[Commlist] Call for Book Chapters: Digital Popular Culture and Politics in Africa: Theory and Practice

*Call for Book Chapters*

*Digital Popular Culture and Politics in Africa: Theory and Practice*

**

*/Editors: Tendai Chari, University of Venda, South Africa/*

*/Ufuoma Akpojivi, Independent Researcher/Research Fellow, UNISA/*

Digital media technologies have become a key site upon which political 
meanings are produced, consumed and challenged. While politicians use 
digital popular cultural repertoires to ingratiate themselves with the 
electorate, the same technologies are being harnessed by ordinary people 
to speak truth to power, exposing abuses, mobilising protests and 
demanding accountability from authorities, often bypassing centralized 
traditional media. On the African continent, examples include the 
#EndSARS in Nigeria in 2020 when youth shared videos of police brutality 
via Twitter (formerly X) and Instagram, sparking nationwide protests, 
crowdfunding, and global solidity that pressured the government to 
dissolve the SARS unit. In 2024 during the Kenya Gen Z Protests against 
the Finance Bill, young people used TikTok, X and AI generated content 
under the hashtag #RejectFinance Bill2024 to educate, organize street 
actions and crowdfund transport, forcing parliamentary rejection of the 
Bill amid clashes. Similarly, in 2020 Zimbabweans used the hashtag 
#ZimbabweanLivesMatter during protests against human rights abuses, 
trending globally and attracting support of the global community. In all 
the cases highlighted above, the mutual amplification of politics and 
popular culture was on display signifying the enmeshment of politics and 
popular culture (Street et al, 2013). Increased “fluidization” of the 
border between politics and popular culture in the digital age 
demonstrates how popular culture is a crucial realm for shaping, 
performing and challenging political meanings (Chen, 2023). Digital 
technologies are enabling citizens to participate in the simultaneous 
production and consumption of content, highlighting the importance of 
popular culture in the production of politics (Hamilton, 2016). The 
intersection manifests at different levels. For instance, politicians 
are becoming more of digital icons while popular artists such as 
musicians, sports and media personalities, are venturing into politics 
using digital media (Street, 1997) either as participants or endorsers; 
a phenomenon referred to as “celebrification/celebritisation of 
politics” (Agyepong, 2016; Ahmad, 2020; Brooks et al, 2021). In Africa 
well-known artists who have vied for political office include the 
Democratic of Congo’s Rhumba maestro, Kanda Bongoman, soccer idol, 
George Weah who participated in the 2006 Liberian presidential elections 
and most recently South African musician Penny Penny (real name, Erick 
Nkovane), who became a councillor for the opposition MK party, to 
mention but a few. Despite online activism being criticized for being 
“vacuous and superficial” (Drumbl, 2012) resulting in pejorative 
descriptions such as “clicktivism” or “slacktivism” digital media has 
enabled citizens to perform political activism such as signing petitions 
online and sharing protest messages with virtual communities. Existing 
scholarship problematizes the intersection of popular culture and 
digital media in Africa as a double-edged force where digital media are 
lauded for their potential to democratize discourse through grassroots 
memes, hashtags and music remixes, yet derided for engineering 
fragmentation, misinformation, erosion of political trust and creating 
“multiple truths” as aiding vigilantism (Ajaegbu & Ajaegbu, 2024). 
Drawing on network society theory, studies highlight how platforms like 
WhatsApp and X enable networked publics to challenge elite control but 
amplify echo chambers and post-truth rhetoric. For instance, studies on 
Nigerian #EndSARS or election memes illustrate how digital popular 
culture subverts governance narratives through pidgin and Nollywood 
tropes (Ajaegbu & Ajaegbu, 2024), how online media have become veritable 
sites of youth cultures from which vulnerable young people negotiate the 
unstable landscape of a post-colonial state that has foisted on its 
vulnerable youth population (Imoka, 2023). Prior scholarship has 
examined the intersection of digital media and politics has 
predominantly focused on how digital media have been leveraged for 
political purposes in industrialised democracies of the West and 
“popular cultural manifestations” of politics in digital media 
(Hamilton, 2016:4) while very few studies have been devoted to 
understanding how digital media shape the production, consumption and 
contestation of political meanings and narratives. Consequently, this 
has left a lacuna on how everyday practices, the banal and the trivial, 
what Roland Barthes refers to as the “/what-goes without-saying/” 
(Barthes, 2009: 10) shape the production, consumption and contestations 
of political meanings and narratives in the African context. The 
proposed edited volume seeks to fill this gap by providing an expanded 
view of the digital popular culture-politics nexus from a global South, 
particularly an African perspective by examining politics in Africa 
through the prism of digital popular culture, and its potential to 
transform our perception of the “sights, sites and cites of power” 
(Hamilton, 2016:4). Taking after Hamilton (2016) we contend that 
studying politics through the prism of digital popular culture not only 
creates possibilities to illuminate the myriads of ways in which 
politics intersects with everyday lived experiences of citizens thus 
reclaiming the status of popular culture as an important site upon which 
political meanings can be constructed and deconstructed. Our goal is to 
foreground digital popular culture as a potent vehicle for contesting 
power. The volume seeks to demonstrate that contrary to perceptions that 
popular culture is ‘vacuous’, ‘trash’, ‘inferior culture’ ‘artificial’ 
or mere entertainment devoid of any substance (Englert, 2008; Fabian, 
1997; Street, 2001; Marchart, 2008; Street, 2004; Street et al, 2013), 
digital popular culture can be an authentic source of knowledge about 
the way in which politics is understood, practiced, performed, and 
consumed in the African context. The volume illuminates how politics is 
substantiated through diverse digital popular cultural forms and 
artefacts. The volume explores the intertextuality between politics and 
popular culture, demonstrating how political discourse draws on 
references, or mixes prior texts, popular discourses, symbols or 
cultural narratives to create layered meanings, particularly in Africa’s 
digital arena through social media memes, videos, and posts. This 
manifests through citizens repurposing historical slogans, popular 
aphorisms, wise sayings, biblical allusions, or popular media to 
critique power, blending traditional rhetoric with digital formats or 
viral posts.

