The Dotcom and the Digital: Time and Imagination in Kenya

In Kenya, the terms dotcom and digital have become popular descriptors for particular periods of change, as well as for modes of being. The two terms’ usage extends beyond reference to the age of the Internet or to encounters with new technologies. Rather, the dotcom and the digital—in different ways and in different decades—enable Kenyans to imagine with and through time. Using extensive ethnographic research and reflecting on pop music, TV advertising, and streetscapes, we explore how, for many Kenyans the dotcom and the digital are tools for making sense of the times in which they live. Drawing on the work of Paul Ricoeur, we tease apart what it means to be dotcom and digital in Kenya, exploring how experiences of time are also projects of self-making and critical intervention.