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Digital Activism and #FeesMustFall a discourse analysis on Facebook

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Rhiannon Buyens Student number: 01505273

Supervisor(s): Prof. Dr. Vicky Van Bockhaven

A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts in African Studies

Academic year: 2018 - 2019

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Acknowledgements

First of all I would like to thank some people whose assistance was indispensable in the writing

of this thesis.

I thank my supervisor Prof. Dr. Vicky Van Bockhaven for guiding me through the process of

writing this Master thesis. She was always approachable and prepared to provide me with

feedback. Her effort is very much appreciated.

I am grateful for the funding that I received from Ghent University to travel to Cape Town for

my Africa-semester in 2017, in which I spent one semester at the University of the Western

Cape and conducted research for my Bachelor thesis.

I thank all the informants from my former research for their enthusiastic cooperation and for

sharing their opinions and knowledge with me. Especially Mthobisi Mngomezulu contributed

to this former research, as he brought me into contact with students at the University of Cape

Town.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents, sister, boyfriend, friends and fellow students from

African Studies for their infinite support, encouragement, help and offering a listening ear.

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Table of contents

List of abbreviations 4

1. Introduction 5

2. Conceptual-theoretical framework 7

3. Literature review and status quaestionis 13

3.1 Digital activism 13

3.1.1 Facebook 20

3.2 #FeesMustFall: background and contextualization 24

3.3 #FeesMustFall and social media 29

4. Methodology 33

5. Analysis 38

5.1 Personal communications 38

5.2 Digital fieldwork on Facebook 42

5.2.1 The #FeesMustFall community 43

5.2.2 The political identity 48

5.2.3 Addressed issues 55

5.2.4 Targets 62

5.2.5 Protest tactics 69

6. Discussion 85

7. Conclusion 93

8. References 96

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List of abbreviations

UWC University of the Western Cape

UCT University of Cape Town

CPUT Cape Peninsula University of Technology

TUT Tshwane University of Technology

PAC Pan Africanist Congress

EFF Economic Freedom Fighters

ANC African National Congress

DA Democratic Alliance

PASMA Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania

EFFSC Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command

SASCO South African Students Congress

DASO Democratic Alliance Student Organisation

SASO South African Students' Organisation

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Digital Activism and #FeesMustFall: a discourse analysis on Facebook

1. Introduction

Activism, digital technologies and social media are increasingly becoming more characteristic

of today’s societies. Dispersing and signing petitions online, engaging in political discussions

online and changing your profile picture to express solidarity are all examples of digital

activism.1 Even though not everyone will consider themselves to be an activist2, most people

will unknowingly participate in this phenomenon in which digital technologies are used for

political action. At the same time there are protest movements consciously employing these

digital platforms for their cause. Some movements are well-known for the use of digital

activism: the Arab Spring, the international Occupy movement, the Indignados in Spain and

many more have successfully adopted ICTs to strengthen their visibility and impact.

In this thesis I will look at another movement that is profoundly connected with digital

technologies, and more specifically social media: the South African #FeesMustFall movement.

What makes this movement so interesting is twofold: it is the biggest protest movement since

the dawn of democracy in South Africa and it used social media extensively.3 Despite the end

of Apartheid in 1994, the structures from that painful era are still present in the South Africa of

today. This is especially felt by black citizens, who feel dissatisfied and disillusioned with the

promise of the Rainbow Nation. Since October 2015, mostly black students demand the

abolishment of fees in tertiary education in #FeesMustFall. Still, the vision of #FeesMustFall

consists of much more than just the falling of fees; it functions as a banner for many other

demands and addresses not only the issues on campus but also in society at large. Social media

has been an indispensable aspect in the existence of this movement. Twitter, Facebook,

WhatsApp and other platforms have augmented its expansion and success, which is why it is

so important to regard it in relation to #FeesMustFall.

1 Amy Stornaiuolo and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, “Disrupting Educational Inequalities

Through Youth Digital Activism,” Review of Research in Education 41, no. 1 (March 2017):

337–57, doi: 10.3102/0091732X16687973. 2 Christina Neumayer and Jakob Svensson, “Activism and Radical Politics in the Digital Age:

Towards a Typology,” Convergence 22, no. 2 (April 2016): 131–46, doi:

10.1177/1354856514553395. 3 Ndumiso Daluxolo Ngidi, Chumani Mtshixa, Kathleen Diga, Nduta Mbarathi and Julian

Douglas May, “'Asijiki' and the capacity to aspire through social media: the #FeesMustFall

movement as an anti-poverty activism in South Africa,” in Proceedings of the Eighth

International Conference (June 2016): 1-11, doi: 10.1145/2909609.2909654.

https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16687973

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My encounters with #FeesMustFall at the University of The Western Cape in Cape Town awoke

my interest for the movement. For my Bachelor thesis I researched the views of four student

parties on #FeesMustFall in both UWC and UCT: PASMA, EFFSC, SASCO and DASO. I

concluded that despite the great contrast between UWC and UCT in terms of media attention,

prestige and addressed issues in #FeesMustFall, the same student parties have the same views

regardless of the university in which they are located.

