[Commlist] new book: Communication Rights in Africa: Emerging Discourses and Perspectives

Tendai Chari (University of Venda, South Africa) and Ufuoma Akpojivi 
(Policy, Research and Learning Lead at Advocates for International 
Development (A4ID, United Kingdom) are pleased to announce the 
publication of their co-edited book: Communication Rights in Africa: 
Emerging Discourses and Perspectives (Routledge).

A description of the book is found below:

Description

This ground-breaking volume examines enduring and emerging discourses 
around communication rights in Africa, arguing that they should be 
considered an integral component of the human rights discourse in Africa.

Drawing on a broad range of case studies across the continent, the 
volume considers what constitutes communication rights in Africa, who 
should protect them, against whom, and how communication rights relate 
to broader human rights. While the case studies highlight the variation 
in communicative rights experiences between countries, they also 
coalesce around common tropes and practices for the implementation and 
expression of communication rights. Deploying a variety of innovative 
theoretical and methodological approaches, the chapters scrutinise 
different facets of communication rights in the context of both offline 
and digital communication realities. The contributions provide 
illuminating accounts on language rights, digital exclusion, digital 
activism, citizen journalism, media regulation and censorship, 
protection of intellectual property rights, politics of mobile data, and 
politicisation of social media.

This is the first collection to consider communication in Africa using a 
rights-based lens. The book will appeal to researchers, academics, 
communication activists, and media practitioners at all levels in the 
fields of media studies, journalism, human rights, political science, 
public policy, as well as general readers who are keen to know about the 
status of communication rights in Africa.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Communication Rights in Africa: Theoretical and Practical 
Considerations

/Tendai Chari and Ufuoma Akpojivi/

*Part I: Cultural and Minority Rights*

*Chapter I: *Language-Cultural Barrier in Ubang Community: A Critical 
Assessment of the Communication Rights of Women and the Girl-Child

/Chike Mgbeadichie/

*Chapter 2:* Silicon Savannah or Digitising Marginalisation? A 
Reflection of Kenya’s Government Digitization Policies, Strategies and 
Projects

/Job Mwaura/

*Chapter 3: *Please do not call it human right: a Southern 
Epistemological perspective on the digital inclusion of people with 
disabilities in South Africa

/Lorenzo Dalvit/

*Chapter 4: *The Interdependence of Communication, Political, and 
Socio-Economic Rights: Examining the Lived Experiences of Digitally 
Marginalised Netizens Before and During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Lagos 
State, Nigeria.

/Olutobi Akingbade/

*Part II: Digital Citizenship*

*Chapter 5://*/Cabo Delgado Também é Moçambique/: The Paths of Youth 
Digital Activism in a Restrictive Context

/Dércio Tsandzana/

*Chapter 6: *Citizen journalism and the entrenchment of communication 
rights in Zimbabwe

/Ernest Mudzengi and Wellington Gadzikwa/

*Part III: Freedom, Censorship and Intellectual Property Rights*

*Chapter 7: ‘*The right to tell my story as I please’: Regulation and 
self-censorship in the Nigerian film industry

/Ikechukwu Obiaya/

*Chapter 8: *A critical review of intellectual property rights: The case 
of Nigeria

/Aifuwa Edosomwan/

*Chapter 9: *Internet shutdowns in semi-authoritarian regimes: The case 
of Cameroon

/Peter Tiako//Ngangum/

*Chapter 10: *Fake news//versus Freedom of expression: Legislating media 
trademarks infringements on Social Media Platforms in Kenya and South Africa

/Brian Hungwe/

*Part IV: Politics of Digital Infrastructures*

*Chapter 11: *Politics of Digital Infrastructures in the Global South: 
The Case of #DataMustFall Campaign in South Africa

/Tendai Chari/

*Chapter 12: *Silence and Silent the SóróSoké Generation: The 
Politicisation of Social Media in Nigeria

/Ufuoma Akpojivi/

About the Editors


      Biography

*Tendai Chari* is an Associate Professor of Media Studies and a National 
Research Foundation (NRF) C3 Rated Researcher at the University of 
Venda, South Africa. He holds a PhD in media studies from the University 
of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is the co-editor of Global Pandemics 
and Media Ethics: Issues and Perspectives (Routledge, 2022, co-edited 
with Professor Martin N. Ndlela), African Football, Identity Politics 
and Global Media Narratives: The Legacy of FIFA 2010 World Cup (2014 
Palgrave Macmillan; co-edited with Professor Nhamo A. Mhiripiri); Media 
Law, Ethics, and Policy in the Digital Age (IGI Global Publishing, 2017; 
also with Professor Nhamo A. Mhiripiri); and Military , Politics and 
Democratisation in Southern Africa: The Quest for Political Transition 
(with Professor P. Dzimiri). He is a recipient of several grants and 
fellowships, which include the African Peace Building Network Fellowship 
(2017), the African Peacebuilding Book Publishing Manuscript grant 
(2018), the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of 
Learned Societies (ACLS) Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2022).

*Ufuoma Akpojivi (PhD)* is Policy, Research and Learning Lead at 
Advocates for International Development (A4ID), United Kingdom. Before 
this, he was an associate professor at the University of the 
Witwatersrand, South Africa and a visiting professor at the School of 
Media and Communication, Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria. He holds a 
PhD and MA in communications studies from the University of Leeds, 
United Kingdom. His research interests cut across media policy, 
democracy, citizenship, new media technologies, and political 
communications, and he has widely published on these issues. He is a 
National Research Foundation (NRF) South Africa, C2 Rated Researcher and 
a recipient of numerous teaching and learning awards such as the Vice 
Chancellor Individual Teaching and Learning Award (2017), Faculty of 
Humanities Individual Teaching and Learning Award (2017), Vice 
Chancellor Team Teaching and Learning Award (2016), and Faculty of 
Humanities Team Teaching and Learning Award (2016). He is the author of 
Media Reforms and Democratization in Emerging Democracies of Sub-Saharan 
Africa (Palgrave 2018) and Social Movements, and Digital Activism in 
Africa (Palgrave, 2023).

Further details on the book are found here:

https://www.routledge.com/Communication-Rights-in-Africa-Emerging-Discourses-and-Perspectives/Chari-Akpojivi/p/book/9781032482835 
<https://www.routledge.com/Communication-Rights-in-Africa-Emerging-Discourses-and-Perspectives/Chari-Akpojivi/p/book/9781032482835>

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