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Between Flaming and Laudation: Political Websites, Social Media,
and Democratic
Participation in Niger Gado Alzouma1
Abstract: In Africa, like elsewhere in the world, political
actors are now increasingly using websites, blogs, online
discussion forums, interactive newspapers, and online television
and radio to foster civic participation in communities. Social
media recently played a central role in what came to be known as
the Arab Spring and is also being used by modern African political
actors in order to contribute to democratic change. This paper
analyses the contributions of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) to democratic participation and online
political discussions in Niger and particularly focuses on the use
of ICTs for political mobilization and related strategies that
actors (parties, rebel organizations, Diasporas, and citizens) are
deploying on various digital platforms. The paper argues that
traditional notions of power relations and political communication,
as well as the nature of the digital tools used, are determinant in
conferring (or not conferring) a democratic character to online
discussions and political participation.
Keywords: Political participation; Social media; Political
websites; Facebook; Niger Republic; ICTs; Online forums.
Introduction The use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) for political activities is sustained and
enhanced worldwide by the current rapid pace of adoption of
computers and the Internet. For example, between 2005 and 2011, the
number of Internet users more than doubled to reach two billion
1 American University of Nigeria, Yola, Nigeria
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globally (International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2011).
More importantly, while the use of some technologies was until
recently confined to certain societies or to specific segments of
society for either economic or social reasons, or because of their
(the technologies) functionalities, ICTs today are used on all
continents by all strata of society. The spread of ICTs is
particularly remarkable on such continents as Africa that has been
traditionally left outside the global trend toward economic
development and technological innovation. According to Internet
World Statistics, although the Internet penetration rate in Africa
is still low, standing at only 15% of the population in 2012, it is
growing rapidly.
In view of such growth in Africa, numerous authors (Freeman,
1995; Davison, Vogel, Harris, and Jones, 2000; Steinmueller, 2001;
Fleming, 2003; Polikanov & Abramova, 2003) and international
organizations like the World Bank (2001) and the United Nations
(UN) agencies (African Development Forum, 1999; UNDP, 2001) have
associated the spread of ICTs with important implications for
economic development and social change. Other authors (Grossman,
1995; Browning & Weitzner, 1996; Ott, 1998; Norris, 2001;
Clift, 2002) have argued that this use of ICTs will foster
democratic participation, weaken state control over media and
citizens, and expand civic engagement, particularly in the African
countries. However, only a few authors (Alzouma, 2006; 2008;
Donner, 2007; Hahn & Kibora, 2008; Sey, 2010; de Bruijn,
Nyamjoh, & Brinkman, 2009; Chneau-Loquay, 2002; 2010) have thus
far addressed the everyday lived experience of Africans with ICTs.
In terms of that everyday lived experience of sub-Saharan Africans
use of ICTs in relation to political activities, with a few notable
exceptions (Abdi & Deane, 2008; Lefko-Everett, 2009; Ekine et
al., 2010; Crossland & Chigona, 2010), those studies have
mostly addressed the potential of ICTs for enhancing democratic
participation and civic engagement, but have not indicated the ways
that ICTs are specifically being used by political parties and
grassroots citizens to fulfil this goal and how effective such ICT
uses are.
This paper proposes to analyse how ICTs are affecting everyday
political discussions and political participation in the Republic
of Niger. It will particularly focus on strategies for political
mobilization and the deliberation tools and techniques that actors
(parties, rebel organizations, the diaspora, and citizens) are
deploying online. The paper argues that the pre-existing social
conceptions of power relations between groups and actors are what
determine the nature of digital political participation and the
debates. It shows that ICTs are not used as dynamic and democratic
tools for political mobilization and participation in Niger, but
rather to prolong traditional information control and information
dissemination patterns and practices among political leaders and
organizations. In this context, website activities
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are essentially characterized by a downward approach to
political communication (i.e., from the upper positions in the
political hierarchy toward the lower positions). As such, the
websites and related digital tools have limited empowerment effects
for promoting democratic participation and democratic
discussions.
However, while the websites and social media used by political
leaders and organizations function as an authoritarian and
unidirectional traditional model of political communication, mainly
characterized by the laudation of leaders, online forums actually
allow debates that could be defined as democratic with the
existence of a significant number of disagreeing positions and
flaming which earlier researchers defined as the expression of
strong and inflammatory opinions (See Moor, 2008, p.7), a frequent
and common attitude. Some authors have explained these notable
differences between online forums and political websites. For
instance, the fact that anonymity on online forums ensures that
participants are not personally identifiable and therefore cannot
be held accountable for what they write has been highlighted
(Streck, 1998; Davis, 1999). They can also avoid, to some extent,
potential retaliation or punishment, even in the context of an
authoritarian regime. With the recent occurrence of Facebook,
members profiles, including pictures and full names, are displayed,
a characteristic that may affect discourse in this unique space
(Kushin & Kitchener, 2009, p. 4), particularly in countries
like Niger, which has been historically characterized by
dictatorship and political abuses and where the discussion of
certain issues, such as ethnicity, still remains very sensitive.
Thus, although ICTs do enhance political actors and citizens
capacities for activism and political participation and
discussions, the tools do so in only a limited way that also
depends on the nature of each digital network.
This paper is divided into three parts. The first part discusses
how various authors have traditionally analysed ICTs as new working
tools for political activism and participation and what in their
(ICTs) features offers transformative implications in that regard.
The second part analyses the structural constraints that currently
affect access to ICTs in Niger, the Nigerien political websites'
designs, and whether the digital platforms currently used take into
account Nigers cultural and social realities, and the direction of
information flow on those websites. The intent here is to try and
assess their (the websites) democratic and participatory character.
In the last part, arguing that the current patterns of political
use of ICTs in Niger actually prolong previous forms of social and
political control and thus do not result in more empowerment or
democratic participation for ordinary citizens concludes the
discussion.
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Background In recent years, the political implications of ICTs
have been particularly illustrated by events that took place in
various North African countries. Those events are now known as the
Arab Spring (Ben Moussa, 2010; Chokoshvili, 2011; Spier, 2012).
However, even before the fall of Mubarak (former president of
Egypt) and the demise of Ben Ali (former president of Tunisia), the
use of ICTs for political activity had sparked a vast literature
that sought to demonstrate the potential of these technologies for
mobilization, participation, and civic engagement. That literature
first focused on the features of new ICTs compared to previous
instruments of political communication. From this perspective, the
authors argued that the main difference between the Internet and
previous communication technologies, such as radio, television,
cassettes, and compact discs, lay in the fact that the Internet
enables users to have access to existing information at a scale
never attained before. More importantly, users are not just passive
receivers of information but can also be creators and
disseminators. They can transmit, exchange, and process unlimited
information, a living book in effect that can be continuously
nourished and enriched. Thus, according to Ward and Gibson (2000),
the key properties of ICTs, and particularly the Internet, offer
five distinctive ways to change the nature of communication ( p.
