Consumed by numbers
The "follow-back" economy of Nigerian Twitter represents a struggle for recognition in a vastly unequal and status-obsessed society.
Let it burn
Whether or not Twitter survives should be irrelevant to those committed to building a democratic public sphere.
Tweeting apartheid sport
What if the social media conditions of 2021 existed in 1981? A group of New Zealand writers tweeted the damned 1981 Springbok rugby tour as if it was happening now.
Nigeria’s Twitter ban and the resistance politics of VPNs
Anyone who cares about civil society, free speech, and human rights should find the state’s digital silencing of its citizens deeply troubling.
A Black woman in Bali
During the COVID-19 pandemic many people who work online were able to set up shop in lands far away from their pre-pandemic homes. But, for whom is the digital nomad lifestyle?
We are all Helen Zille
Southern African whites serve Western interests in Africa, acting as conduits and reinforcing racist propaganda that sustains a colonial worldview about Africans.
The A to Z of Kenyan Twitter
“Twitter is going to change Kenya!” I declared in my presentation. We’d just set up a
Wole Soyinka has opinions about social media
The novelist and Nobel Prize winner on why he avoids social media entirely, saying he doesn’t tweet, blog, or engage with what he calls today’s increasingly promiscuous digital platforms.
How many Twitter activists make one vote?
The problem with so many Twitter crowd members is they live in their comfort zone and are not about to lift a finger to get out of there.
When videos of abuses by police go viral in Angola
It marks the first time that videos went truly viral in a country in which only about 5% of the population has access to the internet.
Malawian Twitter is not a gentle place
By far the best place to follow Malawian news and politics is social media app, Twitter. It can be relied upon to be the very first place where Malawi’s breaking news gets to the rest of us.
New Media and Activism in Africa
The limitations of working in the online space, given the small percentages of people with online access (despite the expansion of mobile technology).
Africa is a Country is on Twitter and Facebook
We have a new @Africasacountry Twitter account. Follow us there and on Facebook too.
Shameless Self Promotion
It’s that time of year again. The students in my required Media and Culture course at
Ingerland, Ingerland, Ingerland
Late last month the English goalkeeper David James wrote in The Observer that he was surprised
Cameroon is Cameroon
A mix of factors - language, regional, sexism, an opposition that has been co-opted by the ruling party and repression - prevents real, meaningful change in Cameroon.
Sahara Reporters
Last December I met the impressive Omoyele Sowore, founder of Nigerian online news site, Sahara Reporters.
Africa is a Country’s Twitter World Cup
You can follow us as well as some of our writers - particularly Sonja, Sean and Herman - on Twitter.