In rural Zimbabwe, a bunch of grandmothers counters alleged election intimidation, bias on WhatsApp

DOMBOSHAVA – 4 grandmothers carrying vibrant yellow headscarves, T-shirts and skirts huddled round a cellphone in Zimbabwe’s rural Domboshava space. They cackled at a video displaying a troop of mischievous baboons ripping up ruling get together election posters with the face of the president on them.

With a graceful and a click on, 64-year-old Elizabeth Mutandwa posted the video on a few neighborhood WhatsApp teams, and adopted it up with some election marketing campaign data from the get together she helps in subsequent week’s election — the principle opposition Residents Coalition for Change.

The grandmothers say they and their fellow opposition supporters are going through intimidation from followers of the long-ruling ZANU-PF get together and a biased state-run media that restricts their choices. However they’ve discovered a method to counter that with using WhatsApp group chats.

“Let’s share this one with our own people. It’s good content,” mentioned Mutandwa of the baboon video, as soon as her giggles had subsided.

She then received up and walked a number of kilometers (miles) carrying the yellow colours of her get together to a rally addressed by opposition chief Nelson Chamisa, the person she hopes will lastly carry change to Zimbabwe after 43 years.

The ruling ZANU-PF get together has been in authorities ever for the reason that southern African nation gained independence from white minority rule in 1980, and Mutandwa was a younger lady in her early 20s.

A few hundred others attended the Domboshava opposition rally alongside Mutandwa to listen to presidential candidate Chamisa converse.

However with nationwide elections simply days away, many extra stayed at dwelling, afraid of being threatened, intimidated, or possibly even attacked by ruling get together activists for daring to indicate assist for Chamisa and his get together, Mutandwa mentioned. Others hadn’t even heard in regards to the rally as a result of the state-run TV and radio channels they largely depend on for data hardly ever cowl opposition occasions.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who got here to energy in a coup in 2017, is in search of re-election Wednesday. Chamisa will problem him once more, having misplaced to Mnangagwa in a really shut and disputed contest in 2018.

The 80-year-old chief has warned his supporters towards partaking in violence within the buildup to the Aug. 23 vote. That plea got here days after an opposition get together supporter was killed, allegedly by the hands of ruling get together activists, within the first lethal violence of the election buildup.

Despite the fact that Mnangagwa changed long-ruling autocrat Robert Mugabe in that widespread coup, he is been accused of weaponizing the police and the courts to stifle opposition in the identical approach Mugabe did. Chamisa and worldwide rights teams declare opposition get together figures and supporters are sometimes focused with harassment, violence and intimidation.

Some rural people like Mutandwa have discovered a method to fight the threats and the media bias additionally they see, however which regularly go unnoticed deep within the rural areas the place nearly all of the nation’s 15 million individuals reside, and the place the opposition’s attain is proscribed.

“Everyone around here knows we are opposition activists, so some people are too afraid to openly associate with us,” said Mutandwa. “But it’s not a problem anymore. We talk to them through WhatsApp and they can participate in the campaign from the safety of their homes.”

The way Mutandwa and her group of grannies are using cellphones and the internet to cut through the propaganda ahead of elections represents a shift from past rural election campaigns, said Rejoice Ngwenya, a strategic communications specialist in Zimbabwe. While cellphone and internet access was widespread in the cities, opposition parties previously could only use rallies, community meetings, or sometimes even funerals, to reach rural voters and share their message.

Mutandwa now gets Citizens Coalition for Change information straight to her smartphone. And she spreads the word, too, among the 10 or so WhatsApp groups the four grandmothers in Domboshava administer. She needed a couple of lessons from one of her grandsons to get going on WhatsApp, she said.

WhatsApp and other messaging apps are having a “high impact” in rural areas in the buildup to these elections, according to Ngwenya.

“Everybody has a cellphone,” he said. “They don’t seem to be essentially state-of-the-art, however that they can be utilized to ship a message is an enchantment.”

The 4 grandmothers are going up towards a ruling get together machine, although.

European Union observers compiled a report on using state media — the domninant retailers — following the final common election in Zimbabwe 5 years in the past. It mentioned that state-controlled public tv devoted 85% of its protection to Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF throughout the election interval. Simply over 80% of protection went to the governing get together on one widespread public radio station monitored by the mission.

Throughout this election marketing campaign, Mnangagwa and his get together have dominated TV and radio once more, and have additionally been sending bulk textual content messages to tens of millions of individuals with marketing campaign data and notifications of ZANU-PF rallies that Chamisa’s opposition get together, and the grannies, merely cannot match.

Their hope for long-awaited change of their nation lies extra in phrase of mouth — or phrase of message — with Mutandwa hoping, however not likely figuring out for certain, that her WhatsApp posts are re-posted and shared a number of occasions. She mentioned individuals are craving for change, even in rural areas as soon as ZANU-PF’s strongholds, however are nonetheless afraid.

“We are not afraid, but we know that others are,” she said as she tossed some grain to her chickens in her dusty yard. “At least we are able to communicate with some of them and the ones we reach can spread the word to others.”

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Related Press Africa information: https://apnews.com/hub/africa