tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/african-social-media-54096/articlesAfrican social media – The Conversation2023-10-22T10:44:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2049582023-10-22T10:44:23Z2023-10-22T10:44:23ZCommunity radio: young South Africans are helping shape the news through social media<p>The number of South African internet users has <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/462958/internet-users-south-africa">nearly doubled</a> in the past decade. One <a href="https://www.electronicshub.org/the-average-screen-time-and-usage-by-country/">2023 study</a> of 45 developed countries suggests that South Africans even lead the world when it comes to the amount of time spent in front of screens, at 58.2% of the day.</p>
<p>This digital transformation has significant implications for the country’s media. Particularly for newsrooms that want to engage online audiences in a time when news production has evolved towards <a href="https://ict4peace.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/we_media.pdf">greater participation</a> of citizens and civil society. More and more, listeners are <a href="https://ict4peace.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/we_media.pdf">contributing</a> to media processes. </p>
<p>During protests, for example, news outlets often invite people at the scene to use WhatsApp groups to share firsthand observations, images or videos. These are verified and incorporated into news coverage. (Indeed, WhatsApp emerged as South Africa’s <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1189958/penetration-rate-of-social-media-in-south-africa/">most popular</a> social media platform in 2022.)</p>
<p>This shift is at the heart of our recent broadcast and community media <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-19417-7_8">study</a>. We examined two community radio stations – Zibonele FM and Bush Radio – in South Africa’s Western Cape province. We wanted to know how social media platforms like Facebook and X are shaping the way that young people interact with the stations, and how radio is adapting to meet them online.</p>
<p>We found the stations have embraced social media apps and are actively using them to shape content. Young people are increasingly participating in citizen journalism to influence this content. </p>
<p>This could keep community radio relevant – and that matters. South Africa is home to over 290 community radio stations, <a href="https://brcsa.org.za/rams-amplify-radio-listenership-report-jul22-jun23/">far outnumbering</a> the 41 commercial and public service stations. Community radio emerged with democracy in South Africa in the 1990s, providing a <a href="https://www.amazon.co.jp/100-Years-Radio-South-Africa/dp/3031407059">platform</a> for alternative voices and grassroots organisations. It’s able to address issues often overlooked by mainstream media.</p>
<h2>The stations</h2>
<p><a href="https://zibonelefm.co.za">Zibonele FM</a> and <a href="https://bushradio.wordpress.com">Bush Radio</a> stood out for us. This is because of their youth-focused content, multilingual broadcasts, diverse audience segments and robust use of digital technologies in news production and programming. </p>
<p>Zibonele FM is based in Khayelitsha, a vast township (black residential area) on the outskirts of Cape Town. The station broadcasts mainly in the local Xhosa language. </p>
<p>Bush Radio is one of the country’s <a href="https://bushradio.wordpress.com/about/">oldest</a> and most influential community stations. Founded in 1992, it has played a role in shaping post-apartheid life in Cape Town. <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">Apartheid</a> was a system of white minority rule that suppressed black voices. Bush Radio provided a platform for voices and perspectives that were often marginalised in mainstream media. </p>
<p>June 2023 <a href="https://brcsa.org.za/rams-amplify-radio-listenership-report-jul22-jun23/">data</a> puts listenership figures of Zibonele FM at 182,000 a day. Bush Radio attracts 49,000 listeners. The average daily listenership of community stations in the Western Cape is 29,000.</p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p>We conducted in-depth interviews with station managers, producers and journalists at these two stations. Alongside this we studied social media posts from the stations’ X and Facebook accounts and we analysed their on-air content.</p>
<p>We wanted to see if social media shaped youth-oriented programming at Zibonele FM and Bush Radio. While the study’s scope remains small, it provides valuable insights into the digital transformation of news production in South African community radio.</p>
<p>Young Zibonele FM and Bush Radio listeners, we found, were actively participating in the news processes at the radio stations. Especially when the stations tailored their news to draw in these communities. A station manager explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ve gained a lot of followers, showing that people are drawn to the station’s young presenters on social media. Many engage with our live videos and interactive content, validating their active involvement in shaping news production and content direction. This reinforces our roles as central community hubs. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our data analysis revealed that young audiences on X and Facebook used these platforms to hold journalists accountable, forcing them to reevaluate their reporting. One producer said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any mistake leads to immediate corrections. This caution improves our content quality and accuracy, benefiting from feedback from our social media followers. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The participants in our study stressed the importance of WhatsApp voice notes as a feature of social media that enabled greater engagement from youth audiences. Young listeners are actively shaping the content production process by sending questions as voice notes. This shift diminishes the power traditionally held by presenters and producers. One producer elaborated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When we interview guests, we inform our audiences that we have a question, and they actively engage with it. During interviews, we encourage young people to post voice notes, which the interviewees respond to. This practice enables us to incorporate diverse voices on air, as people often prefer sending voice notes, sometimes in the form of questions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our research underscores how Zibonele FM and Bush Radio have empowered young listeners to engage with journalists actively. This allows them to question and challenge news content. </p>
<p>Station managers reported increased engagement on social media, reinforcing the effectiveness of these strategies in expanding reach and enhancing audience participation. Young audiences, for their part, also used social media to hold journalists accountable, fostering a culture of transparency and trust.</p>
<h2>Why this matters</h2>
<p>The challenges faced by South African community radio, such as limited reach and resources, are <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/29780/#:%7E:text=These%20were%20attributed%20to%20high,and%20adapting%20to%20technological%20advancement">well documented</a>. </p>
<p>For a long time academics have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/making-publics-making-places/social-media-and-news-media-building-new-publics-or-fragmenting-audiences/F356F7A3AD7B9AD8444557211EEBD10E">observed</a> that journalism is undergoing changes because of social media. </p>
<p>Social media, as seen in our study, can have a significant impact on the future of radio programming and news. It could lead to a dynamic shift towards more interactive and community-driven programming. This would sustain community radio and enhance its role as a vital source of alternative voices, diverse perspectives and local engagement.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=John+Bulani&btnG=">John Bulani</a> was a co-author of this study.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sisanda Nkoala has previously received funding from the National Research Foundation and the AW Mellon Foundation. For this study, however, there are no funders to disclose.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blessing Makwambeni and Trust Matsilele do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social media is a lifeline for community radio, helping it grow by being shaped by young listeners.Sisanda Nkoala, Senior Lecturer, University of South AfricaBlessing Makwambeni, Senior Lecturer in Communication Science, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyTrust Matsilele, Lecturer in Journalism, Cape Peninsula University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1700262021-11-25T14:33:13Z2021-11-25T14:33:13ZSkin lighteners: fashion and family still driving uptake in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432904/original/file-20211119-22436-momzk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A shop selling skin lightening creams in Nairobi.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Skin lightening products have been popular for more than <a href="https://www.cidjournal.com/article/S0738-081X(07)00210-6/fulltext">40 years</a> among sub-Saharan African populations. But over the past decade, there appears to be an increase in use. The <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0038-23532016000600011">latest data</a> would suggest that prevalence is as high as 72%.</p>
<p>The products, promoted by media and cosmetic houses as “pigment vanishing” or “tone lightening”, have been perceived to be beneficial. In reality, most of them can be very dangerous. This is because they are acquired <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jocd.12104">illicitly</a> and contain potent and toxic chemicals that can have bad <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546634.2020.1845597?scroll=top&amp;needAccess=true">side effects</a>. They can lead to <a href="https://www.derm.theclinics.com/article/S0733-8635(10)00135-X/fulltext">severe systemic complications</a> like diabetes mellitus, tremors and exogenous ochronosis (dark patches of discolouration on the skin).</p>
<p>Several countries, including <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0038-23532016000600011">Uganda, Kenya and South Africa</a>, have <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jocd.12104">banned</a> the import and sale of products containing skin lightening chemicals. Nevertheless, they remain available to consumers unlawfully because of the high demand for them.</p>
<p>Research in various African countries has shown this practice is increasing in popularity, with a prevalence of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijd.12860?casa_token=xVfj-x3aCK4AAAAA%3AWN3CelFN0BvZYUqYfviefht5EPuLJh2HVfJiuDk8gIemoDmMxU7Ghlq5vRhO874eWRIYKjWem4c5bnk">23%</a> in sub-Saharan Africa among young adults aged 16 to 30. This prompted us to investigate such a trend in South Africa. We recently conducted a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235264752100085X">survey</a> on 401 health science students at the University of the Western Cape.</p>
<p>Only 12% of those in the survey used skin-lightening creams. Nevertheless, the survey gave useful insights into their reasons. Nearly half of the participants believed that family and friends were most likely to influence their behaviour. And an even higher percentage – 76% – said they thought that people who practice skin lightening do so because it gives them a more fashionable look.</p>
<p>There was also a clear urban-rural divide. Those living in urban settings were 10 times more likely to engage in the practice compared with people living in rural areas.</p>
<p>Our survey also showed that men and women were equally likely to use such products.</p>
<h2>Increased male users</h2>
<p>One might expect the use of skin lighteners to be far more common among women. However, studies have shown the practice is becoming equally popular among men in several parts of the world, including <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijd.12860?casa_token=xVfj-x3aCK4AAAAA%3AWN3CelFN0BvZYUqYfviefht5EPuLJh2HVfJiuDk8gIemoDmMxU7Ghlq5vRhO874eWRIYKjWem4c5bnk">Africa and Asia</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433424/original/file-20211123-23-1ei9pbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Skin lightening products on a shelf, with images of Asian males and the name 'Fair And Handsome'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433424/original/file-20211123-23-1ei9pbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433424/original/file-20211123-23-1ei9pbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433424/original/file-20211123-23-1ei9pbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433424/original/file-20211123-23-1ei9pbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433424/original/file-20211123-23-1ei9pbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433424/original/file-20211123-23-1ei9pbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433424/original/file-20211123-23-1ei9pbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Products packaged for male users.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NurPhoto</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>In our survey 10% of the men interviewed said they used skin lightening products.</p>
<p>Studies investigating the motivations for skin lightening <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666328720300250">among men</a> are limited. But a few provide some insights. One such <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijd.12860?casa_token=xVfj-x3aCK4AAAAA%3AWN3CelFN0BvZYUqYfviefht5EPuLJh2HVfJiuDk8gIemoDmMxU7Ghlq5vRhO874eWRIYKjWem4c5bnk">study</a> conducted in 26 countries showed a prevalence among young men in African universities in countries such as Nigeria, Tunisia and South Africa.</p>
