By Tendai Maregere
Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South) – This article seeks to magnify the debate on the use of social media to build counter-narratives in societies gored by fundamental political decadence propounded by Tamuka Chirimambowa and Tinashe Chimedza in their article ‘#ThisFlag and #Tajamuka: Nine Theses on Democratic Counter- Narratives in Zimbabwe’.
There are three critical challenges that the #hashtag movements need to address in order to build sustainable social and political change. Firstly, is to interrogate how these movements as ‘emerging platforms’ could make use of evidence-based data to augment the counter-narrative.
Secondly, how can these movements practically go into evidence-based advocacy and build movements, relationships and intercourse with the traditional mainstream civil society.
Thirdly, how do these movements build relationships with institutionalized civil society to forge either a new type of activism or revive old movements in order to keep the state accountable while addressing the everyday issues affecting the ordinary citizen whose voices have been marginalized.
These challenges are far beyond the length of this article, however it is essential to ignite conversations that go beyond this article in order to fully comprehend the full import of these movements. #Hashtag movements have become the ‘new normal’ in communication aimed at sharing, discussing and indeed interrogating critical issues within people’s governance terrain.
Over the past few years Zimbabwe’s political sphere has witnessed a marked upsurge in social media #hashtags that range from the comical to discussing political, social and economic questions.
There has been an intense debate on the value of these movements with others arguing that ‘they are elitist’, that ‘the revolution will not be tweeted’ and that they are ‘cyber-revolutionaries obsessed’ with pounding the keyboard.
This sustained criticism has emanated from proponents of conventional methods of activism and citizen engagement, policymakers, alternative thinkers and even the orthodox media.
Inevitably, hashtag activism will have its critics and that is, perfectly understandable. ‘Slacktivism’, keyboard warriors, ‘useless exercises in self-esteem’ and more closer home Professor Jonathan Moyo’s infamous “pastor’s fart in the corridors of power”. Indeed, all sorts of denigratory lexes are attached to this ‘new’ phenomena totally at cross purposes with what the new generation understand as explainable ‘clicktivism’.
The conventional activists who are beneficiaries and victims of geography in equal measure are often overly concerned that the ease of hashtag activism might lead to overuse and public fatigue.
One can almost resonate with that orientation because conventional activists, over the years, have adopted strategies and accumulated a wide variety of knowledge and tactics and these may be impossible to “un-know”.
Notwithstanding that these apprehensions may hold true to a certain extent, global trends on the use and benefits of social media both in business and in the academia and on the political arena prove otherwise.
What was called the ‘Arab spring’ showed important things; that young people were not indifferent to political, social and economic problems and that when social media was used as a ‘tool’ it became easier to get them engaged.
Zimbabwe’s Social Media Boom: Listening to the Data
The growth and development of social media in the last two decades has become conventional to a point where it is now regarded as ubiquitous. Statistics demonstrate that in 2016, Facebook had 1.59 billion monthly users whereas Twitter had more than 500 million tweets sent each day.
That alone in terms of information sharing and decision making is phenomenal! With this proliferation of easily and quickly accessible social media data, it would be essential for the Hashtag movements (#Tajamuka, #ThisFlag and so on) to consider how such data can be harnessed to support robust evidence-based counter-narratives.
There are rough estimates that Zimbabwe has about 1 million citizens on Facebook and this is populated by a younger demographic and this cannot be ignored by those desiring social and political change.
This involves a range of considerations, including but not limited to, soliciting or acquiring that data, creating or strengthening organic linkages with research institutions and think tanks dotted around the country and designing strategies for advocacy and end-user consumption.
On its Facebook page, #Tajamuka advances that it is a platform for 14 different political parties, youth assemblies and 44 Civic Society Organizations whose mission is to correct political, social and economic collapse in Zimbabwe. Certainly, this is a broad constituency and if one adds ordinary citizens to the mix, then the use and benefits of evidence-based advocacy is quite apparent.
Although a greater percentage of the messaging advanced by these movements may have been a casualty of ‘emotionalism’ and thus prone to ridicule and oftentimes ‘wished away’ by politicians, it is incontrovertible therefore that an alternative narrative based on evidence, reaching out to a diverse audience and thus invariably expanding the geographies of engagement, may be something worth considering.
Take for example #BlackLivesMatter, in its social change motivation it became more than a hashtag; it metamorphosed into one of the biggest movements in recent history. To that end, I think that
#ThisFlag & #Tajamuka and other platforms can take a leaf from this and back up their messages with empirical data so that they are different from the rubric of opinions that are rarely backed by evidence.
There is data publicly available on inadequate health budgets, economic decline, social services collapse, shrinking investment levels in Zimbabwe, various legal instruments and safety guards to counter the marauding police excesses on the roads and these movements have to harness this data creatively to drive their points. That approach, in my respectful view will present new set of challenges for the regime to just ‘wish away’.
Future Strategies: Engaging Citizens with Empirical Data
For the avoidance of doubt, I make no grandiose claims that social media platforms provide the alpha and omega of the ‘new normal’ in enhancing the counter-narrative that Zimbabweans yearn for.
I am not arguing that these platforms currently lack the strategies to link up and collaborate with research focused institutions and other bodies so that they also churn out evidence-based information for them to influence their constituency and drive social and political change.
On the contrary, I believe that opportunities are available to be taped into, to cross-pollinate their ideas and approaches with like- minded platforms and institutions in order to demonstrate the weightiness of their agenda. To continue to rely on ‘spontaneity’ for their actions only serves to affirm the criticism annotated above.
I posit that one of the pillars of certainty is to locate their actions in evidence-based information. In the ‘post-truth’ world spontaneity couched with populist rhetoric is a saleable commodity but suffers the ignominy of sustainability.
Despite their array of tactics, the Hashtag movements must consider broadening their scope into evidence- based advocacy platforms in order to enhance the national conversation based on an array of issues. Evidence-based data will inevitably enable the movements to circulate powerful narratives without relying on mainstream news outlets.
Ultimately the idea is to create a conversation to meaningfully engage with their audience because the more they engage with like-minded individuals and organizations, the more likely they will be able to build a counter- narrative that can extend offline.
As research, has taught us, there is a difference between an open mind and an empty head and therefore approaching the conversation with an open mind notwithstanding prior dispositions may be helpful. I rest my case.
*Tendai Peter Maregere is a Doctoral Researcher on Transitional Justice at Coventry University, United Kingdom and has worked extensively within civil society in Zimbabwe.
(Article originally appeared on Gravitas)
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