Serial Caller. Communication Technologies and Political Personhood in Uganda
Résumé
Together, radio and mobile phones have been the object of many political
expectations held by development actors in Africa. Stating that they enable
‘participation’ is, however, not enough to understand what is at stake in a given
context. It is necessary to describe exactly the kind of participation taking place.
Despite development projects inceptors’ intentions, the way people use ICT
(information and communication technologies) objects sometimes leads to a
rerouting of their political meaning. This article deciphers these sideway uses and
what they imply in the Ugandan context. Based on the example of ‘serial callers’
(people who intensively call in during radio talk shows), it demonstrates that ICT
objects become the site of the elaboration of particular ways of conceiving one’s
roles, status and duties in the polity, as an ‘educator’ or a ‘representative’, blurring
established distinctions between political representation and participation, and
offers a nuanced picture of the complexities of patronage politics.