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- Convenors:
-
Silas Udenze
(Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Itunu Bodunrin (University of Johannesburg)
Faith Halima Kirigha (Falmouth University)
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- Format:
- Panel
Short Abstract:
This panel will bring together interdisciplinary perspectives on how African communities use memory as a weapon of resistance by examining the cultural practices, rituals, and narratives that fuel mobilization.
Long Abstract:
This panel explores how activists across the continent leverage memories of historical traumas to fuel struggles for justice and social transformation. These efforts challenge state-sponsored narratives, resist historical erasure, and mobilize visions of a liberated future. Historical memory is particularly critical in contexts where states seek to rewrite or erase violent histories. Movements such as South Africa's #RhodesMustFall confront lingering colonial legacies and expose ongoing inequalities rooted in apartheid (Bosch, 2017). Similarly, Zimbabwean activists contest the state's appropriation of nationalist history, particularly around the liberation struggle (Muchemwa & Muponde, 2007). Collective mourning also transcends private grief and becomes political. Nigeria's #EndSARS movement used public mourning of police brutality victims to mobilize action (Udenze et al., 2024). Gender is critical, as African women often preserve and transmit memory. For example, the Bring Back Our Girls campaign and feminist movements across the continent emphasize women's historical roles in resistance (Oriola, 2021; El Belkacemi, 2024). Further, the rise of digital platforms has transformed African memory activism, with movements like #EndSARS and #FeesMustFall using social media to disseminate narratives and challenge state narratives, thus creating transnational solidarity (Dambo et al., 2022; Roberts & Bosch, 2023). Public rituals and memorials, such as the debates over Kwame Nkrumah's legacy in Ghana or contested national memorials in Zimbabwe, serve as sites of resistance against state-driven histories (van den Boogaard, 2017; Ranger, 2004). Overall, this panel will deepen scholarly engagement with how memory and mourning in Africa serve as forces for contemporary resistance, social change, and political reimagining.
Accepted papers:
Paper long abstract:
Over the past decade, there has been a surge in Africa and beyond around networked social movements fighting entrenched autocratic systems, exposing state and business corrupt entities and fighting for redress and attention on issues ranging from climate change to equal rights. These movements are often engineered by the more digitally savvy Generation Z cohort, who leverage platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Twitter to circumvent traditional media outlets, which are often aligned with state and powerful business elites. In this paper, we develop a concept of a “rhizomatic organic counter-hegemonic public sphere,” moving beyond Mouffe’s (2005) agonistic pluralist model to better capture the fluid, decentralised, and consensus-building nature of political contestation in contemporary Africa with a specific focus on South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. We also argue how these disparate and ‘leaderless’ networked movements capture the attention of the mainstream and peripheral media to amplify their messaging.
Paper short abstract:
Social media platforms such as Facebook and X have increasingly emerged as organising, activism, and critique tools. From the Arab Spring uprising to #RejectFinanceBill2024, these platforms have demonstrated their vital role in facilitating collective action against oppressive regimes.
Paper long abstract:
Kenya is internationally recognised for digital innovation, and media freedom is guaranteed in the 2010 Constitution (Articles 33, 34, and 35). However, in practice, the media is governed by regulations muddled within various sections of civil and criminal law, which limit the freedom of critics and protestors.
Furthermore, the impact and influence of Kenya's legacy media have steadily declined over the last decade as social media has become a primary source of news and information for most Kenyans. The media's heavy dependency on advertisements has decreased its commercial viability as advertisers are shifting their attention away from conventional local media.
The government has since become the biggest single advertiser in all the media houses. With this dominance, the government threatens to pull or withdraw its advertisements if a media house or journalist fails to report news in favour of government interests. While the governments cannot completely control the media or shut it down as they need it for
legitimacy, and to publicise and enact their policies, they have strategies to manage other actors' power through the same media platforms, including bribery, leaking messages and shutdowns.
This paper reports on a series of interviews with political bloggers, independent activists, human rights organisations, media organisations, and higher education institutions (HEIs) to understand the impact and implications of Kenya's Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act (CMCA, 2018) on free speech and shed light on the politics of contemporary media management in Kenya.
Paper short abstract:
Based on my ethnographic research among South African land activists, I explore how the engagement with fallen comrades entwines meaningful spiritual, social and political practices to rearrange activist agency, relationships, affects and temporalities in their ongoing struggle.
Paper long abstract:
Khenana is a socialist commune in an extremely violent environment in Mayville, one of Durban's townships. Convinced of their right to land, to the city and to a life in dignity as Black impoverished people in post-apartheid South Africa, Khenana's land activists occupied unused urban land with the support of the shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo. The battle over land in Durban regularly claims activist lives. Those wo were killed in the struggle are considered as amadlozi (ancestors) who remain present and approachable. Having changed their modes of being in the world, and now equipped with a different kind of agency, they continue to play a crucial part in the struggle. As the activists keep engaging with their fallen comrades, they do more than preserving memories.
In this presentation, I discuss how the engagement with late comrades interweaves meaningful practices from spiritual, social and political repertoires. These doings foster an affective commitment to shared activist values and to the land that has been soaked with the blood of their fallen comrades - a bonding which is both, a source of strength and a burden. I explore how the cultivating of ancestral relationships, the rearrangement of agency and the reshuffling of temporalities can inform our approach to activist memory.
Paper short abstract:
This study explores memes and the Obedient Movement, a sociopolitical movement built around a politician in Nigeria.
Paper long abstract:
The Obedient Movement emerged in Nigeria in mid-2022 with the entry of Mr Peter Obi into the 2023 presidential election as the Labour Party standard-bearer, positioning him against entrenched political figures like Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress. Obi's candidacy galvanized a movement which became known as the "Obidients,". Through an ongoing 30-month digital ethnographic study (January 2023 to June 2025) in an Obidient WhatsApp group, I am investigating how memes serve as mnemonic devices, embedding narratives of political legitimacy that project a reimagined Nigerian polity. Preliminary findings suggest that WhatsApp memes operate as tools for anticipatory memory by portraying Peter Obi as the embodiment of a reimagined Nigeria. Repetitive meme-sharing creates a shared mnemonic reservoir that reinforces his image as a credible political alternative. However, this dynamic also entrenches ideological echo chambers, amplifying in-group cohesion at the expense of dialogue with dissenting voices. At the moment, I argue that these memes are potent mediators of anticipatory memory that craft political legitimacy while intensifying factional loyalty. The current findings reveal how digital practices shape the collective memory of future political possibilities, contributing to the polarized dynamics of Nigerian sociopolitical discourse.