© 2005 Jonathan Donner
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“When someone beeps you, you know the reason”- Rwandan University Student
Introduction
This paper explores the practice of “beeping” on mobile telephones in sub-Saharan Africa. Beeping
is simple: a person calls a mobile telephone number and then hangs up before the mobile’s owner
can pick up the call. If the beeper’s name and number have been programmed into the recipient’s
mobile, then the recipient will see the beeper’s name on the call log as a missed call. If not, the
recipient will see only the number of telephone placing the call. In either case, the missed call is
intentional; the beeper has sent a signal to the recipient without saying a word or typing a single
character. Better yet, sending a beep is nearly free.
As these examples from the popular press suggest, “to beep” and its synonym “to flash” are
common practices among the rapidly growing ranks of mobile phone users in sub-Saharan Africa:
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• A lighthearted book, called How to Be a Kenyan, was originally published in 1996. The
revised 2002 edition includes a new chapter called “of beepers, flashers, and vibrators”
(Mutahi, 2002), reflecting the rapid spread of mobiles in Kenya.
• A columnist in Uganda writes: “I was angry with my so-called friends who ‘beep’ me all
the time – blackmailing me into calling them back….I can understand someone beeping
me once and a while. My problem is that so many Ugandans – from MPs to senior military
officers and at least one government minister – have turned beeping into a profession. And,
they never seem to realize that if they perennially don’t have “units” or airtime to complete
a call, it must be the same for me too” (Pajero, 2004).
• In an article called “That Beeping”, a Tanzanian columnist explains, “beeping is a habit
that transcends all social classes,” perhaps because “phones are cheaper to buy than to
maintain”. His conversations with college students also suggest that “beeping is a modern
fashion to say hi to friends” (Kalagho, 2004).
• On the GhanaHomePage website, expatriate columnist Rodney Nkrumah-Boateng
describes his difficulties learning “Efie Nkomo (Flashing Skills)” as a returning visitor to
his country. “I got loads of flashes on my phone in the days following my arrival. So many,
dear reader, that I almost got blinded by them” (Nkrumah-Boateng, 2004).
As Nkrumah-Boateng succinctly puts it, “it can get confusing, all this flashing businesses”. Not all
beeps mean the same thing. Some are requests to call back; some are little signals that the beeper is
thinking of the recipient; others convey some pre-negotiated instrumental message, like “I’m done
with my work, pick me up”.
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Though overall adoption rates in Africa lag those in the richer nations, mobile use is growing quickly in the
urban areas; early-adopting elites have been joined by a wider range of urban users, such as students,
merchants, and teachers. In the rural areas, residents can use public payphones to beep the mobiles of richer
relatives, friends, and business partners living in urban areas (Gamos, 2003).
Convention