Global Exchanges and Gender Perspectives in Africa

7. Trade and Information Systems: The Case of Wrap Sellers in Brazzaville (Congo)

7 Trade and Information Systems: The Case of Wrap Sellers in Brazzaville (Congo) Mathias Marie A. Ndinga Introduction Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which developed in advanced countries in the 1980s, now represent one of the main vectors of globalisation. These technologies (digitalisation, the Internet and mobile telephones) have led to a new era of interdependence among networks, which have transformed the worlds of creation, dissemination and the use of technology. This represents a transformation of the conditions of production and exchange, brought about by the spread of information and communication technologies which developed progressively in Africa during the 1990s. The forms of ICT that are most used are mobile phones and, to a lesser extent, the Internet. The African continent had just 2 million mobile phone users in 1999, but this went up to 30 million in 2001. This was almost one and a half times the number of fixed line subscribers. There were expected to be a hundred million (100,000,000) mobile phone subscribers in 2005 (Marot 2001). According to the same author, Africa is only at the beginning of a similar revolution with the Internet. There were estimated to be 4.4 million Internet users in Africa at the beginning of 2001 (mainly in South Africa and the Maghreb countries). They represented 0.5 per cent of total world users, as against 50 per cent in the developed world. The spread of Internet use may only reach 1 per cent in 2005. These figures show two different speeds for the spread, in Africa, of mobile phones and the Internet: fast for mobile phones and slow for the Internet. This is certainly true for the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). Global Exchanges and Gender Perspectives in Africa 130 The mobile telephone network has developed vigorously in the Congo Republic, in response to the liberalisation of the market since 1997. Ninety five per cent of the 108,400 subscribers to the various telephone networks are mobile phone subscribers (Marchés Tropicaux 2001). There are three mobile phone operators in the Congo: Cyrus, Celtel and Libertis. In addition to these three providers, one should also note the National Office of Posts and Telecommunications (ONPT) for fixed line telephones. The Internet is still at its very early stages, with just a hundred Internet cafes (mainly in Brazzaville and Pointe Noire). Until very recently, the service provider was Congo Net, a subsidiary of ONPT, whose links had to pass through South Africa. Congo Net was joined in June 2001 by the Africa-wide company Africa Telecom and by Celtel Telecom. The purpose of the present paper is to establish whether information and communications technologies (ICTs) have had the same effects in Brazzaville as elsewhere, and particularly whether they have tended to increase or reduce gender inequalities in the wrap (pagne) trade. The choice of this subject is appropriate, since the wrap trade attracts as many men as women as agents. As for the women, it has given rise to a group of women called ‘The mothers of Lome’ from the name of the town from where they obtain their supplies, as Congo no longer produces any wraps. The problem which underlies this consideration of the effects of ICTs on the wrap trade in Brazzaville derives both from the context of globalisation, characterised by the development of ICTs, and also from the speeding up of changes in the relationships between men and women in African societies. This is why this investigation is based on the following questions: What is the determining factor over access to ICTs by the men and women who engage in this activity? What is the degree of use of ICTs by the wrap sellers in Brazzaville? What is it that distinguishes men from women over access to ICTs in carrying out this activity? What role do ICTs play in the wrap trade in Brazzaville? Taking these concerns into account, the main object of the present research project is to analyse the role and incidence of ICTs in the wrap trade in Brazzaville. It is essential to undertake an analysis of the conditions of access and then go on to undertake a study of the ways of utilising ICTs in this activity, since these two conditions control the effects of ICTs on the wrap trade. Our observation of the daily reality for men and women who engage in the wrap trade in Brazzaville leads us to argue that access to ICTs is unequal in at least two ways: vertical (men...