Social media, COVID-19 and the ‘Second Republic’ in Zimbabwe

Abstract

When President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to power in November 2017, he promised a new Zimbabwe of political tolerance and economic prosperity. However, more than three years after his inauguration, the question of what transitioned with the 2017 political transition still lingers, with some sections of Zimbabwean society already calling for his resignation. This chapter critically examines how ordinary Zimbabweans use social media as a platform to counter the Mnangagwa regime’s rhetoric of a new Zimbabwe. The chapter draws on Mbembe’s ideas of ‘necropolitics’ (2013) and ‘postcolonial dramaturgy’ (2001) to examine the use and abuse of power in the postcolony and how ordinary citizens deploy internet memes as tools of discursive resistance that interrupt the excesses of the political elite. The analysis is based on internet memes posted on President Mnangagwa’s Facebook page between 12 March and 16 May 2020. This period is significant in that it coincides with the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe and the beginning of government efforts to contain it. Although most official messages posted in this period were about the COVID-19 pandemic, ordinary Zimbabweans used the president’s Facebook page and the COVID-19 crisis as platforms to mock and ridicule official representations of post-Mugabe Zimbabwe.