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Analysis: Text messaging reshaping communications, politics in Sub-Saharan Africa
US Office of Special Counsel
June 26, 2007

Media reports and academic research indicate that Sub-Saharan Africa's growing cellular phone market and the low cost and increasing popularity of text messaging, or Short Message Service (SMS), are changing modes of communication and redefining political interaction. According to media reports, Sub-Saharan Africans have used text messaging to organize protests, intimidate officials, and monitor and assess their governments' performance. Media also have claimed that officials use text messaging to communicate with one another and misinform the public, while various governments have attempted to block or control its use.

Potential Political Impact of Cellular Technology

The Commission for Africa, an initiative launched by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to take a "fresh" look at Africa and the international community's role in its development, reported in March 2005 that mobile phones raised the possibility of "unthought-of transformations" in African politics and is a "new and direct form of empowerment" (www.commissionforafrica.org). The report claimed that "totalitarian regimes find it hard to retain power" in societies where over 20 percent have access to cell phones.

The Economist said mobile phone use in organizing protests and other political activities was "evolving faster than governments' efforts to control it," stating that government attempts to crack down on mobile phone use "usually go haywire" and "ordinary people often prevail over their masters" (28 October 2006). Ethan Zuckerman, a research fellow at the Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said air time on mobile phones in most developing countries is sold on a pay-as-you-go basis and does not require SIM card registration. He claimed this anonymity made it "unusually difficult for police or other authorities" to block protests and identify organizers (www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog, 9 April).

Africa's Mobile Phone Market Growing

South Africa-based Business in Africa Online reported that communications industry analysts claimed developing countries made up 59 percent of cell phone subscribers (www.mybroadband.co.za, 2 October 2006). In the same article, David Pringle, spokesman for the Global System for Mobile Communication Association that represents 700 cellular companies worldwide, said that Africa had the fastest growing cell phone market in the world, increasing from about 63 million users in 2004 to 152 million in 2006. A February 2006 study by UK-based Portio Research claimed that cell phone subscriptions in Africa will reach 378 million by 2011, increasing from 14 to 42 percent of Africa's population (www.portioresearch.com).

A separate Portio Research study found that total SMS revenues in the Middle East and Africa are expected to reach $2.58 billion in 2012 and attributes SMS's popularity to its low cost compared to cell phone calls (www.itp.com, 20 February). Chadian Celtel subscribers, an African-based cell phone provider with networks in 15 African countries, pay up to $.77 per minute to make a phone call, while one SMS is $.05 (www.td.celtel.com). Many Africans also cannot afford the monthly fee for a fixed-line telephone and prefer to purchase a cell phone and buy prepaid cell phone cards, according to Canada's International Development Research Center (www.idrc.ca, 17 November 2003). Internet users can send free text messages and bulk text messages from several websites, including www.mobileafrica.net and www.africasms.com.

An Effective Mobilization Tool

Opposition parties, special interest groups, and communities regularly use SMS to organize protests and launch campaigns.

• Portugal-based daily Correio da Manha reported on 1 April that over 100 people marched through Maputo, Mozambique's capital, demanding the dismissal of Defense Minister Tobias Dai. The march was organized by SMS and e-mail.
• On 18 January the Toronto-based website Guineenews reported that Guinea's trade union leaders used text messages to organize a series of marches against President Conte's government (www.boubah.com).
• Supporters of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba sent text messages calling for protests after President Kabila was declared the winner of the November 2006 run-off against Bemba (AFP, 18 November 2006).
• South Africa's Muslim community used SMS to urge Muslims to boycott outlets that sold Johannesburg's Sunday Times, which had contested a court ruling banning South African papers from printing Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed (The Star, 2 February 2006). Text messages also circulated in Nigeria urging Muslims to boycott Danish goods (NAN, 8 February 2006).

Text Messaging Links Public to Policymakers

The pervasive use of cell phones in Sub-Saharan Africa has given citizens the ability to issue threats and communicate opinions and grievances directly to policymakers.

