Activisms in Africa

This talk discusses the main restrictions that South African government implemented on public media in the period 2012-2015, in the name of national security, largely under National Key Points Act, an apartheid-era antiterrorism measure that restricts reporting on sites or institutions classified essential to the national interest, such as security forces and prisons. Examples of restrictions on press freedom beyond national key points are given, including journalists having limited access to information of public interest, state monitoring and censorship of telecommunications systems, and restrictions on reporting on prominent political and business figures. The assessment of the legal, political and economic environments that shape the implementation of National Key Points Act serves as an overall background for the discussion. The talk also refers to vociferous objections to press freedom restrictions from civil society organizations, who point out that the restrictions undermine the country’s young democratic process. The discussion is informed by relevant literature, including scholarship from journalists and civil society organizations generally.

José Katito . Instituto Superior Politécnico Lusíada do Huambo, Angola . jose.katito4studies@gmail.com

A partir de uma análise das páginas do facebook e websites das organizações da sociedade civil e dos activistas sociais  moçambicanos, a pesquisa procura responder em que medida os novos medias garantem a participação na advocacia da governação em Moçambique. A problemática parte da corrente segundo a qual os novos medias contribuem para o aumento da participação socio-política. Questiona em que medida o crescimento do número de utilizadores de internet em Moçambique pode significar um aumento na participação cívica dos cidadãos bem como na sua interacção com as instituições públicas. O estudo faz uma contextualização teórica sobre o papel dos novos medias, desde as correntes mais pessimistas, que defendem que os novos medias servem como uma distracção ao activismo e à participação offline ou que tem um efeito nulo uma vez tratar-se apenas de uma mudança da participação offline para o online até as correntes mais optimistas que defendem ser uma forma de participação cívica eficaz. Para a compreensão do caso de Moçambique, recorre-se a metodologia mista, que por um lado define níveis de participação cívica que são analisados em categorias quantitativas, a partir da análise das páginas e, por outro, interpreta qualitativamente o conteúdo nelas publicado e dos debates levantados.

Mário . CEC – Moçambique . fonsecamz@gmail.com

A obra do escritor português António Lobo Antunes Os cus de Judas (2007), compromete, uma luta em denunciar os abusos cometidos pelo Estado colonial português contra a população angolana, durante sua Guerra de Independência (1961 – 1974), ocasionando uma imagem de holocausto perante sua população civil, e deixando um retrato de incredulidade perante a ascensão de planteis democráticos ao longo do século XX no continente africano.Esse romance, é um autorretrato dos abusos cometidos pelas forças armadas lusitanas durante o processo de libertação angolano, submetendo o uso de aparelhos ideológicos e militares, evocando uma literatura engajada, bem como a reunir uma estética artística que não levem em consideração unicamente o “belo” como um caminho para a produção de  uma história literária,nacional focada unicamente em documentos oficiais, e sim sancionada para melindrar caminhos de fazer da literatura, uma união didática entre o valor da leitura subjetivista com uma literatura de testemunho (o autor atual como oficial médico durante o conflito), bem como a união de paradigmas em denunciar a subjugação de um povo pelo outro.Se faz necessário em se projetar a leitura da obra de eminentes escritores africanos, com Lobo Antunes, como incentivo emular ativismos, no sentido de conservar o patrimônio artístico e intelectual angolano, diretamente, elevando prelúdios éticos de um socioculturalismo, na construção de uma lapidação mental exalando, a integração e o respeito pelos direitos humanos, bem como em lançar luz para construir uma história multiétnica, aos quais as violações dos direitos humanos, possam ser, conhecidos de uma nação para outra.

Clayton Alexandre Zocarato . Fundação para Ensino, Pesquisa e Extensão (FUNDEPE) . claytonalexandezocarato@yahoo.com.br

Particularly since the last global crisis of 2008, large-scale land-use change has risen dramatically across the world and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. However, movements against these investments remain underrepresented and unheard, limiting their ability to mobilise against this rising phenomenon. Bringing together representational and relational research on the relationship between social movements and the media from political and communication sciences, this thesis looks to identify how social movements against large-scale land-use change are represented in the local media and which factors influence this representation. To this end, and based on Ertl (2015), it identifies the structural and movement-specific circumstances of two Jatropha-based cases of large-scale land-use change in Kenya, more specifically concerning the Bedford Biofuels investment in the Tana River Delta and the Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd. investment in the Dakatcha Woodlands. These factors, as well as the key social movement frames employed, are then set in relation to the local media framing of the issue. The analysis shows that particularly the content, focus and type of framing employed by the social movement can have a large impact on a movement’s media representation. Further, structural and protest-specific circumstances determine the extent to which a movement’s framing is taken on. The thesis thus systematises and extends existing theoretical work in the field, paving the way for future comparative research beyond the global North, and providing an insight of the factors vital for social movements to get their voices heard in the ongoing global struggle for land.