394). These are (a) the (unlimited) volume or quantity of
information that can be transmitted and exchanged between users,
(b) the speed or almost simultaneous transmission and reception of
all information, (c) a format that can be displayed in a written
form, as well as video or as audio, (d) the direction or
interactive and synchronous character of the information exchanged,
and (e) the individual control or decentralized character of what
is being communicated.
Some other authors (Mueller, 1999; Rheingold, 2000) have noted
that we should add to those five characteristics of ICTs, the fact
that the lines between particular ICT devices are being blurred,
owing to the increasing technological convergence that allows
mobile phones and the Internet to perform similar tasks. Today, a
mobile phone user no longer necessarily needs a radio, a TV, or a
computer to perform any single functionality of those devices. The
technologies are rapidly evolving, shifting authors attention from
one aspect or device to another often at different periods of time.
For example, while social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) and
mobile phones are increasingly becoming the preferred objects of
inquiry in the second decade of the 21st century, in the 1990s and
2000s, most analyses focused on the website activities of political
parties, political leaders, and candidates during the electoral
process or on rebellious movements and civil society digital
activism in general. Those authors who
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analysed the structure of the political system in the network
society (van Dijk, 1999) or political website activities (Ward
& Gibson, 2000; Dartnell, 2006) particularly highlighted the
functions ICTs and the sites played in relation to distributing
political information and the communication needs of political
organizations and governments. Ward and Gibson summarise these
functions as information provision, campaigning, resource
generation, networking, and promoting participation (2000, pp.
306-307). It should also be noted that in the use of these concepts
and corresponding analytical tools, attention is now more and more
being shifted toward the developing countries, particularly Africa.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), grassroots organizations,
and civil societies, as well as international development
organizations and all kinds of activists, are today using those
concepts as operational ideas and guiding principles in their
everyday struggles for democracy and political participation.
Thus, more literature is now being devoted to the potential of
ICTs to foster political change and active citizenship in Africa
(Bohler-Muller & van der Merwe, 2011). This literature is
characterized by a broad range of ideas and views on how ICTs can
(or cannot) contribute to transforming society and politics in
Africa. From this perspective, the theoretical positions and
epistemological orientations taken by the various authors have
usually manifested a kind of binary opposition where utopian views
are opposed to dystopian ones; technological determinism confronts
sociological determinism; optimistic stances run counter to
pessimistic approaches; and the power of agency contrasts with the
effects of structures.
Authors like Rheingold (1993), Schwartz (1996), or Barber (1998)
have usually been associated with the cyber-optimistic orientation
due to their tendency to view digital technologies as a mechanism
that facilitates alternative channels of civic engagement, [as]
exemplified by political chat-rooms, remote electronic voting in
elections, referenda, and plebiscites, and the mobilization of
virtual communities, thereby revitalizing levels of mass
participation in public affairs (Norris, 2006, p. 2). Such views
were particularly defended during the early days of digital
activism, namely, in the 1990s. However, even then, authors usually
presented as optimistic or utopian were more cautious than often
inferred. For example, in the tenth chapter of his 1993 book,
Virtual Community, titled Disinformocracy, Rheingold (1993) stated
that [virtual] communities could help citizens revitalize
democracy, or they could be luring us into an attractively packaged
substitute for democratic discourse (p. 276). Schwartz (1996) for
his part explained that the potential exists for telecommunications
to become a powerful tool for political organization, but that
success depends on how we choose to use it.
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These calls for caution, however, have not overlapped the
overenthusiastic accounts of the Internet potential for political
participation that these authors associated with the spread of ICTs
in contrast to the dystopian approaches that emphasize social
inequalities and the potential impact of the digital world on the
distribution of power and influence in political systems (Norris,
2001, p. 12). Political systems should be understood here in the
larger sense of that term because governments as well as private
corporations (two entities whose interests are often intertwined)
may share a common goal, namely, the invasive control of
individuals and societies for political as well as economic reasons
(Ragnedda, 2011). In Africa for example, this last view, the
pessimistic view, contends that ICTs are new tools for economic and
cultural imperialism and powerful instruments of control,
surveillance, and persecution in the hands of dictatorial regimes.
As suggested by Yau (2004), Africa is poorly positioned in the
cyberspace as to benefit from globalization. Instead, the continent
faces the challenges of imperialism anew, this time represented by
knowledge dependence (p. 12). In the same way, Nyabuga and Mudhai
(2009), contend that while new media may have some potential to
help monitor and mobilize political activity, and possibly
encourage political engagement, they can also reinforce the
positions of those in power not only due to their limitations but
also by their manipulability by scheming human agents (p. 41).
Indeed, ICTs and particularly mobile phones have even been blamed
for having contributed to the eruption of violence that swept Kenya
in the aftermath of the 2007 elections (Abdi & Deane, 2008).
The irenic view of technology has, therefore, always been
counter-balanced by sceptical and even gloomy accounts of the
misdeeds caused by the growing use of ICTs.
Several other research approaches have tried to overcome these
mutually exclusive theories by providing a justification for a
third alternative. One of those approaches is the persistent
position Joyce (2010) presented, that argues that ICTs are neither
salvation, nor damnation and that networked technology only signals
a change in the degreethough not the inherent natureof activism
practice. It simply makes existing offline tactics like
mobilization, organization, and message dissemination more
effective. (pp. 12-13). Persistent authors believe that ICTs can
only enhance our political capacities but they do so all across the
political spectrum, thus empowering both heroes and villains with
none having any advantage whatsoever because ICT devices do not in
the long run change existing power structures.
Another alternative to examine is the
structuralist-constructivist approach devised by Bourdieu (1989),
which is adopted in this paper. It tries to overcome the opposition
of technological determinism to sociological determinism.
Technological determinism attributes to technology the
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capacity to change society and sees this power to change in the
properties of the technological devices themselves, their
configurations, and functionalities. From this perspective,
computers, for example, can carry a vision of the world in the
sense that Ong (2002) said that technology is attuned to societies
that have a literary tradition as opposed to non-literate
societies. This vision of the world is also constraining. It can
have effects; it can change society in terms of its structures.
Thus, for technological determinism, once a particular technology
is introduced in a society it changes the organization, structures,
and dynamics of that society. To the contrary, sociological
determinism insists on the effects of social and external economic
factors as well as the relationships between groups and social
classes or the overall social environment to explain how
technologies are embedded in societies, are the object of
negotiations and instrumentalised, or are constructed by the
actors. While for sociological determinism, ICTs are built by
agents and deployed under structural constraints, for technological
determinism, ICTs are objectified forms of particular ways of
thinking that will constrain agents to act in particular
directions.