After this, I decided to continue researching about #FeesMustFall from a different angle,

and I chose social media due to its crucial role for the movement. Even though I got good

answers on my questions about social media and #FeesMustFall in my former research, it

occurred to me that there was more to be learned about it. In addition, the presence of

#FeesMustFall on the social media platform Facebook had not been the object of research yet,

which is why I felt the need to explore this further to possibly discover new knowledge about

the movement. The discourse on the Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page and its role

in the movement at large will be the focus of this thesis. Through digital fieldwork I will attempt

to answer the research question: “What is the role of social media on the #FeesMustFall

movement when looking at the discourse of the Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page?”

To be clear: Facebook is not the only social media medium that is used in #FeesMustFall. It is

part of a broader spectrum of communication technologies. Nevertheless, I focus on this

specific platform in order to fill a gap in the literature on #FeesMustFall and social media.

After this introduction, which also introduced my research question, I will give an overview

and explanation of the most relevant theories and concepts that fit into this research in the

conceptual-theoretical framework. This concerns the explanation of concepts and theories that

have to do with activism in general and digital activism specifically. I will also give a first

glimpse at the ideologies that characterize #FeesMustFall.

After that, the literature review and status quaestionis will present the insights on digital

activism, #FeesMustFall and its connection with social media that have been formulated by

scholars up until today. With regards to digital activism, I will explain three debates: the

positive and negative effects that digital technologies can have for activism, the ‘technological’

or ‘contextual’ view on digital activism and the debate on the ‘digital divide’. Because it is

central in my research, I will explain some theories on the role of Facebook in digital activism

in the section ‘Facebook’. In #FeesMustFall: background and contextualization I will explain

what #FeesMustFall is and where it comes from, after which I will focus on the role of social

media in this movement.

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In the methodology my research methods will be outlined, which are qualitative: my

background knowledge coming from my experiences at UWC and the interviews that I

conducted for my former research, and the new digital fieldwork on the Fees Must Fall Western

Cape Facebook page that will be central in this thesis. I will explain why I chose these

approaches, how I collected the data and analysed it, and justify why this is the best method.

Following on the methodology, I will set out my findings of the interviews shortly and

elaborate on the digital fieldwork in the analysis section. The analysis of the digital fieldwork

is divided in five sections: the #FeesMustFall community, addressed issues, the political

identity, targets and protest tactics. Each of these sections will contribute to the question of the

discourse on the page and its impact on the movement at large. The section ‘protest tactics’ is

an explanation of how this discourse is enacted.

My answer to the research question coming from the insights from the literature and

analysis will be compiled in the discussion chapter. In this chapter I will also display the

possible limitations of this research and proposals for further research on the subject.

Following on the discussion, the conclusion chapter will finalize this thesis by offering

a summary of my findings.

2. Conceptual-theoretical framework

In this chapter I will explain some of the central concepts and theories that will give direction

and shape the further course of this research. The selected concepts and theories relate to

activism, digital activism and the philosophies behind #FeesMustFall. It functions both as a

framework and a preface to my literature review.

Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow formulated the concept of ‘contentious politics’, which serves

as an umbrella for all sorts of activism. The concept can be divided in three features, which are

interwoven with each other: ‘contention’, ‘collective action’, and ‘politics’. In this way,

“Contentious politics involves interactions in which actors make claims bearing on other

actors’ interests…” (contention) “…leading to coordinated efforts on behalf of shared interests

or programs…” (collective action) “…in which governments are involved as targets, initiators

of claims, or third parties.” (politics).4 Besides, Tilly and Tarrow refer to the different protest

tactics as ‘repertoires of contention’, which are the “…different norms and accepted ways of

4 Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow, Contentious Politics, (Oxford University Press Inc, 2015),

7-8.

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protesting…”.5 It is crucial to regard all protests as contextual, namely as embedded in their

unique socio-political context. Part of contentious politics are social movements and digital

activism, which are the types of contention that characterizes #FeesMustFall.

A social movement is a historical, not an universal category6, which is defined as “…a

sustained campaign of claim making, using repeated performances that advertise the claim,

based on organizations, networks, traditions, and solidarities that sustain these activities.”

#FeesMusFall is more specifically a student movement: “…informal gatherings of individuals

and organizations that form a broader entity to advance a particular cause.” This has to be

distinguished from student organizations, which are formal associations with membership.7

I suggest that the #FeesMustFall movement establishes ‘imagined communities’, a term

coined by Benedict Anderson. Even though this term was originally formed in relation to

nationalism, it is applicable to #FeesMustFall as well. Just like a nation, the movement consists

of members who “… will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of

them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion”8 and is therefore imagined.