<p>Users said they were motivated by the “desire for fairer skin” and the “need to be attractive for their partners”.</p>
<p>These findings were also supported by a <a href="https://www.africaknowledgeproject.org/index.php/jenda/article/view/528">Ghanaian study</a> in which women stated that they found fair-skinned men more attractive.</p>
<p>The use of skin lightening products could also be <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331352331_Mirror_mirror_on_the_wall_who's_the_fairest_'hunk'_of_them_all_Negotiating_a_masculine_notion_of_skin_whitening_for_Malaysian_men">attributed</a> to men becoming more interested in grooming and the maintenance of their appearance.</p>
<p>So, the use of lightening products has <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666328720300250">shown</a> to be driven by people’s concerns about their attractiveness. They wanted to increase their self-esteem, and knew friends and family who are using skin lighteners. These factors contributed to their engagement in the practice.</p>
<h2>The role of media</h2>
<p>The media clearly also plays a powerful role. In particular, the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0361684310392356">advertising industry</a> in Africa has been pivotal in creating the perception that fair skin is more attractive and desirable.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249286">Social media</a> has also become an influential platform that several companies use to further encourage product consumerism. It would be rare to meet a student that does not have at least one social media account to use as a principal source of news and other information.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433422/original/file-20211123-15-zk282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People walk past a billboard with a glamorous-looking woman on it, along with the words 'Ami Body White'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433422/original/file-20211123-15-zk282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433422/original/file-20211123-15-zk282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433422/original/file-20211123-15-zk282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433422/original/file-20211123-15-zk282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433422/original/file-20211123-15-zk282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433422/original/file-20211123-15-zk282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433422/original/file-20211123-15-zk282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A billboard in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP via Getty Images</span></span>
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<p>These platforms then act as a portal for influential local and international celebrities to share their latest cosmetic trends, some of which are <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/tshisa-live/tshisa-live/2021-11-04-khanyi-mbau-gives-how-not-to-burn-tips-to-other-skin-lightening-queens/">very public</a> about using skin lightening products. Undeniably, this makes an <a href="https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/com/article/view/3299">impression</a> on young adults.</p>
<p>In our study, despite few <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235264752100085X">participants</a> indicating that social media was a direct motivator for skin lightening practices, the subliminal influence of this platform cannot be ignored.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cureus.com/articles/67037-skin-lightening-products-consumer-preferences-and-costs">increased interest</a> in skincare over the last few years has led to the <a href="http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/skin-lightening-products-market-is-expected-to-reach-a-valuation-of-over-us-24-bn-by-the-end-of-2027-948760.htm">exceptional growth</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-of-color-spend-more-than-8-billion-on-bleaching-creams-worldwide-every-year-153178">popularity</a> of this market. In 2018 it was valued at $8.3 billion.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-a-complex-history-of-skin-lighteners-in-africa-and-beyond-132375">There's a complex history of skin lighteners in Africa and beyond</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5345401/">Laws</a> in some countries, such as South Africa, prohibit the marketing of products using terms such as “bleach”, “lighten” or “whiten”. But cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies have always, and continue to find alternative ways to advertise directly to their target consumers.</p>
<p>For years this target has been women, but recently there has been a clear shift toward <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331352331_Mirror_mirror_on_the_wall_who%27s_the_fairest_%27hunk%27_of_them_all_Negotiating_a_masculine_notion_of_skin_whitening_for_Malaysian_men">male consumers</a>.</p>
<h2>Awareness and safety</h2>
<p>The skin lightening market will always be sustainable as long as the <a href="https://www.cureus.com/articles/67037-skin-lightening-products-consumer-preferences-and-costs">supply-and-demand</a> chain remains.</p>
<p>The rising demand for harmful skin lightening products prompts the question as to whether the necessary vigilance in awareness around chemicals found in these products and their associated side effects have been illuminated enough. The answer to this makes studies like ours an ongoing journey.</p>
<p><em>Amy Thomas and Laurentia Opperman were also researchers in this study, which was led by Farzana Rahiman</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Farzana Rahiman has received funding from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lester Davids receives funding from the National Research Foundation, the Centre for Scientifc and Industrial Research and Environ Pty (Ltd). </span></em></p>Skin lighteners are being used more than ever before, especially in urban areas and among men.Farzana Rahiman, Lecturer, University of the Western CapeLester Davids, Professor, Director: C2L Scientific Consulting, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1623152021-06-17T16:10:29Z2021-06-17T16:10:29ZBanning African films like Rafiki and Inxeba doesn’t diminish their influence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406430/original/file-20210615-3862-vfbp5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A still from Rafiki, a film by Wanuri Kahiu, Kenya (2018)</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rafiki/Big World Cinema</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Social media and internet forums function as an important space of contestation for issues relating to queer identities. This is evident in reactions to two fairly recent queer-themed African films, one from South Africa – <a href="https://www.urucumedia.com/the-wound"><em>Inxeba/The Wound</em></a> – and the other from Kenya – <a href="http://bigworldcinema.com/production/rafiki-2/"><em>Rafiki</em></a>. </p>
<p>The films were met with diverse responses, from government bannings and cultural backlash to enthusiastic viewers and international awards. On social media and internet forums, reactions differ from those of state institutions. </p>
<p>These various responses should be understood against the <a href="https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_World_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_report_global_legislation_overview_update_December_2020.pdf">background</a> that in many African countries, with the exception of South Africa in this case, queer sexualities are <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-lgbt-lawmaking-idUSKBN27C2XQ">criminalised</a> and deemed ‘unAfrican’. Many <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/02/homosexuality-unafrican-claim-historical-embarrassment">argue</a> that <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200611080955-8e3gb/">homophobia itself is unAfrican</a> and a relic of colonial laws and mores.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/eia/article/view/203848">my research</a>, I have explored the fact that African queer lives are complex and don’t tell a single story. By viewing these films as popular social texts it became clear that government censorship has been unable to stop support for them or the kinds of discussions they generate, especially online.</p>
<h2>Films as popular social texts</h2>
<p>In Africa, films have become popular social texts. They are readily accessible and easily distributed, thanks to the internet and hand-held screen devices as well as the large-scale sale of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-who-and-how-of-pirates-threatening-the-nollywood-film-industry-56952">pirated DVDs</a>. The informality of circulation, coupled with the affordability of pirated films, has ensured that film has overtaken literary or text-based genres in influence in many parts of Africa.</p>
<p>Films like <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-the-award-winning-film-inxeba-isnt-a-disrespectful-gay-sex-romp-92462"><em>Inxeba</em></a> (2017) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kenyan-film-director-taking-on-the-world-with-positive-stories-of-black-life-149689"><em>Rafiki</em></a> (2018) can function as popular social texts in that they can ask questions about social issues – in this case queer lived experiences on the continent. Popular social texts appeal to large audiences. It is against such sociocultural and political backgrounds that the reception of the films <em>Inxeba</em> and <em>Rafiki</em> should be understood. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0idwRX0d6nM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Inxeba is set in a rural circumcision school.</span></figcaption>
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<p><em>Inxeba</em> was directed by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1626716/">John Trengove</a> and was released in 2017. It tells the story of how queer sexuality is negotiated within the cultural space of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0081246316678176"><em>ulwaluko</em></a>, the Xhosa people’s rites of initiation into manhood. Two young minders engage in a gay relationship and a love triangle develops. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-the-award-winning-film-inxeba-isnt-a-disrespectful-gay-sex-romp-92462">No, the award-winning film Inxeba isn't a disrespectful gay sex romp</a>
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<p><em>Rafiki</em> was directed by Kenyan filmmaker <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1393967/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Wanuri Kahiu</a>. It centres on two young women who fall in love in Nairobi after meeting because their fathers are contesting the same election. </p>
<p><em>Inxeba</em> presents picturesque images of the natural world. <em>Rafiki</em> offers a kaleidoscopic depiction of urban spaces. These vibrant and picturesque depictions contrast with the gloomy lived experiences of the protagonists. </p>
<h2>State bannings</h2>
<p>On its release, the South African Film and Publication Board <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-returns-to-apartheid-era-censorship-with-the-banning-of-inxeba-92850">banned</a> <em>Inxeba</em>. The reason given, through a series of <a href="https://twitter.com/FPB_ZA/status/963667216435765248?s=20.%202018">tweets</a>, was “the perceived cultural insensibility and distortion of the Xhosa circumcision tradition (and) strong language in the film”. </p>
<p>Rafiki met a similar fate when it was released. The Kenya Film Classification Board said in a <a href="https://kfcb.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/RAFIKI-BAN-1.jpg">statement</a> banning the film that its ending was “not remorseful enough, (making) it seem as if LBGT people can be accepted in Kenya”. The films were perceived as socially incorrect.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Rafiki is set in urban Kenya.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The reactions of these state boards highlight a reproduction of nationalist ideas that queer sexuality threatens African values. In thinking of these homophobic institutional reactions, it is important not to dismiss Africa as homophobic and primitive especially in relation to the West. In his book <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08380-3.html"><em>Kenyan, Christian, Queer</em></a>, theology scholar Adriaan van Klinken explains that by considering Africa as backward and conservative there is a failure to <a href="https://theconversation.com/book-review-kenyan-christian-queer-is-a-powerful-departure-from-despair-130901">reflect on</a> the complex sociopolitical realities on the continent.</p>
<p>The upshot is that the legal measures of banning the films affected their circulation – both low budget films with seemingly limited distribution channels.</p>
<h2>Viewers and festivals</h2>
<p>Although <em>Inxeba</em> and <em>Rafiki</em> were banned in their home countries, they have received <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/apr/26/the-wound-review-raw-pain-and-challenge-of-male-circumcision-drama">critical</a> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-rafiki-review-20190509-story.html">acclaim</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8286894/awards">numerous</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6333070/awards">awards</a> at film festivals the world over. In the case of <em>Inxeba</em>, there were vociferous <a href="https://www.news24.com/citypress/trending/death-threats-attacks-lead-inxeba-producers-to-lay-human-rights-complaint-20180207">threats</a> and demonstrations, mainly by Xhosa-speaking men, who felt the film divulged the secrets of a sacrosanct ceremony.</p>