Julia Wegner . Freie Universität Berlin . julia.wegner@posteo.de

The promise of South Africa’s new constitution which disallows discrimination on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation, is met by the reality of country still defined by racism, sexism, transphobia and homophobia. Even in this difficult environment lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) grassroots organizations and activists resist injustice in creative and inspired way. In this multimedia presentation, I draw upon my work as an activist and programme officer at Hivos South Africa. I will unpack the use of creative human-centred methodology dubbed People’s Power to build grassroots networks and empower local organisations. This EU-funded project is currently implemented nationally in South Africa (see for more details: https://goo.gl/RpSvSg). My analysis is based on an extensive mapping exercise of LGBTI grassroots organising in South Africa, video interviews with participating activists, reports from participating LGBTI grassroots organisations and feedback from participating organisations and activists. The presentation aims to ask three critical questions: (1) What possibility does the People’s Power project offer to LGBTI grassroots organisations and activists? (2) What are some of the challenges experienced by LGBTI people in South Africa? (3) what are some of the strategies used, by LGBTI grassroots organisations and activists, to make their communities safer. In reflecting on these questions, I will explore the intersectional nature of struggle in South Africa, the need to multi-actor yet context-appropriate responses to issues facing communities and the role of grassroots actors in creating sustainable and safer localities.

Gabriel Hossain Khan . Hives South Africa . gkhan@hivos.org

LGBTI rights are commonly viewed in African media and social discourse as ‘un-African’ and counter to African culture. Activists arguing for LGBTI rights are portrayed as pandering to Western donors and ideology. Little research exists on the topic; much of the existing research shows high levels of intolerance to LGBTI people on the basis of culture and religion, particularly compared to tolerance to other discriminated groups (http://afrobarometer.org/publications/tolerance-in-africa). The Umunthu workshops project is turning this on its head by using Umunthu, a pan African philosophical concept of humanity,  combined with reflection on personal experiences of stigma and discrimination, to engage people in conversations about LGBTI people and our locally embedded ideologies that have governed Africans for generations. In this paper, we will present findings from the research we have been doing alongside our Umunthu workshops. So far, this research has indicated promising positive shifts in attitudes towards LGBTI people among workshop participants. African culture and philosophy is diverse, evolving and subject to interpretation. It is possible to use African belief systems- specifically those focusing on interdependence and tolerance- to invoke reflection and encourage greater tolerance of LGBTI people. Confrontational approaches can lead to a backlash which entrenches people more firmly in their beliefs. Creative participatory approaches that work with participants’ familiar values and ideologies, and facilitate exploration of underlying basis of discrimination, could be an effective way of impacting on popular thinking and achieve positive shift of attitude towards LGBTI people.

Rodger Phiri . Art and Global Health Center Africa . rodger@aghcafrica.org
Chiwoza Bandawe . Malawi College of Medicine . cbandawe@medcol.mw

In contrast to the growing body of literature on South-North partnerships that tends to focus on the cooperation between large-scale NGOs, this paper will examine the potentials of partnerships between activists on a grassroots-level. Reflecting upon their experiences of cooperating on LGBTIQ* rights in Nairobi, Kenya, the authors will illustrate how eye-level cooperation on the grassroots-level can actually make a major contribution to overcoming the severe challenges of the LGBTIQ* community in Kenia and how the experiences drawn from the cooperation, vice versa, enrich human rights activism in Germany. The paper will proceed with a discussion of the implication of the case analysis for the theory and practice of activism in the context of South-North partnerships. First, grassroots cooperation is efficient in running small-scale projects tailored to local needs and, which are below radar level of large-sale organizations. Second, it can help activists to identify and monitor ‘hidden’ forms of discrimination and human rights violation on a local level, and communicate their information through human rights networks to larger organizations and policy-maker. Finally, grassroots-cooperation represents a scheme for the self-empowerment of the participating activists, who may then serve as multiplier in their respective activism networks. Thus, the scheme not only facilitates the accelerated development of social capital, both nationally and transnationally, but also supports the individual activist to break his or her own marginalization. As a consequence, the paper encourages researcher to focus their attention to partnerships on a grassroots level, and policy-maker to provide the adequate frameworks for such cooperation in order to facilitate social change.

