Here’s a great piece by Chris Kwabato. He reflects on how “social” social media actually is, reminding us that we don’t get buried on the Internet.

When Facebook won’t bury you

We buried Mbuya Mashonga one warm May afternoon on the outskirts of Dangamvura in Mutare, Zimbabwe. Hundreds of people turned up both for the church service and the burial itself. It wasD’vat Chete interesting to see the scramble to get on the provided transport that was taking mourners to the cemetery. This was clearly a woman who was loved by the community in which she lived in.

As I cast my eyes across those present it seemed like the mothers and fathers of my youth were all there. Indeed earlier on, two of the women had chided me, “Kana wasvika kuno ukwazise vamwe. Tisu vana mai vako” (when you visit here make sure you greet us. We are your mothers.”) With a mother at every corner is it any wonder for over a century some folk always failed to understand when every couple of months a worker asked for time off to bury his grandmother. “How many times does your grandmother die, Maphepha?”

Now for the hundreds of thousands of our people in Diaspora their sense of community is largely built around social networks. Most of them are on Facebook, a few on Twitter and a handful others on LinkedIn. Everyone abroad and at home seems to have a mobile phone and so they keep in touch via sms. So, on the surface then it seems all is fine because most of us are connected.

But technology will never supplant the value of meeting people in person, shaking their hand, giving them a bear hug, looking them in the eye or just raising your glass and saying, “Cheers”. I should know because I am one of those that seem to spend their entire life online.

On the other side is my Sekuru who is always at every family-related event – awards, weddings, birthdays, funerals etc. He finds time to do that whereas some of us are caught up in the pretence of thinking we are so critical to the world that if we stop to greet people human civilisation as we know it would be under unprecedented threat. We think Facebook and some wiring of a couple of dollars will do the trick. But at some point in our lives (normally rather too late) we shall realise that the most important things in life are not what we had been chasing.

At the funeral I reconnected with real people – Lyndon, Percy, Job and others and also managed to have a real conversation accompanied by real handshakes.  That might sound absurd to you but it was important to me as I live in a place where I don’t know the names of my neighbours. When I was growing up I was taught that you asked your neighbours for some salt not because you did not have but so that you could meet and get to know each other. But this is not the culture of some folk.

At the same time, it seems the Diaspora is generally more comfortable exchanging pleasantries on Facebook than stepping out and building real communities. In saying this I should add that there are some good examples of how Zimbabweans are using Facebook to organise themselves meaningfully.

One Facebook group that fascinates me (I suppose it is because it speaks to the world I grew up in) is called Dangamvura Chete. Let me describe the group and it’s kind of conversations to illustrate a few points.

The Dangamvura Chete group describes their township of origin in the Manicaland Province as follows: Munezhu via Natvest (Dangamvura). A location we grew up in with all sorts of fun, full of rich entertaining incidences you can mention them to bring back the golden old days…We stay too far from town and it encouraged us to be wiser and organized. God bless the Pool ”Dangamvura” and its people all over the world…Socially it’s quite a good place with pubs in nearly all sections of the city a culture quite popular with all city councils ”a cow ready to milk”. What lacks are sports fields, we need an Olympic-size stadium, pool and any other facility you might think of fellow club members.

Who qualifies to be a member? Interestingly, the group is closed, meaning it is an invitation-only affair. Most of these members are now living outside both Dangamvura itself and Zimbabwe.

What kind of conversations do they have? The group thrives on nostalgia. More importantly it brings people together and therefore fosters collective memory.

Below is an example of a conversation started by one member:

Morzies Mustapha M: Was just thinking, we cud set up a Dangamvura Trust, which will look at some requirements of our Hood, Sporting Facilities, Health Club, HIV/AIDS Program, Children’s Home, Old People etc. If we are game we can get inputs from those on the ground (i.e those still staying in D’vat), then we put a committee in place, then give a bit back to the community that made most of us who we are today. Can we discuss this?

In response Eddie M wrote:  It is a gr8t idea & a very sensitive 1. How are we going to meet obviously dis is not gonna b discused on facebook & frm de luks of it we are all ova de wrld. We mst make it wrk mayb frm branches in different places.

Houston R wrote: Way to go bro I want in… How can we all meet and form this group guys.. Moze, this is a goood idea, let’s give back to our community.. It made us who we are today by the way…

Judith G wrote: Let’s try people good idea.

Having gone through the trauma of dislocation, there is a growing sense in the Diaspora of wanting to find a role in the rehabilitation of Zimbabwe. Now that for me is the kenge part – to step out of Facebook and build a country. Afterall kumusha is where we will bury you. Not on the Internet.