<p>The comments posted on social media platforms also make it possible to examine the reactions of viewers to the films. I illustrated this by focusing on the reactions expressed on Inxeba’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thewoundthefilm">Facebook</a> page. here’s a sample:</p>
<p>Reaction 1: “This is a disgrace to our culture…”</p>
<p>Reaction 2: “I didn’t like the story shame, I didn’t see the relevance. Sorry for being a party pooper.”</p>
<p>Reaction 3: “Thank you Lord … you have shown that you love us all regardless of what people are painting others to be, as if they do not belong or are just nothing.”</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406482/original/file-20210615-3738-cq9q9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young man sits, contemplative in Western clothing in a forest; behind him a young man in traditional clothing with white body paint looks at him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406482/original/file-20210615-3738-cq9q9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406482/original/file-20210615-3738-cq9q9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406482/original/file-20210615-3738-cq9q9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406482/original/file-20210615-3738-cq9q9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406482/original/file-20210615-3738-cq9q9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406482/original/file-20210615-3738-cq9q9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406482/original/file-20210615-3738-cq9q9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Star of Inxeba, Nakhane (front), received death threats for the role.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Inxeba/Urucu Media</span></span>
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<p>Using its YouTube page, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IKYOMEkSH8">Tuko TV Kenya</a> interviewed Kenyans about <em>Rafiki</em>. Here is a sample of the diversity of views canvassed:</p>
<p>Reaction 1: “I think we are over exposing our children and our community … As a country, we are not ready for this.”</p>
<p>Reaction 2: “It’s a movie trying to include everybody into the society and bringing inclusion and diversity.”</p>
<p>Reaction 3: “I feel like the argument that it is influencing or promoting homosexuality to me feels ridiculous because that is not something that can be promoted.”</p>
<p>These reactions show that audiences are more complex than governments admit. Moreover, the reactions – and many others like them – prove that the films are popular social texts which operate to shape queer life and responses to it. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-kenyan-film-director-taking-on-the-world-with-positive-stories-of-black-life-149689">The Kenyan film director taking on the world -- with positive stories of black life</a>
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<p>The screening of the two films (both were ‘unbanned’ on appeal – <em>Rafiki</em> for a brief period) has been important in initiating overdue conversations. Both films gesture towards the need for open discussion of queer sexualities and genders in Africa. They demand viewers to rethink not what it means to be queer in Africa, but what it means to be human.</p>
<h2>Asking questions</h2>
<p><em>Inxeba</em> and <em>Rafiki</em> are invaluable additions to the <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/lgbt-african-movies-moonlight-black-gay-identity/">growing</a> corpus of African films courageously depicting queer lived experiences. Although initially banned, their reception by viewers in and outside Africa has shown that they can start conversations on diverse social issues relating to non-normative African gender and sexual identities.</p>
<p>Through evoking emotions of discomfort, the films compel audiences to question their own views and biases on gender and sexual identities. The films thus have the capacity to subvert homophobic tendencies embodied in state responses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162315/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gibson Ncube does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Discussions about the films on social media and online forums show that African queer lives are complex and don’t tell a single story.Gibson Ncube, Lecturer, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1531072021-01-12T16:05:54Z2021-01-12T16:05:54ZSocial media seized the narrative in Uganda’s election. Why this was good for democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378234/original/file-20210112-23-ioio6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=265%2C68%2C757%2C533&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ugandan musician-turned-politician Robert Kyagulanyi addresses the media after his car was shot at by police in eastern Uganda during his campaign.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Sumy Sadurni/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For months, Ugandans have witnessed a <a href="https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/uganda-wraps-up-violent-and-chaotic-election-campaign-3251436">vicious presidential election campaign</a> without precedent. While the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, has enjoyed free rein on the campaign trail, his youthful main opponent Robert Kyagulanyi and his supporters have faced numerous obstacles – and <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/58126/uganda-elections-bobi-wine-puts-yoweri-museveni-on-icc-notice/">physical assault</a>. The result is a pervasive <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/01/1081662">sense of political crisis</a> in the run-up to the January 14 vote. </p>
<p>But in this crisis is the potential for release. Ordinary Ugandans are pouring their social and political grievances onto social media platforms, spawning <a href="https://www.voanews.com/africa/uganda-protest-over-new-social-media-tax-turns-violent">debates</a> around accountability and governance. They have taken to recording events they find newsworthy and posting them directly to ordinary people’s WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter accounts. In the process, they are sidestepping traditional channels – mainly radio, television and newspapers – along with their bureaucratic and hierachical procedures of news gathering. </p>
<p>The traditional media landscape has been dominated by Vision Group, in which the state owns the majority stake. The group owns the biggest circulating newspaper,<em>The New Vision</em>, a number of local regional newspapers and TV stations. Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, a statutory agency, has the widest TV and radio reach over the country, broadcasting in English and the major local languages as well as Kiswahili. The other main players are private media houses with TV and radio outlets and newspapers. But all are kept on a short leash through legislation and commercial imperatives in a market where the government is the <a href="https://acme-ug.org/tag/media-landscape-in-uganda/">chief source of advertising</a>.</p>
<p>The migration to social media has been driven by two key factors. The first is the wave of excitement in favour of Kyagulanyi, better known by his stage name Bobi Wine, and his bid for the presidency. The recent riots and their spread across the country only provide a glimpse into the popular interest in him. Traffic on social media is an indication of his appeal. </p>
<p>The second driver has been the fact that Uganda has a very youthful voting age population. The country has the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/05/the-world-s-10-youngest-countries-are-all-in-africa">second youngest population on the continent</a>. According to the <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/uganda-population">World Population Review</a>, just 2% of Ugandans are 65 or older. </p>
<p>These young Ugandans have turned to their favourite tool and pastime: social media. The easy access to information on smartphones has emboldened them to speak out without fear. </p>
<p>In addition, journalists and prominent people in politics have set up Facebook pages and YouTube channels. They have taken to posting realtime events and activities of the politicians and their families. These clips range from hard news to human interest stories as well as outright propaganda and lies which are quickly debunked by the adversary.</p>
<p>The government tried to curb the use of social media, such as enacting a law on the misuse and abuse of technology. But it does not have the capacity to track all offenders, let alone to prove its case in court. Also, its attempts to limit access by levying social media tax have largely been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/27/millions-of-ugandans-quit-internet-after-introduction-of-social-media-tax-free-speech">sidestepped</a> by the widespread use of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/virtual-private-network">virtual private networks</a>. </p>
<p>Never has a contest in Uganda’s political history been so furiously played out in the media space as the 2021 national elections. This trend is now irreversible. This may be the one gain for Ugandan democracy from the bruising poll. And it’s a gain unlikely to be dented by Uganda’s unprecedented <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uganda-election-social-media/uganda-orders-all-social-media-to-be-blocked-letter-idUSKBN29H1E7">ban</a> on all social media platforms and messaging apps 48 hours before the presidential vote. </p>
<h2>History</h2>
<p>During Amin’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Idi-Amin">era</a> in the 1970s balanced reporting was unheard of. The government newspaper, Voice of Uganda, carried leading headlines daily featuring Amin throughout its lifetime and the government radio and TV stations were Amin’s mouthpieces. It was suicidal to carry dissenting voices.</p>
<p>When the National Resistance Movement came to power in 1986 through an armed insurrection, it set up its own media presence. This media extolled the new leadership and the movement through which it captured power. “When we captured power” became the ubiquitous preamble of many government officials’ speeches. It was embraced positively in TV and radio documentary scripts and newspaper articles. </p>
<p>The image of a new regime riding on the wrongs of past leaders to capture power by armed insurrection in the interests of the people is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UoqwEREY5A">now a distant memory</a>. Fast forward to 2021 and six election cycles later, Ugandans in general and journalists in particular are feeling the full force of that power. </p>
<p>Journalists covering the current campaign have endured <a href="https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00076398.html">police assault</a>, access restrictions and regulatory sanctions such as having to register to be accredited. There is <a href="https://www.hrnjuganda.org/hrnj-uganda-alert-two-arrested-over-brutal-assault-of-three-journalists-four-others-remain-at-large-2/">ample evidence of brutality</a>. </p>
<p>COVID-19 restrictions have also been <a href="https://www.independent.co.ug/un-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-condemns-abuses-in-uganda/">used as a smokescreen</a> to control the media and the movement of journalists. </p>
<p>Restrictions have been placed on media access for opposition candidates. Such candidates have reported incidents of being denied access to upcountry broadcast outlets by government authorities and owners fearing repercussions. Opposition candidates also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiYISQYySbQ">lament restrictions to the mainstream radio and television such as UBC’s network</a>.</p>
<p>Amid all these hurdles, Museveni has continued to appear daily on media outlets. His daily schedule includes live TV appearances commissioning government development projects such as roads, hospitals, markets, bridges and dams. </p>
<h2>Social media</h2>
<p>There are also downsides to the spike in social media use. One is that conspiracy theories abound on the various platforms. But, despite the challenges posed by the unprofessionalism of some citizen journalism on social media, the public has woken up to the power of breaking news and whistleblowing that speaks directly to power. </p>
<p>There have been some notable instances where social media has come into its own in holding those in authority accountable. One example was the effective use of live streaming of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2UloXXNzZA">deadly political riots</a> in which at least 45 were killed in November 2020. This proved to be the only source of direct information after security services cut the flow of information by seizing journalists on the scene and prevailing on media houses <a href="https://ipi.media/journalist-critically-injured-in-uganda-riots/">not to broadcast</a> the violent scenes. </p>
<p>How the role of social media will affect the outcome of the poll remains an open question. Demographics will play a large role. Museveni still has a hold on rural and elderly voters while Kyagulanyi seems to pull the urban youth. </p>
<p>Above all, much depends on whether it’s a free and fair poll. Here, Kyagulanyi can only hope that the electoral commission ensures a level playing field.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoffrey Ssenoga does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Never has a political contest in Uganda’s history been so furiously played out in the media space as the 2021 national elections.Geoffrey Ssenoga, Lecturer of Mass Communications, Uganda Christian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1489242020-11-09T14:52:41Z2020-11-09T14:52:41ZHow memes in the DRC allow people to laugh at those in power – and themselves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367996/original/file-20201106-13-bfl1f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Those dressing in designer labels can be the subject of memes in the DRC.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Per-Anders Pettersson/Corbis News via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Memes have become expressions of contemporary culture worldwide, as people document their daily lives through images. The world of <a href="https://twitter.com/africamemes?lang=en">memes</a> – the humorous images paired with text that mutate and spread rapidly, depending on how funny they are – remind us that humour is also contagious. </p>