To bypass this opposition, structuralism-constructivism contends
that ICTs are not just instruments, nor are they an autonomous
reality totally detached from society. There is an interplay
between technology and society, although technological instruments
have no agency of their own, as attributed to them by the
actor-network theory, which Latour (1996) said does not limit
itself to human individual actors but extend[s] the word actor -or
actant- to non-human, non-individual entities (p. 369). For
structuralist-constructivists, local and national structural
constraints, such as availability and access to ICTs at a national
level, unequal access to ICTs between users (economic capital),
unequal capacities to use ICTs (social and cultural capitals), as
well as their cultural, historical, and political contexts are all
factors that can interact with ICTs features and functionalities to
determine varying patterns of use.
Within this framework, the paper seeks to show how local
political actors in Niger are using ICTs for political mobilization
and participation in everyday activities; how effective those uses
are in light of the websites designs, and their functionalities and
local conceptions of political support and communication. The paper
argues that the mere existence and use of websites and other
digital instruments of political mobilization do not necessarily
translate into effective and democratic political participation and
free discussion. It is not enough that ICTs are introduced and
political websites and social media are both used by local actors
to ensure democratic participation and discussion. The historical
and socio-political context, along with the local conceptions of
political communication, are factors that
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interplay with the features of the digital instrument to either
expand or limit the citizens capacity to assert themselves
politically through online discussion.
Methodology To assess digital political activity in Niger, a web
survey was used to establish a list of the political parties, a
list of other political organizations (such as the rebel movements
in Niger), and the different online communities (Nigerien online
forums) that are engaging in significant digital activity in the
country. Two criteria, in accordance with the studys main
objectives, were used to determine what was termed significant
digital activity: (a) are considered significantly active those
parties, organizations, and online communities that are manifesting
their presence online first through existing websites, online
forums, and/or the use of social media, particularly Facebook,
established either under the name of a political party or the
organization itself or under the name of the corresponding
political leader; and (b) to be considered active the website,
online forum, or Facebook page of the party, organization, or
leader should contain existing posts and comments for the last
three years and/or the current year (2013). Using these criteria,
it was determined that 30 political parties were officially
registered in Niger of which four had significant digital activity.
Also, using the same criteria, two rebellious movements and two
online communities (online forums) were considered to be
active.
The study then measured the effectiveness and character
(democratic or authoritarian) of digital activities in Niger based
on two criteria, namely, the information provision function of the
website, its direction (downward, upward, lateral (inward and
outward), or interactive) as proposed by Ward and Gibson (2000) and
the democratic nature of the online discussions, the posts, and
comments through the existence and importance of disagreeing
positions that were taken. It should be noted that all discussions,
posts, and comments referred to in this study have been translated
from French to English by the author. The existence on the website
of effective digital tools for interactive discussions (e.g., email
addresses, forums, blogs), whether the website was cantered on the
person of the leader (the illustration of his deeds and sayings) or
the discussion of the partys program, the leaders political ideas,
or the values of the party, was also an important indication of the
democratic nature of the digital activity being undertaken on the
corresponding website or social media.
This assessment was done through qualitative observations and
the description of the website or social media being analysed with
no numerical value or score assigned to assess functionality,
design, or the democratic
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character of any website. The analysis was interpretative and
critical and used Ward and Gibsons framework for political website
analysis (2000), and Herrings (2004) computer-mediated discourse
analysis. The approach focused on counting the number of messages
and responses and message and thread length (Herring, 2004, p.
358). As such, the research primarily focused on website design and
content, the postings content, the number of comments made, and the
number of disagreeing positions in order to draw inferences on the
nature of the parties and/or organizations political communication
in Niger. For Facebook and online forums analysis, the most debated
topic or thread was first identified, with the number of comments
and posts becoming an indication of the extent to which that topic
provoked interest and disagreeing positions. The content of the
posts was assessed to determine and categorize the nature of the
views expressed as (1) opposing those views such as expressed by
either political leaders or the government, (2) supporting these
views, or (3) taking a neutral position. However, before analysing
the digital political activities in Niger, it is first important to
highlight the status of ICTs in that country and situate Niger
within the global digital divide as compared to other
countries.
Niger and the Global Digital Divide: Access to Computers,
Internet, Mobile Phones, and Social Media According to the 2011
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) human development report,
Niger ranked 186 out of 193 countries. Niger is, therefore, one of
the poorest countries in the world and one where living standards
are the lowest. For example, the gross national income (GNI) per
capita in Niger stands at $641, life expectancy is 54.7 years, and
the poverty rate (percentage of people living with less than 2
dollars a day) is 64%. With the notable exception of the mobile
phone penetration rate, which stood at 24.5 mobile phone
subscriptions for 100 inhabitants, the ICT indicators for Niger are
similarly low. The ITUs 2011 report on ICT development ranked Niger
between the two last countries in the world with an ICT development
index (IDI) of 0.92 (ITU, 2011, p.26). In 2010, only 1.2% of Nigers
households had computers, and only 0.2% of households had access to
the Internet.
Use of social media is also very low. Thus, according to
Internet World Statistics, for a population of roughly 16.5
million, Niger counted only 128,749 Internet users corresponding to
0.8% of its population as of December 2011, among which there were
but 44,580 Facebook users corresponding to a 0.3% penetration rate
by that same date. Most Facebook users are young, educated, and
urbanized with a good number being
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members of the Nigerien diaspora. The same is true for Twitter
users. In a study conducted in 2011, Portland Communications (2012)
found that Niger counted 7,052 tweeters and ranked 14 out of 20
countries ranked by volume of use in Africa.
However, this low access to ICTs at the general population level
does not preclude the fact that digital activism is one of the
strategies used by a number of Nigerien political organizations and
political agents for mobilization purposes and, admittedly, also
for democratic participation. Those organizations and users are
identified in the next section.
Pol i t i ca l use o f ICTs in Niger : Who are the users?
The first users of digital tools for political activism in Niger
are political parties. Niger currently counts 30 political parties
(Institut dEtudes Politiques de Bordeaux, n.d.). Six of those
parties have websites, but only four of them have regular and
significant online activities. These are also the most important
political organizations in the country. Similarly, the government
and various governmental branches also have websites. However, for
the purpose of this paper, this analysis focused only on the four
most important political parties (Table 1).
Table 1. Most important political parties.
Party (Translation) Description and website
the PNDS-Tarayya (Parti Nigrien pour la Dmocratie et le
Socialisme- Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism),
The party of the current incumbent president, which is also the
most important party in the country and can be found at:
http://pnds-tarayya.net/
The MNSD-Nassara (Mouvement National pour la Socit de
Dveloppement- National Movement for a Development Society),
The most important opposition party, found at
www.mnsdnassara.org
The CDS-Rahama (Convention Dmocratique et Sociale - Democratic
and Social Convention),
Another opposition party that can be found at
www.cdsrahama.org;
The MODEN-Lumana (Mouvement Dmocratique Nigrien pour une
Fdration Africaine - Nigerien Democratic Movement for an African
Federation)
A political party allied with the government and with a website
at www.mdnlumana.com
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In Niger, acronyms of political parties are usually followed by
a word that reflects the core values of that party in the Hausa
local language. For example tarraya means rally, nassara means
victory, and rahama means prosperity.
