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Technology in Timbuktu

By Chris Chaplow

There are now 155 million websites in the world of which 50 million were created in 2007 according to a recent Netcraft report.

Their distribution in the world is far from equal. IPLigence recently produced an Internet World Map.

North America maintains 55% of all websites, Europe 22%, Asia 16% and Africa 1%. So it was not surprising on my recent trip to the most remote music festival in the world (www.festival-au-desert.org) at Essakane, an Oasis in the Sahara desert, 100k West of Timbuktu in Mali that I found very little evidence of Internet. Travelling overland back to Bamako, the capital, there was hardly an Internet Cafe in sight. Quite different from rural south east Asia. There were however plenty of telephone masts and each village had several Orange (owned by France Telecom) Mobile phone outlets. They have invested heavily by providing mobile access to rural areas and offering proud colourful signs to outlets. There are nearly 2 million mobile phones, far outstripping the mere 70,000 landlines.

Mali is the 15th poorest country in the world according to the latest IMF figures. Life expectancy is less than 50 years, literacy is 45% and Internet users less than 1% (70,000 Internet users in a country of 11 million inhabitants according to the CIA World Fact book).  Not surprising when 256k ADSL promotion in Bamako cost 60€ a month and the GDP per person is less than 1,000€ per year.

Happily, I was able to go 10 days without Internet without any withdrawal symptoms (even though it was the first time in 15 years I had been without the Net). I was also able to go four days without mobile phone access with only minor inconvenience, but lack of electricity was the worst. Restless travellers are soon looking for innovative solutions when the batteries on the mobile phones, cameras and MP3 players begin to fail.

In the picture, you can see a small generator, and a plastic bottle of petrol was needed to charge an I pod. Next time I will buy a solar powered charger or a wind up media player from Nigel's Eco Store.

All in all, it’s good to touch base with grass roots, Dogon villages with almost no contact with the outside world, let alone technology. However, there are plenty of smiles, gratutide and pride. It’s always good to reflect and be grateful for the technology that we take for granted here in Europe – and that includes shopping by Internet. The sales crew for the Essakane music festival had to travel by camel for 15 days to sell their silver at the event!

Follow the link for a video of the Festival au Desert 2008