[Commlist] Call for proposals: Media, social movements and protest cultures in Africa

*Book project *

*Call for proposals (NB: No payment from authors/APC will be required)*

**

*Media, social movements and protest cultures in Africa*

Social movements are not a new phenomenon in African societies. These 
social movements, as is the global trend, have used and continue to use 
different strategies and media such as blogs, social media, underground 
newspapers and radio, posters, t-shirts, street theatre, art, mural, 
music and street posters and pamphlets to send their messages across 
(see Lee and Chan 2011; Willems 2011). It is social and other popular 
political movements that are credited with bringing about different 
types of revolutions and change especially during colonial times leading 
to independence (Taylor 1997). The liberation and accompanying social 
movements in Africa are peculiar and different from all others across 
the globe: they were born as protests and resistance to colonial 
oppression. They may share the same characteristics with others in that 
they started off being led organically from the bottom by ordinary 
people in a quest to change the trajectory of their lives. These 
movements faced different challenges in spreading their messages as the 
colonial governments used the press for control, suppression and 
assimilation in the case of the French. The British, according to 
Nyamnjoh (2005) were a bit liberal in allowing black cultural (and yet 
not critical) content in some of the publications. They used different 
media such as missionary newspapers sympathetic to the black people’s 
cause as was the case in West Africa (Nyamnjoh 2005), underground radio 
and newspapers in Rhodesia and South Africa (Kirk 1975; Smith 2013). 
Nnamdi Azikiwe’s newspaper in Nigeria is credited with bringing up a 
culture of black protest in in the mid-20^th century. His newspaper gave 
space for disruptive articulations of independence to the black educated 
elite most of whom returning home from the west where they had acquired 
an education.

Africa has for a long time been characterised by political upheavals 
owing to bad governance and authoritarian rule which has threatened the 
democracy that, in most cases, came through sacrifice and protest. Thus, 
a clarion call to democratize the continent has dominated the region for 
many years as societies feel that their liberators have become tyrants 
and derailed the train of liberation, democracy, decolonization and 
economically deprived the masses of a decent life. Thus, this betrayal 
has seen the people resisting liberation movements who, in most cases 
have held on to power through hook and crook. The resistance has come 
through voting against these liberation movements who, through the power 
of incumbency and accruing advantages, have managed to rig elections or 
intimidate voters into voting for them. In some instances, there has 
been a rise of opposition political parties composed of mainly young 
people and progressive forces eager to change the direction of the 
country. In other countries coups have been instigated as an alternative 
to getting rid of these liberation movements from power. Recent 
developments, inspired by the growth of the internets as a cheaper and 
unbounded transnational medium of communication, there has been a rise 
of social movements organized around different interests. Globally we 
have seen the hashtag movements, most of which are leaderless or led 
from below such as Occupy movements, #BlackLivesMatter movement 
agitating for the equal treatment of blacks especially in the USA. 
Women’s organizations and other progressive forces have also coalesced 
around unique interests like the #MeToo movement. In Africa there has 
been the Arab Springs associated movements which led to the overthrow of 
political leaders in Tunisia and Egypt; and #EndSars and 
#BringBackOurGirls in Nigeria which agitated against police abuse and 
terror group, Boko Haram’s abduction of school girls. Elsewhere there 
have been such social movements and protests called #ThisFlag (Mpofu and 
Mare 2020) #MugabeMustGo and #ZimbabweanLivesMatter which put to the 
fore the political abuses of citizens in the liberation movement led 
country. Elsewhere #FeesMustFall, #RhodesMustFall changed the face of 
South African student politics in relation to the state when students 
protested for free and decolonized education (Mpofu 2017).  Abahlali 
basemjondolo, a South African social movement concerned with decent 
housing for poor Khayelitsha residents has also changed the face of 
government and citizen relations.

In this milieu, different forms of media, as the voice of the voiceless 
and oppressors have been playing a part in engaging with the ruling 
elites and or defending them. For some, there have been using different 
forms of media to protest and demand a return of normality in 
societies.  The media holds an important place in social movements and 
protests because it empowers the marginalised to air their views and 
raise awareness for others to have access into their world. However, the 
status- quo can also use the media to thwart voices of dissent or 
distort their voices. Despite the latter perspective, different forms of 
media ranging from mainstream press to social media, graffiti, clothes, 
music, soccer and among others have been used by African citizens to 
protest, and call for change.

In this proposed edited collection, we therefore call for chapters with 
interest in case studies of different forms of media and protest 
cultures used by social movements in Africa. The volume attempts to 
highlight and building new theoretical insights in understanding the 
intersection between media, social movements and protest cultures in 
Africa. The volume is mindful of the view that social movements and 
protest cultures are not new in Africa, but the growth in digital 
cultures have also led to new protest cultures which authors can also 
engage in. Contributions solicited are expected to cover but are not 
limited to the suggested areas below:

vMedia and social movements and politics of protest in Africa

vHistory of social movements in Africa

vSocial movements communication strategies

vSocial movements, solidarities and protest cultures

vSocial movements, and visual cultures in protest

vMainstream media, social movements and protests

vThe state, social movements and protest cultures

vSuppression and the birth of social movements

vSuppression and protest cultures

vState actors’ propaganda and counter narratives against social movements

vSocial movements, protests and dissidence

vDiasporic media and protest in Africa

vTheoretical understanding of protest cultures in Africa

vHumour and Satire

vProtest movements groups and the media

vMusic, sports and protest cultures

vArt and graffiti in protest

vState surveillance and social movements

Submission details:

Please email chapter proposals of up to 500 words in length, as well as 
a brief author biographical information, to the editors at 
(tshumalungile /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(tshumalungile /at/ gmail.com)>and 
(shepherd.mpofu /at/ ul.ac.za) <mailto:(shepherd.mpofu /at/ ul.ac.za)>.These should be 
sent through by the 30th of April 2021. Decisions on proposals will be 
made and communicated to authors around May 20, 2021.

Book Editors:

Lungile Tshuma

Shepherd Mpofu

Trust Mastilele

Mbongeni Msimanga

References

Kirk, T. 1975. Politics of violence in Rhodesia. /African Affairs 74 
(294):/ 3-38.

Lee, F.L.F and Chan, J.M. 2011. /Media, social mobilization and mass 
protests in post-colonial Hong Kong. /London: Routledge.

Mpofu, S.**and**Mare, A. 2020. #ThisFlag: Social media and 
cyber-protests in Zimbabwe. (pp. 153-172). In Martin Ndlela, /Social 
Media and Elections in Africa Vol 2/. Palgrave Macmillan.

Mpofu, S. 2017. Disruption as a communicative strategy: The case of 
#feesMustfall and #rhodesMustfall students’ protests in South Africa. 
Journal of African Media Studies 9(2): 351-373.

Nyamnjoh, F. B. 2005. /Africa’s media: Democracy and the politics of 
belonging./ New York: Zed Books.

Smith, C.A. 2013. Radio Freedom: A History of South African Underground 
Radio. 
https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/radio-freedom-history-south-african-underground-radio-chris-smith 
<https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/radio-freedom-history-south-african-underground-radio-chris-smith>. 


Taylor, V. The trajectory of National liberation and social movements: 
The South African experience. /Community Development Journal 32(3):/ 
252-265.

Willems, W. Social movement media, post-apartheid (South Africa). In J. 
Downing (Ed) /Encyclopedia of social movement media. /London: Sage. P. 
492-495.


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