{"id":57429,"date":"2020-08-31T20:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T17:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/zimbabwes-keyboard-warriors-hold-protests-off-the-streets\/"},"modified":"2020-08-31T20:28:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T17:28:00","slug":"zimbabwes-keyboard-warriors-hold-protests-off-the-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/zimbabwes-keyboard-warriors-hold-protests-off-the-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"#Zimbabwe\u2019s \u2018keyboard warriors\u2019 hold protests off the streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Zimbabwe\u2019s \u2018keyboard warriors\u2019 hold protests off the streets<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n HARARE, Zimbabwe \u2014 Unable to protest on the streets, some in Zimbabwe are calling themselves \u201ckeyboard warriors\u201d as they take to graffiti and social media<\/a> to pressure a government that promised reform but is now accused of gross human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

Activists use the hashtag #zimbabweanlivesmatter to encourage global pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of people, from Jamaican reggae stars to US rap and hip-hop musicians, have joined African celebrities, politicians and former presidents in tweeting with the hashtag.<\/p>\n

But some analysts say online protests might not be enough to move Mnangagwa, who increasingly relies on security forces to crush dissent despite promising reforms when he took power after a coup in 2017.<\/p>\n

Tensions are rising anew in the once-prosperous southern African country. Inflation is over 800 percent, amid acute shortages of water, electricity, gas and banknotes and a health system collapsing under the weight of drug shortages and strikes by nurses and doctors.<\/p>\n

Revelations of alleged corruption related to COVID-19 medical supplies led to the sacking of the health minister and further pressure on Mnangagwa.<\/p>\n

His government has responded to the rising dissent with arrests and alleged abductions and torture.<\/p>\n

Before July, few Zimbabweans knew about Jacob Ngarivhume, a fringe opposition politician. Then he went on social media to announce an anti-government protest planned for the end of July.<\/p>\n

Soon, #July31 swelled into a movement. The government panicked, jailed Ngarivhume and journalist Hopewell Chin\u2019ono, deployed the military and police to thwart the protest and arrested dozens of people who tweeted about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media is making waves in Zimbabwe. It is really helping people access information about government scandals faster and cheaper so it makes them want to act,\u201d said Elias Mambo, publisher of ZimMorning Post, which publishes investigative stories online and on WhatsApp<\/a> groups.<\/p>\n

Angry, but afraid to take to the streets, Zimbabweans are turning to their computers and smartphones to protest. They are also splashing graffiti with colorful anti-government messages on the walls of stadiums, cemeteries and city buildings.<\/p>\n

UN Secretary-General<\/a> Antonio Guterres and the chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, have expressed concern over the government\u2019s alleged abuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe online campaign massively helped place the political crisis and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe on the global map. Zimbabweans are realizing that social media has a massive international influence,\u201d said the Human Rights Watch director for southern Africa, Dewa Mavhinga.<\/p>\n

Cyril Ramaphosa, president of neighboring South Africa and chairman of the African Union, dispatched special envoys to meet Mnangagwa. But they returned without meeting the opposition despite having kept them on standby, inviting anger in Zimbabwe and South Africa.<\/p>\n

Zimbabweans had earlier used social media to protest against the previous government of Robert Mugabe. The army briefly allowed street protests in 2017, but only to use the crowds as pressure to force Mugabe out. Now, activists say, the same military is making the streets dangerous for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cDigital activism cannot be ignored and cannot be confronted by traditional authoritarian tactics, as shown by the #zimbabweanlivesmatter campaign,\u201d said Alexander Rusero, a political analyst based in the capital, Harare.<\/p>\n

Yet the latest online campaign, like previous ones, appears to have only hardened the government\u2019s resolve to crush dissent.<\/p>\n

In response to the online campaign amid renewed international pressure, Mnangagwa during a national address described his rivals and critics as \u201cdestructive terrorist opposition groupings,\u201d \u201cdark forces\u201d and \u201ca few bad apples\u201d that should be \u201cflushed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Security agents have continued arresting activists even after the July protest was foiled, according to human rights groups and the main opposition MDC Alliance party.<\/p>\n

Analysts said such a hardline reaction shows that online campaigns without \u201cground activism\u201d are unlikely to force the ruling ZANU-PF party to institute reforms that could weaken its hold on power and related economic benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnline activism needs to correlate to and not supplant, ground activism. A delicate balance of the two will render ZANU-PF ineffective,\u201d Rusero said.<\/p>\n

The ruling party \u201chas demonstrated that it will do anything, including crude repression, to stay in power. So it is up to citizens and activists to raise the costs of abuses,\u201d said Mavhinga, whose rights group has been documenting alleged abuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeyboard warriors help to amplify the voices of agony from within Zimbabwe, but without robust and sustained campaigns on the ground, the social media campaigns would fizzle out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some activists are raising similar questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond tweeting about Hopewell (Chin\u2019ono) and Jacob (Ngarivhume), what citizen actions can we do to put pressure for their release,\u201d 21-year-old Namatai Kwekwedza tweeted days after the foiled protest.<\/p>\n

She faces multiple charges related to breaching the peace for being one of the few Zimbabweans brave enough to participate in anti-government marches in recent months. She faces a fine or up to five years in prison on each charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of us are ready, (but) it only works with the numbers,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cThis whole business of being too afraid is stupid. We are already dead. We have to fight for our future.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Zimbabwe\u2019s \u2018keyboard warriors\u2019 hold protests off the streets” HARARE, Zimbabwe \u2014 Unable to protest on the streets, some in Zimbabwe are calling themselves \u201ckeyboard warriors\u201d as they take to graffiti and social media to pressure a government that promised reform but is now accused of gross human rights abuses. Activists use the hashtag #zimbabweanlivesmatter to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[61747],"class_list":["post-57429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-zimbabwes-keyboard-warriors-hold-protests-off-the-streets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}