Apart from the political parties, since 2007, two rebellious
movements, the MNJ (Mouvement des Nigriens pour la Justice-Nigerien
Movement for Justice) and the FFR (Front des Forces de
Redressement-Rectification Forces Front), both led by Tuareg
insurgents, have asserted their presence on the Internet through
virtual networks like discussion forums and online media websites.
They have also created their own websites. Since 2010, following a
political accord with the government, these movements have ceased
their political activities and consequently also their online
activities. However, Nigerien Tuareg irredentist activities are
still on-going in various forms online, particularly on the
pan-Berber movement political websites, such as Issikta.com
(www.issikta.com) and Temoust.org (www.temoust.org), a website
created by a Nigerien Tuareg living in France, and also numerous
other digital platforms.
The most active segment of the Nigerien population online is the
Nigerien diaspora, which is mainly composed of students, migrant
workers, political dissidents, and refugees (particularly the
Tuareg disapora) who are living in Europe and the US where they
have easy access to the new tools for digital activities. They have
created multiple websites and are mostly using online forums and
social media to foster political participation and/or dissident
political activism in Niger. By interacting daily with those who
stayed at home, they have formed a new deterritorialized,
globalized, and transnational community the activities of which do
indirectly affect national debates and policies. The most important
online forums they are using are in Figure 1, namely
www.tamtaminfo.com (left) www.Nigerdiaspora.net (middle) and
www.Agadez-Niger.com (right).
Figure 1: Online forums in Niger
Finally, civil society organizations, such as the organization
for the defence of human rights are in Figure 2. Namely,
www.annddh-niger.org (left) for organizations fostering civic
engagement, such as the various organizational members of the
Network of Organizations for Transparency and Budget Analysis
(http://www.rotabniger.org/en/organization.htm (right) also
have
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a presence online. To these, we should add all grassroots
citizens who take part in daily digital activism, either in an
organized manner or not.
Figure 2: Civil society organizations websites in Niger
Although all those actors are important for the study of digital
political participation and discussion in Niger, this study
primarily focuses on political parties and rebellious movements
websites and online forums to analyse digital politics in Niger.
From this perspective, a particular emphasis was put on political
website design as it relates to Nigers social and cultural
realities and the effectiveness of digital political communication
in Niger in terms of promoting democratic participation on the
political websites, through social media (Facebook), and in the
online forums.
Analyzing the Nigerien political websites: Designs, colours,
symbols, and language Colours and Symbols
There are very strong similarities between all the political
websites in Niger, including those of the rebellious movements. At
the top, in the header, is usually found the logo of the party, the
full party name, and a picture (photograph) of the partys leader.
This format is true for the PNDS and also for the MNSD and the
other political parties. The backgrounds of the headers are usually
the parties colours (e.g., pink for the PNDS, green for the CDS,
white for the MNSD). The formal and obvious standardized
characteristics of the websites designs show that the designers
probably lacked precise understanding of the Nigerien cultural
context and were more focused on the expectations of the political
leaders. This trait is apparent in the fact that the signifiers
focus on the leaders images and the parties logos and colours with
no emotional appeal to any of the natural, geographic, historical,
or cultural signifiers that symbolize Niger as a country or Nigers
population as a people. The intended message obviously focuses on
the party or the leader. Only the way the leaders images are
displayed in the headers (all images feature the political leaders
dressed in Nigerien traditional attires) give an indication that
the cultural context was taken into
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account and that the targeted population may in that way
identify with their political leaders. Figure 3 below displays
respectively, from left to right and up to down, the website of the
CDS-Rahama, the website of the PNDS-Tarraya, the website of the
MNSD-Nassara, and the website of the Lumana.
Figure 3: Political parties websites in Niger
However, in a country where the intended goal of the political
leaders and the government is to strengthen national cohesion and
curb ethnic conflict, it is indeed curious to note that no
signifier that symbolizes a shared value or some common aspect of
the country is presented. For example, it is well known that both
blue and red colours are overwhelmingly present on American
political websites. In Niger, the only colours that are emphasized
are those of the political parties, which, with the exception of
the MNSD, have no historical appeal or anchorage either nationally
or internationally. For example the PNDS has adopted pink, the
symbolic colour for European social-democratic parties; but this
has no significance in the Nigerien cultural context. The colours
used by the political parties were chosen at the creation of those
parties, but without any historical reference. The only intended
goal of those choices was to make the party recognized at a single
glance in a country where the people are mostly illiterate.
However, it should be noted that the green of the CDS-Rahama, is
historically part of the century-old pan-African movements flag.
The intended goal of the pan-African movement is to unite all
people of African descent and all African countries as one federal
nation. The green historically symbolizes the natural resources of
the African continent. Also the orange colour is common to the MNSD
and the Nigerien flag. It symbolizes the Sahara and the Sahel
regions that cover the entire country.
Unlike the political parties websites, the rebellious movements
websites have symbols that clearly relate to the Tuareg people and
the Berber people of North Africa of which the Tuaregs are
considered a sub-group (See Alzouma, 2009). The website of the MNJ
(Figure 4: first website on the left
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side below), for example, features the flag of the movement, a
traditional Tuareg warrior shield, where on the upper side is the
Tifinagh (a traditional Tuareg writing system) letter for Z, called
the Ezza letter. The Ezza letter symbolizes the Tuareg people of
Berber origins. The colours used on the website are those
traditionally related to the Tuaregs as a people: the blue, the
green, and the yellow colours are painted in reverse order by the
MNJ (yellow, blue, green) and is also highlighted the red, the
associated colour for the Ezza letter. A kalashkinov, an assault
rifle often associated with liberation movements, is drawn on the
down side of the shield, with a Tuareg sword crossing it. For its
part, the FFR as in Figure 4 (right) has chosen a round yellow
emblem surmounted by the words Front des Forces de Redressement
with the red Ezza letter written in the middle. Both the MNJ and
the FFR sites feature current and former Tuareg rebellion leaders
pictures.
