The Arts, Social Media, and Cultural Activism for a Creative Civil Society
24 – 25 February 2011

HIVOS in partnership with the Norwegian Embassy conducted a workshop with artists, activists and journalists in order to encourage and promote the use of social media tools such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook amongst arts and media practitioners. With traditional media being state controlled there is little room for alternative voices to be heard by ordinary Zimbabweans.

The aims of the workshop were to examine the relationship between the arts, media communication and technology, as a catalyst for national dialogue and active civil society participation; to explore all possible ways in which new media could be used to disseminate information that supports the democratisation process in Zimbabwe, and finally to encourage dialogue between artists, arts organisations, media practitioners and civil society organisations. Among the presenters were Chris Kabwato, media activist Takura Zangazha, and protest poet Farai ‘Cde. Fatso’ Munro.

Chris Kabwato from Rhodes University gave a presentation on social and new media tools and their uses. He noted the problems of access, and that it was drawn along gender and economic lines, with greater access being afforded in urban areas. Mr. Kabwato also said that the new technology brought with cultural and political changes as in the cases of Tunisia and Egypt. “The Internet is also changing our business models, in the publishing industry it is changing our production, publication and distribution models.” He further noted. He described how these tools had become communications game changers and gave the example of Wikipedia, whose users generate the sites content. It had changed the site’s audience from being passive consumers of information to active producers of content. He went on to discuss Craig’s List, a free classified ads site that was changing the business model for newspapers and magazines. He stated that advertising had moved from print to the web, and it was no longer supporting content.

In his remarks media activist Takura Zhangazha pointed out that media arts and culture were about freedom of expression. In their attempts to retain power, governments both before and after independence limited this freedom through several pieces of legislation. Currently this included POSA, AIPPA, BSA, the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act. As such the placement of Freedom of Expression was in a highly politicised, repressed and difficult space. With the environment being so polarized between political parties, media and arts practitioners also found themselves self-censoring to survive. Mr. Zhangazha stated that a key problem in Zimbabwe today was the way in which the economic environment has affected the creativity of artists, and noted the influence of civil society organisations as well as political parties, which led artists to create to an agenda. He went on to describe the competing hegemonic agendas of political parties and how the media and artists were complicit in their formulation and promulgation.

In his presentation, titled the revolution via twitter – the role of new media in arts and activism, protest poet Cde Fatso began by defining the meaning of social and new media. He briefly reflected on the role played by social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter in the revolutions in North Africa. Finally he showed how he had incorporated other less well know tools such as Reverbnation and CrowdFunder into his business model as an artist.

Sub-Saharan Africa Meeting on Freedom of Expression and the Internet
Johannesburg
15-18 February 2011

The Department of Media studies at the University of the Witwatersrand recently hosted a Sub-Saharan Africa Expert Meeting on Freedom of Expression and the Internet in Johannesburg. This was one of a series of consultations and training workshops, which are jointly organised by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Mr. Frank La Rue, and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Other meetings were held in Asia, Latin America and MENA.

The purpose of these meetings is to explore the most pressing issues according to region, within the general topic of Internet freedom. Delegates to the Sub-Saharan meeting were from all over the African continent including Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Namibia and Uganda.

The meeting was broken into eight sessions over three days. During these sessions issues such as the problems of access to the internet, legal instruments to protect Freedom of Expression as well as those used by governments to erode that freedom, the collusion of ISPs with governments and their liability as intermediaries and campaigning and advocacy were discussed.

Case studies from all parts of the African continent were presented. The direst instance in which Freedom of Expression was being violated by a government was Uganda, where according to Geoffrey Ssebagala, from the Human Rights Journalist Network, conditions for journalists and activists were perilous. He said the Ugandan government was very repressive and was targeting all methods of communication including mobile phones, the Internet and postal deliveries. He even cited instances of government agents breaking into the houses of private citizens to take their mobile phones and laptops in an effort to ascertain whom they were communicating with and what they were saying. Arrests of networks of journalists and activists usually followed these break-ins.

Points of interest during the meeting included Guy Berger’s presentation during the session on Censorship; Henry Maina in the session on Legal instruments relating to Freedom of Expression and the Internet and Claire Ulrich’s presentation during the session on campaigning and advocacy.

Guy Berger from Rhodes University presented his notes on hate speech and the Internet using the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa as an example. He questioned whether it was time to revise old restrictions, which had become outdated.

Henry Maina of Article 19 in Kenya began his presentation by indicating that there are three major instruments that are applicable in Africa with regard to Freedom of Expression. These are the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights, the African union Convention on Prevention and Combating Corruption and Related Offences, and finally the African Charter on Democracy Elections and Governance. Mr. Maina also discussed the Declaration on Principles of Freedom of expression in Africa. He noted that while it is a declaration, it is the clearest available document on Internet freedom.

Editor of Global Voices’ in French Claire Ulrich presented a study of the use of the Internet for protest in Tunisia. She said the Tunisian uprising did not happen by chance. It was the result of the merging of cyber activism from exiled activists abroad and from an uprising in Tunisia. Despite great access to the Internet within Tunisia, the government was very repressive and censored the Internet through the use of filters that blocked words and sites on the Internet.

