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.