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DigiActive News: Seeking Africa Correspondents

DigiActive.org is seeking volunteer correspondents to write about digital activism in Africa. Please direct inqueries to Mary Joyce (Mary@digiactive.org).

What will the DigiActive Africa Correspondent(s) write about? The Africa Correspondent(s) will write posts for DigiActive about how activists in Africa are using digital technology in their campaigns for social and political change. Some African digital activism cases that have previously been featured on DigiActive include the No More than 24 campaign from Kenya and the Election Watch Map from Zimbabwe. And we expect more to come!

What about cross-posting? The Africa Correspondent(s) will also be responsible for cross-posting on Kabissa.org, an NGO which provides civil society organizations in Africa with Internet services and training in order to help each one achieve their mission. This means that you get to be publish each post you write on two web sites for double the authorship credit!

How often should I write? Ideally we ask correspondents to write one post per week, though there is some flexibility depending on your schedule and other commitments.

Sounds great! Where to I sign up? If you are interested in becoming a volunteer correspondent for DigiActive (for Africa or anywhere else), please contact Mary@digiactive.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

Campaign: “No More Than 24!” Cabinet Ministers for Kenya

President Mwai Kibaki (l) shakes hands with Prime Minister Raila Odinga as former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan looks on. The power-sharing deal produced an expensive extended bureaucracy.

Description: In an effort to create a coalition government after the turbulent elections, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga agreed in April to increase the Kenyan cabinet to 40 members. However, many Kenyans believed this was an unwieldy number, which only increase bureaucratic deadlock. There was a campaign to limit the cabinet to 24 members, a more reasonable figure.

Digital Activism tools: SMS, e-petition

How These Tools Are Being Used: There were two online elements of this campaign, but it is unclear whether they are connected. Mzalendo.com, “eye on the Kenyan Parliament,” promoted a campaign by Kenyans for Peace and Justice to send SMS messages to political representative urging the 24 member limit. The Mzalendo site hosts a list of 59 MP mobile phone numbers for people to use in the action. “Given the current impasse, there is still an opportunity to urge OUR elected representatives to stop being selfish and to put the nation’s interest before their personal interests,” states the site. “It adds strength to your sms if you personalize it by addressing the MP directly,” the site recommends. “e.g., ‘Mr. Saitoti, Kenyans want a lean, clean cabinet.’”

In addition to the SMS campaign there was also and online petition being promoted by the African human rights organization Fahamu, via their news service, Pambazuka News. The petition, which demands that the grand coalition government consist of no more than 24 ministers, was signed by 170 people. “As your employers we oppose the looting of our public coffers and demand that these monies go towards development of our schools, hospitals, infrastructure and post election reconstruction efforts,” reads the petition.

Outcome: Not successful. Earlier today, the cabinet met for the first time since being sworn in three weeks ago. There are 40 ministers and 52 deputy ministers in the coalition government. The cabinet is the largest in the history of post-independence Kenya and salaries alone for these new ministers will cost the Kenyan taxpayer $1.5 million a month.

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Tactic: Facebook used in tracking war criminals

Description: Anti-genocide group Aegis Trust created a campaign using the social networking site Facebook to find alleged war criminals in Darfur.

Tools used: Facebook, Google Maps and e-petition

What Are They Doing: Aegis is asking Internet users to provide updates on their Facebook page about the whereabouts of suspects – Sudan’s Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Harum and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb. The International Criminal Court has indicated both men for over 40 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

Aegis Trust is also using Google Maps to track the last-known movements of the suspects. Users can also go to Aegis’ “Wanted for War Crimes” webpage to sign a petition that will be automatically emailed to members of the United Nations Security Council.

“The men on the watch list are suspected of hundreds of thousands of murders,” said Dr James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust in a recent statement. “Someone, somewhere, knows where they are. They shouldn’t be allowed to live out their last days in luxury. Their futures lies in a courtroom. That’s what their victims deserve.”

Campaign: “What would you like a free Zimbabwe to look like?”

Description of Campaign: The outcome of the recent presidential election has still not been announced and while President Robert Mugabe is campaigning in expectation of a run-off election, opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai is asking for international assistance in pressuring Mugabe to step down (source: AP). In this time of political uncertainty, civil society community site Kubatana.net is running a e-mail and SMS campaign to engage ordinary Zimbabweans in their country’s political future.

