Building a shared mobility platform in Africa: initial feedback on RMobility usage

International audience This proposal focuses on shared mobility in West Africa in the digital age. It is based on the paradox that, despite Africa's long tradition of shared mobility and the integration of digital technology into people's daily lives, the continent has not managed to develop shared and connected mobility systems similar to those found elsewhere in the world (BlaBlaCar in Europe, GojeK in India, Poparide in Canada, Waze Carpool in the USA, etc.). The proposal is based on action research in geography aimed at producing a kind of African BlaBlaCar. The aim here is to learn from the ongoing experiment resulting from the RMobility platform, which is already operational in Benin, Togo, and to a lesser extent in Cameroon, Mali, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, etc.This platform, developed by its author, is in line with the philosophy of other major platforms, but with the specific feature of taking better account of African socio-territorial constraints: security, trust, social representations, superstitions, and fetishism.The initial results from a critical mass of users provide a better understanding of the obstacles and acceptance of shared mobility platforms in the African context.