New Technologies and the Popular: Alain Mabanckou’s Blog

New technologies are gradually and systematically transforming the process of information dissemination and retrieval. The implications are wide-ranging, and the virtual cartographies and landscapes delineated by these new technologies are largely uncharted. The distribution and marketing of print culture has been historically uneven, and whereas inequities continue to exist and disproportionately impact francophone sub-Saharan Africa, accessibility to information and participation in cultural, political, and social dialogue has been enhanced as a result of certain internet mechanisms. The interview that follows explores how the blog held by the critically acclaimed Congolese novelist and poet Alain Mabanckou operates as a new forum for conversation, debate, and exchange between people located in different parts of the world.