(Online) Politics from Below in Sub-Saharan Africa
Abstract
Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the academic literature on political engagement and belonging in ‘digital Africa’, a term used to describe the digitally mediated lifeworlds of sub-Saharan Africans and those in the diaspora. The digital is increasingly becoming a site of public expression and civic agency in sub-Saharan Africa. Three premises undergird much of this body of research: (1) citizenship is understood to be a flexible category, malleable, negotiable, and to be played with; (2) the digital space provides a peculiar, ‘different’ terrain for political action, ‘different’ from the political stakes of ‘non digital’, oral, written, and performed popular culture, even when broadcast on radio or television; and (3) the digital itself can become a site through which questions of citizenship are posed.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Social Media and Politics
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Looking for the Political in Africa
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressOxford
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 71–97
- Publication date
- 15 May 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter