombasa which is a more suburban area than Mombasa Island. The majority of the neighborhood is considered low income. Many of the houses consist of one large room with a dirt floor. There are small market stalls and vendors scattered throughout with people selling kangas and mahindi with pilipili,17various fruits and vegetables, and of course, cell phone credits. Towards the back of the neighborhood there are a few very large, elaborate houses. It is in one of these houses that Mama Ken lives. We pulled up to the driveway and she honked the horn of her car. A few minutes later a guard arrived to open the gate and let us in. At first this struck me as a glaring income discrepancy. Later, however, Mama Ken explained to me that people in neighborhoods such as Shanzu actually like it when wealthier people move into the area. Before Mama Ken moved into the neighborhood Shanzu had no running water or electricity. Although the monthly payments are not much on these amenities, getting the proper pipes and wires in place is a costly endeavor which most of the inhabitants of Shanzu could not
16 The other brother is a sailor so he was also not present in the house. 17 Kangas are a traditional East African garment. They are usually colorful and have a proverb on them. Women wrap them around there bodies for various occasions and they are also generally helpful to have around the house. Mahindi and pilipili is a roasted corn with lime juice and chili pepper powder on it. It is a common, cheap snack bought on the street and is found almost everywhere in Mombasa. MOBILE MOMBASA 17 have even come close to covering. When Mama Ken moved into the area she and a few of her neighbors paid to have all of the infrastructure for running water and electricity put in place, thus providing access to these resources for the entire neighborhood. She and her husband also paid to put running water in the region of Taita where one of Dr. Lugano’s sisters still lives.
After we returned from Taita where I spent my first weekend in Kenya, I was finally able to meet with Maria who would become my primary informant and closest friend throughout the duration of my stay. She was initially unavailable because she was taking final exams for an accounting class at a local college. Most of the youth, at least those in the middle and upper classes, attend boarding school for their secondary education. Although boarding school is thought to be the place where a student will receive the best education and the most opportunities for social advancement, the girls I met described it as miserable. They complained that nearly every moment of their lives in boarding school was scheduled, and that they never had any time to themselves to relax; there was never enough food and the quality of it was very poor. They also confided that they received harsh punishments which often included physical beatings for even minor infractions. They recalled that often times when they had to return to school after breaks they would cry the whole trip back. A few of the young women who had gone to the same school together told me that once the principle tried to cancel a scheduled break and the students actually went on strike.
All of the young women with whom I worked had attended boarding school. They were also self-identified as belonging to the middle class, and were very conscious of social status and the prospect of class mobility and planned to continue to study at the university level. After graduating from secondary school students take a series of national exams in order to qualify for the university. There is usually a period of about two years between finishing secondary school MOBILE MOMBASA 18 and being called to attend the university.18 During this time students often enroll in a few courses at a local college in order to experiment with fields of study as well as get a head start on credits to put towards their degrees. On the one hand this two year interval marks a period of unprecedented freedom as students are no longer confined within the rigid boarding school environment. Yet they are still living with their parents and thus, a certain degree of restriction is still present in their lives. My study captures a glimpse of this transitional period as I seek to uncover the ways in which female youth negotiate the terms of their lives amidst a climate of global cultural flows.
Throughout my stay I was introduced to an extensive network of friends, however, my study focuses on seven young women all between the ages of 18 and 20. I gained much insight through extended observation, and the in-depth conversations I shared with these young women shaped my interpretation and understanding of the wider trends I observed. When I first met with
Maria she had arranged for four of the other young women to come to her house, and the others I was introduced to later as result of my initial contacts. None of the young women belong to the
Swahili community and only two of them are Muslim. However, the strong influence of the
Swahili and Muslim communities in Mombasa has significantly informed the socialization of all of them, especially since they attended boarding schools with both Muslim and Christian students. The boarding schools are not segregated by religion, but rather all of the students are integrated together and separated only for the hour or so a day dedicated to religious study.
I met with Maria in her home and we talked for about an hour before her other friends arrived. At first Mama Ken had insisted that her driver bring me to Maria’s house every morning.
18 Although the increasing number of private universities in Kenya has led to more students attending college, opportunities for higher education remain limited. Furthermore, with increased college attendance there is greater competition for jobs post-graduation as the economy has not been able to absorb the influx of highly skilled professionals. For more information on university education in Kenya see Oketch (2009). MOBILE MOMBASA 19
Unfortunately, the driver also ran the neighborhood mill and was often times busy. I eventually grew tired (and not to mention felt a bit guilty) of having to take him away from his work so that he could bring me to Maria’s house every day, and I asked Mama Ken if she thought I could use the public transportation to get there by myself. She was reluctant at first, but eventually agreed to give me instructions. She walked me through each step and told me exactly how many shillings I should pay at each stop. Every day it became my routine to find a pikipiki19to take me through Shanzu to the main road, and then from the main road I would find a south bound matatu to take me to Bamburi (also on the northern coast). It was on these matatu rides to Bamburi that I began to notice that all of the signs above the market stalls along the main road (Nyali road) from the northern coast to Mombasa Island featured cell phone advertisements for the company YU.
Additionally, many of the buildings and walls on the sides of the road were painted to advertise the Orange network, Safaricom, and Zain (all cell phone service providers). Once at Bamburi I would find another matatu which would take me to Maria’s street. After arriving at Maria’s house we would invite friends over, go together to another friend’s house, or meet up with people on
Mombasa Island.
Although Maria’s home was not as extravagant as Mama Ken’s it certainly distinguished her as belonging to an upwardly mobile class.20 Her neighborhood is in the initial phases of development and there are a few nice homes such as hers popping up, surrounded by evidence of ongoing construction.21 When I arrived at her house each day she was usually sitting in the living room watching music videos, a veritable mix of artists from the U.S. and artists from the
19 A pikipiki is a small motorcycle and a matatu is a large van. Both are common, inexpensive forms of public transportation. 20 I do not have official figures on income brackets, but Maria explained that the middle class loosely includes all households with a monthly income between thirty thousand and seventy thousand Kenyan Shillings. This is a large range because it includes everything from lower-middle to upper-middle classes. 21 Several of the young women lived in neighborhoods similar to this. Increasing urbanization throughout Africa is currently a popular theme in African studies, but my observations indicate that in addition to this there may also be a trend toward suburbanization for the upwardly mobile classes. MOBILE MOMBASA 20 burgeoning African entertainment industry. Some of these young women’s favorite East African recording artists included Wahu Kagwi, Nameless (who Maria and I saw perform at a local night club), Amani, Jua Cali, Redsun, Juliana, Nyota Ndogo, Daddy Owen, Jaguar, Mustapha, P-UNIT,
Dunco, Weasel, Papa Fololo, Blue 3, AY, Ali Kiba, and Lady Jaydee. These artists generally fall into the rap, RnB, or Bongo Flava genres.
This became a common scene. Every middle class home I visited (and even some lower income homes), featured a new model television (often times a flat screen), fully equipped with a
DVD player and satellite reception, as the central focus of the living room. It is common for youth to spend several hours gathered around the television conversing with friends, music videos playing in the background. Most of my own interaction with these young women in fact took place in scenes such as this. During our gatherings interactions would go through cycles of heightened attention to the television and full engagement in conversation. The television is particularly important for these young women as much of their time is unstructured.
Furthermore, they are often alone in their homes for long periods of time and watching the television is seen as a way to pass the hours as well as keep up with the happenings of the world.
Even in social gatherings, however, the television plays an important role and will often incite conversation. If a music video or a commercial comes on that people feel particularly strongly about the conversation will often be steered in a new direction. So just as a conversation partner goes through periods of listening or passivity and then jumps in with comments, the television serves not merely as a back drop, but as an actor within social gatherings. The television has been so naturalized into these types of contexts, in fact, that if one walks into a room of girls or young women who are gathered in conversation and the television is not on, it is usually safe to assume that there has been a power failure. MOBILE MOMBASA 21
During one of these gatherings we had a particularly memorable and humorous conversation. The young women I was with began discussing all of the misconceptions people in the U.S. and Europe have about Africa. Grace told us about a woman her father knew who went abroad on business. After the woman returned she said that while she was abroad people kept asking her if she lived a tree house to which she sarcastically responded “why yes, I recently purchased new tree houses for myself and all of my children.” They also said that in the past when they have had pen pals from Europe or the U.S. they would often be asked if they had ever seen a lion. They joked that they would usually respond “of course I have seen a lion…at the zoo.” They all agreed that they find it rather funny that people seem to think they have lions roaming all over their backyards. They also shared with me a story about their friend in Nairobi who had a pen pal in London. The two of them decided to take turns visiting each other’s houses.
The boy in London wrote their friend a long letter telling her how much she was going to love his home in London. He told her how luxurious it was and how it had running water and it how large it was. She went to visit him and found that he lived in a small London apartment. Shortly after he came to visit her and was quite embarrassed when he discovered that her home in
Nairobi was in fact much larger than his in London, and that she too had the luxuries of running water and electricity. I came to find, however, that these types of stereotypes and misconceptions go both ways as I frequently encountered people who were shocked to learn that there are homeless people in the U.S.
Brief Introduction to the Young Women Who Participated in My Research
Before I continue to discuss my interactions with these young women I will offer a brief introduction to each of them. I will begin with Maria as she was my primary informant and I spent nearly every day with her. Even on days when we were unable to organize anyone else to MOBILE MOMBASA 22 meet I would at least go to Maria’s house for a few hours each day. My ethnography in fact revolves around her and her circle of friends. All of my informants knew each other to some extent, but the one factor which brought them all together was their friendship with Maria. Maria is a very central character in the group of friends I was introduced to and her social networks are extensive. This is not surprising because she is extremely amicable and entertaining to be with.
She is very in touch with everything that is going on locally as well as globally and provides fascinating insight into most situations. Nearly everyone adores her, and for good reason. She is also known to be an extremely good dancer, which I learned is quite true.
Maria is 19 years old and lives with her mother and her brother who is just a few years older than she is. She was born in Mombasa, and her Parents are from Taita which is also part of the Coast Province, but farther inland than Mombasa. Her family is Christian, but she herself is not particularly observant. She did not usually attend church on Sundays, often times because she had been out late on Saturday night. Her mother has recently opened a business in town as a travel consultant so she is often gone much of the day while Maria is home. Maria generally begins cooking dinner in the evenings before her mother gets home so that things will not take so long to get ready. Maria also does some of the food shopping at local vegetable stands while her mother is at work. Although her mother works as a travel consultant Maria herself has not traveled outside of Kenya, but she does have family living abroad.
Maria’s main leisure activities include watching TV, using Facebook, and hanging out with friends. She usually only has a few classes throughout the week, and therefore, has lots of leisure time with which to pursue these interests. She often meets up with friends in town after her classes at a local restaurant for chips and soda or sometimes they will all go back to someone’s house to watch music videos. Her brother is not around much either because he has a MOBILE MOMBASA 23 part time job. None of the young women I met, however, are employed. Like all of her friends,
Maria is highly motivated and ambitious. She plans to study accounting at the university and hopes to one day have a career with a central bank. She was taking an accounting course while I was visiting in fact. She is also extremely privy to fashion and music trends. When I expressed my interest in studying youth she provided me with an interesting definition of youth and adulthood which I think speaks to Mombasa's position as a site of global circulation as well as
Maria’s own personality as a trend savvy youth. She told me:
“I think adulthood is a stage one reaches and stops caring about fashion and tends to lag behind on the new trends, mostly because he/she is settling down for a job or family, he/she becomes boring. Whereas youth is all about keeping in touch with all the new stuff going on.”
This is a sentiment which was frequently expressed. There is an association that adulthood is stagnant, but youthhood is up to date and dynamic. She arranged on one of our first meetings to have her friends come over to her home so that she could introduce me to them and explain my research project. All of the young women seemed excited to help with my research and quite pleased that I was taking such interest in the mundane details of their lives. Gradually her friends arrived and I was introduced to Ester, Malaika, Grace, and Edna.
Ester is 18, she was also born in Mombasa, but the boarding school she attended is in
Nairobi. Besides for Maria I spent the most time with Ester. They are particularly close and share many of the same interests and an enthusiasm for trends. On days when no one else could meet the three of us would go out and I would usually drag them to do something touristy with me such as going on glass bottom boats at the beach or going to the local animal park. They, however, assured me that they enjoyed these excursions because they were not the sort of activities they got to do often. They especially enjoyed trying to convince the people who ran MOBILE MOMBASA 24 these activities that I was actually Kenyan. The story they worked out was that I was their friend visiting from Nairobi (which is why I did not speak Swahili very well) and that we had all gone to boarding school together in Nairobi, and I was born in Kenya because my parents are doctors/missionaries. We could sometimes convince people of this for short periods of time, but most people remained skeptical.
Ester’s parents are from Kisumu which is in western Kenya, and her family is of the Luo ethnic group. She is in a Facebook group called “Luo is not a tribe, it’s a lifestyle.” Her father works as an engineer at the port of Mombasa and her mother is an accountant.22 Ester plans to study software engineering at the university. She is interested in learning about new places and has traveled to the US and England. She is also studying French and is in a French club at a local college. She self-identifies as part of a rock-n-roll subculture that is more prominent in Nairobi than Mombasa. She made sure that I know this about her and it was one of the first things she thought of to describe herself. I noticed that she usually wears more punk-style clothes than her friends such as black T-shirts and baggy jeans with chain-like, metal jewelry. She is frustrated that there is not more of a rock scene in Mombasa, however, she has full access to new releases within the rock genre and most of her friends are familiar with the artists she likes as they all watching the same music video channels together. She also said there is a local radio station that has “rock Wednesdays” in the evening which she says she never misses, and every year there is also a Roctober festival at the Carnivore Grounds in Nairobi that she goes to. She likes a specific type of rock and does not like metallic rock. Some of her favorite rock artists include
Evanescence, Three Doors Down, Blink -182, and the Goo Goo Dolls. There are also some local
22 We went to visit her father at work once so that he could give her money and I tried to take a picture of the inside of the port for Dr. Chalfin because she has taken an interest in researching ports. I had only barely gotten the camera out of my bag when I was surrounded by about eight men who told me I was not allowed to take pictures and that is was a severe breach of security for me to have my camera out. Luckily, I was not detained. MOBILE MOMBASA 25 rock artists she likes, but she admitted that they are not very famous. In her spare time, like
Maria, she hangs out with friends, watches music videos and goes on Facebook, an activity she estimated usually occupies about six hours of her day. She is perhaps the only one of my informants who was more fashion and trend savvy than Maria, according to her this has something to do with going to school in Nairobi. She is very flirtatious and known for getting along well with young men. At one point during an interview we were discussing romantic relationships and she started acting very shy and evasive. She and Maria started laughing and eventually she admitted that she has more than one boyfriend. In addition to young men, she is also extremely fond of Nairobi and often talks longingly about how much she misses it and is excited to return for the university. All of the young women I met are enthralled by Nairobi and there is a general sentiment that it is a hub of modernity and trendiness.
Through Ester I met Agnes who is also 19 years old. She was born in Britain, but her parents are from Nyanza which is near Lake Victoria. She is Luo as well and part of the same
Facebook group as Ester. Her father is a military officer and her mother is a school administrator. She lives in Nyali and is of a slightly more elite class. She plans to study law at the university. Her family is Christian and she classifies herself as very observant. She has traveled to England (her place of birth), the US, Germany, and Sweden. I found it significant that none of the other girls said they felt a particularly strong sense of cultural heritage, but she said she does feel a strong sense of African cultural heritage. Perhaps being born abroad has had an impact on this perception, as people often only see themselves as belonging to a culture when they are outside of it. She is extremely shy and I spent less time with her than most of my other informants. I only saw her two or three times, however we have spoken on Facebook occasionally. She is close with Ester and knows Maria, but I am unsure what her relationship to MOBILE MOMBASA 26 the other young women I interviewed in. In her spare time she enjoys going on Facebook, watching television, listening to music and reading. Her favorite magazines are True Love,
Drum, Adam and Essence. She also enjoys reading Danielle Steel books.
