WhatsApp is the most popular messaging platform in over 80% of countries in West Africa, and a daily port of call for a wide range of information and services. This edited collection seeks to examine the impact that this transformative technology has had beyond the much-discussed role it has played in the spread of misinformation, and explore more widely the fundamental changes that WhatsApp has brought to many citizens’ lives in social, economic and political contexts.

Ranging across subjects including political organisation, religious practice, and family relations, each author in this volume brings direct knowledge and testimony of the impact of WhatsApp across West African society.