Participation, citizen journalism and the contestations of identity and national symbols: A case of Zimbabwe’s national heroes and the Heroes’ Acre

Abstract: This article constitutes an examination on how citizen journalism has challenged Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian regime on issues pertaining to national heroes and usages of the Heroes Acre as central national identity markers. Under Mugabe’s ZANU‐PF, Zimbabwe has seen the public being limited from directly participating in salient national debates. ZANU‐PF’s control of the official public sphere has also constrained alternative views from ventilating the government‐controlled communicative spaces. The party’s narrative on heroes, the Heroes Acre and national identity has gained a taken‐for‐granted status in the public media. This has obtained against the backdrop of what has become known as the Zimbabwe crises, characterised by a declining economy, a constricted political space, a breakdown in the rule of law, and the subsequent flight of a number of Zimbabweans into the diaspora. The accompanying wave of technological advancements and the mushrooming of mostly diaspora‐based online media have opened up new vistas of communication, enabling a hitherto ‘silenced’ community of ordinary people to participate in national conversations. The conclusion reached here, is that citizen journalism has not only enhanced the culture of conversation among people (as espoused under democratic conditions) but has also covered up the democratic deficit experienced in the public sphere, mediated by traditional media, parliament and pavement radio

Zimbabwe’s state-controlled public media and the mediation of the 1980s genocide 30 years on

Abstract: Since the end of genocide in 1987 Zimbabwe has remained a zone of ‘conflicts’, and the enduring debates surrounding this genocide, especially in public-owned but state-controlled media, call for critical attention. Three years after independence, in 1980, Zimbabwe was plunged into a genocide named ‘Gukurahundi’ (meaning the rain that washes the chaff away after harvest) that lasted until 1987. This article argues that there has been a clash of ‘interests’ playing out in the mediation of this yet-to-be-officially addressed genocide. Through evidence from public-owned media, the media that carry the official voice of the ruling party, I argue that public media have seen genocide from conflicting and complex angles, making it difficult to reach a consensus suitable for national building based on genocide truths, meanings and effects to Zimbabweans. I specifically use the Unity Accordassociated holiday, the Unity Day, and its associated debates to pursue two arguments. First, public media have played an ambiguous role in appreciating the conflictual and multipronged nature of the genocide within ZANU-PF. Second, public media have largely been supportive of, and even complicit in, official silences on genocide debates and memory. The article uses public sphere and narrative analysis as frameworks for understanding the operations of public media journalism in the mediation of genocide nearly 30 years after its occurrence

Blogging, feminism and the politics of participation : the case of Her Zimbabwe

Abstract: The proliferation of the internet has shown promises and ‘potentials’ of empowering women in ways that are unimaginable in most patriarchal societies. Politics, activism and engagements through technology seem to have been gendered spaces as evidenced by research in the developing world (Harris, 2008; Keller, 2012; Morahan-Martin, 2000). This chapter attempts to demystify this rather ‘silent’ myth, especially in the African context that the internet as well as technological activism and political domains are solely meant for men. To do this, I will discuss activism in support of women’s issues in Zimbabwe through a single case study approach. Specific attention is paid to the website Her Zimbabwe, a novel website which attempts to empower women as citizens, giving them a platform to speak on issues otherwise ignored in mainstream media or frowned upon by society. The site uses material from citizen journalists i.e bloggers and readers who comment under blog stories which compose an alternative public sphere to the mainstream one and to a certain extent officialised public sphere dominated by mainstream media. Her Zimbabwe, as the name suggests, focuses entirely on women’s issues giving women, as citizens, a platform to speak and articulate their issues which seem to be ignored by society, industry, policy makers and the media. The site has a lot of content on women’s issues especially from ‘feminist’ bloggers. Methodologically this study will use purposive sampling to select material that speaks to issues of women activism since 2012 and these will be subjected to critical discourse analysis, an analytic approach that critiques power, its distribution and imbalances. Theoretically the chapter is anchored on the issue of the voice in counter-digital public spheres