Edna is 18 years old, she was born in Nairobi and her parents are from Kiambu which is in the Central Province just north of Nairobi. One of her parents works as a human resource clerk. Her family is Christian, but she does not consider herself very observant. After Ester,
Maria probably spends the most time with Edna so I also became very close with her. Edna and I bonded one day over the fact that we had nearly the same style of glasses, thick, rectangular, dark-brown frames. She spent the night at Maria’s house with me after we all went to the night club together. Her family is of the Kikuyu ethnic group and she has Mau Mau listed as her political views on Facebook, a celebration perhaps of her ethnic heritage.23She went to boarding school with Maria, and also like Maria plans to study accounting at the university. In her spare time she enjoys hanging out with friends and watching movies. Her favorite movies are the
Medea movies and other movies from the U.S. that feature predominantly black actors. She also spends a great deal of time on Facebook, however, shortly after I met her her phone was stolen at a night club and her ability to use Facebook became limited. It was apparently stolen right out of her pocket while she was dancing. She is able to borrow her mother’s phone in the evenings to access Facebook, but her access is limited now. When we all went to the night club together she was very adamant in her warnings that I should not bring my phone with me.
Grace is 18 years old, she was born in Mombasa and her parents are from Nyanza which is near Lake Victoria. Her family is of the Kisii ethnic group. Her family is Christian, but she said she is not observant. Her father is an accountant and she plans to either study
23 The Mau Mau movement was largely made up of members of the Kikuyu ethnic group. See Maxon (2009)
MOBILE MOMBASA 27 communications or law at the university. She was the only one of my informants who was not taking classes at the time of my trip, but she lived farther away from where I was staying than
Maria so I did not spend as much time with her. She has not traveled outside of Kenya, but has family living in other countries and mentioned several times that she would like to travel and learn about new places. Grace is extremely animated and expressive. She is also an impressively witty and well spoken young woman. She spends most of her spare time watching TV and was my only informant who expressed an enthusiasm for Indian films. She spends significantly less time than her other friends on Facebook, mostly because her phone is unable to access the
Internet. At first she said that she does not feel left out by this, but later she confided in me that she hopes to get a new phone one day that will be able to access the Internet, and then, she admits, she will use Facebook just as frequently as her friends.
Malaika is 20 years old, she was born in Mombasa and her parents are from Kilifi which is on the coast between Mombasa and Malindi. Her family is Mijikenda, but not Swahili. One of her parents is an accountant and she plans to study commerce (business) at the university. She went to the same boarding school as Maria and Edna, but was a grade ahead of them. As she is the oldest of the girls I met she was in the process of making plans to begin the university. She has traveled to Zanzibar where she has family living. She is also one of the only Muslim youth I became close with, and she considers herself fairly observant. She sometimes wears a buibui, but other times just has a scarf draped loosely over her head. She and her sister explained to me that just covering the head and wearing generally modest clothing is all that is necessary in Islam and that fully covering oneself is not required. They also said that even when they wear the buibui they still put care into what they wear underneath because the outfit is somewhat visible. In her spare time she hangs out with friends, watches movies, listens to music, and goes on Facebook. MOBILE MOMBASA 28
She also likes reading magazines such as Pulse, True Love, Zuqka, and Woman’s Instinct.
Through Malaika I was introduced to Ana, her sister, who went to the same boarding school as she did and was in the same year as Maria and Edna. Being sisters of such close age they almost look like twins. They also have strikingly similar personalities although Ana may be slightly more outgoing. Ana plans to study communication journalism at the university. I spent one of my last days in Mombasa with Malaika and Ana. We met in town and then took a matatu together to the north coast. We were traveling during a busy time of the day, however, and had to wait quite awhile for a matatu with enough room for all three of us. As we waited they made me try sugar cane. They have been some of the most helpful informants in terms of distance communication. Anytime I have sent a Facebook message needing information they have responded promptly and thoroughly. They both have an extremely good work ethic and carry themselves very respectfully. Although they were rather shy initially, once I established a relationship with them they exploded with personality.
Despite the different backgrounds and life histories of these young women there are some striking similarities. To start, they all participate in several hours of media consumption each day with some of their favorite TV shows including America’s Next Top Model, Desperate
Housewives, various Mexican Soap Operas, Greek, The Tyra Show, Lost, and Waridi. They are all interested in maintaining social connections, and all express an enthusiasm for Facebook which they admit occupies a large portion of their day, including the time when they are in class.
They also all have a strong desire to travel and be more globally connected. They want to learn about new people and places, and this is expressed locally by their desire to keep up with trends in fashion and music as well as maintaining an extensive network of friends through Facebook.
They are all also fairly affluent and confident about their futures and have ambitious goals for MOBILE MOMBASA 29 themselves.
Media and Entertainment
I spent my first week getting acquainted with the community and the cultural youth trends. As I mentioned, all of my interactions with the young women I researched typically took place in a living room with the TV on a music video channel. Some of the TV channels frequently watched included MTV Base (and East African branch of MTV), Trace, Channel O,
KNT, KBC, Nation, Citizen, and K24. In the realm of music the youth of Mombasa are exposed to a wide range of genres and artists. The presence of satellite television gives them access to the latest releases within the U.S. music scene as well as many African artists. Ironically, I returned home from Kenya with a greater familiarity with U.S. rap and RnB than when I had arrived.
Beyond exposure to Kenyan and Tanzanian musical artists, part of the youth music repertoire also includes a significant number of Nigerian, Ghanaian, and South African artists. Unless the power is out the TV always seems to be on at least as background noise. Furthermore, as young women undergoing this transitional period in their lives they have a lot of unstructured time which is occupied largely by watching television. In the evenings the whole family usually gathers around the TV to eat dinner and watch their favorite shows, often the news or a Mexican soap opera called Storm over Paradise. In keeping with my interest in youth and media, I had my friends list all of the shows they watch throughout the week, as well as some movies they had recently watched. I was told that Nigerian, South African, and Ghanaian shows are generally good, but Kenyan shows are known for having bad acting. The following is a chart of the TV shows frequently watched categorized by the day of the week:
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Day of the Week Shows Usually Watched
Sunday Zain African Challenge, Super Natural, Catalina&Sebastian, Fashion House, Desperate Housewives, XYZ, Fear Factor Monday Storm over Paradise, House, American Idol, Cold Case, Inspector Mwala, Fish Port Princess, North Shore Tuesday Tahiti High, Ghost, Whisperer, You Are the One, Fish Port Princess, Beautiful People, American Idol Wednesday Storm over Paradise, Fish Port Princess, That’s So Raven, Bernie Mac Thursday Papa Shirandula, The Team (Kenyan), Grey's Anatomy, Edge Over Paradise, Fish Port Princess, The Nanny Friday My Name is Earl, Storm over Paradise, Fish Port Princess, Hope&Faith, Yes Dear, Still Standing, Waridi, Project Runway, Stylista, Running in Heels Saturday Can You Dance, Catalina&Sebastian, Charmed, Extreme Makeover
Besides watching shows on TV, DVDs are readily available from street venders, and an entire season of almost any television series can be purchased without much trouble. In fact, one day when bad weather ruined our plans to go to the beach, I sat with Maria and Edna (and for a short time Maria's brother and two of his friends) and watched the entire first season of Gossip
Girl. There are two particular aspects of this show which I find significant to my interest in class and technology in the lives of youth. The entire show is premised on an anonymous character that sends gossip via a website and mass text messaging. Furthermore, this show is concerned with the elite youth of Manhattan's Upper East Side and focuses on very obvious markers of class. Although one may think that youth in Mombasa would not find this show relatable, I find these two facets to make it particularly relevant to the lives of the young women I met.
Another show they watch frequently which I find significant is Ellen Degeneres’s talk show. I am interested in this because it seems to be contributing to changing ideas of sexuality and discrimination against homosexuality. In general, homosexuality is not accepted in Kenya. MOBILE MOMBASA 31
All the young women I was researching shared that they love Ellen, though, and that if she is a lesbian then perhaps homosexuality is not such a bad thing.
When I inquired about movies recently watched my informants provided a list which included: The Fast and the Furious 4, Boondocks, Slumdog Millionaire, I Think I love My Wife,
Pink Panther, House Bunny, Night at the Museum, The Cinderella Story, all of the Medea movies, Family Reunion, The Love Guru, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Mistress of the Spices, 27
Dresses, Mama Mia, American Pie, Eurotrip. For the most part they have access to the same films that are available in the U.S.24
When I asked about the prevalence of Indian films a few of the girls lit up with delight,
Grace particularly clasped her hands against her chest and let out a delighted sigh as she exclaimed “I love Indian films!” Many of the other young women, however, gave me a look of disgust as if I had personally insulted their taste in movies. My friends explained to me that usually Muslim girls are more interested in Indian movies because they are able to relate to them.25 As a result, girls with a lot of Muslim friends also watch a lot of Indian films. For the most part, however, I was told that non-Muslim girls are more interested in films coming from the U.S. Edna told me that she is particularly fond of U.S. films with predominantly black actors such as the Medea movies.
These young women said that they enjoyed watching U.S. films because they help them learn about the world and the way different people live. I find this attitude towards film and television particularly interesting and relevant. Norbert Wildermuth (2008) explores this perspective in his research on youth and media appropriation. In his research he examines “the
24 While I was in Kenya a new Harry Potter movie released and several of the other students from the U.S. I knew were excited that they would be able to see it and not be out of the loop when they returned home. 25 For more information of this see Brian Larkin (1997). Indian Films and Nigerian Lovers: Media and the Creation of Parallel Modernities. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 67(3), 406 – 440. I did not end up using this piece in my paper, but it was one of the articles I used in creating my research proposal. MOBILE MOMBASA 32 skills and knowledge that young people acquire from the media…primarily in terms of the lifestyle and identity projects that the media permit young people and inspire them to experiment with and to approach playfully” (Wildermuth, p.174). Drawing upon Arjun Appadurai’s discussion of the “work of the imagination,” Wildermuth argues that for youth in the twenty-first century this type of engagement with media “constitutes a fundamental resource in their struggle to make sense of their lives, to define themselves in relation to others, and to inform the choices and decisions demanded by their present lives and their plans for the near and distant future”
(p.174). Wildermuth concludes that:
Young people appropriate, transform, and recontextualize the meaning of media texts,
though always within the boundaries set by other people’s interests, that is, by society at
large. In other words, a holistic understanding of the communicative relations created by
the dialectic processes of media production and reception demands a conceptualization in
terms of both their agentive and structural dimensions. (p. 175)
Here, I understand Wildermuth to argue that by observing the everyday practices of youth media consumption and rooting it in their everyday realities, one can begin to understand how media in fact shapes the way youth are able to conceptualize themselves, and additionally, media is shaped by youth in order to hold relevance within their lives. As all of the young women I worked with are of an elite class, well-educated, and hold highly ambitious goals for them, I began to think of this with regards to the media they consume. Because they all have access to satellite television there are plenty of channels, and therefore, it is fair to conclude that much of the television my friends watch are programs which they select and are not merely the result of chance. When I consider the day that we all watched Gossip Girl through the lens provided by
Wildermuth, it is obvious to me that these types of programs take on a new relevance for these MOBILE MOMBASA 33 young women in so far as they represent the type of life style these young women not only desire, but also feel is not outside the realm of possibility. Although this show is highly over glamorized, and therefore, unattainable in some obvious aspects, the idea of being among the elite within their own communities is not. Indeed, all of the young women in Mombasa I discuss are very much aware of class status and class mobility. In addition to this particular show, many of the shows and movies my informants watch feature elite classes with characters who participate in successful and high-skill careers, a striking parallel to the ambitions these young women hold for their own lives.
When I asked my informants how they view the impact of media in their lives they expressed that these films and television shows have contributed to changes in their lives largely with regards to the degree of independence and autonomy they are given, particularly when it comes to interaction with young men. They feel that the simple fact that media is so readily available gives them an excuse to visit with their friends and come back a few hours later without too much questioning from parents. This is a freedom they feel their parents did not have growing up. They explained that although they do tend to imitate some of the fashion they see in movies, some of it is simply not acceptable for them to wear. They are expected to wear somewhat modest clothing. They went as far as to tell me that if they were seen out during the day wearing something too revealing a mob would probably form, strip all their clothes off, and tell them they might as well walk around naked. Particularly “hot pants” (extremely short, extremely tight shorts) are what evoke this kind of reaction. They assured me, however, that I would not confront anything like this and that wazungu (people from Europe or the U.S.) are allowed to wear anything. The people of Mombasa have become accustomed to seeing scantly clad European tourists, but this has not necessarily changed the expectations of propriety they MOBILE MOMBASA 34 hold for themselves. In the night clubs, however, the rules of propriety no longer apply and women are free to wear anything they like including “hot pants.” Along with a concern for propriety however, there is still a concern for fashion. Even the Muslim women put great care into the outfits they wear under their buibuis. The non-Muslim youth several times mentioned that under their buibuis young Muslim women are extremely fashionable.
Another significant way movies have contributed to social change is in their depictions of romantic relationships. The young women I spoke with agreed that all young women now expect to be treated the way women in the movies are treated, and that this has significantly changed the gendered expectations of young men. They mentioned that in general daughters have more domestic responsibilities than sons; but that this is slowly changing and their brothers are beginning to help around the house as well. Maria confided to us that her brother is better at cleaning the house than she is and that he can even cook beans: “He will deny it,” she said, “but he can.” They feel, however, that despite the influence of movies gender relations remain closely tied to issues of class. They said that in the lower classes women are given much less freedom, and media has had much less effect on their perceptions of gender relations. I did not spend enough time with lower and working class women to speak to this situation. Furthermore, I am not entirely sure what these young women meant when they referred to freedom, as it seems lower class women would not necessarily have more limitations on their physical mobility than themselves. Perhaps they mean that with less access to educational resources women of the lower classes have less opportunity for social advancement and economic autonomy and find themselves more dependent on men. They had mentioned to me previously that women in the upper and middle classes are starting to do more things on their own and do not feel that they need a man to help them. Maria’s mother, for instance, is an example of the success and MOBILE MOMBASA 35 autonomy women are able to achieve. She is a single mother who has raised two children on her own and has recently started her own business. In general, regardless of class or religion, young men have much more freedom of movement, especially at night than young women.
Beyond issues of freedom and gender relations, an aspect of movies that intrigues the young women I met is the representation of social cliques. They say youth will often imitate what they see in movies by forming exclusive groups of friends and subsequently naming their group. A specific example they gave me is a group of young women who call themselves
“RnB”, standing for Rich and Beautiful. They themselves are all part of a co-ed clique called
“The Crackers.” From what I could tell this clique is rather extensive and not intended to be exclusionary. It is mainly a fun way of referring to the group of people they go out with on the weekends. They also frequently use this collective title “The Crackers” when naming their
Facebook photo albums. When I asked them how they came up with this name they simply told me it was because of their humor, but I could never get an answer as to the actually meaning of this word is for them, although they laughed a little when I told them what it means in the U.S.
The co-ed nature of this group is probably because when young women go out to bars and clubs they generally bring their brothers and trusted male acquaintances. Therefore, their circle of friends is fairly evenly split between males and females. As there are curfews in place to prevent night crime (although I am unsure if these are legally established or informal), nobody is supposed to be walking around on the streets after a certain time. As a result when they go out to a club they have to stay there until about five of six in the morning when it is considered appropriate to walk around on the streets to return home. I was told that once a group of them were almost arrested for walking around at night, but someone's uncle was a cop and was able to vouch for them. MOBILE MOMBASA 36
Conclusion
This chapter discusses the relevant demographic factors to consider regarding my informants. All of the young women who participated in my research occupy a very specific position within their communities. Namely, my informants share a high level of educational attainment and ambition for the future. They identify as middle class and are sensitive to the opportunities for class mobility through education and high-skill careers. They also belong to a very specific age bracket, one which constitutes a time of transition and renegotiation.
Additionally, the chapter highlights that youth in Mombasa are active consumers of media. They appropriate media not merely as a passive audience, but use it as a tool for producing their own lifestyles and social networks. Furthermore, this chapter demonstrates that
Mombasa’s historical role as a meeting place of global cultural flows has carried into the twenty- first century.
