Government by social media in Somalia

Description

Cheap data, social media and creativity are filling in for an absent state

 

Subject

Thirty years ago, making a phone call from Somalia meant crossing the

border into better-connected Kenya or Ethiopia. Yet by 2004 the lawless

nation had more telephone connections per capita than any other east African

country. Today, the Somali state is still fragile: insecurity is rife and government

services are poor. But mobile data in Somalia is cheaper than in Britain, Finland

or Japan—and the signal is good, too. Jethro Norman, a Mancuniananthropologist who does research in Somalia, says he gets better mobile coverage

in some of the remotest parts of the country than he does in Manchester.

How has dysfunctional Somalia managed to developed such an outstanding

telecoms network? The answer lies in the state’s very weakness. Three decades of

chaos and conflict have forced hundreds of thousands of Somalis to flee their

country. Those who have stayed depend on them: the diaspora sends home

around $2bn a year, roughly double the government’s budget. An extensive

phone network was needed to handle those vast remittance flows. In Somalia’s

radical free market, the invisible hand did the rest. The upside of a lack of

government is that there is no need to pay for licences or to bribe corrupt

o!cials to get the job done.

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If telecoms flourished at first in the absence of the state, cheap internet is now

helping to replace it. A recent research paper by Mr Norman shows how clan-

based WhatsApp groups are increasingly being used to crowdsource capital from

“investors” in the diaspora, and then to co-ordinate the building of schools,

hospitals and roads with the money that is raised.

Social media is filling in for the failing state in other ways, too. WhatsApp groups

serve as virtual courts, for instance, where clan elders, rather than corrupt or

distant judges, resolve disputes. These online groups have revenue-raising

powers; members are required to make monthly contributions, which are then

used to o"er payments if someone is short of money, or as a kind of health

insurance to pay if they or a family member are ill. Those who do not pay are

blocked from the groups.

The rise of this WhatsAppocracy is not without its flaws. Hate speech that

deepens clan conflict is common, particularly among the diaspora. And

WhatsApp groups can raise money to buy guns as well as schools. Still, for now,WhatsApp groups can raise money to buy guns as well as schools. Still, for now,

governance via WhatsApp seems to beat rule by warlords. Somalis are making do

with what they have.