Mandelaism in newspaper advertising that ‘pays tribute’ to Mandela after his death

Abstract: Celebrated, Former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela’s death in 2013 saw an outpouring of local and global grief and emotion. This reflected how Mandela became iconized as a popular cultural and political symbol for human rights, political messiah-hood, sainthood, dignity, peace and forgiveness. Even Mandela attempted to deflect and qualify this iconisation. Taking critical views into account, we propose ‘Mandelaism’ as a term to describe the cultural practices and sign systems that surround and mythologize Mandela, intermeshing with, feeding into and parasitically drawing on patriotic sentiments. Mandelaism magically invokes powers and forms of what Mbembe (2001: 25) calls the commandement – to conflate and inflate often weak notions and practices of the right. Popularly, these powers are invoked for nation building. However Mandelaism is also tightly associated with self-serving machinations that deform and weaken this right which legitimates it. This study explores advertisements from selected national English-language newspapers published in the two weeks that followed his death, subjecting them to a semiotic analysis. It thereby aims to recognize aspects of Mandelaism and of the parasite behaviors which we claim are appended to it. The unprecedented scale of the news-event that was Mandela death and funeral assures that the study is set in one of the greatest known nationalistic imaginariums

Citizen journalism and moral panics : a consideration of ethics in the 2015 South African xenophobic attacks

Abstract: This article hinges on empirical qualitative data gathered from an illustrative sample to determine perceptions on enforcing ethics on social media from people who acted as citizen journalists during South Africa’s 2015 xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals. The April 2015 attacks were mediated through user-driven social media platforms such as WhatsApp, where truthful and untruthful information on xenophobia was disseminated to warn targeted recipients of impending attacks to allow them to take precautionary measures. While these messages proliferated valid and verified information there were cases where false information was spread, causing undue panic in some sectors of the immigrant society especially. This study therefore uses moral panics and citizen journalism concepts to explore the understanding of ethical implications in mediating the attacks from the perspective of citizen journalism. In the end, the argument is made that professional journalism ethics, according to the respondents in this study, need not apply to social media. Instead, the study concludes, there is a possibility of peer-to-peer monitoring and reprisals that may work as control measures in social media and citizen journalism, especially in times of crisis

Auteurism in documentary filmmaking: the making of The Gagus: the Nigerian kitchen

Abstract This thesis is a reflexive analysis of the documentary film, The Gagus: The Nigerian Kitchen with specific reference to auteurism in documentary filmmaking. The study centres on the auteur theory and other documentary film theories. This project is related to my personal experiences in making the documentary film. The theory is married to the process in order to reveal the filmmaker’s subjectivity in terms of putting the filmmaker’s signature on the film. The thesis also addresses issues related to ethical challenges that are encountered in the making of the documentary film. The shaping of the film and thesis is drawn from a vast source of material from authoritative figures, for example, inter alia, Bill Nichols, Stella Bruzzi, Alexandre Astruc, Jay Ruby, Carl Plantinga and Sarris Korchberg. The research concludes by way of looking and critiquing my approach in the making of the documentary film, finding out if I managed to mark the film with my subjective voice beyond my intentions. Lastly, the thesis looks at the extent to which I unconsciously shape the film and mediate the issues raised therein

Disruption as a communicative strategy : the case of #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall students’ protests in South Africa

Abstract: In 1994 South Africa became a miracle in the world of postcolonies as a newly independent ‘rainbow’ nation-state. Apartheid was replaced by an informal but still identical system which I refer to as apartheid. Good governance, democracy, peace, civility and quiet are framed by the media and regarded by investors and political elite among others to be the preferred set-up of things. Using the rage in the #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall student protests as data, I argue that disrupting the world as we know it in order to address the poor’s grievances is part and parcel of strategic and effective communication especially for the marginalised poor majority black people whose dreams remain deferred. This argument will be framed by questions around the current burdens of apartheid, the achievements of disruptive protests and the meaning, roles and behaviours of officialdom towards members and ideologies of Fallist movements

Transnational hashtag protest movements and emancipatory politics in Africa: A three country study