The next two chapters examine the role of communication technologies, namely cell phones and the Internet, in the lives of female youth in Mombasa, focusing on the ways in which youth actively shape these technologies to hold relevance within their live. Particularly, chapter two examines the ways in which communication technologies contribute to the revitalization of youth community networks and chapter three considers the role of these technologies in projects of identity formation.
MOBILE MOMBASA 37
Chapter 2
Community: Virtual Sociality and New Strategies of Connection
26
26 A cartoon from a Kenyan newspaper MOBILE MOMBASA 38
Choosing a Topic of Focus
Throughout my acquaintanceship with this cohort of young women I observed a common theme. Namely, the pervasiveness of communication technologies is undeniable, and the young women I met are deeply concerned and dependent upon their cell phones and their Facebook accounts in nearly all of the activities of their everyday lives. The cell phone is in fact the primary avenue through which youth access the Internet, making the two technologies inseparable in this context. Youth admit to spending several hours a day on Facebook, and are typically limited only by the amount of credits they have on their phones. They will usually use a portion of their lunch money every day to “top up” with credits for the evening. Maria for instance said she gets 100 shillings a day to buy her lunch, and about 20 of these she uses to “top up.”27 Therefore, this aspect of youth culture is the main focus of this chapter a well as chapter three.
An important perspective to keep in mind is that of the anthropologist Heike Behrend. In her research on photography in East Africa she attempts to:
Open up a new field of research and knowledge having as its subject the photographs
Africans have produced and continue to produce for Africans, and their discourses and
practices in relation to photography…In contrast to the images Westerners have taken
from Africans, the production, circulation and consumption of these pictures have been
largely controlled by Africans. (Behrend,2002, p.44)
I adapt this distinction to fit my own research. Therefore, in contrast to Western discourses of communication technology in the developing world I seek to highlight how youth in Mombasa
27 The cell phones in Kenya operate on a pre-paid basis, and therefore, one has to manually put money onto their account. To do this one purchases a scratch card for a certain amount of money with a code on it. One then enters the code into their phone and the money gets transferred to their account. This is called “topping up.” There are kiosks which will have signs that say “top up here” which means they sell these cards. MOBILE MOMBASA 39 understand, discuss and incorporate these technologies into their own lives. Whereas Western perspectives often discuss ICTs (information and communication technologies) in the context of the developing world as they have been implicated in strategies of economic development, this study examines how they have in fact come to serve important social roles apart from development. In examining patterns of use I have determined that these communication technologies, as they are understood from the perspective of the upwardly mobile youth of
Mombasa, serve two overarching functions: the maintenance of social networks and the creation of a space for youth to pursue projects of identity formation. Furthermore, these needs are met through unique and inventive appropriations of technology. Here, an understanding of communication ecologies and user agency is necessary.
Conceptualizing a Communication Ecology
Before I proceed I will briefly place my observations into a theoretical context. First, it is important to note that generally cell phones and Facebook are considered inseparable among youth in Mombasa as the main porthole for accessing the Internet is through the cell phone. In fact, during most of my interactions with the young women I researched they were usually talking to me and simultaneously on their phones checking their Facebook accounts or sending text messages. In light of the relationship cell phones and the Internet have within this context, it is necessary to conceptualize the two not as discrete, separate entities, but as intimately dependent upon each other. That is not to say that the two do not also exist separately, there are
Internet cafés scattered throughout the city and plenty of uses for the cell phone beyond Internet access. However, there is already plenty of existing literature which discusses these two communication technologies as they exist separately, and therefore, it is important for me not to overlook the unique relationship they have come to form by joining together. MOBILE MOMBASA 40
In their research in Jamaica, Heather Horst and Dan Miller (2007) discuss
“communication ecologies” in order to acknowledge that communication technologies and cultural practices are often too interconnected to be understood apart from one another. By
“communication ecology” Horst and Miller refer to “the complete range of communication media and information flows within a community” (p. 12, as cited in Slater and Tacchi, 2004, p.2). They argue that “in order to understand any one particular technology of communication one needs first to appreciate its role as part of communication ecologies” (p. 10). Because of their sensitivity to communication ecologies, Horst and Miller are among the few theorists to specifically mention, though briefly, the use of the cell phone in accessing the Internet. Drawing upon Horst and Miller’s conceptualization of communication ecologies, I situate my own analysis in terms of the interconnectedness of communication practices. Interestingly, this type of relationship between the cell phone and the Internet has only recently gained prevalence within the U.S., yet already has an established presence in Mombasa. In much of the developing world cell phones are said to be an example of global “leapfrogging,” meaning that cell phones established a ubiquitous presence before landlines had even become common place (Horst &
Miller, p.2). Thus, in terms of communication technologies, countries such as Jamaica and Kenya have skipped a phase of technological development. For example, in 2005 there were approximately 4,612,000 cell phone users as opposed to only 282,000 landlines in use.
Furthermore there were 3,050,000 Internet users while only 300,000 people actually owned personal computers (Europa Regional Surveys, 2008, p. 610).
In trying to understand the communication practices of the youth in Mombasa as they constitute a communication ecology, I combine literature on cell phones and the Internet using frameworks established for examining the cell phone to look at the Internet and vice versa. I MOBILE MOMBASA 41 attempt to bring these two communication technologies together in theory in the same fashion that my informants bring them together in practice. In combining literatures on the cell phone and the Internet the work of three theorists has been particularly helpful. These include Maria
Bakardjieva, particularly her research on the agency of the everyday user of the Internet and, as already mentioned, Horst and Miller. All of these scholars provide enough flexibility in their arguments so that their theories can be adapted and applied in new contexts, and each understands the need to consider the lives of actual users in formulating theoretical approaches.
Considering User Agency
In order to understand some of the youth initiated cell phone practices, it is useful to consider them in light of Bakardjieva’s examination of user agency. Bakardjieva (2005) views the everyday user of the internet not as a passive recipient of technological developments, but as
“an active contributor to the shaping of technology” (p. 9). She begins her approach by considering the social construction of technology. The basic premise of the social construction of technology (SCOT) is that “new technological systems emerge through a process of negotiation and struggle over meanings and material shapes involving a myriad of social actors”
(Bakardjieva, p.10). Ultimately “relevant social groups” are responsible for interpreting technological artifacts in diverse ways. This approach is critiqued precisely for its reliance on
“relevant social groups” which some theorists claim is “dangerously pluralist and gives the false impression that all social groups can be equally active and equally influential in making technical decisions” (Bakardjieva, p.11). Additionally, technological objects have different degrees of flexibility. Usually technologies which are intended for use in highly controlled environments are relatively closed to negotiation, whereas items intended for mass consumption, such as the cell phone, have a high degree of openness. MOBILE MOMBASA 42
In order to account for the inequality between relevant social groups, Bakardjieva turns her analysis to critical theory of technology which “up-holds the non-determinist and non- essentialist tenets of the constructivist approach while addressing head-on questions of agency and structure, inequality and domination” (Bakardjieva, p.15). Thinkers in the school of critical theory of technology are primarily concerned with uncovering alternative forms of rationality which are silenced by the dominant actors within a system. She draws largely upon the work of
Andrew Feenberg who has devised the concept of subversive rationalization or democratic rationalization. He believes that the struggle between these different rationalizations is what determines the final shape of a technological artifact. Bakardjieva summarizes that the “main task of a critical theory of technology is to explain how modern technology can be redesigned to adapt to the needs of a freer society” (p.15). One way in which the dominant order often reacts to alternative rationalities is by reincorporating them into the dominant rationality, a phenomenon
Bakardjieva terms the “appropriation of the appropriators” after Marx’s “expropriation of the expropriators” (p. 17). However, often times it is through alternative rationalities that users are able to weaken the grip of the dominant order. Ultimately, “people generate interpretations and applications that often diverge from the ones originally envisioned by designers. These are not irrational modifications as the dominant ideology may see them. Rather, they reflect a practice of rationalization rooted in alternative sets of values and interests”(Bakadjieva, p.19).
With these theoretical frameworks in mind, I consider how the young women who participated in my research appropriate cell phones and the Internet into their everyday lives as active agents. In order to familiarize myself with youth initiated Internet practices I went with
Maria to an Internet café so she could walk me through a typical Facebook session. We went to the cyber café at the Nakumatt in Nyali. It is in the back of a book store in an adjoining room and MOBILE MOMBASA 43 although there were maybe twenty computers in total I never saw more than five people there at one time. She had mentioned to me in the past that she is not very comfortable using computers.
She explained to me that she never had any computer training courses or even typing courses at school. Although all of these young women’s families own personal computers they are not frequently used. They act more as places to store documents or type important letters, but are hardly ever used to access the internet. Although Maria spends several hours a day on the
Internet, it is through the lens of the cell phone. The first thing we reviewed were the differences between Facebook on the cell phone (Facebook mobile) and Facebook on the computer. For instance, through Facebook mobile, users are unable to add “applications”28 or use the “chat”29 feature. They also do not receive the same administrative messages that computer users receive.
When we signed on to Facebook at the cyber café Maria had a message from Facebook informing her that her email address was no longer valid. She said she had never received this message through her phone. She had only created an email account in order to open a Facebook account, however, so she was not too alarmed by this message since it had not seemed to hinder her ability to use Facebook. Other than creating social networking accounts, Maria said she and her friends have little need for an email account, and probably will not need one until they enter the university. The features which are the same between Facebook mobile and Facebook through the computer are the “news-feed”30, the ability to “message”31, the ability to “post”32 on people's
28 Applications are special features that one can add to their Facebook. These include games, special icons, supporting causes, quizzes and several other similar functions. 29 Facebook chat is a feature which allows a user to send instant messages to their Facebook friends who are logged- on to Facebook. 30 The “news feed” is a feature of Facebook which appears on the homepage immediately when one logs-on. It provides a summary of the recent activity of one’s Facebook friends so that a user will know the most up to date information about their friends without having to search for them individually. Users are able to put privacy settings to prevent their information from appearing on “news feeds” and they are also able to block people from appearing on their “news feed”. 31 A Facebook “message” is very much like an email only they are sent through Facebook. They are private as opposed to “wall posts” which are public. MOBILE MOMBASA 44 walls and comment on wall posts, the ability to send and receive “friend requests”33, the ability to send and receive “group”34 and “event invitations”35, and the ability to receive
“notifications.”36 These features are in fact more comprehensive than the features offered when
Facebook was first introduced.
When Maria signs on to Facebook the first thing she does is check her notifications. This informs her of any recent wall posts she has received or if there have been any comments on her wall posts. This is a very important feature for Facebook mobile users because it prevents them from going to any unnecessary pages, and since pulling up new pages takes considerably longer on the cell phone this is an extremely valuable feature. The information she receives from her notifications dictates her next course of action. She then looks to see if there are any new messages in her inbox. Once these things have been done she browses through the news-feed looking for anything interesting such as people's statuses, new pictures that have been posted, what people are writing on other people's walls, etc. She will often read people's “wall-to- walls”37 in order to catch up on any new gossip. She has specific people whose walls she will usually frequent because she finds them particularly interesting.
At the time of our interview Maria had 377 friends, but she said that this number is always changing and is impossible to pin down. For instance, she said that just earlier that day
32 A Facebook user has a profile with information about them on it, this is referred to as a “wall”. A user’s friends are able to “post” things on their “wall.” These are public messages that other users can see. 33 When you find someone’s Facebook account you can request to be their “friend”. This means that their information will show up on your “news feed” and vice versa. It also means that yu will have greater access to their profile information and pictures, depending on what privacy settings they have activated. 34 Through Facebook a user can join groups. These can be about anything and usually involve and activity, a hobby, a cause, or some other general interest. If a user is in a group they can receive mass messages from the administrators of the group updating them on recent developments which may be of interest to the group. 35 Through Facebook people can create events (usually these events are intended to happen in the offline world) and invite other users to these events. 36 When a user posts on another users wall, comments on their picture, or essentially does anything of interest to another user Facebook will send that user a “notification” in order to inform them that this has happened. Users are able to put settings on what they would like to receive notifications about. 37 Facebook users are able to read the sequence of wall posts sent back and forth between other Facebook users, these are called “wall-to-walls.” MOBILE MOMBASA 45 she had added 6 new friends. She told me that anytime two people meet these days they will inevitably become Facebook friends before any further relationship is established. People are much more likely, from her perspective, to become Facebook friends than to exchange phone numbers. Mara’s opinion is that the advent of Facebook has largely decreased the use of texting and calling, perhaps shifting what is considered the usual uses of cell phones. Maria said of all her Facebook friends she talks to about half of them frequently, but that is a loose estimate. It is common for people she does not even recall meeting to request her to be their friend on
Facebook. Often this is because they have mutual friends,38 but this is not always the case.
Since she does not like rejecting anyone, Maria told me she usually always accepts friend requests and then just removes the friend later if they begin to bother her. As we were conducting our interview she was Facebook chatting with a boy she knew in Nairobi. She has never met him in person, but she communicates with him frequently on Facebook and said he is a good friend of hers.
No one could really answer for me, however, why Facebook in particular has been more successful than other social networking sites. The young women I met would simply tell me they use Facebook because everyone else uses it. I realized that I could just as easily ask this question of myself and probably not come up with an immediate explanation. Upon further reflection I concluded that perhaps the particular popularity of Facebook, not just in Mombasa, but in general, is largely because it is more comprehensive than most other social networking sites. On Facebook one is able to view pictures, talk to people both publicly and privately, and see who other people are talking to and what they are talking about. The Facebook news-feed is particularly well suited for this because it removes the need to search for new happenings by
38 If you look at someone’s Facebook profile Facebook will tell a user if they have mutual friends with this person and if so who those mutual friends are. MOBILE MOMBASA 46 bringing them to the user. When people post new pictures, change their status, or post on someone's wall, it pops up on the “news feed” as soon as someone logs in. Furthermore,
Facebook relies less on specialized graphics as opposed to Myspace39 and is thus more ideally suited for users who are using their cell phones as the primary means of access. The extensive range of networking provided by Facebook leads me to the first theme of communication technologies in Mombasa I wish to explore and the primary focus of this chapter: maintaining social networks and a sense of community.
The Nature of Communities in the Age of Communication Technologies
With the progression of the twentieth and the onset of the twenty-first century, societies have become increasingly reliant on communication technologies in order to manage larger and more dispersed communities, thus bringing into question the very notion and definition of community itself. From this two ideological camps have emerged, one which celebrates the utopian potential for communication technologies to eradicate disenfranchisement, and another which implicates communication technologies in the breakdown of “real-life” civic engagement with dystopian suspicion. Central to both arguments is the idea that “mediated communities could somehow substitute for geographic proximity as a basis of community” (Barney, 2004. p.157).
In his analysis of the Internet, Darin Barney (2004) explores the complexities to both sides of this debate. He summarizes four points and counter points that have generally dictated the debate regarding virtual communities. The first of these points made by those in favor of technologically mediated communities is that virtual communities are able to overcome the challenges of ‘traditional’ communities and that engagement in them is both more convenient and accessible. This is particularly relevant when considering Facebook and the ability it grants
39 Another social networking site similar to Facebook. MOBILE MOMBASA 47 users to maintain relationships through space and time. Responding to this, however, critics fear that the “convenience of online interaction will further encourage the withdrawal from civic engagement offline, and a deepening privatization of social life” (p. 161). Second, supporters claim that virtual communities are more meaningful to those involved because they are sought out rather than the result of “the arbitrary or ‘accidental’ foundations of geographic proximity, common ethnicity or shared ancestry” (p. 160). Once again, Facebook users are not forced to participate in online communities but choose Facebook as a social outlet. Critics counter this by arguing that the dislocation of virtual communities will “undermine the rootedness in place and body that is necessary for a robust experience of, and commitment to, community” (p. 161).
Thirdly, supporters celebrate virtual communities for being “less hierarchical and less discriminatory, more egalitarian and inclusive than traditional communities” (p. 160). Critics assert, however, that rather than being more inclusive, online communities provide the opportunity to create closed general interest groups thus “insulating the members of these relatively parochial communities of interest from ongoing encounters with the difference, diversity and heterogeneity that populate the offline world” (p. 161). This is also important to consider as Facebook users can dictate who they are friends with and who has access to their profiles. Finally, supporters argue that the anonymity of virtual communities allows participants to explore notions of identity. Contrary to this, critics claim that the anonymity of virtual communities “erodes the foundation of responsibility, accountability and social trust upon which meaningful communities are built” (p. 161). This final idea will be elaborated on further in the chapter on identity.
