While the UK government struggles to deliver reliable mobile coverage across some rural communities, Somalia – a country that hasn’t had a functioning central government for three decades – has built one of Africa’s most resilient telecommunications networks. As a British researcher who conducts fieldwork in Somalia, I’m often struck by an ironic reality: I can find more reliable mobile coverage in hard-to-reach Somali villages than in certain parts of Manchester, where I’m from. This connectivity paradox highlights how necessity can drive innovation in unexpected places.
Upon arriving in a new town or village in Somalia, I’ve grown accustomed to an intriguing sight: elders – the traditional authorities in Somali society – greeting me with a hangool, a traditional walking stick, in one hand and a smartphone in the other. It hasn’t always been this way. In previous decades, making international calls often meant crossing borders into neighbouring Ethiopia or Kenya.
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