<p><a href="https://africacartoons.com/cartoonists/map/drc/">Cartoonists</a> in Africa have also historically engaged their readers through the use of humour. Their expressions become fodder for conversations in public spaces like crowded buses and bars. In the colonial era, cartoons and <a href="https://wallach.columbia.edu/exhibitions/congo-chronicle-patrice-lumumba-urban-art">popular paintings</a> were <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=DDtcPGvlRlIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">instrumental</a> in the <a href="https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_1091429">struggle</a> for independence in many African countries. </p>
<p>In postcolonial settings they <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/international/2018/12/28/drcs-best-known-political-cartoonist-making-light-of-grim-realities-shares-his-election-hopes/">continue</a> to be mediums that covertly – and sometimes explicitly – mock and challenge abuses of power. </p>
<p>There’s some continuity when comparing memes to cartoons. But the anonymity offered by the virtual quality of meme circulation allows for a different kind of participation. </p>
<p>Photoshopped images of politicians in compromising situations – being caught with their pants down – offer a carnivalesque commentary on the arbitrariness of power. These images galvanise people to laugh at those in power, but also those who are subjected to it.</p>
<p>There are an estimated <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/wearesocial/digital-in-2018-in-middle-africa-86865634?qid=8111df47-9748-4099-9ea7-6b54cbe07aba&v=&b=&from_search=1">5.3 million</a> active internet users in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But access to technology is limited to people with the financial means. Because censorship in the country is <a href="https://www.indexoncensorship.org/tag/democratic-republic-of-congo/">rife</a>, the online sphere, with its anonymity, provides a platform through which power can be critiqued. The economy of circulating images represents a threat to a government that often shuts off the internet during electoral periods.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man sits at a desk that's covered in hand drawn cartoons, touching one up on a computer screen in front of him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Cartoons paved the way for memes - like those of Congolese cartoonist Kash, seen here in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">JUNIOR D.KANNAH/AFP via Getty Images</span></span>
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<p>There has been an increase in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=memes">academic interest</a> about circulating digital content. But there’s been virtually no research exploring memes and other viral media in Africa. Beginning in 2017, we began <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02560046.2020.1753089">researching</a> memes and their circulation in the DRC’s capital city, Kinshasa. </p>
<p>This research has provided some insights into the cultural characteristics of digital images in the DRC. And also how they relate to larger anxieties about social change and foreign interventions and new forms of <a href="https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-democratic-republic-of-the-congo">online connection</a>. </p>
<h2>Pondu, Versace and the Chinese</h2>
<p>In many of the memes we collected there was a sense of self-reflexive laughter, an ironic self-mockery, that characterised the images. For example, one meme presents an image of Victor Hugo, a 19th century French author, superimposed on an image of a plate of <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/africa/congo/articles/a-brief-history-of-pondu-the-republic-of-congos-favourite-delicacy/">pondu</a>, a Congolese national dish, with a quote supposedly from Hugo himself: “A real woman knows how to cook Pondu.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ08NRdAIsm","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Another meme depicts a man in head to toe Versace print and a trolley stacked with luggage emblazoned with the luxury fashion brand logo. The caption: “When your Congolese uncle comes to visit for a week.” These images appeal to people living at home and abroad as they express cultural affinities through images (one might say caricatures) of Congolese culture. This one holds up the stereotype of Congolese people as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54323473">obsessed with fashion</a>.</p>
<p>There is a profusion of images depicting Chinese people. These range from light-hearted provocations about cultural stereotypes to some that carry more serious allegations of <a href="https://www.gbreports.com/article/the-chinese-power-grab-in-the-drc">abuse of power</a>. One meme we collected presents a Chinese-owned shop in the DRC featuring a mannequin mimicking a stereotypical Congolese silhouette. Others are suggestive of more serious racial stereotypes. For instance, a Chinese street-food vendor selling grilled rats is ridiculed in one meme. It bears the inscription, “Have you eaten yet?” </p>
<p>Digital content and other oral channels like rumours can become intertwined, and feed one another, which presents a potential danger. For instance, the image of a Chinese woman selling grilled rats might be read as legitimate news rather than a playful jab. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"818493873517428737"}"></div></p>
<p>Images might be used to manipulate people’s attitudes, especially if people are not aware of the complexities of internet content production. This points to the importance of the promotion of internet literacy in the country. </p>
<h2>Technological anxieties</h2>
<p>There are growing assumptions that memes and viral content can alter opinions in a manner that many characterise as manipulation. New psychology <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429492303">studies</a> have raised questions about the agency of the memetic receiver. They suggest that exposure to conspiracy theories is sometimes enough to significantly influence one’s belief. Take the proliferation of memes circulating across Africa about Chinese people. Many are intended to be comical, but others become vehicles of false information that can affect people’s perceptions. </p>
<p>Biological viruses can contaminate, but technology also becomes a means through which contamination can occur. Local belief systems of virality can converge with the notion that images themselves can be potentially virulent, infecting people’s minds on a literal level. For instance, it is not uncommon for a Congolese person to say, “Do not infect my phone with that video of yours. I do not want to be contaminated by those images.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-new-media-platforms-have-become-powerful-across-africa-107294">How new media platforms have become powerful across Africa</a>
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<p>This particular statement speaks not as much to a digital virus as to beliefs about the power of images themselves. Given the threat of Ebola outbreaks, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, language relating to contamination is particularly salient. </p>
<p>As more people, technology and ideas continue to circulate, anxieties about the proximity of others will continue to make themselves visible through the multiplication of narratives. These narratives now also appear in the memes that people make, circulate and laugh at. </p>
<p>It’s undeniable that the ambiguity of digital technology contributes to our relationships with others. Concerns over contamination, whether cultural or biological, will continue to breed and be fed by the digital domain, contributing to ambivalence towards structural forces circulating in the world. </p>
<p>As the technology used to access and create internet content becomes increasingly available to Congolese people, locally produced content will inevitably continue to multiply and interact with global trends as well as to critique the wider political sphere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lesley Nicole Braun receives funding from the Swiss National Foundation (SNF).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ribio Nzeza Bunketi Buse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Humour is a way for Congolese internet users to prod at cultural traits and political developments – despite censorship being rife.Lesley Nicole Braun, Senior lecturer, University of BaselRibio Nzeza Bunketi Buse, Associate Professor, University of Kinshasa Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1487822020-10-29T15:34:23Z2020-10-29T15:34:23ZThe Angolan dancers who helped South African anthem Jerusalema go global<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365725/original/file-20201027-17-l9jbrg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Semba.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Adilson Maiza for Fenómenos do Semba</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In February the Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Semba created the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/jerusalemadancechallenge?f=video">viral</a> #JerusalemaDanceChallenge <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=613A9d6Doac&feature=emb_title">video</a> that showed off their dance moves to the South African <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/jerusalema-global-dance-hit-south-africa-spotify-1076474/">hit</a> song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZVL_8D048&feature=emb_title"><em>Jerusalema</em></a>. Their video is set in a backyard in Luanda, where they break into a group dance, all the while eating lunch from plates in their hands. </p>
<p>In the age of coronavirus, the #JerusalemaDanceChallenge video <a href="https://scroll.in/article/975720/jerusalema-why-a-south-african-song-has-become-the-soundtrack-to-a-world-in-lockdown">generated</a> a counter-contagion. Almost overnight everyone from police departments in Africa to priests in Europe were posting their own <em>Jerusalema</em> dance videos that repeated the choreography. </p>
<p>The challenge videos were swept along in a message of <a href="https://www.theelephant.info/ideas/2020/10/16/another-now-why-the-jerusalema-dance-challenge-reveals-a-longing-to-re-imagine-the-world/">hope</a> condensed in the single word “Jerusalema” and amplified through an electronic beat that its creator, Johannesburg-based musician and producer <a href="https://briefly.co.za/32929-master-kg-biography-age-real-awards-songs-albums.html">Master KG</a>, describes as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWzu9REdiz8">spiritual</a>”.</p>
<p>Putting together this beat in November 2019, he invited South African gospel vocalist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/07/nomcebo-the-voice-behind-jerusalema-south-africas-global-hit">Nomcebo Zikode</a> to interpret it lyrically. The magic isiZulu phrase “Jerusalema, ikhaya lami” (Jerusalem is my home) arose through their jamming. Then the Angolans provided an irresistible choreography, and the rest is history. </p>
<p>The Angolan dance routine is both just repetitive enough to be picked up and just varied enough to tease. Videos flew around the world on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/jerusalemadancechallenge?source=h5_m">TikTok</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/jerusalemadancechallenge/?hl=en">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2653686454852808">Facebook</a>. Like the urge to dance to “the earliest Ragtime songs” described by Ishmael Reed in his novel <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/aug/01/mumbo-jumbo-a-penguin-classic-2017-ishmael-reed">Mumbo Jumbo</a></em>, the dance challenge, too, “jes grew”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/613A9d6Doac?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Angolan troupe Fenómenos do Semba’s Jerusalema dance challenge.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The gift of moving collectively</h2>
<p>So how did it “just grow”? </p>
<p>“We are happy to bring the joy of dance to the whole world through this marvellous dance,” (Estamos felizes por levar a alegria da dança para o mundo inteiro atraves desta dança maravilhosa) Fenómenos do Semba declare in Portuguese on their Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/fenomenosdosemba/?ref=page_internal">page</a>. </p>
<p>What they call “alegria da dança” (the joy of the dance) can also be read as “alegropolitics” or joy pressed out from trauma and dehumanisation. Historically, enslavement, colonialism, commodification and a continuing threat to Black life brings forth Afro-Atlantic <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14788810.2019.1708159">expressive culture </a>. </p>
<p>This is seen from <a href="https://www.riocarnaval.org/rio-carnival/what-is">carnivals</a> to the viral <a href="https://medium.com/@travelinghopper/what-is-dont-rush-challenge-7bb392c7095b">Don’t Rush Challenge</a>, started during coronavirus lockdowns by a group of <a href="https://techpoint.africa/2020/04/17/interview-with-nigerian-co-creator-of-the-dont-rush-challenge/">African heritage</a> women where each dances to a hip-hop song and uses technology to “pass” a makeup brush to another. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-viral-song-jerusalema-joined-the-ranks-of-south-africas-greatest-hits-148781">How viral song Jerusalema joined the ranks of South Africa's greatest hits</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This gift to the world is the secret of moving collectively. Not in cookie-cutter unison but through individual response to poly-rhythmic Africanist aesthetic principles that are held together by a master-structure. Dancing in this way is resistance, incorporating kinetic and rhythmic principles that circulated initially around the Atlantic rim (including the Americas, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa). It connects and revitalises by enacting an embodied memory of resistance to enslavement. </p>