Ultimately Barney summarizes that “both the utopian projections of internet dreamers and the doomsday scenarios of the medium’s detractors are overstated” (p.163). In short, both MOBILE MOMBASA 48 sides of this debate fail to recognize that virtual communities and Internet communication do not exist by themselves, but need to be interpreted in terms of their roles within larger patterns of sociality and communication. With this in mind, scholars have begun to embark on studies and theories of the Internet as it exists in everyday life. For this a rethinking of the notion of community as a ‘networked individualism’ has often been employed. Barney describes that
“communities, in this view, are not places. They are, instead, personalized networks built through the choices of the self-conscious actors at their centre” (p. 164). I argue that this definition most accurately describes the version of community my informants pursue through Facebook. Each user’s Facebook account places them at the center of a community and it is left to them to decide how they wish to participate in this community. I keep in mind, however, that although the concept of “networked individualism” maybe helpful, some scholars, such as Horst and Miller, remain skeptical and uncomfortable with the idea of theorizing about an overarching trend from communalism to individualism. Therefore, it is important not to assume that there is consensus that community should be thought of as networked individualism across the board.
False Dichotomies
As mentioned previously, part of the conflict surrounding technologically mediated communities arises from the conceptualization of the online world and the offline world as in fact two separate spaces. In order to renegotiate this, scholars have begun to consider them as they exist together. Of the scholars who have contributed to the study of the internet in everyday life, Maria Bakardjieva (2003) has been particularly influential in my own research. Her main issue with existing literature is that a false dichotomy between “virtual” and “real” has been created, and that few studies have “attempted to relate online community engagement with users’ everyday life situations, relevances and goals” (Bakardjieva, 2003, p. 291). Rather than viewing MOBILE MOMBASA 49 the Internet as a separate reality, she contends that it must be understood as it relates to people’s larger patterns of communication and interpersonal relationships. Drawing upon the work of
Benedict Anderson, Bakardjieva takes issue with claims that online communities are less legitimate than “real-world” communities. Anderson (2006) states that “all communities larger than primordial face-to-face contact (and perhaps even these) are imagined. Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined”
(p. 6). This is relevant to the situation in Mombasa because those who participate in Facebook are not primarily concerned with establishing new social relationships or creating new lives for themselves online so much as they are concerned with maintaining the social relationships which they have established in the offline world. Thus, rather than constituting a separate reality, the online world is an extension of the offline world. Furthermore, online communities “cannot be studied and characterized exclusively by what is produced online as the cultures enacted online have their roots in forms of life existing in the ‘real’ world” (Bakardjieva, 2003, p. 294). Thus, to consider the online world as outside of the offline world would be to ignore many of the social structures and institutions that shape participation in it.
Bakardjieva proposes instead the idea of “virtual togetherness” or a “continuum of being and acting together [that] is growing from the technology of the internet” (p. 294). She theorizes this continuum as existing between the poles of consumption and community and that “the opposite of virtual togetherness (and community) is not ‘real’ or ‘genuine’ community, as the current theoretical debate suggests, but the isolated consumption of digitized goods and services within the realm of particularistic existence” (p. 294). Therefore, within the terms of this continuum, those who primarily use the Internet for social networking, such as the youth in
Mombasa I researched, would fall towards the community side of the spectrum. On the other end MOBILE MOMBASA 50 there are those who adhere to the “rationalist ideal of information production and exchange”
(Bakardjieva, p. 296). Even the youth in Mombasa, however, do not exist solely at the pole of community as they all said they occasionally will use Google or go to magazine websites to get information about topics they are interested in. Once again though, the information they gather is relevant and applicable to their offline lives and must be understood in relation to those lives.
In her research Bakardjieva noticed a trend, similar to what I mentioned previously about
Facebook users, which supports her claims regarding the false dichotomy between “virtual” and
“real.” She observed first that “interactions in online forums were closely intertwined with participants’ projects in their offline lives” (p. 304). She also observed that “online community was not displacing face-to-face community where the latter could have existed. It was rather filling the void left by the impossibility of face-to-face community or the inability of existing face-to-face communities to satisfy important needs of the individual” (p. 305). This observation is relevant to my own research as Facebook users do not prefer online communication over physical proximity, but often are unable to socialize with each other in the offline world. As young women, my informants have limited mobility at night and use Facebook as an outlet of communication after sunset. Furthermore, many of them have friends and family living in other areas of Kenya or abroad and Facebook serves as an easily accessible mechanism for maintaining connections. In both cases their activities online are shaped by the circumstances of their offline lives.
In addition to challenging the “real” versus “virtual” dichotomy, Bakardjieva also challenges the public versus private dichotomy. Reversing Williams’s idea of “mobile privatization” Bakardjieva proposes that the Internet could be interpreted as a form of “immobile socialization.” Whereas Williams sees the developments of the motorcar and home electronic MOBILE MOMBASA 51 appliances as emblematic of a trend towards family self-sufficiency with maintained mobility,
Bakardjieva views the Internet as revealing an opposite trend. She observed that frequent users of the Internet are often times not freely mobile and also feel “ambivalent about the self- sufficiency of the private homes in which their existence was circumscribed” (p. 305). Rather, it seemed that all of them were eager “to trade that privateness for human contact, community and broader social involvement” (p. 305). This idea is particularly important when considering the online engagement of the female youth in Mombasa. As I mentioned above, often young women in Mombasa turn to Facebook not because it is preferable to face-to-face interaction, but because face-to-face interaction is not possible. As young females their movement is more restricted than the males within their peer group, this is true particularly at night or in the late evening. They all explained that if their brothers come home after dark their parents never make a big deal over it, or even ask any questions about where they were. Young women, however, are expected to be home before dark unless on a specific errand and usually if accompanied by a trusted male.
Additionally, these young women said that they are usually expected to help prepare dinner around sundown, something their brothers are generally not expected to do. Therefore, the hours between 7pm and 12am are when they say most of their Internet and cell phone activity occurs.
Furthermore, as many of them attended boarding school many of them live quite far from their friends and Facebook has given them a convenient way to maintain contact.
Thus, it is this “immobile socialization” which Bakardjieva also claims challenges the private/public dichotomy. Of users’ Internet activities she theorizes that “there is no critical point where a person’s or group’s behavior can be definitively characterized as private as opposed to public and vice versa” ( p.310). She continues to explain that there are three areas in which online activities can fall within the private/public continuum. Those include forum, action, and MOBILE MOMBASA 52 content. The idea of forum will be particularly important in my discussion of identity in chapter three as different forums provide different degrees of anonymity and identity construction. I conceive of Facebook not as a forum particularly concerned with anonymity or protecting the private so much as a forum intended to bring the private life into the public. Much like Barney,
Bakardjieva concludes that:
the preoccupation with ideologically constructed standards, such as virtual community
versus real/genuine community and public participation versus privatization of
experience, blinds commentators to the possibility of new, unexpected, unimaginable and
yet humanist and empowering variations of technological practice to emerge. (2003,
p.311)
In the same fashion that Bakardjieva argues that Internet technologies are blurring the division between public and private, Taylor and Harper (2003) witness the same transgressing of boundaries in respect to the cell phone “with private life invading both the domain of work and public spaces” (Taylor & Harper, p. 270). Although this is the inverse of what scholars had initially predicted (thinking instead that work would invade private life), it is apparent in my research as well with nearly all of my participants admitting that they use their cell phones while in class. It has also become common to see people on their cell phones on buses or in restaurants and to overhear conversations usually considered quite private while in public spaces.
Furthermore, in the same way Bakardjieva argues that the online world should not be considered separate from the offline world, Harper and Taylor observe that “young people participate in gift-giving activities with their mobile phones when they are co-located, as well as geographically distributed, and that these activities are central to their ongoing social lives” (p.
272). By this they mean that not only do these technologies help maintain relationships with MOBILE MOMBASA 53 people in the absence of physical proximity, but they are often the central focus of gatherings serving to dictate and influence interactions. Remembering that nearly all of my interactions with the young women who participated in my research involved their cell phones as well as the television as a central focus of conversation, my own observations support this claim. While socializing with each other young women are often on Facebook, sending text messages, or talking about text messages or Facebook mesages they have received. Therefore, these technologies are used not to create new realities or a separate community, but to revitalize and invigorate already existing social networks.
Link-up and The Gift
Up to this point I have primarily discussed literature pertaining to the Internet. Mine however, is a study of the Internet as it is experienced through the cell phone, and therefore, I cannot neglect the role which the cell phone plays in maintaining communities and social networks. Although accessing the Internet is one of the primary functions of the cell phone as it is used by youth in Mombasa, it is by no means the only function. Horst and Miller’s research in
Jamaica has been particularly helpful to me, not merely because of its extensiveness, but because it is one of the few pieces of research I encountered which takes into consideration the use of cell phones in accessing the Internet. As I mentioned previously, Horst and Miller’s broader goal is to explore the role of the cell phone within communication ecologies and therefore it lent itself well to my own analysis. Through their research they came to appreciate communication not “as a means to some other end,” but as an “imperative in its own right” (Horst & Miller, 2007, p. 89).
In other words, the message relayed in a conversation is not necessarily of any consequence, it is merely the act of speaking together which serves to establish long-standing relationships. From this they derived the concept of “link-up” which is characterized by short, mundane phone calls. MOBILE MOMBASA 54
The content of the calls is in fact unimportant; the ultimate objective of the phone calls is merely to maintain relationships and connections with people over time. They conclude that “link-up” has become the foundation of communication as a form of networking. While often without content, it can be built upon to create relationships, realize projects and gain support” (Horst &
Miller, p.97). As mentioned previously, they are reluctant to term this “networked individualism,’ because they object to the amount of generalization it implies in suggesting an overarching trend from communalism to individualism.
The same basic principles of “link-up” I believe can be extended to understand people’s use of the Internet and Facebook in Mombasa as well. Writing a note on someone’s wall is a quick and easy way simply to maintain acquaintances and often times carries no significant message in itself. After returning home from Mombasa I myself have experienced this type of correspondence with all of the youth I met. This concept is helpful in understanding how the youth I researched are able to maintain extensive social networks even when physical contact is impossible and in this way Bakardjieva’s theories are also relevant. This type of communication does not replace face-to-face correspondence, but provides an outlet through which contact can be maintained during long periods of physical absence. When looking through phonebooks and
Facebook friends lists with my informants I was often told statements such as “we don’t talk much, I just say hi every once and a while to keep in touch.” Thus, it seems that Horst and
Miller’s theory of “link-up” is applicable in a variety of communicative contexts. These types of sentiments, however, led me to consider different levels of relationships. My informants and I began going through phonebooks and categorizing people based on the nature of the relationship they hold with the person and the frequency with which they speak to the person. We found that while “link-up” is applicable to a large range of people, there are others who one feels the need MOBILE MOMBASA 55 to maintain a deeper level of communication with. This response leads me to a discussion of
Taylor and Harper’s gift theory as it pertains to youth sociality and cell phone practices.
The overall point argued by Taylor and Harper (2003) is that “mobile phones provide a medium through which young people can sustain and invigorate their social networks” (p. 268).
However, they contend that this is done in a very specific way, through a form of gift-giving.
They argue that text messages (or short message service SMS) are gifts which take on value that is “connected with the giver, the recipient, and the context in which the exchange takes place” (p.
268). It is this performance of gift-giving which “acts to mediate the social relationships of teenagers” (p. 268). This seems to diverge from Horst and Miller’s conceptualization of “link- up” in which interactions have no intrinsic meaning beyond maintaining connections. According to Taylor and Harper, a text message must have value in itself and requires reciprocity in order for it to fulfill the role of the gift as it is viewed in traditional anthropological accounts. What type of value, however, is open for debate and it could be argued the simple act of demonstrating commitment to a given relationship, much like the function of “link-up,” could be seen as fulfilling this. I argue that in light of this there are different levels of gift-giving. There are gifts which merely demonstrate a commitment to a relationship such as “link-up.” However, there are also gifts which occur in a consistent and regulated fashion between close friends or romantic partners. My informants all revealed that there is an implication when sending text messages that it is necessary to reply. They all shared that if they have a friend who never responds to text messages they stop sending that person texts and usually become very frustrated with the person.
Not only s text messaging a form of gift-giving, but the youth in Taylor and Harper’s study also use phone credits and phones themselves as forms of gift-giving. Taylor and Harper observe that: MOBILE MOMBASA 56
Exchanging phones and content is very much part of young people’s everyday
interactions, providing them with a tangible means to express their relationships with one
another. Through such phone mediated gift-giving and the customary reciprocation, the
moral commitment to young people’s relationships are demonstrated and preserved.
Phones, in this sense, give young people something to talk about amongst themselves,
providing them with yet one more mechanism for sharing their emotional experiences
and exchanging objects of personal significance. (p. 279-280)
Of my informants Ana and Malaika are an interesting example of phone switching. Each of them has a nice phone, (Ana has a Sony Ericson w800i and Malaika has a Samsung w230) and they switch so they can each feel like they have two nice phones. When I sat down with them at a restaurant a few days before I left I realized that they had different phones then the ones I had seen them with previously. They revealed that they had switched. When I asked why, they simply told me they did this sometimes just for fun. As they were sisters it is fair to conclude that their relationship is more suited for this type of gift-giving, however, it is still an interesting example. Edna also frequently participates in phone sharing. Her phone was stolen shortly after I met her and she has become dependent upon her friends and mother to allow her to borrow their phones. Horst and Miller observed a great deal of phone sharing which they summarized as such: “between being gifted a phone and not having a phone lies the ambiguous position of being able to borrow the phone” (p. 60). The concept of ownership will be important again in chapter three when I explore the role of phone possession on identity formation.
One of the functions of cell phones which Taylor and Harper argue fulfill the function of the gift is the capacity to transfer credits. As all of the phones in Kenya operate on a prepaid basis, credit sharing, meaning that someone can send some of their credits to someone who does MOBILE MOMBASA 57 not have any, is a common practice. My friends reported that it is generally okay for someone to ask their friends for credits if they really need them, however, it cannot be done in excess. This is also an example where reciprocity is important. My friends agreed that people are usually willing to give someone credits if they have them because they might need some later, and then the person they lent the credits to will be more willing to give them some in the future. Maria explained that usually if someone is in the middle of an important conversation with someone else, but they run out of credits, it would be common for their conversation partner to send them some credits in order to get through the conversation. Grace felt that she would feel much more comfortable and be much more likely to ask a friend for credits than to ask her father. It was also considered common for a boyfriend to give his girlfriend credits; however, a boyfriend could never ask a girlfriend for credits. All of the youth I spoke with admitted to “borrowing” credits from their parents when they did not have any. They all said that they know their parents have more credits than they do and can buy more, so they feel little remorse in doing this. This would be an example in which the rules of reciprocity do not apply.
In addition to transferring credits, the cell phone service providers have begun offering the ability to transfer real money, although this service is less commonly used among youth. This service operates similar to the cards for phone credits; it is just using money instead. For
Safaricom this service is called MPESA, and for Zain it is called ZAP. Of the young women I spoke with Ester and Malaika were registered to use MPESA. One is able to use these services without registering, however, the service will deduct 100 shillings from the money transfer. With
MPESA one can either redeem their money at an MPESA kiosk, or there are some stores which will accept MPESA credit. Usually when it is used among youth, it is a way for parents to send their children money when they are out or encounter an unforeseen expense. Ester said she used MOBILE MOMBASA 58
MPESA more frequently before she got her debit card. Malaika feels it is just good to carry a little MPESA credit with you just in case. I was also told that MPESA is used sometimes for boyfriends to give girlfriends gifts, however these young women did not have such experiences.
