MABONA MACHABA
Online activism has flourished in South Africa as a means of eradicating gender disparities, and it is mostly a movement that the younger, more educated generation of feminists has embraced.
Social media was used by women activists of several civil society organisations in 2018 to plan the #TotalShutDown March, which became the impetus for the presidential conference against gender-based violence in September that year. For a wider audience, the march organisers used Facebook and Twitter.
Social media has developed into an effective instrument for black feminists to engage in discourses that aim to raise awareness about gender issues and confront the gender disparities and silences that are present in South Africa.
Although this is positive, social media activism has inadvertently led to the silencing of the voices of older black feminists. This begs the question: what does this generational gap mean for feminist projects in South Africa? Do the voices of the older generation of black working class women still have space in the social media age?
In 2015/16, South Africa saw a rise in online campaigns and protests such as #NotinMyName, #MenAreTrash, #EndRapeCulture, #RapeAtAzania, #RUReferenceList, and #RememberKhwezi. Campaigns have emerged as a response to crimes against women and children across the country.
Women in South Africa continue to be subjected to institutionalised patriarchy, exposing them to gender-based violence and silence in different spaces of their lives. Social media then tried to bridge that gap, providing women with a space to tell their stories of violence and reshape policies. Interestingly enough, social media activism began to be promoted as a platform for young black and educated feminists.
Gavaza Maluleke and Eileen Moyer (2020) found that the 2015/16 protests were largely comprised of young, educated feminists who used social media to organise protests and share information for activist purposes.
"Although sexual violence has long plagued South African society, younger feminists today are engaging and identifying with this highly politicised issue on personal grounds. Via social media, these feminists reveal their own encounters with sexual violence, expose silences that accompany rape and call for an unforgetting of the stories of rape survivors".
Women still experience challenges and unheard of gendered disparities decades after the end of apartheid. This is why using social media for advocacy was a smart move on the part of young women. Social media has helped them recover space and their voices in a society that encourages sexism and the marginalisation of women because they constantly have to cope with being silenced. It has given women a forum to influence gender views and legislation. But while social media activism has successfully encouraged feminism's project of unity across South Africa, it has also unintentionally reinforced internal silences among women of various ages, educational backgrounds, and socioeconomic status.
For one, social media usage is now portrayed as a place that is only for people who can afford to utilise it. Specifically, this refers to females who are literate in English, have better financial situations, and know how to use social media. The social media platform then begins to function as a venue reserved just for feminists who are young and educated.
Those who do not meet this criterion often fall outside of the feminist project of online activism. Then, what about black women who are from the working-class, older women or women with less education? The generational divide in social media activism inadvertently undermines the concept of solidarity within South African feminism. Yes, the use of online activism was meant to tell stories of women and end gender-based violence, but it also raises concerns about whose voice is actually heard.
Black women are not a homogeneous group; their varied backgrounds and socio-economic statuses are significant. So, in order for us to begin comprehending how social media has transformed black women's movements in South Africa, we also need to be realistic about the true nature of social media, which does not fully include all women's voices.
The generational divide significantly contributes to the reinforcement of various marginalisations. Certainly, younger generations are more accustomed to social media, but if we continue to examine social media activism through this lens, we will lose sight of the frequently under-appreciated dynamic of information exchange between the two generations of black women. Older women frequently give advice to assist younger women, but this is seldom acknowledged in the social media activism discourse. Online activism has already begun to play a successful role in shaping women's activism in South Africa.
To sustain this momentum, the idea of a multi-generational representation of all voices of black women should be at the heart of any women's movement that aligns its activities with online activism. Every black woman's voice matters, anywhere!
Mabona Machaba is a non-resident fellow, Digital Africa Research Unit at the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg and a PhD Candidate, UJ.
Daily News