A worker counts buttons at Adama Keita’s shop at the Dabanani market in Bamako, Mali, in March. Most Malians, who can’t read or write, find the web of little use, but Lenali, a phone-to-web app, is drawing users.
Only 33% of Malians are literate, according to the United Nations. The free app, available since January 2017, has 73,500 users, he said, and is expected become profitable when it reaches 200,000 in theDespite rapid gains in internet penetration in West Africa fueled by 4G connections and cheap smartphones, most Malians, who cannot read or write, still find the web of limited use. Fewer than 10% have a Facebook account — which remains the most popular social media network in the country.
Projects such as Foroba Blon in Mali allow rural residents, who are less likely to have learned to read in school, to call radio stations and leave audio messages from basic mobile phones to a web interface about weddings and lost cattle without being connected to the internet. Previously, radio reporters had to be available to jot down notes from callers, making large-scale engagement from listeners virtually impossible.
Men ride a motorbike past the Dabanani market in Bamako, Mali. Despite rapid gains in internet penetration in West Africa, most Malians, who cannot read or write, still find the web of limited use. Businessmen often rely on younger apprentices — who are more likely to have attended school — for bookkeeping and on middlemen when they travel as far as Dubai or Beijing on business.
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