The other young women I spoke with had not yet used MPESA. This is a function of the cell phone not mentioned by Horst and Miller, perhaps because it is not offered in Jamaica.40
SIM Card Switching
41
In order to maintain extensive social networks in the most cost effective manner, the youth in Mombasa I spoke with have developed a practice of SIM card switching. In Kenya there
40 I met an Irish man at a bar one night. He was working for an NGO which offered training in computer skills. He told me that Kenya was the first country to offer money transfer services through cell phones, but I have no other sources to qualify this statement with. 41 Ads for Safaricom and Zain (the two most prominent cell phone providers). MOBILE MOMBASA 59 are four Cell phone providers, two which have an established presence, and two which are newer and trying to make their way into the market. Of these four, Safaricom is by far the most successful and widely used. This is followed by Zain. The two new providers are Orange and
YU. It is cheaper to talk to people who are using the same service provider as you, thus friends are highly encouraged to all use the same provider. For the most part the youth I spoke with use
Safaricom as their primary provider. The girls told me about one of their friends who does not use Safaricom. They joked about how they tease him and tell him that if he does not switch they are going to stop calling him. He insists, however, that everyone uses Safaricom and he wants to be different. Perhaps the fact that he is a boy and therefore has less restricted motion means that his concern for individuality outweighs his desire to remain connected. Regardless, it is an ongoing joke among the group of friends. Malaika and Ana are also an example contrary to the norm. Malaika uses Safaricom, but Ana uses Zain and YU. This is interesting because these girls not only belong to the same circle of friends, but are sisters and one would assume they would use the same provider. However, perhaps the fact that they are sisters and live together suggests that their need to talk to each other is not as great and by using different providers they are able to collectively extend their social network.
As a SIM card for a cell phone is a relatively inexpensive purchase, people are not limited to using only one service provider.42 In fact the easy access to SIM cards has spawned recent concern over accountability. One night I was watching the news with Maria and her family and there was a story about SIM cards and violent crime. Apparently people will purchase a SIM card in order to send a threatening text message and then dispose of it. As people are not required to register their SIM cards the message can never be traced back to them. Outside of threatening intentions though, it is not uncommon for people to purchase SIM cards from
42 A SIM card generally costs less than $1 USD. MOBILE MOMBASA 60 multiple service providers. Of the girls I spoke with several of them had more than one SIM card and have developed strategic uses for each of their phone lines and an elaborate system of SIM card switching. As Safaricom is the most widely used provider almost all of them have a
Safaricom line just because of the extensive access to communication it provides them within society as a whole. The same can be said of Zain to a certain degree, and there are definitely groups of acquaintances who prefer Zain, but for the most part Safaricom dominates. So it is fair to assume that nearly everyone has either a Safaricom or a Zain line. I was told that the overwhelming success of Safaricom is due to the fact that when it was first introduced it was very cheap so everyone got it. It then raised its rates, but by that point everyone was accustomed to using it. I was told, however, if they raise their rates too much everyone will probably switch to a different provider. What I found is that youth are beginning to adopt the new providers,
Orange and YU, because they offer free in-network text messaging. Thus, a few people will all purchase an Orange or a YU line and “text-chat”43 endlessly for free. This is a common strategy deployed between boyfriends and girlfriends or just female best friends. While I was in
Mombasa, there was an advertisement for YU (although another young woman said it was actually for Zain) which these young women adored. It was for a service called Zuka which allows someone to pick music for people calling them to listen to instead of listening to a ring tone. The young women liked the commercial mostly because it featured Beyoncé’s song “Single
Ladies (Put a Ring on it).”
Of the young women I spoke with, Grace participates in “text –chatting” the most because her cell phone does not have Internet capabilities. Grace has three phone lines: a
Safaricom, a Zain, and a YU. She uses her YU line to “text-chat,” her Zain line she uses at night because they offer a special promotion that allows someone to talk all night for free if they “top
43 Text message back and forth in a fashion similar to instant messaging online MOBILE MOMBASA 61 up,” and her Safaricom line she mainly uses to talk to her boyfriend or other people who do not have any other lines. Her Safaricom line is the only line which she spends any significant amount of money for credits on. Her alternate SIM cards she says are good for back-up phone lists in case she loses her phone or SIM card. She does not keep a written back-up list for this reason, and because she says she knows the important numbers by memory. Despite her “text- chatting,” she says that she talks on the phone more than she sends text messages. Since her phone does not access the Internet she has to visit a cyber café in order to check her Facebook, which she says she does about twice a week. Ester as well has a Safaricom line, a Zain line, and a YU line. She seems to have misplaced her Zain line, but does not miss it much. Her YU line, like Grace, she uses only for texting.
Since phones operate on a pre-paid basis, an individual's SIM card is also important because it holds a person’s credits, which have no way of being recovered. In fact, when Edna's phone battery died one day (before her phone was stolen that is) she switched her SIM card into
Maria's phone in order to call her mother. Additionally, the SIM card is where MPESA money is kept and perhaps this is why youth have not adopted the use of MPESA. A SIM card is also where people will store many of their phone numbers. Since a phone or a SIM card is easily lost or stolen, as Edna learned, most people keep a written back up list of at least important phone numbers. Because a cell phone is small and often kept in an easily accessible place they are prime targets for theft. Edna’s phone was stolen at a night club while she was dancing and when I went out with her and Maria they warned me not to bring my phone, as a tourist, they said, I was even more at risk of theft. Beyond theft, phones sometimes simply break. Maria said when her old phone broke she had to wait for everyone to call her in order to get their phone numbers again. This, she felt, is another problem Facebook has resolved. Now if someone loses a phone MOBILE MOMBASA 62 or SIM card they can post something on Facebook so that everyone will give them their phone numbers again.
In light of SIM card switching and the loss or theft of a phone, Facebook seems to create a stable place of communication. Although it may be difficult to know which SIM card a person is using at a given time, it is always possible to leave someone a Facebook message and know that they will get it within the next few hours. So regardless of what service provider a person uses, people are always cheaply accessible through Facebook. Additionally, Facebook helps maintain relationships that cannot feasibly be maintained over the phone. For instance, I simply could not call everyone I met in Mombasa on the telephone once a week. However, with
Facebook it is possible for me to maintain nearly daily communication if desired. Facebook in many ways serves as a communicative constant in an ever-changing world.
Aware of the market competition which exists, providers will frequently offer promotions in order to encourage users to “top up.” For example, Zain had a promotion that if someone
“tops up” 20 shillings they are able to talk free after 10 pm and send text messages free all day.
The text messaging section of this promotion has ended, but the calling part has become permanent. Safaricom also had a promotion, which has since ended, where if someone “tops up”
100 shillings they can send 1 shilling texts and talk free from 9pm to 6am. I was told that when this particular promotion was running people literally stayed up all night in order to take advantage of it. It is by paying attention to these types of promotions that youth are able to strategize the use of their SIM cards. I interpret this agency as an example of a marginalized rationality challenging the dominant rationality in the manner described by Bakardjieva.
However, the use of promotions on behalf of cell phone companies can also be viewed as what
Bakardjieva terms the “appropriation of the appropriators” (2005, p.17) with cell phone MOBILE MOMBASA 63 providers using promotions as a means to get people to purchase their SIM cards or to add credits to their phones.
Although Horst and Miller do not mention anything about SIM card switching in their study they do touch on another surprising similarity to cell phone use in Mombasa. Horst and
Miller, like myself, find a tendency to treat the ‘call-me’ text as “almost synonymous with texting itself” (Horst & Miller, p. 70). Phone companies in Kenya have a similar function to the call-me text in Jamaica. It is simply a message that says “call me please” and is used when a person has no phone credits or thinks the other person should be responsible for paying for the call. Youth in Mombasa explained that they use this when calling their parents because they think their parents should be responsible for paying for the call. When used between friends, however,
I was told by Ana and Malaika that it is sometimes just a way to say “hi, whats up, I am thinking about you.” There is another practice in Kenya called “flashing” which entails calling a person and hanging up after one ring. This is supposed to have a similar greeting value among youth.
The limitation of the call-me text is that one can only send five in one day, and it is apparently only available through Safaricom. Likewise, when flashing someone one must have at least some credits on their phone. Like credit transferring, I was told it is acceptable for girlfriends to
“flash” or send “please call me texts” to boyfriends, however, it would be very unacceptable for boyfriends to do to girlfriends. “He would be dumped!” Malaika gasped. This can perhaps be attributed to the new expectations of boys in romantic relationships largely influenced by
Western films. As opposed to text messages, when I was told about the practicing of “flashing” and the call-me text, it did not seem as if there was an expectation for reciprocity and functions more like “link-up.” These are however, acceptable ways to respond to a text message if someone does not have enough credits on their phone to reciprocate the text message. MOBILE MOMBASA 64
In light of the idea of alternative rationalities, youth initiated cell phone practices take on a new meaning. For example, using the call-me text or the practice of flashing as a form of communication works around the constructs set up by the cell phone providers to meet the needs of the users. Additionally, the practice of SIM card switching allows to youth to take advantage of the best features of all the cell phone providers. Rather than viewing these practice as irrational it is more accurate to consider them as rooted merely in a different rationality than that of the cell phone providers.
Confronting Social Conflict Online
Although in general my informants speak very positively of the social access Facebook has provided them, it has also become a new forum for managing (and often times creating) social conflict. Because Facebook statuses are public displays, (since they show up on the news- feed) in addition to updating on location or activity, they are often used to vent frustrations and make personal jabs at people. Particularly a young man will often target a young woman if she has refused his romantic advances. Ester told me about a time when a boy kept trying to get her attention on Facebook, but she kept ignoring him. To get back at her he changed his status say,
“You may be beautiful, but you ain't all that.” Maria recounted for me another time when a boy kept calling her an Mswahili because she is from Mombasa. She kept explaining to him that she is not Swahili, she is Taita, but he would not stop. So then she retaliated by calling him
Mkamba, since his mother is Mkamba, but his father is from England and he frequently insists that he is not Mkamba. He got so angry with her that he made his status say “Maria (last name) I will never forgive you!” So she responded by putting up a status that said something to the effect of “start acting your age.” Usually after a young man targets a young woman with his status young women will put up a response status and all of their friends will comment on it to MOBILE MOMBASA 65 express solidarity. After Maria felt that she had gotten ample support from her friends and that he had gotten the point she “un-friended”44 him because he was annoying her. Later she said he apologized and they resumed their Facebook friendship.
“Un-friending” people is a common strategy deployed when a Facebook friend
(particularly when one does not know the person outside of Facebook) becomes “annoying.”
Maria told me about two other instances in which she had to “un-friend” someone. First a boy from a Middle Eastern country who was living in America “friended” her. She accepted and went to go write on his wall when she discovered that he and his friends were communicating in some kind of code language made up of dots. It made her uncomfortable that she did not know what was being said so she decided since she did not actually know him she should just “un- friend” him. Another time a man “friended” her and kept sending her messages in a language she did not understand. She tried explaining to him in both English and Swahili that she did not understand what he was saying. He kept sending her messages and so she finally just “un- friended” him. Despite occasional language issues, all the girls say that they make friends in other countries through Facebook and that Facebook makes them feel quite globally connected.
These two instances are emblematic of a general concern that the Internet makes young people vulnerable. Although the young women I spoke with all admit that at times they feel they are being bothered by strangers or people they do not wish to talk to, they all generally feel in control of the situation because they can “un-friend” people if necessary. This practice of “un- friending” reveals one of the points made by Barney regarding whether or not virtual communities are actually less hierarchical or if they simply allow people to dictate the type of community they wish to be involved in.
44 When someone removes someone from their Facebook friends list it is called “un-friending.” When this is done it generally restricts the access the users have to each others’ profiles. MOBILE MOMBASA 66
“Un-friending” people is also done if someone is concerned that a potential employer might be looking at their Facebook. My friends explained that if someone has an extensive
Facebook “friend” network employers fear that they will not be doing their work because they will be preoccupied with Facebook. So even though all of the youth on some level admit that they are “addicted” to Facebook, there is also a general sentiment that this is something that needs to be hidden. This has led to groups of friends creating public conspiracies not to change their statuses too frequently. Maria and Ester, for example, said they have made such an agreement. They said they used to change their statuses several times a day, but now they try to only do it only every few days so as to create an illusion that they are not “addicted.” The notion that one should not appear addicted harkens back to the debate about virtual communities. Critics of virtual sociality argue that involvement in it will lead to the breakdown of participation in real life communities. Because there is an association that spending too much time online could lead to less participation in the physical world and that this is considered a negative effect of communication technologies, people are hesitant to appear as if they are spending excessive amounts of time online. In trying not to appear “addicted,” I argue that Facebook users such as my informants in Mombasa are trying to avoid and disprove these types of accusations.
Revitalizing Social Connections
Even on a local scale Facebook has revitalized my informants’ social networks. They all expressed that they have made friends through Facebook who later came to be considered quite close friends. Often one will meet the friends they make on Facebook in person, but it is not necessary to establish a close friendship with them. Maria told me about a boy who is friends with her cousin in Nairobi, He “friended” her, and they began talking often. Now she considers him to be one of her good friends, even though they have never met in person. Many girls admit MOBILE MOMBASA 67 they have even met boyfriends through Facebook. Ester particularly says she has actually dated someone she met through Facebook.
In general Facebook is very useful for both young men and young women in organizing social gatherings. Since it would be very expensive to call each other back and forth, Facebook creates a forum which allows youth to organize and converse in a more open manner. The range of activities can include anything from meeting up after class to going out on a Saturday night. I was pleasantly surprised in fact when the Facebook group I created for my research informants was used for just this. The mass messaging feature of a Facebook group makes it ideal for these purposes. My informants claimed what I had originally created in order to stay in contact with them, and adapted it to their own purposes.
Through my conversations with two particular girls I learned about the alienation one feels if their phone is unable to access the Internet, or if they do not have a phone because it has been lost or stolen. As mentioned earlier, Grace's phone was unable to access the Internet. She said that it does make her feel frustrated at times, but in order to cope she uses texting more than her friends and goes to the Internet café more frequently. She is still hoping to get a new phone though, and this one she will be sure is able to access the Internet. Edna had her phone stolen at a night club shortly after I met her. I came to find that the loss of a cell phone is considered a very tragic experience for a young woman in Mombasa. One day I went to an animal park with
Maria and Ester, and as we were standing over the crocodile pit they began contemplating the possibility that one of them might accidentally drop her phone in. They quickly resolved that if this were to happen they would have no choice but to jump in after it. Luckily, we did not have to test this resolution.
A frequently mentioned sentiment from all of the girls I spoke with is that Facebook has MOBILE MOMBASA 68 not merely expanded their network of friends, but strengthened the relationships they already have and increased the closeness felt among their group of friends. They all spoke of this in a very positive manner. Maria, as well as many of the other girls, feels that the potential to make new friends through Facebook is a very positive effect and that Facebook can lead to close friendships, regardless of if you ever meet the person outside of Facebook. While we were conducting out interview at the cyber café she was chatting (a feature not available through
Facebook mobile) with a boy whom she had never met in person, but considers a close friend.
She said they frequently write on each other's walls and now she really includes him as one of her good friends. Facebook also opens up avenues for romantic engagements. Currently, in fact,
Maria is in a “fake” Facebook relationship with a boy she has never met outside of Facebook.
She recounted that one day he just requested her to be his girlfriend and she thought it was funny so she accepted. She says she has also really dated people she has met through Facebook, but it was never very serious. Ester has also been in a “fake” relationship with one of her male friends on Facebook. She terms this a “fake” relationship because it exists merely as a label on
Facebook, but is not acted upon and is not labeled a relationship in the physical world. Ester confided, however, that when this young man’s “real” girlfriend saw this relationship she became extremely angry with him which leads one to question how meaningful these “fake” relationships might in fact be.
Horst and Miller’s research in Jamaica and Miller and Slater’s research in Trinidad all support that one of the major uses for communication technologies is the pursuit of romantic and sexual relationships. Relationship norms for youth are very elusive in Mombasa. All the young women I spoke with had said that at one point or another they have had a boyfriend; however it is always kept secret from their parents. It is not forbidden to date in any outright sense, but is MOBILE MOMBASA 69 something which is not spoken about. At least among the non-Muslim youth it is accepted to be in romantic relationships without the intention of marriage, but not until one is a little older, perhaps at the university. For upper and middle class youth who are living at home and have not yet entered the university is not appropriate to be openly dating. They all said that their mother’s will ask them frequently if they have boyfriends and ensure them that they will not be mad they just want to know, however none of them were willing to trust this. Edna is the only one of the girls I spoke with you said she had actually admitted to her mother once that she had a boyfriend.
