[oilywater]

That's first world country mentality.

Energy footprint of an average African is minuscule. They probably use and reuse quite a lot of stuff, efficiently without disposing it and requiring more energy for novelty production. One of the reasons for it is poverty, you really can't act like stuff is in abundance when it's not.

[TeMPOraL]

It's about maintenance / serviceability. Unless it can be field-patched with duct tape and some clever woodworking, people in poor countries are going to be SOL when some crucial component breaks down. A device that can't be maintained locally is pretty much a throwaway, and as you say, they prefer to reuse quite a lot of stuff.