• On 30 January DRC's privately owned Top Congo FM reported that pro-Kabila parliamentarians received death threats via SMS for supporting Andre Kimbuta as Kinshasa governor.
• Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Maurice Iwu and other INEC officials received regular death threats via SMS after they disqualified former Vice President and opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar from contesting the 21 April presidential election (Lagos Vanguard, 19 March).
• On 15 May 2006 Nigeria's privately owned The Week said the Ethnic Nationalities Movement, a coalition of Nigerian ethnic groups, circulated text messages with the cell phone numbers of legislators supporting former Nigerian President Obasanjo's failed attempt to run for a third term. The message urged Nigerians to text message legislators and "encourage them to abstain or miss voting."

Tool To Promote Good Governance, Circumvent Censorship

Local and international NGOs are using text messages to monitor elections and improve transparency. Others have used text messaging to work around government censorship and monitoring.

• The Network of Mobile Election Monitors (NMEM), a program sponsored by Nigerian NGOs, employed Nigerian voters with mobile phones to monitor the presidential poll through SMS to "ensure impartial elections" (www.mobilemonitors.org). The NMEM's post-election report claimed the practice will "greatly assist in determining the legitimacy" of the election and future elections in Nigeria (www.pambazuka.org, 16 May).
• Kenya's Capital FM Radio reported that Transparency International incorporated SMS in an anticorruption campaign ahead of Kenya's December 2007 elections. The campaign urged Kenyan youth not to sell their vote, to avoid violence, and to demand free and fair elections (5 April).
• According to Gerry Jackson, founder of London-based SW Radio Africa, the station text messages daily news updates to subscribers' mobile phones in Zimbabwe -- one of the "most repressive media environments in the world" (www.mediahelpingmedia.org, 27 February). Since launching the service, SW Radio received up to 100 new requests daily for the service. Zimbabwe has jammed the radio's signal for two years (www.newsbbc.co.uk, 27 February).
• On 29 December 2006, Abidjan's daily Le Front said that based on regular announcements of possible coups, the military increasingly used SMS to communicate, claiming that it was the "only means to avoid being tapped."

Governments Use SMS To Communicate, Misinform Public

According to media reports, governments use text messaging to solicit support from fellow lawmakers and to disseminate information to the public.

• Kenya's privately owned The Standard reported that the government is "essentially run" on SMS and lawmakers use text messages to organize meetings and lobby for other parliamentarians' votes (20 May).
• Angola's privately owned weekly Semanario Angolense reported that on 10 and 11 March, mobile phone company UNITEL sent text messages to cell phone users warning Angolans not to leave home and called the Angolan Armed Forces and police the "guarantors of political and military stability" in the country. According to the article, the message had the "blessing of the authorities" and had been linked to rumors of a possible coup attempt (25 March 2006).
• South Africa-based independent online news service ZimOnline reported that Zimbabwe's government-owned and second largest mobile phone network, NetOne, sent an SMS message to subscribers discouraging a planned work boycott (9 June 2005). The message said the boycott was cancelled (www.zimonline.co.za).

Governments Attempt To Control SMS Services

Text messaging's role in organizing political protests, campaigns, and disseminating information criticizing authorities has prompted governments to temporarily block text messaging or take measures to stop wireless services from providing it.

• Zimbabwe's leading mobile phone network operator, Econet Wireless, cancelled its news service after receiving warnings from the country's intelligence agency, according to Zimonline. The network provides subscribers with news from BBC and SW Radio Africa, which the government claimed are "hostile and spreading" anti-President Mugabe propaganda, according to the report (www.zimonline.co.za, 14 April).
• On 18 January Guineenews reported that the government disrupted SMS services in an attempt to stop trade union demonstrations, including Areeba, Guinea's fourth largest telephone operator, and state-owned telephone network, Sotelgui.
• Balancing Act, a London-based research and consultancy firm focused on Africa's communications industries, reported in its weekly news update that the Ethiopian Government blocked mobile networks from sending text messages inside the country (www.balancingact-africa.com). According to the article, Ethiopia's opposition was using SMS to organize demonstrations after the government delayed announcing election results (11 July 2005).

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