Her mother was in fact not upset, but this isolated case has not done much for changing the other young women’s opinions on the matter. Despite the secrecy which surrounds their relationships, youth have no qualms about posting information about their relationships on Facebook. They have no fear that it will ever get back to their parents because it is understood among everyone that it is not to be brought up in the presence of their parents. Facebook is also considered an exclusively youth space in Mombasa and these girls are not particularly concerned that their parents will ever see their Facebook accounts. Similarly, Taylor and Harper find that contrary to early predictions, communication technologies have actually assisted youth in evading parental surveillance. This, however, could be changing. In the U.S. it is becoming more common for parents to create Facebook accounts and it is not outside the realm of possibility that parents in
Kenya will begin to do the same. I was informed, however, that if this becomes the case, youth in
Mombasa will simply not accept their parent's friend requests.
Parents often complain that their children are too preoccupied with Facebook to socialize with the family. All of the girls I spoke with said they are constantly getting into little fights with their parents over Facebook. Maria used to have a different cell phone, but it broke. At first she said her mother was very excited that it broke because she did not think Maria’s old cell phone MOBILE MOMBASA 70 would be able to access the Internet, and thus, Maria would no longer spend so much time on
Facebook. However, much to Maria's delight and the dismay of her mother, the old phone was perfectly capable of getting online. Ana and Malaika also shared that they feel frustrated by the confrontations their use of Facebook creates with their parents.
I spoke with Malaika and Ana about their experiences with Facebook being Muslim youth. They said that they do not feel in general that their lives are that much different from their non-Muslim friends. They feel that people's ideas about Muslim youth being restricted are not accurate. They explained that the Muslim community has concerns about Facebook, but it is also somewhat supportive. The Muslim community realizes the potential for Facebook to get information about Islam out into the world and the opportunities it creates for Muslim youth to network with each other and discuss issues related to Islam. There are lots of Muslim Facebook groups, and Malaika says she herself is in about five Muslim groups on Facebook. These aspects of Facebook are very much supported by the Muslim community. However, Malaika and Ana admit that the majority of Muslim youth do not use Facebook for these sorts of activities, thus leading the Muslim community to have some concerns over it.
Conclusion
This chapter takes as its primary focus the use of communication technologies in the maintenance and revitalization of social networks. This chapter also sets the theoretical backdrop of much of my analysis. Rather than adopting a lens which considers communication technologies as they are implicated into strategies of development, this project considers them as they are shaped, appropriated, and understood by the youth in Mombasa in terms of social practices. Furthermore, as the cell phone is the main way the youth in Mombasa access the
Internet, I draw upon Horst and Miller’s conceptualization of communication ecologies as a way MOBILE MOMBASA 71 to consider the interrelatedness of different forms of media, technologies and socio-cultural practices. I argue that new technologies do not override existing practices, but rather are subject to human innovation and user agency to varying degrees.
Within this theoretical backdrop the chapter moves into a focused discussion of virtual communities. First outlining the debates which have surrounded the emergence of virtual communities the chapter adheres to the view advocated by scholars who challenge the dichotomy of virtual and real communities. Instead I align myself with Maria Bakardjieva (2003) who argues that all forms of virtual sociality must be considered as having their roots in the offline world, and that Internet users appropriate Internet technology in ways that hold relevance for their offline lives. This chapter also demonstrates that although Facebook contributes to the revitalization of social networks for the youth in Mombasa, it also provides a new outlet for creating and handling social conflict. Additionally Facebook is an outlet for youth to pursue romantic relationships and to evade parental surveillance.
In maintaining extended networks of friends this chapter reveals that female youth in
Mombasa have developed innovative strategies of technology appropriation such as SIM card switching, flashing and call-me texting. Within the confines established by cell phone companies, youth have worked in creative ways to meet their communication needs, thus challenging the dictates of the cell phone companies themselves. Additionally youth engage in practices of communication similar to Horst and Miller’s concept of “link-up” to sustain relationships through time and space. Youth also use communication technologies to engage in a version of gift giving to maintain dependable networks of reciprocity and mutual commitment to relationships. Keeping in mind the theoretical frameworks established in this chapter, chapter three provides a discussion of communication technologies in projects of identity formation. MOBILE MOMBASA 72
Chapter 4
Identity: Conceptualizing the Self through Technology
45
45 An ad for the Orange network. MOBILE MOMBASA 73
Possession and Identity
As mentioned previously not having a cell phone for some reason or having a cell phone that is inadequate leads to a strong sense of alienation or deprivation. Thus, I argue that the actual possession of a cell phone is an intimate facet of identity formation for youth in Mombasa as they begin to understand themselves and their position within society. A cell phone is one of the few items that youth in Mombasa feel a complete sense of ownership over, and therefore, the physical presence of the cell phone and the activities surrounding the cell phone are very important to their burgeoning sense of identity. Particularly, I interpret the cell phone as an object that contributes to their understanding of themselves as autonomous individuals capable of reaching socially productive adulthood as well as their own understanding of their relative class status. This is a good place to recall that the youth I researched are of a privileged class. In their research in Jamaica, Horst and Miller (2006) find that the cell phone very quickly shifted from occupying the space of a luxury to that of a necessity. Today not having a cell phone in Jamaica has come to be a sign of extraordinary poverty. Although the same can be said of Mombasa, it is important to recognize the type of cell phone technology being discussed. The youth I was interviewing did not merely possess basic cell phone models, but cell phones advanced enough to access the Internet. Some of the models they have include the LG Prada, the Sony Ericson w800i, the Nokia 1680c, the Samsung w230, the Samsung m310 and other Samsung models with full QWERTY keypads. Therefore, beyond being a necessity, these particular cell phones serve as distinguishing class markers. It is significant to note that whereas Horst and Miller observed that in Jamaica “most people are unaware of the specific brands and model of the phones, but instead provide vague answers such as ‘the flip phone,” my informants all know the exact model of phone they have (Horst & Miller, p.61). MOBILE MOMBASA 74
Although cell phones are not allowed at boarding schools many of the young women have secretly had them since as early as eleven years of age. More commonly, however, girls are given them by their parents somewhere between the ages of sixteen to eighteen. Cell phones are ultimately considered a necessity among the elite youth these days. Additionally, the introduction of Facebook has revolutionized cell phone use and filled a much desired role within the lives of youth in Mombasa, particularly for young women. According to Horst and Miller, in regards to the cell phone “the sense of personal ownership comes across in two ways: the reaction to the loss of a phone and its incorporation as style” (p. 60). While Horst and Miller were working with low-income Jamaicans who were for the most part using relatively basic cell phones, my informants have access to elaborate cell phones complete with cameras, MP3 players, and Internet capabilities. I was told that, among the youth in Mombasa young men generally care more about the type of cell phone they have than young women. Young women are ultimately more concerned with the services the cell phone provides and its ability to keep them connected. This is an important distinction suggesting that cell phones have both a material value as well as a social value. The pragmatism of young women is perhaps linked to their more limited sense of mobility, and therefore, their increased need for a social outlet. Boys, on the other hand, are said to want the fanciest phones available. Phones, along with watches, have apparently been incorporated into forms of romantic courtship, a phenomenon observed by Horst and Miller as well. If a boy is interested in a girl he will make an ostentatious display of his cell phone in order to attract her attention and show that he is someone who has done well for himself. Many young women revealed that this in fact usually works. In regards to gender,
Taylor and Harper (2003) find that contrary to early predictions girls and young women have taken up these technologies with equal skill and enthusiasm as boys and young men. My own MOBILE MOMBASA 75 observations support this and demonstrate that young women if anything have incorporated these technologies beyond a material level into their lives more so than young men.
Young women, although they would also like to have nice phones, are far more concerned with the service the phone provides than the actual phone itself, perhaps because there is less pressure for them to prove their class mobility. Of the phone’s features my informants rank the ability to access the Internet as the most important, followed by texting (although this changes depending on the cell phone provider being used). Ironically, actually making calls on the cell phone is not among the priority functions. They also like a phone with a camera in order to post pictures on their Facebook accounts. MP3 capabilities and polyphonic ring tones are also listed among the most important features. Ringtones are frequently changed, a similarity I found with Horst and Miller’s research, as new songs become popular, and one’s ability to keep up with current music trends with their ringtone is a sign of how with the times they are. Horst and
Miller describe “the most specific and important display property of contemporary Jamaican cell phones are ringtones, and most Jamaicans are happy to express an active interest in tones, in some cases changing and updating them several times a week” (p. 63). Likewise, my own informants stressed to me the importance of having polyphonic ringtones on one’s phone.
Malaika and Ana went as far as to say that if someone’s phone does not have polyphonic ringtones they are probably embarrassed to take it out or receive calls in public.
A feature of the phone not employed by my informants, or Horst and Miller’s, is the use of predictive text. Like Horst and Miller my informants use a type of abbreviated “text-speak.”
Even when I went with Maria to the Internet café she used this form of language when typing on a computer. Horst and Miller attribute this to the fact that many low income Jamaicans may have difficulty spelling correctly. I do not think that the same can be said of my own informants. All MOBILE MOMBASA 76 the youth I worked with were very educated. I instead attribute it to two factors. First, predictive text (at least from my experience) does not come in Swahili. And even if it did, the youth in
Mombasa freely switch between Swahili and English and therefore being forced to conform to
Standard English or Swahili would limit their ability to fully express themselves. Second, I argue that youth enjoy the ability and flexibility to invent new spellings of words. This aspect of texting is very much a part of techno-culture even in the U.S., and I think it is fair to say it is viewed as an outlet of creativity as well as being quicker and easier.
Another phenomenon observed by Horst and Miller is the tendency to treat the cell phone as more than just a phone but as a “multi-purpose tool” and is considered to be “where part of one’s social ‘memory’ is located” (p. 63). When asked about the features on their phones that were most important to them my informants listed the ability to place calls at about third or sometimes even forth. It is clearly apparent from this that the phone is conceptualized as more than a call making device but as an MP3 player, a camera, a clock, and a gateway to the Internet among many other things. As the ability to access the Internet is actually the most important feature of the phone among the youth that I questioned, it seems that rather than a call making device, the cell phone is viewed as a mini-computer among the youth in Mombasa. Although
Horst and Miller mention this use of the phone in Jamaica as well, it is only briefly and by no means the focus of their study. I attribute this largely to the differences in class status between our informants as it is likely that many of the people Horst and Miller were researching did not have phones capable of Internet access. However, one should not over look that the elite female youth in Mombasa have a distinctive social world and communicative desires which are fulfilled more fully through Internet access.
MOBILE MOMBASA 77
Objective Self-Awareness and Identity Formation
Online networking sites have come to play an increasingly important role in the lives of youth worldwide, and thus many scholars have reconsidered theories of identity formation to account for the fact that “memory has become a major idiom in the construction of identity, both individual and collective” (Behrend, 2000, p. 57). In his essay “Between Memory and History:
Les Lieux de Memoire,” Pierre Nora (1989) argues that “modern memory is, above all, archival.
It relies entirely on the materiality of the trace, the immediacy of the recording, the visibility of the image…hence the obsession with the archive that marks our age, attempting at once the complete conservation of the present as well as the total preservation of the past” (p. 13).
He proceeds to explain that “in the classical period, the three main producers of archives were the great families, the Church, and the state. But who, today, does not feel compelled to record his feelings, to write his memoirs…the less extraordinary the testimony, the more aptly it seems to illustrate the average mentality” (p.14). Furthermore, in considering the value of these memories from an historical perspective, scholars have had to contend with the reality that :
Memories are never simply records of the past, but interpretive reconstructions that bear
the imprint of local narrative conventions, cultural assumptions, discursive formations
and practices, and the social context of recall and commemoration; and they also bear the
imprint of the media that externalise and increasingly objectify memory. (Behrend, 2002
p.57)
With the idea of memory at the center of such debates, Facebook and online sites similar to it take on a new significance in discussions of identity. The Internet provides a forum where nearly anyone can carve out their individual niche within history, and Facebook, as a modern manifestation of memory publication, has been essential to this “democratization” of the archive. MOBILE MOMBASA 78
Such sites have invited the public to partake in the individual histories of “the most minor historical actor” (Nora, 1989, p.14). Although Nora seems to take a critical, or at least skeptical, stance on this development, other scholars such as Andrew Feenberg, celebrate the democratic potential for knowledge production offered by these new technologies. Furthermore, the efficiency by which online sites have been able to accomplish this recording and publicizing of memory is unprecedented. Through Facebook an individual can update their daily feelings and activities, keep track of acquaintances, post pictures, and maintain correspondence on both a private and public scale. Furthermore, an individual’s Facebook is dynamic and usually updated multiple times a day. Therefore, I argue that particularly for the purposes of identity formation
Facebook should be thought of as an “archive of the self,” and thus, creates a space where users may attain an objective self-awareness, a term I borrow from Behrend’s research on photography. By “archive of the self” I mean that it is a tool through which a personal history can be preserved, updated, and published without outside intervention. It is a space where one claims a voice for oneself in a public realm and where one can craft an image to present to the world.
The Internet as an outlet of history production is even more apparent when accessed through the cell phone as the compact nature of the cell phone provides nearly unrestricted access, thus allowing Facebook users to update events almost immediately after happening. Even while dancing at a night club the young women I was with had a drink in one hand and a cell phone in the other. Towards the end of my stay in Mombasa I decided to see Lamu before I left.
I did not want to travel alone however, so I brought Maria with me. As we took the bus up into northern Kenya and crossed through several rural areas I was struck by the fact that throughout the changing scenery there was one constant: cell phone advertisements. Once we reached Lamu MOBILE MOMBASA 79
Maria's Facebook was our constant companion. Several times throughout the day she would update her status in order to fill her friends in on our adventures and to “make them jealous” she said with a smirk. During our stay we met several Lamu locals who we were pleasantly surprised to learn have Facebook accounts. There was also a middle aged woman staying in our hotel that we got to know quite well. She was originally from London, where her children still go to school, but now she is living on Bahrain, an island off the coast of Saudi Arabia. She also has a Facebook account. So although we only met these people briefly and perhaps may never see them again in our lives, we are able to forever be friends with them. In a sense Facebook is a collection of every person one has ever met and even people one has not yet met. It not only opens up opportunities to meet new people, but it safely preserves former acquaintances.
In light of this pervasiveness and this capacity for preservation, it is helpful to think of
Facebook in Mombasa in the same terms as photography in East Africa. Not merely because of the large space Facebook dedicates to photographic imaging, but because photography marked an earlier phase in a similar process of self-objectification. Heike Behrend (2000, 2002, 2003) has done extensive work interpreting the role of photography in East Africa. As I mentioned earlier, Behrend’s research is significant because she diverges from previous literature focusing on Western images of Africans, and directs her attention instead towards “photographs made by
Africans for Africans to generate knowledge about their self-images” (Behrend, 2002, p.44). The attention to self-images is particularly important as portrait photography is a popular genre in
Kenya.46 Thus Behrend argues that photography allows Kenyans to “experience themselves in
46 Photography was visibly present on the east coast of Africa by the mid-nineteenth century with the first studios run primarily by Indians. Shortly after its introduction the colonial state began integrating photography into strategies of control and surveillance, and by the mid-twentieth century photography had an established presence even with in rural regions of Kenya. However, Western, colonial photographic techniques differed greatly from photography’s original in the region. Unlike commercial studios which offered the client room to experiment with self-images, “the photographic images the state demanded became objectified as documents and fell into the domain of truth production…photography’s indexicality served as a sort of trace to guarantee the identity of the image and MOBILE MOMBASA 80 pictures as aesthetic subject and object at the same time” (Behrend, 2003, p. 134). This becomes the basis of what she terms objective self-awareness.
