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ABSTRACT
This article examines two apparently contradictory uses of digital media during elections: in 2005, when still nascent digital tools were employed by Ethiopians to contest power in ways that pre-configured tactics later adopted by protesters elsewhere in Africa and globally; and in 2015, when digital publics displayed disenchantment towards an election with a foregone outcome. Relying on a mixed-methods approach, combining interviews with some of the very actors that shaped Ethiopia’s information society and the analysis of more than 3,000 statements posted on Facebook 3 months before and 1 month after Ethiopia’s elections on 24 May, the article offers an empirical examination of this contradiction, and how an authoritarian state has sought to influence online public discursive spaces. The findings suggest interpreting the effervescence of 2005 and the apathy of 2015 not as disjointed examples of active and passive uses of digital media. Especially when read against the background of the protests that erupted in the years following the elections, when digital media were embraced again as tools for mass mobilization, we propose reading the “digital apathy” of 2015 rather as a critique moved towards the fictitious apparatus for political participation erected in 2015, one that concurrently challenges the EPRDF’s hegemonic project, and the obsession of the international community towards elections as a tool for political change.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Stremlau, The Press and Consolidation of Power in Ethiopia and Uganda.
2 Editorial, The Reporter, 2, 21 May 2005,
3 Abbink, “Discomfiture of Democracy? The 2005 Election Crisis in Ethiopia and Its Aftermath.”
4 BBC, Ethiopian protesters “massacred”.
5 Emmenegger, “Decentralization and the Local Developmental State.”
6 Di Nunzio, “Do Not Cross the Red Line.”
7 Tronvoll, “The Ethiopian 2010 Federal and Regional Elections.”
8 Di Nunzio, “Do Not Cross the Red Line”; Tronvoll, “The Ethiopian 2010 Federal and Regional Elections.”
9 Facebook post, 27 May 2015.
10 Harlow and Johnson, “The Arab Spring Overthrowing the Protest Paradigm?”; Aouragh and Alexander, “The Arab Spring The Egyptian Experience.”
11 Treré, Jeppesen, and Mattoni, “Comparing Digital Protest Media Imaginaries.”
12 In late 2015, a series of protests erupted in Oromia state. The protests began out of concern on the part of Oromos about a plan to extend Addis Ababa into surrounding farmland (what has been known as the “master plan”) displacing farmers in the Oromia state. The protests, however, grew to reflect the deeper political, economic and cultural grievances that this community feels, and found an unnatural ally among the Amhara community, where the protests also spread. By late 2016, more than 11,000 people were arrested and more than 500 people been killed across the country, primarily in Oromia but also in Amhara, Addis Ababa and elsewhere as the demonstrations quickly morphed into a national movement. Dramatic restrictions on the media and ICTs were put in place as part of a state of emergency. Social media, mobile phone access to the internet and access to certain websites were frequently blocked as the government prohibited the use of social media to share information about the protests or the current situation. Opposition access to both the mass media and social media was restricted including criminalizing the viewing of some diaspora satellite channels. Many of these restrictions were lifted during 2018, amid an ongoing transition within the EPRDF.
13 Turton, “Introduction”; Pausewang, Tronvoll, and Aalen, Ethiopia since the Derg.
14 Fisher and Anderson, “Authoritarianism and the Securitization of Development in Africa”; Jones, de Oliveira, and Verhoeven, Africa’s Illiberal State-Builders.
15 Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, but one which has historically lamented domination from smaller ethnic groups in Northern Ethiopia – in ways that have been framed a form of internal colonization.
16 Warner, “Publics and Counterpublics.”
17 Banégas, Brisset-Foucault, and Cutolo, “Espaces publics de la parole”; Mbembe, On the Postcolony.
18 Gagliardone et al., “Mechachal.”
19 Elections-related statements were sampled every day, for a total of 72 statements per week. Half of the daily statements were sampled from Facebook graph search query of major keywords/hashtags. The most popular posts returned by this query were selected as well as the comments to these posts that either triggered a conversation, or have got the highest likes. The other half of the statements were selected from election sub-sampling frame listing election themed spaces. The top two most recent posts and two popular comments under each post are sampled daily from these spaces in a turn-by-turn manner.
20 Neuendorf, The Content Analysis Guidebook.
21 Fishkin, “Consulting the Public through Deliberative Polling”; Fishkin and Luskin, “Experimenting with a Democratic Ideal.”
22 Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy; Mouffe, On the Political.
23 For more detail, see Gagliardone et al., “Mechachal.”
24 Kalathil and Boas, Open Networks Closed Regimes; Deibert et al., Access Denied; Deibert et al., Access Controlled; Deibert et al., Access Contested; Morozov, The Net Delusion.
25 Skjerdal, “Journalists or Activists?”
26 In 2005 Internet penetration in Ethiopia was just 0.22 per cent and mobile penetration was just 0.55 per cent.
27 Wilson and Dunn, “Digital Media in the Egyptian Revolution”; Aouragh and Alexander, “The Arab Spring The Egyptian Experience.”
28 Ibid.
29 Gagliardone, “The Politics of Technology.”
30 Interview: Solomon Inquai, Mekelle, 2 July 2008.
31 Di Nunzio, Do Not Cross.
32 Incomplete – please correct.
33 Interview: Debretsion GebreMichael, Addis Ababa, 10 June 2008.
34 UMATI, Final Report.
35 Few rallies were organized by opposition parties ahead of the May elections and they were either attended by very few supporters or were disbanded by police. See, for example, Maasho, “Ruling Party Flexes Muslces”; Berhane, “Police Disbands Rally.”
36 Interview: EPRDF social media strategist, Addis Ababa, 20 April 2015.
37 Interview: member of Semayawi party, Addis Ababa, 12 April 2015.
38 During the three workshops in Addis Ababa where preliminary results were presented there was significant agreement that the ambition expressed at the top of the EPRDF political leadership to use social media for campaigning and engagement was frustrated by the fear of members at lower levels of the party’s hierarchy to make mistakes and pay the consequences.
39 Collier, Wars, Guns, Votes.
40 Somerville, “Violence, Hate Speech.”