Figure 4: Rebellious movements websites in Niger
Language
French is the language used on all the websites although less
than 40% of the Nigerien population can read French. Although
Hausa, which is spoken by 75% of the Nigerien population, is a
written language with both European alphabet and Arabic characters,
none of the websites features any text in Hausa. In the same way,
even the Tuareg rebellious movements do not use Tifinagh, which is
a traditional and centuries-old Tuareg writing system. It can,
therefore, be concluded that for the Nigerien population, which is
the intended target of online political activities, the
effectiveness of all the websites is impeded by two important
factors, namely, the low percentage of people who are able to read
French and the even lower percentage of people who have access to
the Internet even through cybercafs. However, the FFR website does
offer audio functionalities, which make it possible, particularly
for illiterate people, to listen to political speeches and
political statements. Also, all the websites display a profusion of
photographs related to their activities and leaders. There are also
links to visual functionalities (such as YouTube) on some of the
parties websites. This is particularly true for the PNDS whose
website seems to be the most visited and the most active based on
figures indicating the number of visits on the different political
websites. For example, on October 13, 2013, the last day the author
visited those websites, the total number of visitors since the
creation of the
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PNDS website in 2009 was 91,382, with 22 visitors on that single
day. However, the author was unable to find the number of visitors
on any one of the three other websites analysed: the Moden Lumana,
the CDS-Rahama, and finally the MNSD-Nassara.
Table 2. Websites examined
Website Permalink
PNDS website http://pnds-tarayya.net/news/news.php
Moden Lumana http://www.mdnlumana.com/#ACCUEIL
CDS-Rahama http://www.cdsrahama.org/
MNSD-Nassara http://mnsdnassara.org/
However, the most important shortcoming of digital political
communication in Niger is related to the unidirectional and
downward character of the information provision function of these
political websites and the social media sites. Political
communication, such as understood by the parties and their leaders
reproduces traditional vertical power relations structures based on
the model of traditional political support networks. That aspect of
the political communication also appears to be an impediment to
consistent and effective democratic exchanges between the citizens
of Niger.
Websi tes and soc ia l media as po l i t i ca l communicat ion
too ls in Niger
One of the main distinctive characteristics of political
websites is what Ward and Gibson (2000) called the direction of
information and communication flow (p. 306), or their downward,
upward, lateral (inward or outward), or interactive character. The
predominant direction taken by a political communication inside an
organization gives an indication of not only the respective
positions held by the agents who are members of that organization,
but also the internal power structure inside the organization, and
the democratic or authoritarian nature of its functionality. It
tells us much about the capacity of the different agents and how
they will orient political debates, political activities, and
political participation. For example, a website that has
interactive tools will allow more for political participation than
a website that is characterized by a unidirectional circulation of
information, particularly when that circulation is top-down. As
Ward and Gibson (2000) suggested:
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interactive ICFs (Information and Communication Flows) are
distinguished as two-way or multidirectional substantive contacts
between organizations and individuals whereby input from one side
(usually the user) has a strong expectation of producing a response
from the other side....Therefore, a search engine was considered an
asynchronous interactive mode of communication because a response
follows user input after a certain time interval and cannot then be
subject to modification. Chat rooms, however, allow for
free-flowing communication in which both input and responses are
subject to continuous modification. (p. 306)
The importance thus given by website designers to interactive
links is a clear indication of the intended functions that are
likely assigned to that website. In the case of Niger, the PNDS,
the other political parties, and the rebellious movements all share
a common approach in the way they designed and implemented their
websites. Among the functions of these websites, a disproportionate
place is given to the information provision function with the
direction of information and communication flow being essentially
downward. Democratic participation seems to be of little concern as
far as site content is concerned. Table 3 presents the only kinds
of information one will find on these websites, as well as
descriptions of them.
Table 3. Content on political party websites
Information factor Description
News concerning the current activities of the party
Such as the latest activities of the political parties, and the
policies they wish to promote.
The partys leaders at central and regional levels
Such as to provide increased engagement with the public.
The partys values Such as to communicate what the parties stand
for.
The partys history Such as to show the partys experience
The partys constitutional documents
Such as to say how the party governs itself.
The partys address Such as to allow the public and others know
where they are based.
How to contact the party Such as to allow public and journalists
to
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contact them.
The lack of interactive functions is obvious. Although the
parties addresses and emails are indicated on all the websites,
only the CDS-Rahama and the MDN give links (one each) that lead
visitors to forums where they supposedly can discuss political
ideas. However, when one clicks these links, no page is displayed,
indicating that the forums have never been used or are not in
operation.
This static use of websites is even more striking with regard to
the absence of any political debate on them; there are not even
critiques of political rivals. In an early analysis of political
websites in the US, Foot and Schneider (2002) noted that online
political web activities include what they called carnival with
elements that include jests and insults directed toward political
actors, satire and parody, the transgression of social mores, and
the inversion or suspension of hierarchical norms (p. 231). None of
these aspects is used on the Nigerien political websites to
depreciate, engage, or challenge rival candidates. Caricatures,
cartoons, and humour, which abound on political websites elsewhere,
are nowhere to be seen here. What the websites thus lack is
dynamism and interactivity.
It seems that the main motivation for the creation of these
political websites was not to ensure political participation, but
to show how the different parties are not only up to date, but also
fully modern (and, as such, supposedly advocating for new and
advanced ways of doing politics; ways that, such as digital
platforms, are attuned to current times). The websites are in
effect some kind of fashion statement. This is particularly true
for the PNDS, which is credited as being the party of the
intellectuals, the party of the educated, and the party of young
people with a modernist mind-set and geared toward technological
solutions to development problems. The PNDS always presents its
main political rival, the MNSD as the party of the past, an
aggregate of traditional and conservative leaders who have no idea
how the globalized modern world works and, therefore, cannot
pretend to lead the country in that new context. It is, therefore,
not surprising that the PNDS was the first political party to
create a website, followed in a kind of mimetic behaviour by the
other political parties that went so far as to actually copy the
PNDS web design.
Like the websites of the political parties, the websites of the
rebellious movements give little opportunity for interaction.
However, these two websites both display email addresses to contact
the respective organizations and, judging by the broad media and
international attention that the rebellions received before the
agreement signed with the government (Alzouma, 2009), these email
addresses must have played an important role
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for foreign journalists seeking information about the rebels. In
Niger, it was well known that the two websites were the main
sources of information and documentation about the Tuareg
rebellious organizations and that the rebels with news and
political literature constantly updated them. Still, the fact
remains that the websites were designed in the spirit of delivering
information and not to be interactive platforms capable of
providing dynamic exchanges between citizens in Niger.
As will be seen below, the use of social media by political
organizations and political leaders is also conceived in the spirit
of delivering information in a top-down approach. The social media
seen as networks, like Facebook, do share many similarities with
traditional Nigerian sociability and political support groups and
seem to play, where they do not offer anonymity, the same role as
those traditional social networks with little opportunity for
political participation.
