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Museum of Cultures | EXHIBITION ARCHIVE
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MOBILE AFRICA
Mobile phones and development in Kibera, Nairobi
20.10.2010 - 27.3.2011
Mobile phones have become accessible to Africans at staggering rates over the past decade. No other consumer electronics product has spread as fast as the mobile phone in Africa. Phones are no longer used only for calls, rather mobile technology development applications are turning the mobile phone into a platform for services which solve problems of poverty.
MOBILE AFRICA is an exhibition on the use of mobile phones as part of everyday life in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. The exhibition illustrates how the use of the phones integrates into the local culture and how the phones support local development efforts. Amidst the large-sized works blazing with light and colour, exhibition visitors can feel they are in the alleyways of Kibera in the midst of its residents. The exhibition's images are the works of photographer Juha Laitalainen and the texts are by Sirpa Tenhunen, Academy Researcher.
Kibera is one of the biggest slums in Africa. The Kenyan government regards the dwellings in Kibera as illegal and does not therefore offer services such as schools, health care or basic infrastructure there. Residents must buy their fresh water, and sewers are open. The spread of HIV is a serious problem.
Kibera is nevertheless also a warm community whose labyrinthine and picturesque architecture enables a vibrant business life and a communal way of living. The residents participate actively in parishes, civic organisations and micro-credit groups.
Kibera's citizens use mobile phones for maintaining contact with relatives living in the countryside, for taking care of health issues, for practising religion, for engaging in organisation activities and for communication. Mobile phones have become a necessity for small entrepreneurs. Banking services benefiting women and small entrepreneurs, especially, have become accessible to an increasing number of people thanks to the mobile phone-based banking service, M-pesa.
Mobile phones cannot replace roads, electricity, water supply, education or health care systems or create trade relations and jobs out of nowhere, but they can help increase the efficiency of these services. Mobile technologies can help develop services on meagre resources. Poverty can inspire the efficient use of resources with solutions that wealthy nations can also learn from.
The exhibition has been supported by Canon and Rajala Pro Shop.
Further information
Juha Laitalainen
tel. +358 40 513 9990
juha.laitalainen(at)kolumbus.fi
Sirpa Tenhunen
tel. +358 50 524 0241
sirpa.tenhunen(at)helsinki.fi
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