Richard Georgi . School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg . georgi.richard@gmail.com
Emmanuel Odhiambo . YHEPP Kenya . e.nyambwa@gmail.com

African sexual minorities have been subject of increasing physical and psychological violence. Several African States have discussed and even approved new anti-homosexuality laws that constitute a threat to the LGBTI communities’ fundamental rights. All this new anti-gay legislation are based in countries where the Penal Code preview the criminalization of the same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults already, the so called sodomy laws. The reaction of the African Union to this increasing legal violence is incipient, handicapped by the African leaders who support this state sponsored homophobia. What are the impacts of those anti-gay legal reforms? How have the LGBTI Communities handled the situation? What strategies and mechanisms these groups have been used to defend their human rights? An approach to the judicial system, to demand the remedies of human rights violations, is one of those strategies. New African emblematic case law shows that the judicial system has remained immune to the general homophobia that sweeps the African societies and, by doing so, it stands as a last defense line for the African LGBTI populations. This panel aims to: identify the multiple dimensions of the legal and policy struggles of the LGBTI activist movements; think about the effectiveness of those strategies on ensuring constitutional rights of African LGBTI people; and think about what measures African Union’s mechanisms may adopt to improve the protection on this minorities.

Rui André Lima Gonçalves da Silva Garrido . CEI-IUL . Rui_Andre_Garrido@iscte.pt

Three strands are discernible in African homophobia discourse: traditionalist, biologistic, religious. Their origins go back to the colonial experience in Africa, but differ. African traditionalism claims homosexuality to be un-African: an imperial colonial import. Religious LGBTI adversaries phrase opposition to homosexuality in terms of un-Godliness. Other adversaries try to frame their opposition to LGBTI activism in terms of biology and nature.  These positions have been blended into a discursive package that is difficult to unravel. African evangelical churches backed by western donours join the traditionalists’ view of Africa as originally void of homosexual practice. Biologistic arguments that ring of late 19th century Western science meet with traditionalist voices alluding to a pristine Africa. All three join in metaphors of purification – despite obvious cognitive dissonances between them. Meanwhile, the colonizing structure that once brought homophobic world views, religion, science and law to Africa has remorphed into donour discourses speaking of human rights: Development aid will end, if LGBTI concerns are not recognized. In this, they hijack LGBTI issues for their concerns, jeopardising African LGBTI activism. What range of action does this leave for members of the LGBTI collective? Some of the more subversive examples happen in liminal spaces, often hidden from the all too public observer. But at the same time there are interesting niches out of which some issues are catapulted into the mediatic mainstream. It is the latter which I find interesting as potential catalysts for open-minded, curious and potentially supportive members of the African civil society. I suggest this is the potential that needs to be tapped into, if LGBTI activism is to succeed.

Axel Fleisch . University of Helsinki . axel.fleisch@helsinki.fi
Lena Seppinen . University of Helsinki . lena.seppinen@helsinki.fi

1.LGBTI rights- commonly viewed as ‘un-African’ and counter to African culture. Activists arguing for LGBTI rights seen as Westernised/ pandering to Western donors 2.Little research on the topic- much of the existing research shows high levels of intolerance to LGBTI people on the basis of culture and religion, particularly compared to tolerance to other discriminated groups (site AfriBarometer research) 3.Umunthu workshops project- turning this on its head by using Umunthu, a pan African philosophical concept of humanity,  combined with reflection on personal experiences of stigma and discrimination, to engage people in conversations about LGBTI people and our locally embedded ideologies that have governed Africans for generations. 4.In this paper, we will present findings from the research we have been doing alongside our Umunthu workshops. So far, this research has indicated promising positive shifts in attitudes towards LGBTI people amongst workshop participants.  5.African culture and philosophy is diverse, evolving and subject to interpretation. It is possible to use African belief systems- specifically those focusing on interdependence and tolerance- to invoke reflection and encourage greater tolerance of LGBTI people. Confrontational approaches can lead to a backlash which entrenches people more firmly in their beliefs. We consider that this more reflective approach has great potential in challenging discrimination and violence against LGBTI people.   6.Creative participatory approaches that take the participants down to their own familiar values and ideologies, that facilitate exploration of underlying basis of discrimination, could be the most effective way of impacting on popular thinking and achieve positive shift of attitude towards LGBTI people.

Rodger Phiri .Art and Global Health Center Africal . rodger.phiri@gmail.com
Hellen Todd . Art and Global Health Center Africa . Helen@aghcafrica.com