Vol 38, No 2 (2019)

The advent of social media communication platforms, specifically blogs as sites of political
engagement, means that they now constitute the key carriers of democratic public discourse.
Previously marginalised groups such as women can now deliberate, interpret and re-frame their
own narratives and identities. This article examines how Zimbabwean women are using blogs
to resist and subvert women’s ascribed identities, improve the political, economic and cultural
representations of women, and enhance women’s participation in politics. Using feminist critical
theory, the article describes how women-owned content from selected Zimbabwean blogs
frames women’s political, economic and cultural identities, and how women producing their own
messages are improving women’s representation in society. Data obtained through qualitative
content analysis of blog posts reveal that, as sites of agency, blogs offer possibilities for reframing
and re-presenting women’s political and cultural identities. Blogs act as sites for the
subversion of ascribed identities that continue to position women as second-class citizens. The
article concludes that digital media, particularly blogs, can be used as sites of resistance to power
by bringing to the fore counter narratives that have been obscured from mainstream discourse,
and at the same time affording women direct influence over their public image.

This paper reports on the use of online blogs as spaces where Black South African women create
sisterhoods and self-define. Using online blogs, the women learn about natural black hair, affirm
blackness and resist hierarchal ideologies of beautiful hair. Whereas predominantly, existing
studies find that media representations of beauty and beautiful hair are defined via whiteness and
that Black women also participate in self-production in ways that suggest an acceptance of the
hierarchy that locates Black looks at the margins, very little research has been done about Black
women who resist the hegemonic representation of and assumed superior status of white looks
in general and flowing hair specifically. Drawing on two theories: whiteness and Africana womanism, and using purposive sampling, this study examined 17 qualitative interviews with Black South African women and Chocolate Hair
Sisters, Natural Sisters, and FroChic three online blogs started by Black South African women
advocating for natural hair. The findings indicate that online spaces have become sites of resistance, learning, positive Black
affirmation, and support for and by Black women – sisterhood nets. In interviews, women narrated
stories of how they had to learn to nurture and love their hair, something they were not taught
from an early age. The absence of knowledge about dealing with natural hair led women to the
online blogs where they found e-learning communities of sisters. This study’s focus is how social
hierarchies of appearance are contested online and overflow to offline spaces to affirm physical
features of a race long-marginalised in social understandings of beauty.

Nigerian women face patriarchal subjugation and intimidation both politically, economically and
socially, just like most women in all parts of Africa. But this scenario seems to be different in the
social media landscape, where young Nigerian women are not only making waves but are calling
the shots as well. This study is aimed at critically assessing the Nigerian blogosphere in order to
ascertain how five female bloggers, namely Linda Ikeji, Uche Pedro, Stella Dimoko Korkus, Tosin
Ajibade and Judith Emike Audu-Foght, have impacted positively on the lives of women. The study
reviewed relevant literature and also analysed what women-related contents each of the five
bloggers post in their various blogs. Apart from the study of the contents of the blogs, interviews
were employed in collecting relevant data from the bloggers. These two approaches helped in
answering the research questions which guided the study. The paper concludes that through
blogging, the identities of Nigerian women have been positively impacted on in various ways like
in the building of portfolios, sharing of knowledge, self-expression and building of professional
networks. The study recommends that since the mainstream media have failed to give voices to
African women, it is high time women take it upon themselves and better their identities through
the opportunities offered by the internet.

The web 2.0 has revolutionised the way in which we communicate with the effect that marginalised
groups, including women, can represent themselves – instead of being represented from
another’s perspective. However, this article argues that the blur of mainstream media and web
2.0 allows men to assume a superior status to women – especially in the global South. The thesis
of this article proffers a fresh insight that goes beyond the descriptions of how the web creates
contraflows of information for Southern women. At the heart of the debate is the impact garnered
– or rather lack of it – when user-generated content from the web 2.0 is used to counterbalance
issues from a mainstream point of reference. Using two independent Ugandan media houses as
case studies, the article explains data collected through participant observation and unstructured
interviews. The article finds that while Southern women have managed to use online spaces
(periphery) to acknowledge their sisterhood, an awareness of intersectionality in the mainstream
(centre) is conspicuously absent. It draws on the feminist communication theory as informed by
feminism and finds that men continue to be privileged when online (periphery) and offline (centre)
communities are blurred. To address this, women will have to robustly participate in the news
construction process at the “centre.”

On 18 April 2016, Dr Stella Nyanzi, then, a researcher at the Makerere Institute of Social Research
(MISR) stripped in protest against being evicted from her office by Professor Mahmood Mamdani,
Director of MISR. The conflict that had been brewing for years between the two was primarily
around Nyanzi’s refusal to teach on the PhD programme at MISR. Though Nyanzi had people
endorsing her choice of protest, others criticised her. Drawing on the Othering theory, this paper
examines the ways in which criticisms to Dr Nyanzi’s protest were represented on YouTube.
First, Nyanzi was framed on the social media platform as mad. Second, Nyanzi was regarded as
having contravened behaviour expected of ‘educated people.’ Third, her stripping was framed
as unholy and unAfrican. Fourth, Nyanzi’s undressing was labelled criminal. Nyanzi’s othering
served to discredit her protest. Many of Nyanzi’s critics neglected to engage with the issues that
she raised.