Social Media and Democratic Participation: Political Laudation
and Flaming In Niger, political allegiances have traditionally been
experienced as personal relationships of dependence. Political
activists and party members are clients and the dependent
relationship is maintained through all sorts of gifts and services
(See Charlick, Gellar, West, Fox, and Robinson, 1994). These gifts
and services in turn suppose moral obligations on the part of
beneficiaries. To earn the trust of others and gain their
allegiance, the political leader must pay with their person through
symbolic and material investments from which benefits are expected
in the form of party membership and vote casting. It is the leaders
generosity, selflessness, caring, and attention paid to others that
ensure them political militants who are not really political
activists in the traditional sense of the term, but more precisely
are followers. As stated by Charlick et al. (1994):
[In Niger] strategies for mobilizing support historically
depended on two interrelated processes: the recognition of personal
distinction and the development of loyal followers. By and large,
the right to exercise authority and to hold a position of power
always involved a competition (the search for title, or neman
sarauta in Hausa). But, while such resources as social status and
specific lineage were important, the decisive factor was usually
the ability to mobilize people. Campaigning for office meant
building networks of supporters based on promises of personal
reward. Loyalty of followers depended to a large degree on
instrumental factors, such as the perception that the leader could
deliver the promised reward and protection. Maintenance of this
network depended on the leader's
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ability to control access to benefits which potential followers
wanted, and to make certain that these followers could not obtain
them at a lower cost elsewhere. (p. 17)
Thus, traditionally, political representativeness, including
that of one a leader, was much more an affective representativeness
in the sense that one says of someone one trusts that he/she is one
of ours (i.e., a member of our family). Also, organizational forms
of political support were based on affective ties of the family,
the clan, the lineage, and the tribe, as well as micro-level social
networks, such as the fadas, the equivalent of which in the Western
world were at one time royal courts and courtiers. The fadas were
places of sociability, a kind of debate community, and places for
political discussions.
Virtual social networks, such as Facebook, are strangely similar
to the fadas that existed both as loose political support networks
at royal courts and sociability networks, such as ones network of
friends or networks of traditional hira groups (debate communities)
that gather groups of peers for chat purposes. Fadas are still a
phenomenon that is alive and well and widespread in contemporary
Niger.
Another similarity between Facebook and traditional Nigerien
fadas is how Nigerien political leaders conceived of the use of
social networks. Facebook is used as a kind of allegiance
affirmation network built around the personality of the political
leader where what is discussed (actually, I should say what is
lauded) is not so much either political ideas or a program but
rather the deeds and the personality of the political leader. As
stated above, the search for personal distinction and the gathering
of loyal followers is the driving force of political activities in
Niger. It is, therefore, not surprising that the most important
political leaders are indeed asserting their presence on the
Internet through the creation of their own Facebook pages (Figure
5). Such is the case for Mahamadou Issoufou (middle), leader of the
PNDS-Tarrraya; Hama Amadou (left), leader of the MODEN-Lumana; and
Mahamane Ousmane (right), leader of the CDS-Rahama. It should be
noted as well that all three Facebook groups have been set to open,
meaning that anyone can join any of them and the groups posting
content is available for viewing to anyone with a Facebook account
worldwide.
Figure 5: Niger Political leaders Facebook pages
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Source: http://www.facebook.com/MahamadouIssoufouPNDS, (left)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hama-Amadou/181880503136 (middle)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mahamane-Ousmane/108160212539356
(right)
However, in all the three cases, the supporters and posters are
mostly the members of the respective political parties, also
essentially characterized by the absence of any significant
political or ideological disagreement. While online social networks
are supposed to serve as locations for online political discussions
(Kushin, 2009, p. 2), it appears that the Nigerien political
leaders Facebook pages have been set up in the top-down spirit to
provide endless illustrations of the leaders deeds and sayings.
Table 4 Example comments from Mahamadou Issoufous Facebook
page.
Person (Date/Time) Comment
Harouna Hassaou
(February 1, 2012, 2:29 a.m.)
Its a good thing. Continue like that Mister President!
Abdou sani Ibrahim
(February 1, 2012, 2:48 a.m.)
Thank you Mister President! Courage!
Tunde Onibode
(February 1, 2012, 3:48 a.m.)
Wish you all the best Mr. President! Improve on trans-border
security.
Moussa Mouskorita, Le Saoudien (February 1, 2012, 3:02 a.m.)
Only one word. Congratulations!
Source: http://www.facebook.com/MahamadouIssoufouPNDS.
A recent post on Mahamadou Issoufous Facebook page reads: The
2011 report on freedom of press put Niger ahead of France and the
United States. The like, comment, share section shows 106 people
liked this, 51 commented on the post, and 7 shared it. However, of
the 51 comments, not even one was negative or discussed any aspect
of the post through March 5, 2012. Some of the representative
comments are in Table 4. These were accessed on 5 March 2012 from
Mahamadou Issoufous Facebook page.
Table 5. Example comments
Person (Date/Time) Comment
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Fernado Sucres
(23 September 2011, 18:54)
Today, in Niger, Hama is the only person one can wish see become
president.
Illias Aboubacar
(11 October 2011, 15:55)
Hello Mr chairman! My wish is that you help Niger out this
famine crisis and also help the president of the Republic in his
difficult task. Thank you for your understanding.
Bouffari Mamane
(15 October 2011, 21:17)
Excellency, may God accompany you in all your endeavours!
Nassirou Toure
(19 October 2011, 10:29)
Hama I hope you will be president in 2016.
Ibrahim Oumarou
(20 October 2011, 14:51)
Good luck your Excellency.
Source:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hama-Amadou/181880503136
Table 6. Example comments on Hama Hamadous Facebook page
Person (Date/Time) Comment
Bana Wally
(February 5, 2012, 5:53a.m.).
Dont forget that he is also a billionaire!
Abdou Issoufou
(November 14, 2011, 3:03 p.m.).
He is also the meanest man on the political arena in Niger.
Abdou Issoufou
(November 14, 2011, 3:04 p.m.).
Ethnocentrist and regionalist!
Source:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hama-Amadou/181880503136
Almost identical attitudes and comments can be found on Hama
Hamadous Facebook page. This page displays 1,927 likes and 189
comments and those comments are similar to the ones found on the
PNDS Mahamadou Issoufou Facebook page. One could easily simply
interchange the photographs of the two leaders and leave the
comments on each page, and nobody would notice any difference. The
similarity between the two
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pages and the respective comments on each one is close to
perfect. Here are a few of the first comments on Hama Hamadous
page. They can easily be applied to Mahamadou Issoufou or any one
of the Nigerien political leaders Facebook as can be seen in Table
6. These were accessed from Hama Hamadous Facebook page on 5 March
2012, which is accessible from this link:
These straightforward laudations may seem childish and even
ridiculous to the external observer. However, they are part of the
everyday life of the Niger people. Laudation is a deeply rooted
literary tradition among all of Nigers ethnic groups, especially
among the Hausa people. All traditional chiefs and prominent
persons have always had praise singers, griots (story tellers and
keepers of oral tradition), and oral poets attached to their courts
or their persons. As stated by Saidu (1994), in todays modern
world, it is the electronic media that are giving a new dimension
to praises and praise songs in all of the Hausa cultural areas in
Niger as well as in Nigeria:
Such artists, thanks to the electronic media, have become very
popular and have acquired new patrons who, in their lust for power
and fame, pay them handsomely to sing their praises.
