FROM THE MASSAGE PARLOUR TO THE ‘PLAN BIZI’: THE NEW FACES OF FEMALE PROSTITUTION IN OUAGADOUGOU IN THE DIGITAL AGE (BURKINA FASO)

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Résumé

Context: Social media, particularly virtual platforms such as Facebook,
WhatsApp and Telegram, have become, through new information and
communication technologies, the foremost sites to which all manner of
commercial activities have relocated. By reducing the world to a simple
global village, these digital platforms enable their commercial users to
reach a wide audience. It is within this headlong rush towards
digitalisation that the phenomenon of prostitution has been transposed
onto online platforms through the creation of WhatsApp groups,
Telegram channels and Facebook pages, sometimes bearing names
such as beauty or massage parlours.
Objective: This transition warrants particular attention, and it is for this
reason that the present article seeks to contribute to an understanding of
this phenomenon in the city of Ouagadougou.
Methodology: To this end, a qualitative approach was adopted,
employing three purely qualitative data-collection techniques in the city
of Ouagadougou. This involved immersion in ten digital platforms (five
WhatsApp groups, three Telegram channels and two Facebook pages),
the conduct of formal (3) and informal (6) interviews, and participant
observation in four massage parlours and across the digital platforms.
Results: The analysis of the data collected reveals that female sex
workers use virtual platforms to advertise their services in order to
reach a wider audience. This practice constitutes a resilience strategy in
the face of financial precarity, as well as an adaptation to the digital
age, all the more so as these platforms have today become spaces and
working tools that make contact with clients easier and faster. This also
enables discretion in the exercise of the profession, particularly among
those who use certain massage and beauty parlours as a cover.

Mots-clés

Sex work; Digital platforms; Massage parlours; Social media; Burkina Faso.