The book makes two important contributions. First, it  addresses the 
paucity of African focused studies on popular cultural manifestations of 
politics in digital spaces by systematically examining everyday 
practices and intertextual remixes of popular tropes that construct and 
subvert power – moving beyond Western-centric perspectives to foreground 
banal and everyday socio-political dynamics. Secondly, the book reclaims 
popular culture’s agency by challenging dismissals of digital popular 
culture and repositioning it as a potent, decolonial site for reclaiming 
political imagination – transforming perceptions of power through 
citizen authorship on digital platforms while problematizing risks like 
misinformation and vigilantism.

  The book addresses the following questions:

·In what way is digital media expanding our knowledge and understanding 
of politics in contemporary Africa?

·How dopopular cultural artefacts stimulate and sustain political 
expression on digital platforms in the African context?

·How do politicians and political institutions discipline and co-opt 
digital media to manufacture consent through ordinary everyday practices?

·How are citizens leveraging the everyday cultural practices on digital 
media to subvert the power of powerful elites and institutions?

·How has the ubiquity of digital media shaped the production, 
performance and consumption of political meanings?

·In what ways are the borders between politics and popular culture 
collapsing in the digital age?

The book distinguishes itself from existing scholarship by foregrounding 
political significations embodied everyday practices in the digital 
sphere. It views digital popular culture as having the potential to 
influence politics and communication, thereby expanding perspectives on 
politics by exposing citizens to “different places, voices, views and 
experiences” (Hamilton, 2016:4). The volume offers a continent-wide 
exploration of everyday digital popular cultural practices in Africa, 
thus addressing existing knowledge gaps in the global South.

We invite contributions that engage with theoretical and empirical 
research that consider the socio-political and cultural factors shaping 
digital media and popular culture in Africa. We are particularly 
interested in original contributions that tackle the identified and 
related themes using a broad range of theoretical and methodological 
approaches.

Chapters may draw on interdisciplinary approaches from media studies, 
communication, political science, sociology, cultural studies, 
anthropology, and related fields. The abstract must clearly state the 
objectives of the study, the theoretical framework and the 
methodological approaches to be deployed. Possible topics include, but 
are not limited to the following:

·Intertextuality of politics and popular culture in the digital age

·Sports and politics in the digital age

·Fandom and politics in the digital age

·Religion, politics and digital media

·Popular theatre and politics online

·Political advertising in the digital age

·Film, politics and digital media

·Popular Music and politics in the digital age

·Political satire in the digital media

·Celebrification/celebritisation of politics in the digital age

·Clandestine radio and politics in the digital age

·Intersection of food cultures, politics and digital media

·The politics of political party regalia, costume and national symbols 
in the digital era

·Popular theatre, politics and digital media

·Sculpture, politics and digitality

·Political propaganda online

·Avant-garde arts and politics

·Politics, hactivism, clictivism and slacktivism

·Memefication of politics

·Microcelebrities and influencers and politics

·Digital politics and celebrity activism

·Digitality and celebrity humanism in Africa

·Gamification of politics in Africa

·Digital media and political scandals

·Subversive digital artefacts and politics

·Digital political satire in Africa

·Fictional representations of politics in the digital media

·User-generated content and politics in Africa

·Podcasts as alternative public spheres

·Blog, vlogs and politics in Africa

·Popular entertainment and politics in the digital age

·Political cartoons in the digital era

·Mass culture and politics in the digital age

·Popular culture and politics in the age of Artificial intelligence

*Abstracts and biographies*

Abstracts of between 400 and 500 words should be send by the 31 March 2026.

