“La promesse biométrique : technologie, marché et élections en Afrique”

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Abstract

A biometric revolution is underway in the Global South. While security and anti-migration policies have accelerated the spread of this technology, it is now also being deployed in the name of development and democracy. More than half the countries in Africa have already adopted biometrics to identify voters. How have fingerprints or facial recognition algorithms been associated with democracy? Based on a multi-site survey between Africa, Europe and North America, this research examines the role of African companies, donors and political elites in the invention of electoral biometrics. It traces the trajectory of a technology promoted as a solution to the crises and supposed failures of elections and shows how biometrics has been associated with the promise of fraud-free elections, a pacified democracy and an Africa projected into a technological future. The study also shows how this technopolitics shapes practices and conceptions of democracy. Finally, the analysis suggests ways of understanding the contemporary arrangements of technology, the market and politics, based on the social experiments conducted in Africa.

Marielle Debos is Professor of Political Science at the University of Paris X Nanterre.