Mobilities in rural Africa: new connections, new challenges

Fluid interdependencies of mobility – physical and virtualare growing rapidly in subSaharan Africa: the remarkable expansion of mobile phone networks is bringing a tangible new dimension of connectivity into mobility, transport and access equations on the ground. This article draws on in-depth field research, including co-investigation with two groups often disadvantaged in their physical mobility, youth and older people, to explicate some current African developments and their departure from prevailing Western-based conceptualisations of space-time interactions (regarding the potential for space-time flexibility and micro-coordination afforded by mobile phones). Despite the fact that face-toface interaction is often of great significance in Africa, when the value attached to personalized relationships is balanced against factors of widespread poverty and irregular, sometimes very dangerous transport, the potential for phone substitution appears greater than in many Western contexts. Better distance management through phone use may be particularly closely associated with populations with very low disposable incomes, and/or those whose physical mobility is limited, for instance by disability, infirmity, age, or gender