(AP) — Unable to protest on the streets, some in Zimbabwe
are calling themselves “keyboard warriors” 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
encourage global pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
Tens of thousands of people, from Jamaican reggae stars to
U.S. rap and hip-hop musicians, have joined African celebrities, politicians
and former presidents in tweeting with the hashtag.
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.
Tensions are rising anew in the once prosperous southern
African country. Inflation is over 800%, amid acute shortages of water,
electricity, gas and bank notes and a health system collapsing under the weight
of drug shortages and strikes by nurses and doctors.
Revelations of alleged corruption related to COVID-19
medical supplies led to the sacking of the health minister and further pressure
on Mnangagwa.
His government has responded to the rising dissent with
arrests and alleged abductions and torture.
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.
Soon, #July31 swelled into a movement. The government
panicked, jailed Ngarivhume and journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, deployed the
military and police to thwart the protest and arrested dozens of people who
tweeted about it.
“Social 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,” said Elias Mambo, publisher of ZimMorning Post,
which publishes investigative stories online and on WhatsApp groups.
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.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the chairman of
the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, have expressed concern over
the government’s alleged abuses.
“The 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,” said the
Human Rights Watch director for southern Africa, Dewa Mavhinga.
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.
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.
“Digital activism cannot be ignored and cannot be
confronted by traditional authoritarian tactics, as shown by the
#zimbabweanlivesmatter campaign,” said Alexander Rusero, a political analyst
based in the capital, Harare.
Yet the latest online campaign, like previous ones, appears
to have only hardened the government’s resolve to crush dissent.
In response to the online campaign amid renewed
international pressure, Mnangagwa during a national address described his
rivals and critics as “destructive terrorist opposition groupings,” “dark
forces” and “a few bad apples” that should be “flushed out.”
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.
Analysts said such a hardline reaction shows that online
campaigns without “ground activism” are unlikely to force the ruling ZANU-PF
party to institute reforms that could weaken its hold on power and related
economic benefits.
“Online activism needs to correlate to, and not supplant,
ground activism. A delicate balance of the two will render ZANU-PF
ineffective,” Rusero said.
The ruling party “has 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,” said Mavhinga, whose rights group
has been documenting alleged abuses.
“Keyboard 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,” he said.
Some activists are raising similar questions.
“Beyond tweeting about Hopewell (Chin’ono) and Jacob
(Ngarivhume), what citizen actions can we do to put pressure for their
release,” 21-year-old Namatai Kwekwedza tweeted days after the foiled protest.
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.
“Some of us are ready, (but) it only works with the
numbers,” she said, adding: “This whole business of being too afraid is stupid.
We are already dead. We have to fight for our future.”
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