<p>The <em>Jerusalema</em> dance challenge is an example of how dance enables convivencia (living together). It is a line dance (animation in French, animação in Portuguese, animación in Spanish) that enlivens parties through simple choreography that makes people dance together. Routines involve directional movement enabled by switching of feet, with dancers turning 90 degrees to repeat the choreography. Syncopated steps create enjoyable tension, and more and more people can join as the routine repeats itself till the song ends.</p>
<h2>Viral African line dances</h2>
<p>Many internet-driven <a href="https://www.redbull.com/za-en/music/a-history-of-afropop-dance-crazes">line dances</a> have emerged in response to songs such as <em>Jerusalema</em>. Created by popular music producers in Africa, they are often operating with limited resources and responding to national music trends that also have a pan-continental appeal. Think of Ghanaian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/03/ghana-azonto-dance-craze-world">azonto</a>, Nigerian <a href="https://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2020/05/21/best-afrobeats-dances-lockdown/">Afro-beat</a>; Angolan <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/12/26/167628341/kuduro-the-dance-that-keeps-angola-going">kuduro</a>; South African <a href="https://www.okayafrica.com/south-african-house-songs-10-best/">house</a>. </p>
<p>The dances that develop from the music start out local but can spread from country to country. Choreographies to Ghanaian azonto hits, for example, are taught by dance instructors from Accra when they’re visiting dance clubs in Cotonou in Benin – as I experienced during years of <a href="http://www.modernmoves.org.uk/ouidah-memory-movement-pythons-mermaids-ananya-kabir/">dance research</a> in West Africa.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fCZVL_8D048?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The official Jerusalema video, viewed over 200 million times to date.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Videos shared via WhatsApp also enable such “urban” dance styles to jump borders. This is how a member of Fenómenos do Semba received a sample of <em>Jerusalema</em> from South African friends and shared it with his team. According to group leader Adilson Maiza, they loved it as soon as they heard it. To create a line dance choreography to a song from Johannesburg, these dancers from Luanda dipped freely into the vast reservoir of different African accents of dancing to Afro-beat music.</p>
<h2>Angola’s rich dance culture</h2>
<p>These accents include their own. Angola’s rich social dance culture has gone global through the couple dances <a href="https://medium.com/dance-card/what-is-kizomba-b6700eaa063d">kizomba</a> and the more upbeat <a href="http://socialdancecommunity.com/9-reasons-you-should-be-dancing-semba/">semba</a>. A DJ will periodically break up dancing couples with a track that unites the crowd through line dance routines that gesture to the Angolan music and dance style <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/portugal/lisbon/articles/a-brief-introduction-to-kuduro/">kuduro</a>: hyper-exaggerated, angular, dexterous, sardonic. Kuduro steps are hard. To make the routines easier to pick up, they’re mixed with generic Afro-beat dance steps.</p>
<p>Maiza asserts that the <em>Jerusalema</em> choreography mixes kuduro and Afro-beat. Others in the Angolan dance scene disagree, pointing to videos of South African <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/oct/08/pantsula-dance-south-africa-via-kanana">pantsula</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/aug/11/kwaito-south-africa-house">kwaito</a> that reveal similar footwork. Master KG himself <a href="http://www.novojornal.co.ao/cultura/interior/jerusalema-tornou-se-um-fenomeno-musical-planetario-gracas-a-um-video-feito-por-jovens-angolanos-reconhece-o-autor-94679.html">declared</a> that what the Angolan group made viral was a South African dance style popular at celebrations. <a href="http://www.novojornal.co.ao/cultura/interior/jerusalema-tornou-se-um-fenomeno-musical-planetario-gracas-a-um-video-feito-por-jovens-angolanos-reconhece-o-autor-94679.html">Citing him</a>, magazine <em>Novo Jornal</em> observes that the <em>Jerusalema</em> choreography nonetheless transmits an undeniable Angolan touch. It’s what Maiza interprets as signature “ginga e banga Angolana” (Angolan sway and swag).</p>
<p>Ginga, banga, kizomba, semba, kuduro: all Angolan words for dance styles and attitudes that, like line dances, emerge from long circum-Atlantic conversations. Line dances criss-cross the Atlantic, complicating the line between recognition and appropriation. The Danza Kuduro dance was set to a Spanish-language song responding to a Puerto Rican hit. There was the Macarena dance (Spain and Venezuela) and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jun/11/how-the-electric-slide-became-the-black-lives-matter-protest-dance">Electric Slide</a> (US and Jamaica).</p>
<h2>A way to build community</h2>
<p>Instead of understanding the <em>Jerusalema</em> dance challenge as an intra-African phenomenon, it’s maybe more useful to understand it in terms of ongoing <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/creolisation">creolisation</a> processes – a mixing of cultures – that spiral around the Atlantic rim. Multi-directional, unpredictable, but always innovative, creolisation is the motor of the “alegropolitics” of African-heritage music and dance. If the Angolan video popularised the South African anthem, this is a collaborative and competitive creolising phenomenon.</p>
<p>As Fenómenos do Semba morph effortlessly from eating together to dancing together, they draw on deep and resonant reservoirs of Afro-Atlantic survival through joy. The dancers’ hangout is the Angolan quintal or backyard, a hub of activity during long, curfewed nights of unending <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/angolan-civil-war-1975-2002-brief-history">civil war</a>. However, they are eating cachupa, a typical Cape Verdean dish frequently used as a symbol for creolisation. </p>
<p>Like the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/jun/11/how-the-electric-slide-became-the-black-lives-matter-protest-dance">revival of line dances</a> during the Black Lives Matter protests, <em>Jerusalema</em> went viral during the coronavirus pandemic because the dance challenge enacted a simple way to connect and build community: especially at a time when people were hungering for these possibilities. </p>
<p>A South African singer’s call, “Zuhambe nami” (join me) was realised through an Angolan dance group’s brainwave to use cachupa to demonstrate that, in Maiza’s words: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is possible to be happy with little: we party with very little.
(É possível ser feliz mesmo com pouco: com pouco fizemos a nossa festa.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And, with just the resources of the body, the locked-down world partied too, for the duration of the dance.</p>
<p><em>Obrigada to Nikolett Hamvas, Adilson Maiza, Rui Djassi Moracén.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ananya Jahanara Kabir receives funding from the European Research Council, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and King's College London. </span></em></p>During the coronavirus pandemic the Jerusalema dance challenge enacted a way for communities to connect - repetitive enough to be picked up and varied enough to tease.Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Professor of English Literature, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1475092020-10-21T15:45:32Z2020-10-21T15:45:32ZWe must make moral choices about how we relate to social media apps<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364456/original/file-20201020-14-nybccz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Social Dilemma/Netflix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently a South African <a href="https://www.kfm.co.za/Show/kfm-breakfast">radio show</a> asked, “If you had to choose between your mobile phone and your pet, which would choose?” Think about that for a moment. Many callers responded they would choose their phone. I was shocked… But to be honest, I give more attention to my phone than to my beloved dogs!</p>
<p>Throughout history there have been discoveries that have changed society in unimaginable ways. Written language made it possible to communicate over space and time. The printing press, say historians, helped shape societies <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24357082">through</a> the mass dissemination of ideas. New modes of transport <a href="https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?id_clanak_jezik=237992&show=clanak">radically transformed</a> social norms by bringing people into contact with new cultures.</p>
<p>Yet these pale in comparison to how the internet is shaping, and misshaping, our individual and social <a href="https://www.counterpointknowledge.org/social-media-as-religion-unexamined-desire-and-mis-information/">identities</a>. I remember the first time I heard a teenager speaking with an American accent and discovered she’d never been out of South Africa but picked up her accent from watching YouTube. We shape our technologies, but they also shape us. </p>
<p>The potentially negative impacts of social media have again been highlighted by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11464826/"><em>The Social Dilemma</em></a> on Netflix. The documentary, which Facebook has <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2020/10/facebook-response-the-social-dilemma-1234590361/">slammed</a> as sensational and unfair, shows how dominant and largely unregulated social media companies manipulate users by harvesting personal data, while using <a href="https://theconversation.com/do-social-media-algorithms-erode-our-ability-to-make-decisions-freely-the-jury-is-out-140729">algorithms</a> to push information and ads that can lead to social media addiction – and dangerous anti-social behaviour. Among others, the show makes an example of the conspiracy theory <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-qanon-uses-satanic-rhetoric-to-set-up-a-narrative-of-good-vs-evil-146281">QAnon</a>, which is <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-26-qanon-originated-in-south-africa-now-that-the-global-cult-is-back-here-we-should-all-be-afraid/">increasingly</a> <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-targets-africa-with-new-conspiracy-that-democrats-are-stealing-local-children">targeting</a> Africans.</p>
<p>Despite its flaws, the doccie got me wondering what our relationship should be to social media? As an ethics professor, I’ve come to realise that we must make moral choices about how we relate to our technologies. This requires an honest evaluation of our needs and weaknesses, and a clear understanding of the intentions of these platforms. </p>
<h2>Tug-of-war with technology</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ynharari.com">Yuval Noah Harari</a>, author of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/11/sapiens-brief-history-humankind-yuval-noah-harari-review"><em>Sapiens</em></a>, contends it’s our ability to inhabit “fiction” that differentiates humans. <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/sapiens-yuval-noah-harari?variant=32207215656994">He claims</a> you “could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven”. Humans have a capacity to believe in things we cannot see – which changes things that do exist. Ideas like prejudice and hatred, for example, are powerful enough to cause wars that displace thousands. </p>
<p>The wall between Israel and Palestine was conceived in people’s minds before being transformed into bricks and barbed wire. Philosopher Oliver Razac’s book <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/barbed-wire"><em>Barbed Wire: A political history</em></a> traces how this razor-sharp technology has been deployed from farms that displaced indigenous peoples to the trenches of World War I and the prisons of contemporary democracies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364455/original/file-20201020-22-1v3ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=344%2C2%2C1572%2C778&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young woman in a bathroom is engaged with her mobile phone, reflected in a mirror." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364455/original/file-20201020-22-1v3ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=344%2C2%2C1572%2C778&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364455/original/file-20201020-22-1v3ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=245&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364455/original/file-20201020-22-1v3ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=245&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364455/original/file-20201020-22-1v3ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=245&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364455/original/file-20201020-22-1v3ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364455/original/file-20201020-22-1v3ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364455/original/file-20201020-22-1v3ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sophia Hammons as Isla in <em>The Social Dilemma</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Social Dilemma/Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Technology is in a constant psychological, political and economic tug-of-war with humanity. Yet, some of today’s technologies are much more subtle than barbed wire. They are deeply <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9wq9DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA85&dq=info:gxEdWsbuE_0J:scholar.google.com&ots=5b6P23i9n9&sig=oonwZAiBsas7XNjTpP7e8pXq2XM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">integrated into</a> our lives – they know us better than we know ourselves.</p>
<p>I have thousands of ‘friends’ on social media – far too many to relate to meaningfully. Yet, at times I can be more present to people that I have never met than I am to my family. This is not by chance – social media platforms are <a href="https://www.counterpointknowledge.org/social-media-as-religion-unexamined-desire-and-mis-information/">designed</a> to seek and hold our attention. They are businesses, intent on making money. Harvard University professor <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/04/shoshana-zuboff-surveillance-capitalism-assault-human-automomy-digital-privacy">Shoshana Zuboff</a>, who features in the documentary, explains in <a href="https://profilebooks.com/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism.html"><em>The Age of Surveillance Capitalism</em></a> that social media “trades exclusively in human futures”.</p>
<h2>We are the product</h2>
<p>Zuboff says that social media platforms exploit our emotions and pre-cognate needs like belonging, recognition, acceptance and pleasure that are ‘hard wired’ into us to secure our survival. </p>
<p>Recognition relates to two of the primary <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/The_Primal_Feast.html?id=TJF_xQAuLOYC&redir_esc=y">functions of the brain</a>, avoiding danger and finding ways to meet our basic survival needs (such as food or a mate to perpetuate our gene pool). These corporations, she says, are hiring the smartest engineers, social psychologists, behavioural economists and artists to hold our attention, while interspersing adverts between our videos, photos and status updates. They make money by offering a future that their advertisers will sell you. </p>
<p>Or, as former Google and Facebook employee Justin Rosenstein, says in <em>The Social Dilemma</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our attention is the product being sold to advertisers. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>If our adult brains are so susceptible to this kind of manipulation, what effects are they having on the developing minds of children?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uaaC57tcci0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for <em>The Social Dilemma</em>.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The documentary also reminds the viewer that social media has a more subtle and powerful influence on our lives – shaping our social and political realities. </p>
<h2>Fake news and hate speech</h2>
<p>The documentary uses an example from 2017 in which Facebook use is linked to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-india-content-idUSKBN1X929F">violence</a> that led to the displacement of close to 700,000 Rohingya persons in Myanmar. Something that doesn’t really exist (a social media platform) violently changed something that does exist (the safety of people). Facebook was a primary means of communication in Myanmar. New phones came with Facebook pre-installed. What users were unaware of was a ‘third person’ – Facebook’s algorithms – feeding information that included hate speech and fake news into their conversations. In Africa, similar reports have emerged from <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonpatinkin/how-to-get-people-to-murder-each-other-through-fake-news-and#.cfxZRym4z">South Sudan</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-vicious-online-propaganda-war-that-includes-fake-news-is-being-waged-in-zimbabwe-99402">Zimbabwe</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/netflixs-the-social-dilemma-highlights-the-problem-with-social-media-but-whats-the-solution-147351">Netflix's The Social Dilemma highlights the problem with social media, but what's the solution?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Another example used is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/the-cambridge-analytica-scandal-changed-the-world-but-it-didnt-change-facebook">Cambridge Analytica</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-facebook-is-the-reason-fake-news-is-here-to-stay-94308">scandal</a>, which also played out in <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1089911/bell-pottinger-and-cambridge-analyticas-work-in-south-africa-kenya-is-raising-questions/">Africa</a>, most notably in <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-nigerian-and-kenyan-media-handled-cambridge-analytica-128473">Nigeria and Kenya</a>. Facebook user information was mined and sold to nefarious political actors. This information (like what people feared and what upset them) was used to spread misinformation and manipulate their voting decisions on important elections.</p>
<h2>What to do about it?</h2>
<p>So, what do we do? We can’t very well give up on social media completely, and I don’t think it is necessary. These technologies are already deeply intertwined with our daily lives. We cannot deny they have some value. </p>
<p>However, just like humans had to adapt to the responsible use of the printing press or long distance travel, we will need to be more intentional about how we relate to these new technologies. We can begin by cultivating healthier social media <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9wq9DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA85&dq=info:gxEdWsbuE_0J:scholar.google.com&ots=5b6P23i9n9&sig=oonwZAiBsas7XNjTpP7e8pXq2XM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">habits</a>.</p>
<p>We should also develop a greater awareness of the aims of these companies and how they achieve them, while understanding how our information is being used. This will allow us to make some simple commitments that align our social media usage to our better values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dion Forster receives funding from the South African National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>As more comes to light about the money-making tactics of social media platforms we need to reevaluate our relationship with them.Dion Forster, Head of Department, Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1466142020-10-12T14:35:22Z2020-10-12T14:35:22ZHow young, queer Nigerians use Twitter to shape identity and fight homophobia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362961/original/file-20201012-15-111yxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria continues to be <a href="https://africanarguments.org/2019/08/14/nigeria-survey-shows-decrease-in-homophobic-attitudes-kind-of/">largely homophobic</a>, mainly as a result of cultural and religious conventions. Negative perceptions of homosexuality led to the <a href="https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/52f4d9cc4.pdf">criminalisation</a> of same-sex relations in 2014. The Nigerian environment is therefore toxic for LGBTI people. They become <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/10/20/tell-me-where-i-can-be-safe/impact-nigerias-same-sex-marriage-prohibition-act">easy prey</a> to oppressive and exploitative state security apparatus. They are also vulnerable to public “moral police” who seek to make homosexual performance invisible and closeted. </p>
<p>One may assume that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-nigerian-gay-and-bisexual-men-cope-this-is-what-they-told-us-117121">marginalised</a> Nigerian same-sex community and its allies have conceded to the widespread societal ostracisation. But that would be to ignore the vigorous advocacies that have been going on in the country’s cultural production and on social media.</p>
<p>Films and literary texts have been the more <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/622200/pdf">studied</a> genres where same-sex agency has been iterated and reinforced. In <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-nollywood-to-new-nollywood-the-story-of-nigerias-runaway-success-47959">Nollywood</a> – the country’s film industry – early <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/465728/pdf">depictions</a> were <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10509208.2020.1714324">constructed</a> by non-LGBTI people who seemed to latch on public inquisitiveness for financial gains. </p>
<p>More recently, however, members of the Nigerian queer community have taken over the task of shaping their public image and identity, to reasonable success, in these creative ventures. They have done so through movies as well as a growing body of <a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-queer-literature-offers-a-new-way-of-looking-at-blackness-133649">literary</a> writings.</p>
<p>Social media, however, can be considered more potent as a medium which, to the authors of <em><a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/The_Alternative_Media_Handbook.html?id=AFCzBqqaw-QC&redir_esc=y">The Alternative Media Handbook</a></em>, gives voice to “the socially, culturally and politically excluded”. </p>
<p>By unpacking “live” data from members of the queer community, one can identify the challenges as well as advocacies in Nigerian digital queer discourse. That’s what I did in a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13696815.2020.1806799">study</a> of queer Nigerian Twitter. To explore the diversity of queer agency, I analysed selected tweets by Nigerian queer men. As a linguist, my focus was on identifying and discussing how the performative use of language can achieve the functions of coming out as well as confronting homophobic cyberbullying.</p>
<h2>Twitter as a safer space</h2>
<p>Twitter has <a href="https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2019-nigeria?rq=Nigeria">grown</a> to become a very popular microblogging platform in Nigeria, accounting for about 1.75 million users, with an annual growth rate of 4.4%. Communities with shared interests are built online. The queer community in Nigeria is no doubt on the margins, but it has found <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00918369.2018.1511131">digital platforms</a> safe havens for collective queer voices. </p>
<p>The digital space, I found, has become a location for the representation and assertion of queer agency. What I found interesting in these narratives was that these commenters were not only ready to come out on a “public” digital space, they were also expressive in revealing their offline identities. This despite the possibilities of homophobic violence. </p>
<p>In expressing and owning their sexuality online, Nigerian queers, for instance through their Twitter names, spell out their sexuality as they incorporate vocabulary like “gay”, “homo” and “queer”. And they use the <a href="https://www.genderopen.de/bitstream/handle/25595/1489/cu16v8a14.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">rainbow</a> – a global symbol of LGBTI advocacy – in their Twitter handles and names.</p>
<p>They also own their profiles by either using their personal images or other suggestive queer-positive ones to indicate their sexual orientation. These realisations are central to queer agency, especially as the users I analysed live in Nigeria and are willing to challenge the existing normative sexuality structures. For example:</p>
<p>“This year I accepted the entirety of my sexuality and it’s one thing I’m very grateful about. I remember those days when I use to beat myself, cut myself, cry, pray and do all shits for being gay. Those days that I had to go to various priests for deliverance and guidance.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1208705795011096576"}"></div></p>
<p>This Twitter user reveals their sexual orientation within a narrative which expresses the difficulties of their lived reality. What is striking is the conviction of self-acceptance and the roles played by the online queer community in the affirmation of this. </p>
<h2>Anti-homophobic advocacy</h2>
<p>Even more exciting is how these Twitter users engage in anti-homophobic advocacy. They turn the narrative around by exploiting online platforms towards positive self-presentation. They also respond to and challenge their cyber-aggressors and other homophobic commentators. They further acknowledge the necessity of support, like this tweet:</p>
<p>“Nigerian parents need peer support groups; especially parents with LGBTQ kids. I think one of the reasons they suffer so much is that they don’t know/talk to each other and they think they are alone. But there are lots of parents going through the same struggles across Nigeria.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1215894096495153152"}"></div></p>
<p>This acknowledges the role of the family as a domain of socialisation in normalising same-sex relations. Or this: “I think that social media really helps our generation with this. I wonder if they’re too far gone to also take advantage.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1215921816226729985"}"></div></p>
<p>This extends the discussion to the advantages of social media in queer outreaches. The tweets I analysed draw attention to, among others, the role of family relationships, homosexual allies and larger non-queer communities in helping Nigerian LGBTI people express and accept themselves. The advocacies are geared towards providing information concerning the naturalness of their sexual orientation.</p>
<h2>Rewriting the narrative</h2>
<p>The tweets have sociological implications as ways of creating meaning. They humanise the commenters as legitimate members of Nigerian society and attest to the naturalness of queer identities. The online discussions provide visibility for a marginalised community. </p>