Digital Activism Tools: e-mail, blog, FrontlineSMS, mobile phones

How These Tools Are Being Used: Kubatana sent out a text message to their mobile contact list:

Kubatana! No senate results as at 5.20 pm. What changes do YOU want in a free Zim? Lets inspire each other. Want to know what others say? SMS us your email addr

They then collected responses via e-mail and FrontlineSMS, a text-messaging hub for grassroots NGOs. The collected responses which were then distributed via an electronic newsletter and on the Kubatana Community Blog. After the election, Kubatana hopes to produce a booklet with a page on some of these ideas and some editorial commentary on the campaign, as well as a cartoon or even a set of postcards carrying the most “unique, original and practical ideas”.

examples of the campaign’s SMS responses after the jump…

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Tactic: Zimbabwe Election Watch Map

Description: This mashup overlays a Google map of Zimbabwe with information about breaches in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections* since July 2007.

Map URL: http://www.sokwanele.com/map/all_breaches

Organizer: Zimbabwe Election Watch, a project of the Zimbabwean movement blog www.Sokwanele.com

Purpose of Action: To make an accessible visual representation of complex longitudinal data about breaches in electoral standards.

Organizing Tools: Google maps, a blog

Outcome: Results of the March 29, 2008 election will be announced on Monday, March 31..

Ease of Replication: Creating a basic Google map with your own locations is pretty easy. Adding customizable icons and creating preferences that allow you to display only certain icons takes a little more skill.

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Con: Digital Activism and the Digital Divide in Kenya

Although this site is about how technology empowers activists on a global scale, we must not be blind optimists or think of digital activism as a panacea. For this reason we include thoughtful criticism of digital activism. If we want to make truly meaningful change we must address the Pros & Cons of digital activism.

Today’s note of digital skepticism comes from the Kenyan blogger White African in a post entitled “It’s Not About Us, it’s About Them” he writes:

While blogging, emails, Twitter and the internet are doing a great deal of good getting the news out of what’s going on in Kenya to the rest of the world, I find myself troubled. You see, the communication that needs to be happening is at the grassroots level. Everyday Kenyans do not have access to any of these services.
Let’s put our minds and capabilities towards solving real problems for people beyond the technologically elite.

Let’s put our minds and capabilities towards solving real problems for people beyond the technologically elite.

Action Alert: Avaaz Calls for Mediation in Kenya

What? Kenya Crisis: Support Kofi Annan Campaign
When? now!
Where? on the Avaaz website
How? Send a message to your government to show Kenya’s leaders that the world supports mediation (the total number of messages sent will be published in a full-page ad in the East Africa Standard in Kenya.)
Why? To stop the violence in Kenya.
Who is organizing the action? international digital advocacy organization Avaaz.org

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Tool: Wikis

Tool Description: A wiki is a web page which users can easily edit and add content to by clicking an “edit” tab on the page.
Activist Application: Following the tumultuous elections in Kenya, a Lithuanian activist, Andrius Kulikauskas, is using his community wiki to offer help and provide information about the situation.
Ease of Use: Fairly easy. You can create a wiki for free at sites like Wikispaces.com. This page explains the basics of wiki syntax (the codes for italics, bold, links, etc.). Here is a video which explains the basics of using a wiki:

Tool: Twitter

Tool Description: Twitter is social network where people update their friends about their actions in real-time via SMS. People can read your SMS posts online.
Activist Application: Kenyan blogger AfroMusing used her Twitter channel to send news updates on the unstable situation in the country following the recent elections. The Twitter channel KenyaNews has been set up specifically to update people on the latest news out of Kenya.
Ease of Use: Easy. Just sign up for a Twitter account here and inform your friends of your Twitter channel.

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Tactic: SMS/Map Mashup Protects Human Rights in Kenya

Description: Ushahidi.com is a Kenyan web site that records reports of violence sent by SMS and e-mail on a Google Earth map. It provides living testimony to the atrocities committed following the recent presidential elections in that country. (”Ushahidi” means “testimony” in Kiswahili.)

Organizer: The idea for the Ushahidi web site was created by the bloggers behind KenyanPundit.com, WhiteAfrican.com, MentalAcrobatics.com, AfroMusing.com, and Skunkworks and was built by developer David Kobia.

Purpose of Action: To create a visual map of human rights abuses.

Organizing Tools: SMS, Google Earth, web site

Outcome: A political resolution to the election crisis has not yet been reached.

Ease of Replication: Replicating the Ushahidi map is rather difficult, as it is actually a mash-up of SMS messages and a Google map. You will need a developer friend to make it. However, other digital map applications, like Frappr, are quite easy to use.

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