Document details

Redefining Global Citizenship Through Young African Digital Narratives: African Digital Cosmopolitanism on Instagram and TikTok

Africa No Filter (2022), iii, 14 pp.

Series: Academic Fellows Report

"The trending hashtags analysed in this study all appeared at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when a range of Western media suggested that the African continent would be hit worst. However, as Western nations (such as the US and the UK) struggled under increased disease burden, content such as the #DontRushChallenge, #DontLeaveMeChallenge and #JerusalemaChallenge kept global social media audiences entertained and aware. These challenges should not be underestimated for their subversion of the idea of what popular narratives Africans can produce and engage in. The fact that a gospel Zulu song became an anthem for collective Covid-19 solidarity and entertainment is significant. Many users would not have understood the words of the song or identified the religious genre it belonged to. But the song's Creolisation of African cultures, through its infusion of Angolan dance techniques created a hybrid African cosmopolitan aesthetic that was easy for others to partake of. Thus emerged a sort of “solidarity from below”, as discussed in the literature review." (Discussion, page 11)