For technology enthusiasts, the story of Africa's adoption of the cell phone has been a clear success. The idea that access to technology and information will itself spark improvement?in everything from health services to electoral participation to engagement with the global economy--is certainly alluring, but anthropologist Julie Archambault reveals a more complex story. In Cruising through Uncertainty, Archambault paints a lively portrait of young adults from the city of Inhambane, Mozambique, who have eagerly adopted mobile communication during their struggle to become adults. Contrary to common assumptions about the effect of new technologies in developing countries, she finds that the cell phone has become a tool for pretense and falsification, a means of creating the appearance of security or luxury. In Archambault's estimation, no one is oblivious to what is going on through the phone--the wife knows that her husband cheats on her, the father realizes that his daughter is involved with older men, and the sister is aware that her brother hustles every now and then?but the discretion granted by mobile communication has profound personal and political implications amid growing socioeconomic disparity and a widening gap between ideals and reality. Performing success?economic, romantic, etc.?is not the same as actually improving one's situation, however, and the Mozambican case makes clear that these new technologies have not so much enabled development but rather have muted and masked persistent social contradictions.
Industry Reviews
"Mobile Secrets is an ethnographically vivid and distinctive contribution to the ever growing anthropological literature on the topic of youth in Africa. . . . Archambault's book represents an achievement for a contemporary anthropology attuned to the detail of our interlocutors' lives."-- "Allegra Lab"
"Mobile Secrets, about the uptake of cell phones in Inhambane, a secondary town in Mozambique, resolutely moves beyond the well-known 'Africa rising' mantra, the praise for cell phone technology as a tool to enhance 'development', or the celebration of the liberating capacity of mobile technology so common in the post-Arab Spring literature. This book transcends such narratives to offer a much more delicate ethnography of the complex ways in which young Mozambican men and women use cell phones to 'cruise' through uncertain times and give renewed form to deeply rooted regimes of truth, being and relating - what Archambault terms 'arsenals of pretense', revealing in the process what intimacy, respect, discretion and affection mean in postsocialist postwar Mozambique. Within the burgeoning field of ethnographically informed studies on cell phone use in Africa and beyond, Archambault's rich account stands out for conveying how, in Mozambique today, cell phone use not only reshapes young people's frustrations and expectations, but also transforms broader motions and emotions of relatedness and living together in new and unexpected ways. A beautiful and truly moving book!"-- "Filip De Boeck, author of Kinshasa: Tales of the Invisible City"
"Cellphones are devices that are globally available, but this rich and original study shows the profound role they play in the intimate politics of Mozambican youth. Archambault demonstrates how the small act of 'biping' can signal love or secrecy, uphold or challenge masculinities, and provide an avenue to aspirations for social and geographical mobility. Mobile Secrets will offer an unparalleled contribution to the literature on youth and intimacy in Africa--nearly all recent African ethnographies of youth touch on cell phones, but none give them the closely researched central focus that Archambault provides here."-- "Mark Hunter, University of Toronto"
"Unsettling claims that the cell phone is the best tool against poverty, Mobile Secrets probes with great sensitivity into the ambivalent potential of mobile communication in Mozambique. Archambault deploys considerable analytical skill and imagination to unravel how cell phones simplify yet also mystify social relations among young people. The result is a highly original study of the role cell phones play in the local politics of display and disguise. By focusing on the new forms of personhood, privacy, and relationality fostered by mobile communication, Mobile Secrets also provides much needed insight into the intimate lives of Mozambican youth."-- "Adeline Masquelier, Tulane University"