Politicians.military generalscivilian governors. businessmen all
had or have praise-songs sung in their honor. (p. 226)
All Nigerien political leaders also have praise singers attached
to their persons and nicknames to reflect the qualities their
followers see in them. For example, Mahamadou Issoufou, the leader
of the PNDS-Tarraya and incumbent president of the country, is
known as Zaki in Niger, which means the lion and one of the most
famous praise songs in Niger is sung in his honour at the opening
ceremonies of every one of the meetings of the party, during
electoral campaigns, and when he appears in public. It is a song
that accompanies him wherever he goes, and it is sung loudly over
speakers to announce the procession of cars that go with him.
Mahamane Ousmane, the leader of the CDS-Rahama, is nicknamed
Nafarko, meaning the First because he was the first democratically
elected president of Niger. Hama Hamadou is known as the enfant
terrible of Youri, his native village, for his supposed temerity,
political talents, and unconventional behaviour. The laudatory
comments on Facebook about these political leaders reflect this
mind-set of praise singing because that is the way that allegiance
to the party and its leader is reaffirmed by the members of that
organization.
Indeed, the function these political leaders have assigned to
their Facebook pages (the object of judgment is the person of the
leader, not his political program or ideas), the direction of the
information, as well as the composition of the body of supporters
and posters (mostly members of the
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corresponding party and like-minded participants) all work to
inhibit the expression of diverse viewpoints. Of the 189 comments
on Hama Hamadous Facebook page, the author only could find four
negative comments with two of them coming from the same person.
Comments from Hama Hamadous Facebook page can be seen in Table 3,
which was retrieved on 5 March 5 2012)
These negative comments did not provoke any reaction from any
one of the other Facebook posters. Disagreeing viewpoints are
ignored, not discussed. Indeed, the very nature of Facebook as a
social network seems perverted because there seems to exist no
connection between the individual posters who almost never address
each other.
This absence of democratic discussion on the Niger political
leaders Facebook pages can be partially explained by the fact that
Niger has a long history of dictatorship and political abuses.
Since Facebook does not allow anonymity, those who post are known
by their names and profiles. That situation does not allow for
disagreeing viewpoints in a political environment such as Nigers.
It will more likely lead to laudation in an effort to show
allegiance and even submission.
This characteristic appears clearly when one compares political
debates such as those carried out on Facebook to political debates
carried out on online forums where discussions are more vigorous
and flaming or bashing is a frequent and common attitude because
users are protected by anonymity; it shows the control that the
Internet offers to modulate information (Shapiro, 1999). It also
shows that the Internets decentralized character is less or more
effective depending on the socio-political context and the nature
of the specific media used. Both historical context and the offline
environment also play an important role in the direction and the
character of the discussions again based on the kind of media used.
An analysis of the Tamtaminfo.com forum compared to Facebook
illustrates this aspect clearly.
Online forums and democratic participation in Niger The
Tamtaminfo forum comprises several links to topics of discussion
such as news of the diaspora, politics, economy, society, culture
and arts, religions, sports, and sciences and technologies, among
others. Of all those items, the most active and the most visited is
the politics, economy, and society link. By March 6, 2012, the
politics, economy, and society link registered 3,720 related
messages. Compared to it, the second most visited link was news of
the diaspora, with35 messages! None of the other topics had more
than 20 messages. The 3,720 figure alone, compared
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to the insignificant number of messages for other topics,
indicates the importance of political debate among Tamtaminfo.coms
visitors.
The politics, economy, and society topic has had 468 different
political sub-topics discussed since the creation of its latest
version in 2007 (several other versions of the forum existed
between 2000 and 2007), extending to more than 18 pages. The most
debated issue, Libya and us, has 133 related messages and was
viewed 13,308 times between February 28, 2011, and November 6,
2011, which roughly corresponds to 54 daily views.
The second most debated issue was the Tazarce questioned.
Tazarce means continuity in the Hausa language, and the topic
relates to the refusal by the then incumbent president, Tandja
Mamadou, to leave office at the end of his second term as dictated
by the Constitution. He intended to suspend that Constitution to
create a new one more in line with his aspirations and to organize
new elections that would permit him to continue occupying his
office. Between May 15, 2009, and June 20, 2009, the Tazarce
questioned issue registered 115 messages and was viewed 2,512
times. An example of the exchanges that shows how conflictual the
discussions on Tamtaminfo.com were, as opposed to those on
Facebook, is the following text, concerning the first issue, Libya
and us:
Termit: Libya is going through a refreshing revolution these
days, after those of Tunisia and Egypt. We Nigeriens, we can only
rejoice in the downfall of the dictator Gaddafi who has been in
power for 41 years. Gaddafi and his gang have always had contempt
for Niger. (Termit, February 28. 2011, 3:32 p.m.).
Soufiani: Gaddafis regime is not that of Tandja that a small
group of soldiers overthrew and captured like a common thug rat he
is and in fifteen minutes. The war in Libya will take a long time.
The time necessary to see if Issoufou, once elected, will in turn
perpetuate the same policy of marginalization and segregation that
dares not speak its name; marginalization and segregation this
country has always shown towards certain ethnic groups such as
the
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Tuaregs and the Tubus. Be reassured for the moment because we do
not intend to walk on Niamey before we see the true intentions of
Zaki (Issoufou) and his team (not to say his pack, hoping that he
will be wise). (Soufiani, March 2, 2011, 1:03 p.m.).
The above was retrieved on 20 March 2012 from Tamtaminfo.coms
forum,
http://www.tamtaminfo.com/tamforum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1192
If we compare these disagreeing positions on Tamtaminfo.com,
where postings are anonymous, to positions taken by participants on
Facebook, where identities can be traced, it appears that the
offline social and political environment in Niger that, although
now democratic, has been historically characterized by dictatorship
plays an important role in the capacity of discussants to openly
assert their political opinions. The political affiliations of the
main participants on Tamtamoinfo.com are claimed by themselves.
Their disagreements are voiced in all manners possible, while on
Facebook the posters are cautious not to appear as a dissenting
voice inside the party or to appear as an outsider trying to create
trouble.
The main debaters on Tamtainfo.com include, for example, Termit,
a militant of the PNDS Tarraya who frequently takes Islamist
positions. Another is Sammy, a staunch militant of the MNSD, who
vigorously opposes the current government of the PNDS on all
issues. His main respondent is Soufiani, a Tuareg militant and
supporter of Gaddafi and the Turaeg rebellious movements, or Le
Hableur, an intellectual and a member of the ruling apparatus of
the PNDS and the government. Another is Dodo, an independent
intellectual and member of the diaspora who criticizes African
politicians of all stripes. Flaming and insults, although
prohibited, are very common on Tamtaminfo.com. So are discussions
that relate to ethnicity, a subject that is almost never publicly
discussed in Niger.