This is from the very cool blog Marklives. Let’s hope we get some creative, rather than vitriolic, political posters during Zimbabwe’s next election.

The Client: Stellenbosch Eerste
The Agency: Am I Collective for agency Limbik

The Brief: Stellenbosch Eerste, a non-political initiative, wanted to address voter apathy by highlighting local issues that affect Stellenbosch residents. In phase one residents were reminded to register to vote, phase two reminded them to cast their ballot.

Creative Solution: Am I Collective used 50′s style political poster art as inspiration to portray a beautiful town in stages of decay due to bad administration. The posters addressed the various local issues such as dirty rivers and over-extended dumping grounds. It ran in the local press and as street posters. Registration went up 10% on previous election years.

Creative Team: Am I Collective

See the posters here

“What happened in Egypt is sending shock waves to all dictators around the world. No weapon but unity of purpose. Worth emulating hey.”

- Vikas Mavhudzi’s post on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Facebook wall. Mavhudzi is facing charges of posting offensive messages (Source: Mail & Guardian)

At a OSISA brown bag discussion on the role of new media in the pro-democracy struggles in southern Africa on Friday, one participant discussed a current tactic in use by organisers in Swaziland.

He explained that they have launched a cultural boycott, along the lines of the one which deterred artists and athletes from travelling to South Africa during apartheid.

As he described it, a number of artists had already agreed to boycott the Bushfire Festival held over the weekend, including Baba Caiphus Semenya. However, he noted that Oliver Mtukudzi was billed to perform at the festival, and activists had been unable to get in touch with him to advise him not to come. He informed the meeting that Semenya had been tasked with appealing to Tuku directly to encourage him to join the boycott. However, he said, he knew Tuku was a democrat, and he had every confidence that he would heed the boycott call. He said a separate event in South Africa was being planned, to support the artists who had honoured the boycott with a different source of performance revenue.

But a statement released on Tuku’s website Friday afternoon shared that some Swazi activists had allegedly “threatened to harm Tuku with unspecified action” if he performed at the Bushfire Festival. On his website, Tuku said:

“Those who are threatening my life actually need healing themselves and I will ensure my music heals their anger and help them think properly. That is the purpose of art. Music must be a remedy in times of strife and artists must be given a chance to fulfill that obligation.”

He explained that he would be performing at Bushfire as planned, and that:

“The threats don’t deter me from doing my job as an artist. I have a responsibility to help heal where there is conflict. I must unite people where politicians are dividing us. It’s the business of politicians to separate people, as usual, and I am not surprised by the threats. All my life my music has promoted love, peace, tolerance and human rights and must be viewed as such. Thinking otherwise would be unfair.”

Radio VOP reported that Tuku performed on the weekend to around 15,000 people.

Whilst musicians may indeed be able to unite societies and create spaces for dialogue instead of conflict, I can understand the value of a cultural boycott. Amongst other things, it denies a government the revenue, and legitimacy, that international events can provide. The success of the South African example has inspired others to take a similar stance – for example in the Israeli / Palestinian conflict.

As Desmond Tutu said:

Just as we said during apartheid that it was inappropriate for international artists to perform in South Africa in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity, so it would be wrong for Cape Town Opera to perform in Israel.

In fairness to artists, it’s important that calls for a boycott be clear and consistent. In this case, there was some back-and-forth about whether the boycott was still on, which the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) dismissed as an attempt by the Festival organisers to misinform people that the boycott had been lifted.

Certainly, threatening someone’s safety should they come and perform falls more in the category of blackmail than persuasion.

But activist organisations like the Swaziland Solidarity Network insist the boycott is on, and will remain until Swaziland is democratised. For years, Zimbabweans have asked others in the region to support our efforts to democratise. With artists like Caiphus Semenya, Professor, L’Vovo Derrango, and Deep House DJ Black Coffee supporting the Swazi boycott, what will it take for artists like Tuku to follow suit?

A subscriber shared this information with us on current events in Europe:

Please pay some attention to the peaceful revolution that is taking place in Spain, France and elsewhere. 3000 people were teargassed in Paris yesterday outside the Bastille. It’s the first time in years people are waking up and in just 2 weeks the movement has already come up with proposals the politicians will have to listen to. There are meetings in the main squares which we are trying to decentralise into districts. People of all ages though a lot of young people. Small & large assemblies which are slow but give us all an idea of what a real democracy would be about. The international media are trying their best to ignore it. We want worldwide demonstrations & camps against inequality & lack of political representation of citizens worldwide. Date of reference is 15 May, next 15 June and there’s talk of trying to get a worldwide demonstration happening on 15 August.

- Here is a link to Plaza del Sol, Madrid
- Read more about these events here