Another theorist of note, Walter Benjamin (1969), discusses photography as well as film as they have impacted the genre of art. He argues that through the process of mechanical reproduction a work of art is removed from its original context and thus the “aura” of a work of art is diminished because “the uniqueness of a work of art is inseparable from its being imbedded in the fabric of tradition” (p.223). He proceeds to explain that art work is valued in two ways: its cult value and its exhibition value. He claims that in photography cult value has been replaced by exhibition value, and that the last instances of cult value in photography are seen in portrait photography. He claims that “the cult of remembrance of loved ones, absent or dead, offers a last refuge for the cult value of the picture” (p.226). Behrend’s work demonstrates precisely this cult value of photography in Kenya, particularly highlighting photo fetishism through portrait photography.47
Focusing on more recent developments, Behrend sees photography as a means for
Kenyans to gain objective self-awareness as “a photographic portrait allows a person to see herself or himself mediated by the gaze of another” (2002, p.48). She argues that people utilize photography in order to explore realities unavailable to them in everyday life due to various forms of social exclusion and describes photography studios as “wish-fulfilling machines” (2000,
the photographed person” (Behrend, 2002, p.45). Photography became integrated into existing cultural rituals such as healing practices, cults of the dead, rites of passage, and feasts, but it also created new ways of understanding and shaping the self. The photos taken were typically stored in albums and displayed to visitors. Not surprisingly, when Behrend first began her research in the 1990s she discovered the overwhelming popularity of portrait photography, a legacy of colonial rule. For more information on photography see Behrend (2002, 2003). 47 After its introduction, photography was integrated into healing and harming rituals in Kenya and Uganda with the belief that the photo contained a link to the person whom it depicted. Once again, Behrend traces this back to colonial practices arguing that “in Africa, it was Europeans who initially placed photography in a context of power, healing, killing, sorcery, and witchcraft. They converted technology into magic” (2003, p.113). In addition to using photography as a means of identification and objectification, colonialists used it “in order to astonish and terrify Africans” (p.132). The continuing popularity of portrait photography in Kenya reveals that to some extend the cult value of photography persists. MOBILE MOMBASA 81 p.73). Throughout her research in photo studios she has observed a tendency to “construct an identity that appears almost divorced from any one specific locality…they define themselves and their customers as modern and cosmopolitan, inventing a vision of ‘globalization from below’”
(Behrend, 2000, p.76). Likewise, all of the participants in my own study expressed desires to remain globally connected and to learn about new people and places. They accomplished this on a local level by keeping up with trends in music and fashion, and at times adjusting their
Facebook information to suit this project of self creation and globalization from below. For example, Maria has “Colombia, Puerto Rico, Colombia” listed as her hometown on Facebook suggesting a desire to align herself with a cosmopolitan identity. Rather than rooting herself in her actual physical location she is able to represent herself as a citizen of the world. Additionally, many youth will incorporate words from other languages into their names on Facebook, such as
Ester who has ‘Libre’ as her middle name.
Behrend provides an in-depth case study from her research in the 1990s of a young man named Peter Mwasunguchi who is an avid consumer of photography and whose “photographs give evidence not only of an obsessive self-representation, but also of an idiosyncratic attempt at photographic self-creation” (Behrend, 2002, p.49). It is worthwhile for me to provide a detailed account of the research Behrend did on this young man because in many ways Maria is my female version of him as she is the central character of my research. Both Maria and Peter serve as central figures in their social networks and both actively incorporate technologies of self- creation into their lives to craft images of themselves as globally connected. Furthermore, both exhibit an avant-garde enthusiasm for self-creation through technology which has been admired and imitated by other youths within their social circles. Although Behrend’s research took place long before the advent of Facebook many of the mechanisms at work in her analysis parallel my MOBILE MOMBASA 82 own observations.
Peter is part of a youth culture in Mombasa largely excluded from the ranks of social prestige. Although the girls I research all self-identify as middle-class, and therefore exert a certain degree of social privilege, they still express feelings of social constraint. As they are all living at home with their parents they express feeling a degree of surveillance in their lives.
Furthermore, as young women, their movement is more restricted, particularly after dark. Thus,
Facebook provides them with a social outlet during times when they would otherwise feel constrained by their circumstances. Maria in particular classifies herself as belonging to the lower-middle class. Although in absolute terms she still occupies a position of privilege, relative to her more affluent upper-middle class friends she feels exclusion from social prestige which she challenges through technologies of self-creation.
Influenced by African American hip-hop culture and fashion trends from the U.S., Peter and his friends use photography to imagine themselves in new social roles and to “improve the conditions of their existence and to achieve status though ostentatious consumption of cloths and photography” (Behrend, 2002, p.54). Essential to this process is a transnational circulation of clothing. Peter sends money to his sister in the U.S. who buys him the latest trends. He then wears the clothing for several days documenting each outfit through photography. He then sells the clothing to his friends, sends the money to his sister, and repeats the cycle. As he does not have the means to accumulate all of the outfits he admires, his photographs function as a reminder and proof of the clothing he once possessed. The photos are collected into albums which are not “a fixed archive so much as a flexible, changing place of accumulation, always reflecting a network of changing social relations” (Behrend, 2002, p.58). Likewise, Facebook is a
“living archive of the self” in the same fashion as Peter’s photo album. It is a record of history as MOBILE MOMBASA 83 it is happening and its contents change nearly every day. In an interview with Maria I asked whether she knew the number of Facebook friends she had off the top of her head. She said there is really no way for her to keep a mental record of this because the number is always changing, and in fact, just earlier that day she had added six new friends.
Behrend concludes that through photography Peter and his friends “define themselves as modern and ‘American’” (2002, p.54). They oppose the local African traditions which exclude them from prominent social ranks while simultaneously opposing western hegemony.
Additionally, “photographic portraits provide the possibility of constructing individual biographies in new ways and, as already mentioned, of exploring the unsteady and changing state of selfhood,” while a “new sort of watchfulness and awareness towards the self is produced”
(Behrend, 2002, p.57-59). Rather than necessarily looking towards the U.S. as the sole source of modernity, however, I observed a more multi-layered trend among the female youth of
Mombasa. An awareness of U.S. trends is present, but there is an additional center of modernity in their eyes, Nairobi. I never actually heard these young women speak of the U.S. in dreamy- eyed terms they way they did Nairobi. For them, the U.S. is present, but not necessarily as relevant to their lives as Nairobi. My friends spoke of Nairobi, on the other hand, the way star- struck, small-town women in the U.S. fantasize about Hollywood or The Big Apple. I found this somewhat surprising as Mombasa itself is a large city. Regardless, Nairobi holds for them a glamorized allure. The young women who had attended boarding school in Nairobi always talked about how much they missed Nairobi and wanted to go back. Ester was actually planning to return to Nairobi to take a few classes, but when she found out that her classes were scheduled to start a few weeks later than she had anticipated she was heartbroken. Maria and I went with her to the Mombasa campus to check the course calendar and console her. MOBILE MOMBASA 84
One day one of the young women’s friends from Nairobi visited and we all crowded around her to hear about the latest trends from Nairobi. During my stay a song by an artist from the U.S. named Keri Hilson was popular. When her music video showed up on the television the visiting young woman started to tell us how all of the women in Nairobi have their hair done just like Keri Hilson, in a short bob-type style. This girl herself had a very similar hair style. The young women from Mombasa were more interested to hear that the women in Nairobi had their hair done in this style than the fact that this trend was initiated by an artist from the U.S. So not merely the U.S., but Nairobi is considered a hub of modernity where the youth of Mombasa look to for trends. The relationship could perhaps be described as if Nairobi is the funnel through which Western trends must pass before youth in other regions of Kenya will adopt them. This could possibly be attributed to Nairobi’s legacy as the colonial capital and its closer ties to
Europe and the U.S. The young women then began a conversation I found particularly amusing.
They started talking about how high maintenance guys in Nairobi are; they call them “Nai
Guys.” Nai Guys are apparently extremely concerned with fashion and appearance and expect a lot from their girlfriends. They expect their girlfriends to have the latest fashions in clothes and hair and my friends were joking that women in Nairobi should start demanding money from their boyfriends just to meet their high standards of attractiveness.
From Modern Individuals to Postmodern Identities
It is impossible to have a discussion about technology and identity without considering literature which supports the idea that technology has assisted in the construction of a self which is flexible and changing. Sherry Turkle (1997) for example, a prominent scholar who works on issues of technology and identity formation, argues that “experience with today’s computational objects encourages rethinking identity in terms of multiplicity and flexibility” (p.1093). The bulk MOBILE MOMBASA 85 of Tukle’s work has been on multi-user domains or MUDs. Part of this multiplicity is attributed to what Turkle terms “cycling through” which is “made possible by the existence of what have come to be called ‘windows’ in modern computing. Windows facilitate a way of working with a computer that makes it possible for the machine to place you in several contexts at the same time” (Turkle,1997, p.1101). Turkle’s theory is limited, however, in that much of her analysis relies on Internet access through a computer; and therefore, does not apply in the same way to users who are accessing the Internet through cell phones. Internet technology on cell phones does not have the capacity for the multiple windows necessary for Turkle’s conception of
“cycling through.” Cell phones are also limited in the types of sites which can be accessed and do not have the proper technology to function in MUDs which are in fact a very different technology than Facebook despite their seeming similarities.
In questioning whether Myspace (a site similar to Facebook) can be considered to occupy a “place,” Goodings, Locke, and Brown (2007) speculate that “in the case of
Myspace…there is nothing other than sets of interlinked profile pages. Other forms of online interaction, such as Second Life, do provide what might be called ‘public places’ by representing users as avatars who can navigate visually rendered artificial worlds” (Goodings, Locke &
Brown, p.465). Goodings et al. characterize Myspace as a portal where users “build their own personal profile. These profiles consist of diverse mixtures of biographical information, personal preferences, images, weblogs (blogs) and miscellaneous text. Interaction takes place through leaving messages and images as weblogs in a predefined area of the profile” (p.463). When a person joins a MUD, on the other hand, they “create a character or several characters and specify their genders and other physical and psychological attributes” (Turkle, 1997, p.1100). With this in mind, Turkle’s emphasis on the fluidity of identity is predicated on the anonymity and MOBILE MOMBASA 86 flexibility available to MUD users which is not available or even necessarily desirable for users of Facebook. MUD users have the potential to build a new person who may or may not have any resemblance to their physical self. Facebook and Myspace users, however, can only highlight or attempt to cover certain aspects of their physical self.
Facebook users, in general, are more concerned with people becoming aware of their physical self than inventing a new one. For instance, I mentioned earlier that young women will put themselves in fake relationships on Facebook just to get people to look at their profile. If someone starts a relationship with someone else on Facebook it will pop up on the news-feed encouraging Facebook friends to look at the profiles of the people in the new relationship. Both
Ester and Maria have used this as a strategy to get people to look at their profiles. Youth will also change their religious or political affiliations to reflect the image they would like to present. For instance Edna has “Mau Mau” listed as her political views. Although it is highly unlikely that
Edna is actually part of a reemerging Mau Mau movement, listing this on Facebook reflects her sense of commitment to a historical heritage and political ideology and the type of identity she wishes to be associated with. For many of the young women’s religious views statements such as “God is good” are listed. I interpret this to indicate a spiritual affiliation with a reluctance to identify with one particular sect, and a desire to remain open to differences.
Another strategy young women employ to get people to look at their profile is to change their names. If people see a new name popping up on the news feed they will be intrigued and want to see who the person is. Changing one’s name can also be a way of expressing individuality. During the time of out interview Ester had recently changed her name to some song lyrics which mean she is the girl who brings the competition. She has since changed it several more times. Often when changing a name youth will look to current events, student MOBILE MOMBASA 87 groups or other affiliations which reveal the aspects of themselves they would like to highlight.
Currently Maria has the word Prada incorporated into her name. Initially I thought she was referring to the designer, but it may perhaps actually be referring to her phone model, the LG
Prada. Even if someone does not want to completely change their name they will often experiment will alternative spellings and will often use letters not standard to the English alphabet, the reason for this usually being a concern for uniqueness. In general, the use of language on Facebook is a mix of English, Swahili, and abbreviated “text-speak,” thus making it difficult for anyone unfamiliar with one of these languages to fully decipher what is being said, and it provides an outlet for youth to express themselves outside the realms of standardized languages. Based on these observations I argue that Facebook users are more concerned with a self-creation that emphasizes promotion rather than anonymity and fluidity.
Furthermore, as I mentioned when discussing Bakardjieva’s research, users of Facebook usually do not use these sites solely for networking with new people. Usually a large majority of their Facebook friends are in fact people they know from other contexts and people whom they maintain a relationship with in the physical world. In my research, the youth in Mombasa, although excited about the potential Facebook has to make friends on a global scale, insist that they primarily use the site to maintain regular contact with friends they already have. They all stress the role Facebook has played in tightening networks of friends and bringing them closer to previous acquaintances. Therefore, creating an entirely new version of the self is not necessarily an option that is available to them, nor is it a desire that they have. It is possible that Facebook users could have more than one account, one to network as the self they represent to the physical or “real” world and one in which they fabricate a new identity. However, I have no evidence of this, and therefore can only speculate. MOBILE MOMBASA 88
The two types of self-creation and fluidity described by Behrend and Turkle, although seeming to rely on the same vocabulary are in fact slightly different concepts. This is due largely to the difference in technology between Facebook (or photography) and MUDs. In negotiating this difference it has been helpful to consider Miller and Slater’s (2001) notions of expansive realization v. expansive potential. In their research in Trinidad, Miller and Slater find that the
Internet is prominent in projects of self-creation and provides people with an outlet to “objectify themselves as Trinidadian” (p.10). They use the term objective realization as a process of
Internet use through which “one can become what one thinks one really is (even if one never was),” whereas objective potential is the capability of the Internet to “allow one to envisage a quite novel vision of what one could be” (p.11).
Through technologies such as Facebook, Myspace, or photography people can fashion themselves as having high social status or popularity, or as being globally connected, but do not necessarily change their entire notion of who they are. They are simply given the space to reach what they interpret as their true potential. MUDs, on the other hand, provide a space in which people can radically alter their social role or concept of personal identity. However, in both cases the question remains: how much of these online characteristics affect their everyday physical realities? For instance, many girls stated that they had placed themselves in fake relationships on
Facebook in order to prompt curiosity from Facebook friends and get other Facebook users to look at their profiles. Although this is a way of exploring social relations, these romantic relationships do not exist in the physical or “real” world, despite the jealousy this practice evoked in Ester’s case. This also raises questions about the validity of such sites as “archives” if they do not necessarily reflect the reality of the physical world.
Following with this theme, Barney (2004) posits that “whatever its progressive potential, MOBILE MOMBASA 89 the disembodiment and anonymity enabled by network mediated interaction simply evade the very real problems of discrimination and injustice based on identity in the material, offline world, rather than addressing their substance” (p.154). Like Turkle and Behrend, Barney also discusses postmodern identity, which he describes as “artificial, fluid, contingent, multifaceted and mutable” (p.151). It is widely accepted that online communities are libratory spaces, particularly for those who experience marginalization in the physical world, where people can experiment with new notions of identity. However, scholars differ in the degree to which they see this happening. Although Barney accepts the idea of postmodern identity, he does include as a caveat that “it is possible that characterizations of the internet as a medium of extensive postmodern identity fabrication are exaggerated” (p. 154). Central to his argument here is that new technologies increase potential for surveillance, and therefore, true anonymity is never really possible. In the same fashion as Turkle, his analysis relies on anonymity as a prerequisite for postmodern identity. But as both Behrend’s research, as well as my own, demonstrates, anonymity is not necessarily desirable for people engaging in online networks or experimenting with other forms of self-objectification. Furthermore, people are capable of engaging in projects of self-creation without remaining anonymous.
Although I do not contest the idea that identity is a socially constructed phenomenon, my observations lead me to agree with Barney that scholars are perhaps too overzealous in their claims of postmodern identity. Often times in their enthusiasm for fluidity and multiplicity scholars neglect that individuals become heavily invested in the notions of identity they construct for themselves. Changing notions of the self, particularly on an individual level, perhaps happen slower and through a more arduous process of negotiation than scholars such as Turkle acknowledge. So even while accepting identity as a socially constructed phenomenon, it is MOBILE MOMBASA 90 important not to slip into a vocabulary which paints it as easily dispensable or frivolous.
Conclusion
This chapter explores the implications of technology use in strategies of identity formation. I argue first that the possession and ownership of technology in itself contributes to notions of identity. Since cell phones are one of the few items youth feel a complete sense of ownership over, the physical cell phone contributes to a burgeoning sense of self and identity.