The meeting concluded with several recommendations being made regarding the thematic areas of each session. The information provided during this meeting will be included in Mr. Frank La Rue’s report to the UN Human Rights Council on Internet Freedom, and will also provide some specific advocacy plans for improving the situation of Internet freedom in the various Sub-Saharan regions.

An article from The Week:

It was 1941; they should have been preparing for the invasion of the Soviet Union, but instead Nazi officials in Berlin were preoccupied by news that a businessman in Finland has trained his dog to give a mocking Nazi salute in response to the word”Hitler”. Indeed, officials were so outraged by this perceived act of defiance that, according to records newly unearthed in Berlin, German diplomats in Finland – an ally of Nazi Germany – were told to gather evidence for a prosecution.”This is a funny story, but it is a Nazi story which tells how they were looking for enemies everywhere,” said historian Klaus Hillenbrand.

I recently watched Tyler Perry’s movie, “For Colored Girls“. This movie is based on Ntozake Shange’s stage play, ‘For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf“. The movie opens with an interesting approach . . . a series of voice-overs, with the lines of a poem serving as each woman’s interior monologue, until their voices layer over one another in a crescendo of despair.

A wonderful cast lines up for this movie Janet Jackson (Jo), Whoopi Goldberg (Alice), Thandie Newton (Tangie), Kimberly Elise (Crystal), Phylicia Rashad (Gilda), Anika Noni Rose (Yasmine), Kerry Washington (Kelly), Loretta Devine (Juanita). Macy Gray (Rose), Tessa Thompson (Nyla) and many others.

Each of the women portray one of the characters represented in the collection of twenty poems, revealing different issues that impact women in general, and women of color in particular. The movie contains scenes about child murder, rape, domestic abuse, an illegal abortion, prostitution, and infertility among others. My favourite part of the movie is towards the end when all the actresses gather and Juanita takes them thorough self-realization of their love’s worth. These are words from the end scene:

Juanita: Now, how many times have you heard your man say it don’t feel the same? My love is too beautiful to have it thrown back on my face.
Yasmine: I like that.
Juanita: Try one.
Yasmine: What?
Juanita: Well, I do it all the time in my class. You just say, “My love is too ____,” and you just fill in the blank.
Gilda: My love is too sanctified to have it thrown back on my face.
Kelly: My love is too magic to have it thrown back on my face.
Tangie: My love is too “Saturday Night” to have it thrown back on my face.
Jo: My love is too complicated to have it thrown back on my face.
Yasmine: My love is too music to have it thrown back on my face.
Juanita: Yes, and you remember that when a man tries to walk off with all your stuff!

And now for me: Zimbabwe my love for you is too sanctified to have it thrown back in my face. And I will remember this each time people’s rights and dignity are trampled on.

On Saturday evening I got a text message saying that a member of our Kubatana team had been arrested and was being detained at Harare Central Police Station. His crime? Attending a public meeting convened by the International Socialist Organisation (ISO). ISO felt it useful to bring together members of the public and colleagues in civil society to discuss the events in Egypt.

A paranoid regime responds just like the Mugabe one did on Saturday. It closed the meeting down. Arrested everybody. And held them until Monday morning without allowing them any legal representation.

Stupid bully boys.

The events in Egypt have been broadcast by all major media houses and many Zimbabweans have gotten to hear and see the effects of people power – it brought Mubarak down. And if all the moons and the stars alike align, it will bring Mugabe down too. The more you suppress dissent and the more you rule with an iron fist, the more the people will Hate you. Its not rocket science, its pure fact.

My mother always liked to use the phrase: its like farting against thunder.

That’s exactly what Mugabe and his authoritarian regime are doing in Zimbabwe. They can puff and puff all they like, but eventually they’ll suffocate themselves through suppressing the will of the people.

As we said in our latest Kubatana newsletter:

Sit at the feet of the master long enough, and they’ll start to smell.
~ John Sauget

And many of us are enough of the stench.

If media reports are to be believed social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are being credited with driving the recent overthrow of North African dictators. In light of this, speculation is rife about staging a similar event in Zimbabwe.

I recently received an email from an individual or group who are trying to organise a similar uprising. To my understanding all communication about this meeting has been via the Internet. I hope that while they have taken notes from the afore-mentioned revolutions, they are aware that it is not possible to replicate them here.

Traditional media such as print, radio and television are strictly controlled by the government for a reason. They have a reach and influence over the vast majority of Zimbabweans that is not yet paralleled by any emerging new media. Internet penetration is estimated at a rate of 24% of adults living in urban centres. Popular revolts are not powered by the comfortable urban middle classes, who in Zimbabwe’s case make up the majority of those who have regular access to the Internet, they are powered by the young and idealistic.

While Zimbabwe’s youth are ripe for driving a revolution, the recent demonstrations and violence against foreign business owners in support of Indigenisation suggest that they are a political tool, rather than a tool for change. They have unwavering and what is more dangerous unquestioning support for the political parties they are aligned to.  Zimbabwe has yet to see a youth wing or movement that is more powerful or has greater influence than those established by political parties.

Revolutions have no blueprints, and as Trevor Ncube rightly states in his reflections on recent events “Zimbabwe is neither Tunisia nor Egypt”.