Thoughts on Facebook as a tool for Zim activism
September 30th, 2009
As of late last night, Sokwanele is now officially on Facebook. You can find our Facebook page here.
If you are one of the many people who use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, you’ll now also be able to keep up with Sokwanele updates by becoming a ‘Fan’ of Sokwanele. This means you will be able to share news about Zimbabwe and Sokwanele activism campaigns etc directly with all your friends and family via your personal Facebook pages. (If you look to the right there’s a button in our sidebar providing a shortcut to ‘becoming a fan’ via This is Zimbabwe).
Those who do not have a Facebook account can still see our new page (thankfully you do not have to set up an account to see it!) but you won’t be able to interact with it in the same way Facebook members can. If you do not want to join up with Facebook, please be assured that This is Zimbabwe remains our main medium for important quick updates, and our main website is the portal for our projects.
Facebook presents groups like ours with an incredible opportunity to reach a wide range of people around the world and to keep them informed about what’s happening in Zimbabwe.
I am slightly skeptical though about the activism opportunities that many assume those big wide audiences really offer groups like ours.
I have a personal Facebook account, one I felt slightly pushed into getting one when a lot of dear friends and family scattered around the world started to use it as their main form of keeping in touch. I had to ‘join up to keep up’, or risk finding myself slightly disconnected from everyone else.
My Facebook experience – from my activist point of view – is to marvel at how easy it is to fire up a cause, set up a group and speed ahead on a mission. Or is it?
Some of these groups appear to be hugely successful, attracting vast groups of people to sign up their support. But I can’t help noticing that, among some people I know, a person who signs up to support one cause one day, is supporting a different cause the very next, and the next day its something else.
I have often wondered if Facebook offers its users a form of ‘lazy activism’ – a bit of a ‘get out clause’ when it comes to the nuts and bolts of activism. In other words, someone who has the ability to sign up to a cause with a click of a button feels as if, by doing so, they have ‘done their bit’ after which they move on, to the next cause, and then the next.
How long individuals remain focused on the atrocity at hand, or the goal to be achieved, is a debatable point, in my opinion. I fear that this might engender a sense that activism is easy and instant rather than the reality; it takes dedication, hard work and long term commitment to really bring about real change.
My intention is not to dissuade you all from linking up with us via Facebook - far from it: please ‘Fan us’ (is that the right terminology?) My hope instead is that we can address the shortcomings and possible pitfalls of activism via Facebook, but harness the positive benefits of a wider different audience and do things differently.
I would be very interested to know what regular Facebook users think of all this, and how they think Facebook could be made to be very useful to a group like ours, in a meaningful and enduring way, with regards bringing about democracy and freedom in Zimbabwe? Please email us, or leave a comment. The first topic on our Facebook discussion board is titled ‘Facebook as a tool for activism‘
p.s. We’re on Twitter too 
September 30th, 2009 17:05
I think that mass social networks like Facebook and Twitter are absolutely vital to activism, especially in the case of Zimbabwe.
Firstly, because there is such a large diaspora that are scattered around the world. It is a useful tool to connect Zimbabweans in the Americas, Europe, Australasia and Africa, well at least those who want to get involved.
As for those Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe, it can be used to disseminate information quickly to an outside audience, or to others within Zimbabwe such as warnings about impending violence.
It may appear easy to set up a group, but what makes it significant is how well it is managed. If users are kept up to date and are reminded to invite as many people as they know to join, it can quickly become more than just a group.
I think the best example we could use is the recent disputed Iranian election. The opposition were hopeless against such a brutal regime (sound familiar?), but Twitter and Facebook allowed them to be much more organized in arranging flash demonstrations, warnings of police and army movements, alerting the outside world to some of the atrocities being committed.
I think Sokwanele has done a great job with the current website, and I’m sure it’ll do even better with a wider audience on Facebook.
September 30th, 2009 17:45
Well done for this move to go onto Facebook !!It can only be a great tool for keeping everyone around the world in the loop as things unfold in that precious country.You are doing such a great job on this website as well, thank you so much for that.
October 1st, 2009 01:46
I thoroughly agree with the 2 comments above.
Facebook plays a vast array of roles in people’s different lives, priorities and usage of it – go for your niche in it, Sokwanele!