#YouthMovements in the African Continent: The Social Media Wave
The African youth have continuously raised their voices through their smartphones in an effort to stand against social injustices. This is no surprise as social media has become a coordinating tool for political movements in the past such as #RhodesMustFall in South Africa. It has indeed promoted protest participation. Of interest is the youth’s participation in politics within these digital spaces. The youth lately have been exercising boldness and resilience by demanding accountability from their current administrations. They have achieved and continue to achieve outcomes beyond the older generation’s expectations. For instance, Kenya has been making headlines and mired in unrest in the past month due to nationwide protests following proposed tax hikes. While wrapped up in physical protests within the streets of Nairobi, the youth voices became amplified within the social media spaces such as X and Tik Tok and drew attention as well as prompted interests of activism amongst the youth.
Young people continue to be involved in politics. While such political conversations are a common occurrence, they are taking place within larger spaces. Virtual spaces have become the kinds of spaces where policy and traditional power structures are challenged and grappled with. Such trends have not only occurred in Kenya but generally spread throughout the continent. As the youngest continent, Africa has had many youth-led movements. What is common is the social media posting, organising, sharing, chanting and marching of the youth. How does social media affect political outcomes? How is the youth changing political discourse? What innovative measures are the youth employing in modern day politics?
Digital technologies continue to transform human interactions in various ways. The African continent is no exception and has particularly experienced transformation within its political landscape. The development of the internet has encouraged interconnections across the globe and enabled new ways of citizen engagement. While social media continues to play a huge role in amplifying social, economic and political issues and grievances across the globe, what is significant is its independent role in both democratic and totalitarian governments. With the possibilities of freedoms of speech, social media helps in coordinating protests and gives a voice to unpopular views.
My phone, my voice: #Hashtag Politics
Social media has given its users power to produce, post and consume information in vast amounts and speeds. Ordinarily it has instigated new ways of engagement through which African citizens have employed in their quests in engaging and challenging political views. These new ways include parodies, memes and more importantly hashtags. A hashtag’s main function is to increase content reach and participation. As a metadata tag it assists in the cross-referencing of information by topic or theme. Why is this important? In the internet age, there is excess information. Therefore, by assigning hashtags it helps sort information as well as assist in the echoing of information and consequently building of trends. Although there have been several youth-led hashtag movements across the continent for example, Nigeria, Uganda, Mozambique and recently Senegal and Kenya, I will briefly discuss three cases of hashtag movements – #ZimbabweShutDown of Zimbabwe, #AmINext/#StopGBV of South Africa, and #RejectFinancialBill2024 of Kenya. Of the three movements, the youth were vocal.
In the Kenyan case, in an effort to reduce public debt and replenish the government financial reserves, the government had proposed an increase in taxes on basic necessities. The public particularly the Gen-Z and Millennial Kenyans took their grievances to social media and through the X and Tik Tok platforms shared their views on the lavish spending of members of parliament. Media content was posted and shared therefore serving as documentation efforts. Later the youth organised peaceful rallies which later turned into violent upheavals following occupation of parliamentary grounds. Police subsequently responded with live ammunition which was frowned upon by many. This altercation claimed the lives of some and injured many. President Ruto then responded by scrapping off the bill and freezing pay increments for public servants particularly the ministers and members of parliament. Additionally, he also dismissed majority of his cabinet. Despite social media serving the purpose of a decentralized space with no power structures or clear leadership, there were some dominant voices particularly those with large followership, falling within social media influencer roles. Through their platforms they were able to coerce many to support the mandate. By sharing media content and live streaming under the running hashtags, the youth were able to document the protest activities in real time. In doing so they were able to share their own stories with the global community and put pressure on their government. In another instance, the #AmINext movement also shows the power of telling stories.
For years Gender-based violence (GBV) has been a persistent crisis to date in South Africa. In 2019 there were several deaths as a result to GBV. Young women across the country gathered and shared their grievances with the current administration. Many shared their stories using the hashtag #AmINext and brought awareness to the crisis. The movement soon prompted young women to march to parliament to call for an end to the femicide and GBV. This was quickly attended to by President Ramaphosa who, allocated a budget as well as set up a committee to handle the crisis. In this case although, GBV cannot be completely eradicated we see the power of hashtag movements in mobilizing and giving grievances a face and voice. In the Zimbabwean instance however, the government had allegedly tried to block WhatsApp in 2016 amidst #ZimbabweShutDown protests which were against the failing economy of then President Mugabe. Protests still went on and the main cities were shut down. Despite WhatsApp being reportedly blocked, Zimbabweans went on to use VPN services like TunnelBear and continued to distribute media content thereby inviting global onlookers and spreading awareness.
While these events amongst many have occurred in different times, they are similar in that they show the power of the people in their quests for standing against social injustices. Through these and other hashtag movements we can learn some insights.
Threats or Opportunities
According to Afrobarometer survey data of 2021-2023, 66% of Kenyan, 59,4% of South African and 68,4% of Zimbabwean surveyed citizens had indicated they would never participate in a demonstration or protest march. The high proportions maybe because of police presence and subsequent excessive force exercised by police during protests. The survey also reported Zimbabwe and Kenya having a higher occurrence of excessive police force as opposed to South Africa. Despite these statistics the youth continue to call for change on social media. We therefore see the true power and affordances of social media. As a decentralised space it offers an equal platform with which youth can engage and be heard without the fear of police involvement.
While the impact of social media on political beliefs remains prior concern, some researchers have described social media as a liberation technology capable of creating reimagined realities and hopes for the future. Although social media can be seen as a liberation technology, we still cannot ignore the digital divide and social media regulations. Internet access is still a challenge particularly within the rural or infrastructurally underdeveloped spaces. This essentially undermines the participation of individuals residing within these spaces thereby limiting social media activism to urban spaces and to individuals who can afford. Additionally, some nations see social media as threats to the governing systems due to its liberties. Consequently, some countries such as Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia have placed some regulatory controls on social media and used peace and security as justifiable excuses. This is often seen during electoral periods where observing citizens are likely to share their experiences and grievances thereby influencing political attitudes.
In conclusion, there have been various conversations around youth participation in politics. We have seen the opportunities and threats afforded by social media. Social media serves as a liberation technology thereby allowing the youth to engage, mobilize and challenge political systems and policies via conversation. As a decentralized platform it levels out the plain field and allows youth access to their current administration leaders and/or any other traditional power structures. This provides them an opportunity to be heard by their select leaders. Despite this however, it should be noted, that social media additionally contributes to populist ideas, the spread of hate speech as well as disinformation. In allowing everyone to be a producer and distributor of information it may create singular views or echo chambers thereby silencing alternative viewpoints. It is therefore essential to cross reference information particularly in this post-truth era where we are all contributors of knowledge. Moreover, it is important to understand that youth grievances culminate from lived experiences and should not be taken likely but rather addressed by concerned power structures. The youth are the future of any nation and should thus be heard.
Thelma Nyarhi is a researcher at the Democracy Development Program (DDP) and writes in her own capacity.