Cell phones do this on two levels. First, ownership of a technological object indicates a certain level of maturation and assumed responsibility. And second, the advanced cell phone technology they posses highlights their class status and potential for social and economic mobility.
Furthermore, through technologies such as Facebook youth are able to gain an objective self-awareness. By providing a medium through which youth can record and document their lives and images, Facebook is a space where youth are able to create a representation of themselves with a degree of objectification. I observe this happening through practices of name changing on Facebook as well as choosing to put or exclude personal information such as religious or political views. These strategies are intended to shape the version of the self one encounters online.
Behrend (2000, 2002, 2003) and Turkle (1997) both argue that objective self-awareness is an essential facet of postmodern identity, however, they differ to the degree in which they describe this occurring. Their differences are best described by Slater and Miller (2001) who offer two versions of postmodern identity: expansive realization and expansive potential. I argue that Facebook is a technology more suited to fulfilling identity projects concerned with expansive realization as Facebook is not designed to preserve anonymity. Additionally, Barney argues that the Internet is a space for people who have been excluded from positions of power in MOBILE MOMBASA 91 the offline world to create identities to challenge this exclusion. My informants use the Internet as a space to challenge their limited physical mobility in the offline world and foster and enhance a space of social connectedness for themselves built largely upon relations already established.
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Chapter 4 Conclusion: Summary of Findings and Thoughts for Future Research
48
48 A road in Old Town, Mombasa MOBILE MOMBASA 93
Summary of Initial Questions and Findings
Taking into consideration Mombasa’s historical role as a site of global circulation, I initially began my research with an intention to uncover the effects of globalization on youth cultural productions in Mombasa. I discovered that one of the most visible impacts of globalization on youth in Mombasa is the incorporation of cell phones and Facebook into practices of communication. This thesis addresses the ways female youth appropriate global media and communication technologies in ways which hold relevance for their lives through innovation and creativity. Furthermore, I adopt a framework which considers these technologies as they are used and conceptualized among the youth of Mombasa. I intentionally avoid taking a stance which focuses primarily on economic development in favor of a position which takes careful consideration of socio-cultural practices.
My research indicates that the cell phone and the Internet cannot be thought of separately in the context of Mombasa. Since the cell phone is the main point of access to the Internet for the middle class youth in Mombasa, I have drawn upon the research of Horst and Miller to think of the cell phone and the Internet as facets of communication ecologies. I have also taken into account the role of user agency in technology appropriation as it is described by Bakardjieva.
Like Taylor and Harper I also find that contrary to early predictions which expected males to take these technologies up more rapidly, females have shown an equal enthusiasm and proclivity for communication technologies. Also, rather than increasing levels of parental surveillance, these technologies have helped youth evade parental control (Taylor & Harper, 2003). In examining the incorporation of cell phones and Facebook into youth cultural practices two overarching themes are addressed: community and identity. MOBILE MOMBASA 94
Looking first at the impact of communication technologies on communities I discover that much of the literature revolves around a debate among scholars, one side celebrating the potential of these technologies to eliminate disenfranchisement and the other side contemning them for the breakdown of “real-life” community participation. Recently, however, another branch of scholars has emerged to challenge the binary of this debate. These scholars, including
Maria Bakardjieva, propose instead that the offline world and the virtual world should not be conceptualized as separate. They argue that the virtual world is part of the offline world and that people will participate in activities online which are relevant to their offline lives. This stance is the most helpful in considering my own observations since Facebook user are primarily interested in staying in touch with people they know in the offline world. My informants, although acknowledging the ability of communication technologies to extend social networks, are more enthusiastic about their ability to tighten already established networks of friends.
Furthermore, these technologies do not replace face-to-face relationships, but instead serve as a mechanism to overcome the situational impossibility of face-to-face interactions. As young women my friends often felt constrained in their mobility, especially at night, and turn to
Facebook and cell phone communication as a way to overcome this. They also live a significant distance from many of their friends and these technologies allowed them to maintain contact with people they may not be able to see regularly.
In order to maintain extensive social networks, youth in Mombasa have developed a strategy of SIM card switching in order to take advantage of all the promotions offered by cell phone companies. There are four cell phone companies in Kenya and it is cheaper for people to communicate with others who use the same network. By purchasing several SIM cards youth can always ensure that they and their conversation partner will be able to use the same SIM card. MOBILE MOMBASA 95
Additionally by purchasing multiple SIM cards youth are able to take advantage of all of the special promotions offered by cell phone companies. In particular, youth have begun to use the
Orange and YU networks for their free in-network texting. By paying attention to promotions and taking advantage of offers such as free in-network texting youth work around the established frameworks set by cell phone companies to meet their own communication needs.
Youth also adopt a communication practice Horst and Miller call “link-up.” Horst and
Miller describe “link-up” as characterized of short phone calls often devoid of an ultimate goal or message. The purpose for this communication is merely to sustain relationships over time. I extend this concept to incorporate Facebook wall posts as well, as youth in Mombasa are more likely to participate in this form of communication. Youth also participate in a practice called flashing which serves the same basic function in that it does not relay a message beyond greeting value. Youth in Mombasa also use the please-call-me-text in the same fashion. Another way to think of this is as a version of gift-giving. Taylor and Harper argue that “mobile phones provide a medium through which young people can sustain and invigorate their social networks” (p. 268).
Essentially, youth send and receive text messages and wall posts as a way to perpetuate circuits of social reciprocity. Although often times the message itself may have an intrinsic meaning as traditional accounts of the gift require, in other cases perhaps simply showing the commitment to a given relationship over time is of sufficient value or meaning to fulfill a gift function.
In mediating social interactions, communication technologies also provide an outlet through which youth are able to understand and conceptualize versions of the self. Facebook in particular is a space where youth can create and explore identities. I also argue that simply owning a cell phone has contributed to youth identity formation as youth begin to think of themselves as independent, autonomous individuals capable of achieving socially productive MOBILE MOMBASA 96 adulthood. In addition, the possession of a cell phone contributes to their awareness of their class status as they own advanced, new model cell phones. Horst and Miller describe that “the sense of personal ownership comes across in two ways: the reaction to the loss of a phone and its incorporation as style” (p. 60). Similarly my informants are very concerned with ringtones as a means of incorporating their phones into their style, and the loss or theft of a cell phone is considered a great tragedy. In general it is thought that young men are more concerned with the physical cell phone itself. Although young women also care a great deal about their cell phones, they seem to care more about the services it provides and its ability to keep them connected.
Through the Internet and Facebook youth are able to gain what Heike Behrend terms objective self-awareness. Youth are given a space to understand themselves objectively which thus allows them to participate in the creation of identities. Considering Pierre Nora’s examination of the intersection of history and memory, I argue that Facebook should in fact be thought of as an archive of the self and a space which encourages youth to reflect upon and record their lives. Like Behrend, Sherry Turkle also conceptualizes the Internet as a space to rethink identity in terms of multiplicity and fluidity. However, she and Behrend differ in the degree to which they see this happening, mostly because they are considering different technologies. Miller and Slater articulate these differences as expansive realization v. expansive potential. I argue that my informants, as well as users of Facebook more generally, are more involved in projects of expansive realization. Rather than trying to invent new versions of the self as in expansive potential, Facebook users are more concerned with self promotion and the ability to more fully realize who they think they are. Additionally, Barney argues that the Internet is a place where people can create identities to challenge the terms on which they have felt social exclusion. MOBILE MOMBASA 97
Unanswered Questions and Thoughts on Future research
As my research focused on a very narrow demographic and I relied on a small number of informants my research leaves ample room for further inquiry. For instance, my analysis could benefit greatly by taking into consideration other classes of women. Examining the incorporation of communication technologies by working class or lower class women would provide a pertinent comparative study. By considering the different forms of technology these women use and analyzing how they have been incorporated into everyday life practices I could gain a better picture of the impact communication technologies have had on gender on a broader scale. I may also find that for working class women economic development is a primary concern which is not present for the youth I currently consider. Working class women may also exhibit different standards of physical mobility which may cause me to rethink Bakardjieva’s discussion of the intersection of online and offline lives.
Additionally, in considering questions of gender, my analysis could benefit by including male informants. Once again different standards of physical mobility may provide new examples of the intersection of online and offline worlds. Male informants may more fully elucidate the importance of possession to identity formation. I could also expand the age range of my informants to examine how these technologies fit into the lives of school children or those who are no longer considered to fit into the category of youth. As people’s concerns and ambitions change throughout their lives taking age into consideration may reveal the ways in which people’s online engagements are relevant to their offline lives. Furthermore, as communication technologies are in a constant state of change my research could be built upon by simply following new technologies and trends. East Africa in particular is currently undergoing large MOBILE MOMBASA 98 changes in telecommunications infrastructure which could radically alter the findings I have gathered thus far. I will discuss this in more detail in the epilogue.
Additionally, a topic which could be further explored is the use of money transfer services such as MPESA and ZAP. I spoke with an anthropologist who was in Kenya the previous summer who said that at that time MPESA was not commonly seen or spoken about.
Yet by the time I arrived MPESA kiosks were abundant and people seemed to be using the service with increasing frequency. The transfer of money through phones, especially if SIM cards are not required to be registered could lead to cutting edge research involving a variety of political and economic issues. Particularly the ways in which money through these services could be used for illegal or nefarious business activities would be an interesting and politically relevant topic to consider. These services could also be studied from an economic development standpoint as well as studies of African urbanization and migration. For instance, one could examine money transfer patterns between family members who have migrated to urban areas for work and then send remittances to family members remaining in rural regions.
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Epilogue
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49 A ship coming into port at Mombasa Harbour MOBILE MOMBASA 100
Looking Towards the Future of Telecommunications in Kenya
Before I arrived in Mombasa I had sent several emails to my host family to arrange my trip. My host mother told me I would be able to have access to wireless Internet from their home so that I would be able to communicate with my family as often as I liked. I assumed that this meant the Internet connection was somehow attached to their home and that anyone would be able to connect, much like the way Internet is done in the US. That, however, was not the case.
After I had begun to settle into my new home I asked how I could connect to the Internet so that
I could send my family an email to let them know I had arrived safely and was doing well. Mama
Ken told me we would have to go get a modem. It was through this event that I had my first personal experience with the Orange network.
We went to the local Nakumatt in Nyali to visit the Internet store. The same cell phone providers are also the Internet providers. When someone has a computer they wish to connect to the Internet they buy a personal modem which they plug into their computer. Mama Ken suggested that I purchase the Orange modem because the Internet service was cheaper than
Safaricom. I, not knowing anything about telecommunications at this point, took her advice.
When we arrived home, however, we discovered that the modem would not work on my laptop because it did not have Windows. She said that I could just use her laptop. She warned me however that she did not know very much about computers and that she rarely ever used this computer because it was mostly for when her children were home visiting, and therefore, it might need some work done on it.
When I started tying to hook the modem up to the computer I discovered that she was not exaggerating when she told me she did not use this the computer often and that it in fact needed quite a bit of work done on it. It needed so many updates and had so many viruses and things downloaded onto it that it was practically unusable. Well, as it turns out her children were to be MOBILE MOMBASA 101 coming home soon on break from boarding school and she decided that we needed to get it fixed for when they arrived. We spent the next few days tracking down a computer specialist to help us fix the computer and get the modem to work. Once all of this was done, however, we came across a new dilemma. As Orange was a newer provider their coverage was not as extensive as
Safaricom. Additionally, our house was a bit outside of the city, and the Orange network did not work very well there. It was only a few days later, when Maria showed me how to access the
Internet from my phone, that I began to consider this as a potential research topic. Since we had gotten the computer fixed, my host mother went ahead and got a Safaricom modem when her children arrived home and I was then able to access the Internet from the computer when necessary.
During this time my host mother was curious but how Internet worked in the US. I explained to her how rather than satellite it was primarily run through cables and generally an entire building would have a connection that everyone could access. A few days later she came to me with exciting news she had just heard. Apparently the same cables I had told her about a few days ago were coming to Mombasa. Plans were in motion to lay several fiber optic cables under the Indian Ocean where they would connect at Mombasa and from there extend to more of East
Africa. The scheduled date for all of this to be completed was in July, it had been delayed due to piracy concerns.50 I was going to be in Tanzania, but I would be returning back to Mombasa for about a week before I left to return to the U.S. I kept close correspondence with my friends while
I was gone to see if anything exciting was happening with the cables. They said that nothing had happened yet. To my knowledge there has still been little change. Although the cables are in place there are still some other bureaucratic, infrastructural issues to handle. I learned from another anthropologist in the area that the company which owns the cable is still negotiating with
50 See Ngunjiri and Redfern. MOBILE MOMBASA 102 the local service providers and until all of this has been settled the people in East Africa will not actually get to use the Internet from these cables. So although nothing has happened yet, it will be interesting to observe how this affects telecommunications not only in Mombasa, but East
Africa as a whole. This could also be a potential topic for me to consider for future research.
If Internet access is no longer done through satellite it may affect the ability of cell phones to access the Internet. As ths is the primary means through which my informants are gaining access this could potentially lead to vast changes in the practices I observed.
Furthermore, it may change the way cell phones operate such as requiring people to register their
SIM cards or sign up for a monthly plan rather than relying on a prepaid system. Although none of this has happened yet, and may not, it should be considered as an area for future exploration.
Returning Home and Keeping in Touch
After my first bout of research in Kenya I was to meet up with a group of students in
Arusha, Tanzania to participate in the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Swahili Language
Program. I had planned to take a bus from Mombasa to Arusha where a car from the NGO (non- governmental organization) we were to stay at would pick me up. However, at the last minute I found out there would be no car and I was going to have to find the NGO on my own resources.
The NGO was apparently well-known in the area so I figured I could easily find a cab.
Unfortunately, the NGO was locally well-known by a nickname that I was unaware of. But before this even became a problem, I managed to get myself slightly lost by missing the bus stop
I should have ideally gotten off at. Lucky for me, I was surrounded my helpful, sincere, compassionate people.
I was warned by many people before I left that I should try not to make it common knowledge that I was from the U.S. I was told to tell people I was Canadian. However, I MOBILE MOMBASA 103 typically do not buy into this type of sensationalism. In fact, when I told people I was from the
U.S. I was usually greeted with excitement. Everyone I encountered wanted to know everything I could possibly tell them about Barak Obama. “Obama loves Kenya! America loves Africa!” people would yell enthusiastically. These were always very special moments for me, when I felt I could really engage people in a dialogue of mutual cultural exchange. The people I was speaking with would want to take a turn at being the anthropologist. They would ask me about the nature of racism in the U.S. and what Obama’s election means for the future of U.S. race relations and foreign diplomacy worldwide. I am not sure how these types of situations would have gone over a few years ago, given the former administrations general lack of popularity, to put it lightly. And although I think it would be a bit overzealous to entirely attribute the safety I felt traveling to
Barak Obama, I do think his election as president came at a significant time for me. This trip not only forced me to confront individual issues of traveling and cultural exchange, but forced me to consider myself as I fit into the wider realm of global politics.
Since I have returned home from Mombasa I have managed to maintain semi-regular communication with the young women who participated in my research. In addition to participating in “link-up” I have used Facebook as a way to fill in holes in my research when necessary. I have been able to experiment with a form of virtual ethnography. If I needed a name of a musical artist or a television series while I was writing I was able to send a quick Facebook message and receive a fairly prompt response. This has been helpful in ways I never imagined.
Furthermore, I have been able to observe from a distance the changes and evolutions in the lives of my participants. I have been able to see when they change their names or relationship statuses or general statuses. My Facebook mini-feed has done a large portion of my ethnography for me by allowing me to keep up with the dynamic lives of the young women who participated in my MOBILE MOMBASA 104 research. For example, Malaika has begun the university fulltime. She is still studying commerce and enjoying it. Several of the other girls, including Maria, will begin the university fulltime within the next few months, and Ester has returned to Nairobi. Many of the girls have also gotten new, upgraded cell phones. Although my research in Mombasa for the time being has come to a conclusion, communication technologies such as Facebook have provided an outlet for continued correspondence, so that in the future, when I wish to return to Mombasa, I will not feel as if I am going off by myself to a place where I know no one.
MOBILE MOMBASA 105
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