Indeed, ethnicity in Niger is a very sensitive issue. Article 13
of the Code of Conduct for political parties and independent
candidates in an election period (Cabinet du Premier Ministre,
2011) makes it an obligation for political parties and citizens to
avoid any campaigning that may have a regionalist, ethnic, racial,
gendered, or religious character. For its part, the Nigerien
Constitution prohibits the politicization of ethnic identities in
the country for reasons of national cohesion and fights against all
forms of incitement of ethnic hatred.
Many participants on the online forums while never addressed on
the political websites or the Facebook pages nevertheless openly
discuss
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ethnicity. While ethnicity in Niger is a political taboo as far
as the public sphere is concerned, ethnicity-related topics and
statements are nevertheless one of the main aspects of Nigerien
online forums. Still, there is a difference in that respect between
Tamtaminfo.com where participants are regularly suspended for
having evoked ethnicity-related topics and Agadez-Niger.com where
almost all discussions focus on ethnicity, which also one of the
main reasons for the creation of that website. Agadez-Niger.com is
a Tuareg-leaning forum where ethnic issues in Niger are openly
debated and where Tuareg aspirations for autonomy and independence
are constantly voiced.
For example, by March 8, 2012, the political section of the
Agadez-Niger.com forum titled Politics and Economy in Niger,
counted 1,943 subjects that were discussed by participants and a
total of 15,130 messages since the first was posted on October 4,
2008. The most debated topic, titled Niger: Offensive against the
Tuaregs, registered 163 messages since the first message was posted
on April 1, 2008. As of March 9, 2012, the last message was posted
on April 24, 2008. These discussions were engaged when the
following information was posted by Baddak, an anonymous
participant to the forum: The Nigerien army said last night it led
a major offensive against the bases of Tuareg rebels in the heart
of the vast northern Niger desert, for ten days during which five
soldiers and ten rebels were killed. Then 28 persons took part in
the discussion and posted various numbers of messages. Of the 28
participants, 18 were located outside of Niger in countries such as
France (5), Mali (1), Burkina Faso (1), Chad (1), Netherlands (1),
Morocco (1), Spain (1), Oman (1), and Nigeria (1). Of these, 5
participants indicated they were outside of Niger without giving
the specific location, and 6 participants indicated no location at
all. Only 4 participants were living in Niger, Niamey (3), and
Agadez (1). Therefore, most participants were located outside
Niger, which suggests important implications when it comes to the
nature of the discussion and the number of disagreeing positions.
Thus, unlike the Facebook pages, clear-cut positions here could be
identified on Agadez-Niger.com on this issue as well as on all
others. For example, on this topic, the positions taken by the 28
participants can be divided in 3 categories for more clarity: (a)
against the government and favourable to the MNJ; (b) against the
MNJ and favourable to the government; and (c) neutral or no
specified position.
In respect of the data in Table 7, a total of 14 participants
could be clearly identified as taking political positions against
the government and favourable to the MNJ; 9 participants stood
against the MNJ and were favourable to the government, and 5
participants manifested neutral positions.
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Table 7. Example comments from Agadez-Niger.com
Person (Date/Time)
Comment
Trez 14 (1 April 2008, 16:27)
This press release of the army is ridiculousThe point is simply
that the army committed the same acts of atrocity on the poor
citizens of Agadez like in Gougaramto later affirm that they were
complicit with the MNJ.
Oumarou (1 April 2008, 16:34)
This news sends shivers up the back. I am afraid many innocent
civilians have been massacred by the army.
Tarha (1April 2008, 16:49)
If the army is able to do anything but killing civilians, it
should attack the base of the MNJ. They dont need a guide for
thatContrary to what is said, it is the army that uses civilians as
human shields. This is really cowardly for a so-called national
army.
Izerghanet (2 April 2008, 10:22)
I am shocked how Tarha speaks like a true extremist he is. I
wonder what you really want in advocating these lies. You want the
war between us Nigeriens in order to bring Europeans to complain
about your case on a false basis. Me, I am a Tuareg and I know that
nobody massacred us in Agadez. You should be ashamed because
ultimately youre even not credible given the level of your
relentless hatred. Stop lying about us and our country because
nobody has delegated you to be our spokesman.
Balacho Bacho (3 April 2008, 12:50).
We must condemn violence wherever it comes from and especially
when it is directed against civilians. In the case of what happened
in Gougaram, only an independent investigation can determine
accurately whether the army killed civilians or not.
Source:
http://www.agadez-niger.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2573&highlight=offensive+touaregs
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56
Therefore, it could be concluded that the democratic nature of
the discussions on Agadez-Niger.com was the result of participants
being located outside of the country and also the anonymity that
such a forum provides to all participants. Because the space of
confrontation was deterritorialized, the Internet thus circumvents
the once-direct state regulation of telegraphs, radio, and
television (Dartnell, 2006, p. 9). The states ability to exercise
its control is thus reduced because of its incapability to monitor
these online communities. When these conditions are not met, the
political participation and democratic discussion that the social
networks and political websites are said to be promoting are
strongly impeded.
Discussion The advent of new information and communication
technologies (especially the Internet and its associated networks)
has brought about new tools for political activism and political
participation. Many authors and international organizations have
associated the spread of ICTs with important implications for
democratic participation and political discussions.
In Africa, numerous studies have also presented ICTs as tools
for enhancing democratic participation and civic engagement. Based
on the features of new ICTs, as compared to previous instruments of
political communication, authors have argued that the interactive
and decentralized character of the Internet is a mechanism that is
facilitating civic engagement.
This paper took a more cautious position and sought to show how
political actors are using ICTs for political mobilization and for
citizens participation in their everyday activities in Niger. It
argued that the mere existence and use of websites and other
digital instruments of political mobilization used by organizations
and leaders do not translate into effective and democratic
participation and discussion. It shows that a disproportionate
place is given to the information provision function on Nigerien
political websites with the direction of information and
communication flow being essentially downward.
The websites as well as the Facebook pages are essentially
characterized by the absence of any significant political or
ideological disagreement between participants. In this context,
online exchanges are characterized by laudation, a political
attitude deeply rooted in Nigerien social and cultural traditions.
Expressions of diverse viewpoints are thus inhibited by the
traditional model of political communication in Niger, as well as
because of its long history of dictatorial regimes and political
abuses. However, compared to political websites and Facebook pages,
online forums, which make possible anonymity for discussants,
appear to be offering the
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The International Journal of Internet Trolling and Online
Participation 1(1)
57
opportunity for more open and free democratic space when it
comes to those who want to voice their disagreement, political
opinions, and ethnic dissidence.
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