Challenging power through social media

Abstract

Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. However, in recent years, hehas faced serious resistance from ordinary citizens. This article examines subversive internetmemes that were created by ordinary Zimbabweans and posted on social media in the aftermathof Robert Mugabe’s collapse at the Harare International airport on 4 February 2015. Firstly, thestudy reads internet memes of the Mugabe fall as forms of resistance to the regime. Secondly,it interrogates the methods that internet memes use to challenge official discourse. Thirdly, thestudy critically analyses the various ways in which internet meme creators imagine and representZimbabwe under the Mugabe regime. The article argues that internet memes of the “Mugabe fall”express subversive views that undermine the regime through humour, exaggeration, satire andother stylistic devices. Internet memes present an alternative discourse that counters the officialnarrative promoted by the regime.