<p>Since the tweets contest the normative portrayals of same-sex relations, they also constitute activist representations. These queer Nigerian males use digital platforms for the purpose of identity formation. In this self-assertion, they contest the monochromic representations perpetuated in popular culture. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-queer-literature-offers-a-new-way-of-looking-at-blackness-133649">Nigeria's queer literature offers a new way of looking at blackness</a>
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<p>The tweets I studied speak out against the bigotry and hate messages which are directed at them. They accentuate the human rights concern that a person’s sexuality is their personal decision. And they correct the perspective that problematises homosexuality as being the same as other social ills. </p>
<p>More crucially, I conclude, in view of the stifling and homophobic lived realities in Nigeria, these narratives engender conversations around the issue of queer visibility and acceptance within Nigerian society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146614/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Onanuga receives funding from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. </span></em></p>Despite same-sex relations being criminal, social media is a space to come out and speak back to homophobia for the Nigerian tweeters in the study.Paul Onanuga, Lecturer, Federal University, Oye EkitiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1023652018-08-31T07:02:36Z2018-08-31T07:02:36ZWhy Bobi Wine represents such a big threat to Museveni<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234277/original/file-20180830-195313-5v0hok.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ground is shifting under the feet of Uganda's ruling party, the National Resistance Movement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past fortnight, Uganda has been convulsed by the fallout from <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/08/uganda-bobi-wine-arrested/568549/">the arrest</a> of opposition MP Robert Kyagulanyi – better known as Afro-beat pop superstar Bobi Wine. His arrest, along with others opposed to the government, led to violent street protests in the capital Kampala and other urban centres.</p>
<p>The current upheavals began in mid-August when President Yoweri Museveni, Bobi Wine, and other opposition MPs descended on the north-western town of Arua to campaign in a by-election.</p>
<p>After several hours of raucous campaigning on all sides, the president’s motorcade was attacked with stones as it left the town, <a href="https://nilepost.co.ug/2018/08/15/president-museveni-blames-opposition-leaders-for-arua-chaos/">allegedly</a> by Bobi Wine’s supporters. Museveni reached his helicopter unharmed. But his security detail returned to Arua and <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/africaTech/idAFL5N1V64T7">unleashed a wave of violence</a> against the crowds still gathered there.</p>
<p>In the ensuing melee Bobi Wine, five other opposition MPs, two journalists and at least 28 other people were arrested. Bobi Wine’s driver – Yasiin Kawuma – <a href="https://observer.ug/news/headlines/58421-bobi-wine-driver-mugerwa-shot-dead.html">was shot dead</a>. Over the following days, <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/Uganda-police-surround-Kizza-Besigye-s-home-in-Kampala/1066-4724976-ac3bapz/index.html">other opposition figures were also arrested</a>.</p>
<p>Almost immediately after news broke of the arrests and Kawuma’s death, street protests erupted in Kampala. These initially centred on the poor neighbourhood of Kamwokya (where Bobi Wine’s studio is located) and Kyadondo East (his constituency), but quickly spread. The unrest worsened as news emerged that Bobi Wine and the other arrested MPs had been badly mistreated in custody. When he finally appeared in court 10 days later he <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ureport/story/2001293083/video-bobi-wine-struggles-to-walk-as-he-is-re-arrested">could barely walk</a>.</p>
<p>The growing protests drew a sharp response from the security services. The violence left dozens of people hospitalised, and at least two dead. Journalists writing about the affair <a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Journalists-receive-threatening-calls-back-off-Bobi-Wine-stories/688334-4724030-vo1tgdz/index.html">have been threatened</a>.</p>
<p>The arrest and intimidation of opposition figures isn’t new in Museveni’s Uganda. Even so, the speed and severity of the security forces’ response was shocking. Their initial reaction was bad enough. But the subsequent escalation and the treason case against Bobi Wine suggests there’s more to the story than trigger happy soldiers.</p>
<p>And there is. Bobi Wine has been released on bail. This may draw a line under recent events — for now. But Museveni’s problems have only just begun, and run deep. He’s facing an increasingly agitated younger voter base, an erosion of the National Resistance Movement’s political model, and the growing prominence <a href="https://theconversation.com/bobi-wine-case-demonstrates-the-power-of-social-media-102179">of social media</a> in Uganda’s political life. All these factors will only grow over time. </p>
<h2>Changing voter profile</h2>
<p>In its first two decades of rule, the National Resistance Movement effectively operated as a single party under the “movement system”: all candidates were forced to stand as individuals rather than members of national political parties.</p>
<p>This legacy endures. The “individual” culture of local politics has continued since the National Resistance Movement became a political party in 2005. Its key constituents are rural voters who engage in politics mainly on local issues. They are also old enough to remember the <a href="https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/jcs/article/view/4386/5071">horrific civil war</a> that preceded Museveni’s tenure. </p>
<p>To these voters removing the president from power is a perilous, even traumatic idea. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17531055.2016.1279853">Ethnographic research</a> we carried out in southern Uganda during the 2016 presidential election campaigns confirms this. It shows that most of Museveni’s voters aren’t simply coerced or bought off – they don’t want him replaced.</p>
<p>There is little reason to think that the old system is collapsing. Rather the problem for Museveni is that the number of those whose interests and identities it does <em>not</em> cater for is increasing.</p>
<p>This group includes younger voters. They have no memory of the war, have a relatively good education that has led them to want more than the agricultural livelihood of their parents, and stubbornly engage with politics on a national rather than local scale. </p>
<p>They’re not interested in replacing a local MP. They want a new president. </p>
<p>These voters have never been a key constituency for Museveni. Previously their political threat could be dismissed – there weren’t many of them, they were organisationally weak and concentrated in a few urban centres.</p>
<p>But the ground is shifting under the National Resistance Movement’s feet.</p>
<p>Young voters are now scattered across the country, including in the towns of Museveni’s rural southern heartland. The advent of social media makes it easier for them to network and communicate with each other. They can also get around more easily.</p>
<p>Most significantly, their numbers are rising fast. Uganda has one of the <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/uganda-population/">youngest populations</a> in the world. <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ug.html">Just over</a> 48% of its population is 14 years and younger while one in five (21.16%) of the total population are aged between 15 and 24. Only 2% of the population is 65 years or older.</p>
<p>So the 36-year-old Bobi Wine is not a threat because he is saying something that no opposition leader has said before. It’s because he has, with considerable skill, positioned himself as a champion of this growing demographic.</p>
<h2>Building a movement</h2>
<p>Museveni likes to portray his opponents as either divisive <a href="http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Museveni-warns-tribalism/688334-4087530-x6dlg5z/index.html">tribalists</a> or young hooligans – <a href="https://www.independent.co.ug/museveni-we-shall-not-allow-violence-in-elections/">and worse</a>. Bobi Wine is none of these, as proved by the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fvBQMOC5Wc">erudite public letters</a> he traded with Museveni after his 2017 election. He has built a wide platform defined by youth more than ethnicity, class, region or religion.</p>
<p>And, critically, a string of recent by-elections across the country (including Arua) have shown that this brand transcends his local constituency. </p>
<p>It’s no coincidence that Bobi Wine’s most recent run-in with the law actually happened five weeks earlier during a protest in Kampala against Uganda’s controversial new “social media tax” (during which the authorities accused him of inciting a riot).</p>
<p>In the period leading up to the Arua by-election Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp all saw a marked uptick in posts about Bobi Wine and his emerging constituency.</p>
<p>Social media has also played a central role after Arua. Images of Bobi Wine and the other opposition MPs’ alleged mistreatment in custody were circulated widely, exacerbating the popular unrest. </p>
<p>News of the general tumult also spread via social media to the Ugandan diaspora, resulting in rallies being held in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWJqrf-Mc1Q">Berlin</a>, London, <a href="https://watchdoguganda.com/videougandans-in-usa-washington-hold-peaceful-protest-over-bobi-wine/">Washington DC</a>, and elsewhere.</p>
<p>It was once possible to discuss opposition to Museveni in regional and ethnic terms. But, increasingly, opposition is a generational story. Whether the enduring face of this new politics is Bobi Wine or someone else, Ugandan politics is clearly changing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102365/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Vokes is at the University of Western Australia. He has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK), Wenner Gren (USA), The Royal Society of New Zealand, the British Institute in Eastern Africa, the British Library and the Australian Research Council. He is President of the Australian Anthropological Society, and Editor of the Journal of Eastern African Studies.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sam Wilkins has received funding from the University of Oxford and the British Institute in Eastern Africa. He is affiliated with the University of Melbourne. </span></em></p>Whether the enduring face of this new politics is Bobi Wine or someone else, Ugandan politics is clearly changingRichard Vokes, Associate professor, The University of Western AustraliaSam Wilkins, PhD Student in Politics, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1022732018-08-29T14:18:26Z2018-08-29T14:18:26ZSocial media mobilisation is a bright spot in Uganda’s dark Bobi Wine saga<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233857/original/file-20180828-86123-32pncx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Social media is becoming a formal political platform in Uganda.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Yoweri Museveni has ruled Uganda with authoritarian firmness for the last 32 years. But even his most ardent supporters were <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45257309">shocked by the ferocity</a> with which his security forces recently meted out violence on journalists and supporters of Robert Kyagulanyi, a musician-turned-politician popularly known as Bobi Wine. </p>
<p>Wine, an opposition MP, has emerged as a threat to Uganda’s old political order. Against many odds, including <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/06/29/ugandan-mucisian-bobi-wine-wins-kyadondo-mp-seat_c1588411">systematic state intimidation</a>, in 2017 he won the Kyaddondo East constituency seat at a canter. He got nearly 80% of the vote and beating the ruling party and the main opposition’s candidates. In subsequent by-elections, the candidates he has backed have all won.</p>
<p>But the weight of this success is becoming painful for Wine. He and 11 others have been <a href="https://www.nation.co.ke/news/africa/Bobi-Wine-re-arrested-in-Gulu/1066-4725150-v92kia/index.html">charged with treason</a> after one of the vehicles in Museveni’s convoy was pelted with stones at a campaign rally. Wine was initially charged in a military court with <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/uganda-museveni-critic-bobi-wine-charged-in-military-trial/a-45082938">illegally possessing a firearm</a>. When the military dropped that charge, he was released – then immediately rearrested and charged with treason in a criminal court.</p>
<p>This shows how desperate authorities are to deal with the threat Wine poses. And the way Museveni’s government has moved to keep a lid on how the case <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001293013/sobriety-must-prevail-to-stop-uganda-plunging-into-anarchy">is being reported is raising fears</a> that Uganda’s democratic regression is deepening. </p>
<p>In full view of the public, journalists covering protests in Kampala calling for Wine’s release were <a href="https://cpj.org/2018/08/ugandan-security-forces-attack-and-detain-journali.php">brutally assaulted</a>. Their recording equipment was either confiscated or destroyed by security forces. This has sparked <a href="https://www.article19.org/resources/uganda-vicious-crackdown-on-protest-journalism-and-opposition-around-by-election/">a national and international outcry</a>.</p>
