Hashtag Activism, Politics and Resistance in Africa: Examining #ThisFlag and #RhodesMustFall online movements

Abstract

The article examines the impact of digital technologies as emerging platforms for social activism in sub-Saharan Africa. Even though the African continent still lags behind in smartphone ownership and internet connectivity compared to other regions of the world, there is enough evidence to suggest that online-based movements have fundamentally transformed political engagement in Africa. This article uses the cases of hashtag activisms #ThisFlag (Zimbabwe) and #RhodesMustFall (South Africa), to demonstrate that social media has accentuated resistance in Africa. Particular attention is directed to the unique ways in which online-based movements have been used to enact resistance. The article provides critical insights into the centrality of context in the discussion of social media efficacy. State response and the promise of social media activism as foci for resistance is further outlined in the article.

From #iononriapro to #ioapro: analysing hashtag activism in the Italian restaurant Twittersphere during the 2020 lockdown

“…In #MeToo study, digital activism and the hashtag's use are read for their cultural importance, emphasising the symbolic role played by the hashtag in the emerging myth around the movement through its narrative use, shaped by its users (Dobrin, 2020). Recently Sebeelo (2021), investigating the hashtags #ThisFlag (Zimbabwe) and #RhodesMustFall (South Africa), highlighted that social media has accentuated resistance in Africa, the first hashtag respect to the oppressive policies of the current government, whereas #RhodesMustFall is resistance to racist or oppressive legacies of colonialism. Although the African continent still lags behind in smartphone ownership and Internet connectivity compared to other regions of the world, there is enough evidence to suggest that online-based movements have produced a transformation in political engagement in Africa.…”

Research using hashtags: A meta-synthesis

“…The second sub-branch appears as a direct consequence of the first, because Twitter hashtags are bottom-up user-proposed tagging conventions that embody user participation in the process of hashtag innovation as it pertains to information organization tasks (Chang, 2010) and, subsequently, the spreading of activism and participation in political and social themes (e.g., Sebeelo, 2021), the creation of counternarratives and counterpublics different from those spread by the mainstream (Jackson and Foucault Welles, 2015). These have also been related to the viral phenomenon of racialised hashtags (e.g., Sharma, 2012;Jackson, 2016), or feminist movements such as #MeToo (Dobrin, 2020) or LGBTQ+ movement (e.g., Duguay, 2016).…”

“…Recently Sebeelo (2021) working with the hashtags #ThisFlag (Zimbabwe) and #RhodesMustFall (South Africa) highlighted that social media has accentuated resistance in Africa and, although African continent still lags behind in smartphone ownership and internet connectivity compared to other regions of the world, there is enough evidence to suggest that online-based movements have produced a transformation in political engagement in Africa. Agency narrative can also be found in Dobrin's study (2020) on #MeToo, which emerged in response to the many sexual harassment accusations involving high-profile Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and the numerous celebrities and others who spoke up about the abuse they experienced at the hands of the film mogul, leading him to be brought to justice.…”

#Covid-19: A hashtag for examining reactions towards Europe in times of crisis. An analysis of tweets in Italian, Spanish, and French

“…Twitter hashtags (bottom-up user-proposed tagging conventions) have played a key role in this process, with the hashtag innovation proposed by Twitter serving as the embodiment of user participation owing to it being related to information organization tasks (Chang, 2010). Further, the use of hashtags and Twitter have contributed to spreading activism and participation regarding political and social themes (e.g., Sharma, 2012;Bonilla & Rosa, 2015;Rambukkana, 2015a;Dobrin, 2020;Sebeelo, 2021). Indeed, the use of hashtags has become increasingly relevant in Twitter; they have passed from being thematic aggregators to becoming polysemic collectors (La Rocca, 2020) that capture people's emotions.…”