Full Description
The smartphone and social media have transformed Africa, allowing people across the continent to share ideas, organise, and participate in politics like never before. While both activists and governments alike have turned to social media as a new form of political mobilization, some African states have increasingly sought to clamp down on the technology, introducing restrictive laws or shutting down networks altogether.
Drawing on over a dozen new empirical case studies - from Kenya to Somalia, South Africa to Tanzania - this collection explores how rapidly growing social media use is reshaping political engagement in Africa. But while social media has often been hailed as a liberating tool, the book demonstrates how it has often served to reinforce existing power dynamics, rather than challenge them.
Featuring experts from a range of disciplines from across the continent, this collection is the first comprehensive overview of social media and politics in Africa. By examining the historical, political, and social context in which these media platforms are used, the book reveals the profound effects of cyber-activism, cyber-crime, state policing and surveillance on political participation.
Contents
1. Mapping the Study of Politics and Social Media Use in Africa - Maggie Dwyer & Thomas Molony
2. 'Igu sawir gone too far'? Social media and state reconstruction in Somalia - Peter Chonka
3. 'We are not just voters, we are citizens': Social Media, the #ThisFlag Campaign, and Insurgent Citizenship in Zimbabwe - George Karekwaivanane & Admire Mare
4. Social Media and Protest Movements in South Africa: #FeesMustFall and #ZumaMustFall - Tanja Bosch
5. Enemy Collaborators: Social imaginaries, global frictions, and a gay rights music video in Kenya - Brian Ekdale
6. Between Excitement and Scepticism: The Role of WhatsApp in Sierra Leone's 2018 Elections - Maggie Dwyer, Jamie Hitchen, & Thomas Molony
7. Chaos and Comedy: Social Media, Activism, and Democracy in Senegal - Emily Riley
8. Social Media and Elections in Nigeria: Digital Influence on Election Observation, Campaigns, and Administration - Nkwachukwu Orji
9. From FM radio stations to Internet 2.0 overnight: information, participation and social media in post-failed coup Burundi - Jean-Benoît Falisse & Hugues Nkengurutse
10. Cybercrime and the policing of politics in Tanzania - Charlotte Cross
11. A familiar refrain: Political discourse and Facebook use in Mombasa, Kenya - Stephanie Diepeveen
12. Inside the #OperationUsalamaWatch echo chamber: Twitter as site of disruption or elite conversation? - Alisha Patel
13. From Whispers to the Assemblage: Surveillance in Post-Independence East Africa - Denis Galava
Postscript: Research Trajectories in African Digital Spheres - Bruce Mutsvairo & Kate Wright