This study explores three of sub Saharan Africa’s hashtag movements: Zimbabwe’s #ZimbabweanLivesMatter, Es watini’s # Es watiniLivesMatter and Nigeria’s #EndS ARS hashtags. Theore tically, we rely on the transnational alternative digital public sphere and hashtag activism to understand how social media acted as a meeting place for mobilization and building cross bounda- ry pollination and unitary movements. This investigation relied o n a combination of virtual ethnog- raphy and purposive sampling as methodological approaches. Thematic analysis was the analytical tool employed with four themes informing this investigation: democratisation and human rights, transnational solidarity, states ’ response to hashtag movements and use of parody accounts as a counter hegemonic strategy. The study found that these hashtags and movements achieved a modi- cum of ‘success’ by forcing some of Africa’s enduring dictatorships to make piecemeal concessions of varying degrees

Independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene, and improved complementary feeding, on child stunting and anaemia in rural Zimbabwe: a cluster-randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: Child stunting reduces survival and impairs neurodevelopment. We tested the independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and improved infant and young child feeding (IYCF) on stunting and anaemia in in Zimbabwe. METHODS: We did a cluster-randomised, community-based, 2 × 2 factorial trial in two rural districts in Zimbabwe. Clusters were defined as the catchment area of between one and four village health workers employed by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care. Women were eligible for inclusion if they permanently lived in clusters and were confirmed pregnant. Clusters were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to standard of care (52 clusters), IYCF (20 g of a small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement per day from age 6 to 18 months plus complementary feeding counselling; 53 clusters), WASH (construction of a ventilated improved pit latrine, provision of two handwashing stations, liquid soap, chlorine, and play space plus hygiene counselling; 53 clusters), or IYCF plus WASH (53 clusters). A constrained randomisation technique was used to achieve balance across the groups for 14 variables related to geography, demography, water access, and community-level sanitation coverage. Masking of participants and fieldworkers was not possible. The primary outcomes were infant length-for-age Z score and haemoglobin concentrations at 18 months of age among children born to mothers who were HIV negative during pregnancy. These outcomes were analysed in the intention-to-treat population. We estimated the effects of the interventions by comparing the two IYCF groups with the two non-IYCF groups and the two WASH groups with the two non-WASH groups, except for outcomes that had an important statistical interaction between the interventions. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01824940. FINDINGS: Between Nov 22, 2012, and March 27, 2015, 5280 pregnant women were enrolled from 211 clusters. 3686 children born to HIV-negative mothers were assessed at age 18 months (884 in the standard of care group from 52 clusters, 893 in the IYCF group from 53 clusters, 918 in the WASH group from 53 clusters, and 991 in the IYCF plus WASH group from 51 clusters). In the IYCF intervention groups, the mean length-for-age Z score was 0·16 (95% CI 0·08-0·23) higher and the mean haemoglobin concentration was 2·03 g/L (1·28-2·79) higher than those in the non-IYCF intervention groups. The IYCF intervention reduced the number of stunted children from 620 (35%) of 1792 to 514 (27%) of 1879, and the number of children with anaemia from 245 (13·9%) of 1759 to 193 (10·5%) of 1845. The WASH intervention had no effect on either primary outcome. Neither intervention reduced the prevalence of diarrhoea at 12 or 18 months. No trial-related serious adverse events, and only three trial-related adverse events, were reported. INTERPRETATION: Household-level elementary WASH interventions implemented in rural areas in low-income countries are unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia and might not reduce diarrhoea. Implementation of these WASH interventions in combination with IYCF interventions is unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia more than implementation of IYCF alone. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Department for International Development, Wellcome Trust, Swiss Development Cooperation, UNICEF, and US National Institutes of Health.The SHINE trial is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1021542 and OPP113707); UK Department for International Development; Wellcome Trust, UK (093768/Z/10/Z, 108065/Z/15/Z and 203905/Z/16/Z); Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; US National Institutes of Health (2R01HD060338-06); and UNICEF (PCA-2017-0002)