<p>Museveni’s grip on power remains exceptionally strong. His control of the country’s civic and political institutions is nearly complete after 32 years in power. But there are pockets of dissent emerging from digital platforms whose practical political consequences are being slowly realised. </p>
<h2>Controlling information</h2>
<p>Museveni runs a brutal regime. The control of information seems key to eliminating public dissent. A number of newspapers as well as radio and TV stations have <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/ugandan-police-shut-down-media-houses-silence-radio-stations/a-16827268">been shut down over the years</a>, always at the whim of the president. </p>
<p>Individual journalists have also borne the brunt of the state’s violence. Arrests, kidnapping and torture are common. Some of Uganda’s best journalists have <a href="https://globaljournalist.org/2015/12/project-exile-fleeing-uganda-corruption-articles/">fled the country</a> over the years of Museveni’s rule to seek refuge in neighbouring countries.</p>
<p>The Ugandan government’s tight grip on the flow of information can also be seen in its various attempts to control the use of social media. It has obviously recognised this as a new platform for political expression. In 2016 the government <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/uganda-2016-social-media-shutdown-and-seven-hour-delays-jeopardize-elections-428072">shut down social media</a> during the country’s elections. Museveni <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/uganda-shuts-down-social-media-ahead-of-musevenis-inauguration-20160512-2">defended the move</a>, calling it a security measure to avert lies intended to incite violence and illegal declaration of results.</p>
<p>In July this year, Uganda introduced an <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/uganda-social-media-tax-stays-for-now/">unprecedented tax on the use of social media services</a> such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. Critics see the 200 shilling tax as being specifically targeted at the youth and intended to discourage their use of social media for communication. </p>
<p>Despite these measures, social media has become an important form of political participation – especially for young Ugandans who are institutionally excluded from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jan/16/uganda-unemployed-graduates-held-back-skills-gap">meaningful participation in the country’s economic and political processes</a>.</p>
<h2>New political platforms</h2>
<p>Museveni has previously dismissed social media as a platform used particularly by young people <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/africa/uganda-slaps-tax-on-social-media-users-to-curb-gossip-1.735862">for gossip</a>. </p>
<p>But that “gossip” has become an important form of political participation and protest vernacular. What cannot be published in the newspapers or broadcast on radio or television finds expression in tweets, memes or other forms of social media.</p>
<p>In fact, social media is becoming a formal political platform in its own right. Following Wine’s arrest social media users in Uganda and across the continent popularised the hashtag #Freebobiwine to focus attention on him and his co-accused. The hashtag quickly attracted significant interest, and led to peaceful protests in Kenya, South Africa and at Ugandan embassies around the world.</p>
<p>It’s on the back of this kind of attention that more than 80 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/22/chris-martin-and-damon-albarn-join-campaign-to-free-uganda-star-bobi-wine">world-famous human rights activists and artists</a> – including Angelique Kidjo, Chris Martin, Wole Soyinka and Damon Albarn – expressed their support for Wine. They’ve also called for international organisations to censure Museveni. </p>
<p>This international attention prompted an <a href="https://africa.cgtn.com/2018/08/21/uganda-army-issues-rare-apology-for-attacking-journalists/">unusual climbdown</a> from Uganda’s government. The military has apologised for its brutal handling of journalists. And Wine has been given bail on the treason charges.</p>
<p>Other repressive governments are no doubt watching this story unfold, and are worried. Such transcontinental alliances forged and popularised through social media are <a href="http://africanarguments.org/2018/08/23/freebobiwine-today-pan-africanism-digital-age/">undermining many governments’ attempts to control information</a> and invalidate legitimate dissent. More importantly, the conversations enabled by hashtags like #FreeBobiWine borrow from international norms of conduct. This invests local campaigns with agency as well as legitimacy.</p>
<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
<p>Bobi Wine’s story of political intimidation by powerful government forces, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/reports-uganda-opposition-legislators-tortured-security-forces/4533959.html">detention and alleged torture</a>, is a dark one. Social media’s potential to organise and mobilise is a bright light in that darkness. This case may very well reveal how Uganda could look once Museveni’s iron grip on traditional media is loosened and citizens have more space to debate, discuss and dissent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Ogola does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s grip on power remains strong but pockets of dissent are emerging from digital platforms.George Ogola, Reader in Journalism, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/970972018-05-24T08:00:36Z2018-05-24T08:00:36ZChanging the African narrative through social media platforms<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220102/original/file-20180523-51105-fyqxz.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From: #TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/decorationsclub/status/998046189282045952">Twitter/@decorationsclub</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Social media platforms are providing Africans with an opportunity to counter negative stereotypes by giving them representational agency. </p>
<p>More and more Africans use the internet. By the end of 2000 the continent had a total of 4,514,400 users. Seventeen years later it had increased to 453,329,534, giving Africa an internet <a href="https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm">penetration</a> of 35.2%. Africans are also increasingly active on social media – this stood at 177,005,700 Facebook users across Africa at the end of 2017.</p>
<p>Social media presents a powerful platform for creating multiple stories about Africa. Embracing the accessibility of modern technology, African social media bloggers and commentators are using Facebook, YouTube and other platforms to undermine longstanding “Afro-pessimistic” <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616701003638509">stereotypes</a> – the backward continent characterised by strife and poverty.</p>
<p>By giving ordinary people the space to share their “everyday” experiences, African bloggers are capturing positive “human moments”. These moments of joy, play, celebration, love and human interaction, create new narratives of Africa.</p>
<p>These new representations could ignite a new Afro-positive turn. </p>
<h2>Examples of another Africa</h2>
<p>Different and multi-directional narratives about the continent are emerging in a number of different ways. For example, the Facebook blog <a href="https://www.facebook.com/everydayafrica/">“Everyday Africa”</a> showcases,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cell phone photography shot across Africa, in an attempt to form a more complete portrayal of life on the continent than the mainstream media allows.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It shows, among others, an array of images of children laughing, playing, on their way to school, or engaged otherwise. It shows men at work, plants thriving, busy produce markets and other such ordinary depictions. </p>
<p>The images are significant in their symbolic distancing from the stereotypical, pessimistic <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1262748">portrayal</a> of Africa as a homogeneous block of violence, helplessness, human rights abuses and lack of democracy.</p>
<p>Similarly, the blog <a href="http://voicesofafrica.co.za/about-voa/">“Voices of Africa”</a> aims to,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>tell the stories the world doesn’t hear often enough. We believe the everyday accounts of Africans getting on with life deserve more attention. From the fashion-crazy women in Dakar to the eligible bachelors in Somalia; from the extravagant weddings in Tanzania to the nightlife in Nairobi, we want to showcase life in Africa by those who live it. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such a lens for viewing the continent implicitly rejects stories built on the outsider’s gaze, instead creating insider tales. </p>
<p>The Twitter hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou?src=hash">#TheAfricaTheMediaNeverShowsYou</a>, also spotlights the positive stories. They have posts like,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m exploring Kigali streets. Clear why it’s named cleanest African city, even plastics are banned! The Africa they don’t show us on tv. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another poster describes Kampala as a city “full of hope and promise”.</p>
<p>These various social media voices may be conceived of as participating in a “post-colonial” <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=JwixBwR_ff4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=postcolonial+theory&ots=2YftRTc_aX&sig=JYqTLm5-Vjfh5yf35hm7gTr1qTs#v=onepage&q=postcolonial%20theory&f=false">discursive</a> struggle to contest the Afro-pessimist code book. There famine, civil conflict and disputed elections are used to portray as quintessential African-ness. </p>
<p>Complementing the blogosphere, through YouTube and other video sharing platforms, a growing number of Afro-positive speakers are engaged in a rebuttal of what they see as the bias of media coverage about Africa. For example, <a href="https://globalbusinessforum.com/africa/speakers/65">Mark Eddo</a>, a communications expert and TEDx speaker, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVKlWINwf54">advocates</a> “a new narrative”, lamenting,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The BBC did a story called ‘Welcome to Lagos’ … They went to a beach where prostitutes and drug addicts hang out. These are stories that should be told, but they are told again and again and again… That’s what you’ll think about my city, and it’s not true. The problems are there, but the opportunities are there as well and the picture should be more nuanced.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Likewise, in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg">talk</a> titled “The danger of a single story”, TEDx speaker <a href="https://www.chimamanda.com/">Chimamanda Ngozi</a>, a public intellectual and awardee of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, urges that multiple stories are important:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Quantifying the Afro-positive sentiment</h2>
<p>To date, analyses and critiques of representations of Africa have tended to <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/sageo/93/1/EJC93356">focus</a> on traditional media. The Afro-positive turn in social media is yet to be studied comprehensively and scholars are still grappling with how to analyse the huge volumes of “big data” generated by social networking platforms meaningfully. Patrick Wolfe, executive director of Big Data Institute at the University College of London, <a href="http://meo.social/2017/03/27/social-media-predictive-analytics-within-african-context/">says</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The rate at which we’re generating data is rapidly outpacing our ability to analyse it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nonetheless, the above examples give a substantive qualitative indication of the richness and depth of Afro-positive content, in terms of its explicit engagement with the politics of representation. In addition, the pages and videos mentioned confirm the scale of interest in these Afro-positive narratives. Ngozi’s TEDx talk, for example, has been viewed more than three million times. </p>
<p>Here there are opportunities for achieving even greater quantitative impact, if Afro-positive activists share their content with influential social media players such as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BBCnewsAfrica/">BBC Africa</a>, which has close to four million followers on Facebook. </p>
<h2>Towards Afro-optimism</h2>
<p>Social media does present a powerful platform for creating more plural stories about Africa. But the Afro-positive turn should not be about whitewashing and romanticising Africa. It should be about challenging the simplistic nature of Afro-pessimism, through introducing <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14781158.2016.1193847">multiple and complex images</a> about the continent and its people. </p>
<p>And as new technologies become more widely available in Africa, Africans themselves will increasingly be empowered to undermine the “Dark Continent” thesis. They can reclaim their agency by creating and distributing their own self-representations. In this sense social media may be seen as a democratising space. Previously underrepresented voices now have a convenient and cheap platform for <a href="http://harvardhrj.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/185-220.pdf">self-expression</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97097/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Muchazondida Mkono receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Social media presents a powerful platform for creating multiple stories about Africa.Mucha Mkono, Research Fellow (Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Fellow), Business School, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.