Heir to the throne: photography and the rise to presidency by politicians in Zimbabwe and South Africa

Abstract

Photographs are rarely given much academic attention, especially, in Africa. This is against the popular use of photography in political communication. Against this background, this study examines the use of photographs in communicating political power in Zimbabwe and South Africa. The study will analyse photographs that circulated on Twitter on the week when Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South African assumed the power as Presidents of their respective countries in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Through the use of visual discourse analysis, as an analysis method, findings demonstrate that Mnangagwa and Ramaphosa were visually framed as the rightful heirs to the throne. The study further found that visual memories are used to ‘argue’ and make sense of the present. However, photography further evoked sad memories of the past that often characterise Mnangagwa and Ramaphosa’s political image and these are the ghosts of Gukurahundi and Marikana massacres, respectively.