Internet Cafe Hobo - Radio Series
The World Service Radio series of my travels around the world by Intenet Cafe begins on Tuesday 15th December at 23:06 GMT (repeated Monday 21st December 01:06 GMT)
Internet Café Hobo homepage
I'm only half way round the world...
....but there's a world of internet cafes in Africa alone. They're everywhere. The "cyber" pictured above is one of the first to open on the premises of a secondary school campus, this one in Parakou, Benin.So to date the map of travels shows café coverage only of the USA, China, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Benin and the UK.
Early on in my travels, in New York to be precise, I was worried that the internet café was dying. Not only in the wealthy parts of the world, where it seems everyone is online at home, at work or at school, but also in Africa, where everyone has a mobile phone - or so we're told in the press. In theory, the mobile will be the prime means of communication in Africa. But the internet café seems to be a growing and important part of African life, even for those who have mobiles as well. Just read the rest of the blog to see why.
That's not to say that people in Africa don't want to be online in their own homes. There are times when Barka, a teacher in his thirties would love to be able to log on in total privacy. Have a listen to him below, because he has some strong views, specifically related to Africa, about the benefits - and the limitations - of a place you have to visit in person if you want to go online. Most of the stories I came upon in Africa were about human contact in cafes, rather than online contact.
Internet Café Diplomat
This is M Yaya Mossu Mede. He's the first of my internet café
customers who I might once have had to address as "Excellency" This is
because he is the former Benin Ambassador to France. He's also a
former head teacher and his home town is Parakou Benin, West Africa,
although now he lives in the pretty town of La Rochelle in Western
France. He still visits Benin occasionally. In fact Mr Mede was
introduced to me by Barth Sodansou (see "Internet Café Hero" below).
In his tireless networking on behalf of his charity,
moreschooling.com, Barth bumped into M Mede while serving in an
internet café in Benin.
M. Mede, who is 78, hasn't been an internet user for very long, but
all his online experience has been in internet cafes. He wouldn't have
started using the internet at all, but for the fact that his daughter
in law in New York refused to write letters to him. She insisted he
use email. She thought it would be good for her former teacher
father-in-law to learn a new skill. My immediate thought was to
continue my world tour of internet cafes by going straight from France
to the USA to discuss this further, but as New York has already
featured on my journey. I decided against it. I'd got a link from New York to China, then one to London, then one to Africa, from where I got a link to France - see map.
Mr Mede has decided to apply his newly found computer skills to working at home, so he's leaving the café scene soon. And so, for the moment am I. I haven't yet drawn a map linking internet cafes all round the world - but I'm going to start my quest again, soon. To hear my progress so far, you can listen to two documentaries on BBC World Service on Tuesdays 15th and 22nd December at 23.06 GMT called Internet Café Hobo
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