Abstracts should be emailed as word to (tendai.chari /at/ univen.ac.za)/cc 
<mailto:(tendai.chari /at/ univen.ac.za)/cc> (ufuoma.akpojivi /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(ufuoma.akpojivi /at/ gmail.com)>

Chapters (6000 -8000 Words) will be due by 30 September 2026

Biographies should not be more than 200 words

Reference Style: Harvard

*Note*: We do not require an article publishing charge (APC)

*Important Dates*

Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 March 2026

Notification for Accepted Abstracts:  15 April 2026

Deadline for Full Papers: 30 September 2026

Expected Date of Publication: 31 December 2026

*Targeted Publisher: Routledge*

**

*References*

Agyepong, L. (2016). Understanding the Concept of Celebrity Capital 
through an Empirical Study of the Role of Celebrity Endorsements in 2008 
and 2012 Ghana Election Campaigns. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of 
Communication. University of Leicester.

Ahmad, N. (2020). Celebrification of Politics: Understanding Migration 
of Celebrities into Politics Celebrification of Celebrity Politicians in 
the Emerging Democracy of Indonesia. East Asia, 37:63-79.

Ajaegbu, O.O. and Ajaegbu, C. (2004). The New Democratisation: Social 
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in Communication/. 9:1394949. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1394949 
<https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1394949>.

Barthes, R. (2009) [1957] Mythologies. Translated by Annette Lavers. 
London: Vintage.

Brooks, G., Drenten, J., and Piskorski, M.J. (2021). Influencer 
Celebrification: How Social Media Influencers Acquire Celebrity Capital. 
/Journal of Advertising, /50(5) 528-547.

Chen, D. (2023). Seeing Politics Through Popular Culture. /Journal of 
Chinese Political Science/, 29: 185-205.

Driessens, O. (2013a). Celebrity Capital: Redefining Celebrity Using 
Field Theory: /Theory and Society,/ 42(5): 543-560.

Driessesn, O. (2013b). Being a Celebrity in Times of Its 
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Drumbl, M.A. (2012). Child Soldiers and Clicktivism: Justice, Myths and 
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Englert, B. (2008) Popular Music and Politics in Africa. Some 
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Fabian, J. (1997). Popular Culture in Africa: Findings and Conjunctures. 
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Grayson, K. (2016). Foreword. In Caitlin Hamilton and Laura J. Shepherd 
(eds.) Popular Culture and World Politics, (x-xi). London: Routledge.

Hamilton, C. (2016). World Politics 2.0: An Introduction. In Caitlin 
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Politics, (pp3-14). London: Routledge.

Hamilton, C., and Shepherd, L.J. (2016). Understanding Culture and World 
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Imoka, C. (2023). Digital Media, Popular Culture and Social Activism 
Amongst Urban Youth in Nigeria. /Critical African Studies,/ 15(2): 134-148.

Literat, and Kligler -Vilenchik (2021). How Popular Culture Prompts 
Youth Collective Political Expression and Cross-Cutting Political Talk 
on Social Media: A Cross-Platform Analysis. /Social Media and Society/, 
7(2): 1-14

Marchart, O. (2008). Cultural Studies. Konstanz: UTB.

Patti, E. (2020). Popular Culture in the Digital Age. In Enrico Minardi 
and Paolo Desogus (eds.) The Last Years of Italian Popular Culture: 
“Andare al Popolo”, (pp1-8). New Castle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars 
Publishing.

Storey, J. (2018). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. London: Routledge.

Street, J. (1997). Politics and Popular Culture. Pennsylvania: Temple 
University Press.

Street, J. (2001). The Politics of Popular Culture. In Kate Nash and 
Allan Scott (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology. 
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Street, J. (2004) Celebrity Politicians: Popular Culture and Political 
Representation. British /Journal of Politics and International 
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Strinati, D. (1995). An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture. 
London: Routledge.

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