According to Tilly and Tarrow, digital activism has recently established an evolution in

contentious politics.9 The term digital activism includes other digital practices than only social

media as well, such as other mobile phone or smartphone technologies like text messaging

(SMS) and e-mail. The term is exhaustive and exclusive, in the sense that it comprises all the

protest movements that use digital technologies for their cause and excludes those that do not

use it for their campaigns.10 There are multiple definitions for digital activism, but the one that

fits best into this research is a definition by Mary Joyce, who was the first to dedicate a whole

5 Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly, Dynamics of Contention, (Cambridge

University Press, 2001). Cited in: Philippe Hanna, Frank Vanclay, Esther Jean Langdon and

Jos Arts, “Conceptualizing social protest and the significance of protest actions to large

projects,” The Extractive Industries and Society 3, no.1 (2016): 218, doi:

10.1016/j.exis.2015.10.006. 6 Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow, Contentious Politics, (Oxford University Press Inc, 2015),

11. 7 Mthokozisi Emmanuel Ntuli and Damtew Teferra, "Implications of Social Media on Student

Activism: The South African Experience in a Digital Age," Journal of Higher Education in

Africa / Revue De L'enseignement Supérieur En Afrique 15, no. 2 (2017): 75,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26640371. 8 Benedict Anderson, Imagined communities:reflections on the origin and spread of

nationalism (London: Verso, 2016), 6-7. 9 Tilly and Tarrow, Contentious Politics, 28. 10 Mary Joyce, “Preface,” in Digital Activism Decoded, ed. Mary Joyce (New York:

International Debate Education Association, 2010), viii,

https://murdoch.is/papers/digiact10all.pdf.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26640371

https://murdoch.is/papers/digiact10all.pdf

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book on the subject. According to her, digital activism is “the practice of using digital

technology to increase the effectiveness of a social or political change campaign.”11 I believe

it is the most consensual definition in comparison with both broader and narrower definitions.

Nevertheless, social media will eventually predominate this research, but it is important to not

overlook other possible practices as well.

The term ‘augmented reality’ was coined by Jurgenson to refer to the simultaneous

existence of the ‘online’ and the ‘offline’ and avoid a ‘digital dualism’.12 Turner’s theory of

‘liminality’ also fits into this frame, as the online and the offline world can be seen as two

liminal spaces, in which there is a ‘liminoid’, in-between state. The theories of Marichal on

micro-activism and Bosch on sub-activism are also fitting when looking at digital activism and

#FeesMustFall and will be further explained in the literature review in which I will elaborate

on digital activism, #FeesMustFall and its connection to social media. It is crucial to regard all

protests as contextual, namely as embedded in their unique socio-political context.

I would also like to draw attention to the concept of ‘civil disobedience’ coming from

an essay by philosopher Henry David Thoreau. Civil disobedience is the principle that

individuals have the duty to trust their consciences and stand up to their government, even if

they in the process of doing so have to break the rules and laws that were imposed on them by

that state.13 Civil disobedience is a form of non-violent resistance and has influenced resistance

movements ever since. The typology of online activists by Neumayer and Svensson also fits

into this framework. The typology is based on the readiness of ‘activists’14 to engage in civil

disobedience and their perspective of the ‘other’ as an adversary (agonism) or enemy

(antagonism). The final four types are the salon activist, the contentious activist, the law-abiding

activist and the Gandhian activist. Based on my analysis, I suggest that of all these types the

‘contentious activist’ fits best with the #FeesMustFall protesters because, in the words of

Neumayer and Svensson, they are ready to act in civil disobedience and regard the ‘other’ as

11 Talia Whyte and Mary Joyce, “Glossary,” in Digital Activism Decoded, ed. Mary Joyce

(New York: International Debate Education Association, 2010), 218.

https://murdoch.is/papers/digiact10all.pdf. 12 Nathan Jurgenson, “When Atoms Meet Bits: Social Media, the Mobile Web and

Augmented Revolution,” Future Internet 4, no.1 (March 2012): 83-91, doi:

10.3390/fi4010083. 13 Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Civil Disobedience (New York: Random House Usa

Inc, 2014), 299-323. 14 I put this between quotation marks because in some cases people don’t regard their

behavior as activism.


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an enemy.15 Anti-colonial, decolonial and postcolonial theories are very popular in the

contemporary South African protest movements. Decolonization is “…the removal of all unjust

systems such as patriarchy, racism and capitalism in society and the restructuring of society to

reflect African systems.”16 Decolonization often goes together with calls for Africanization,

constituting the so-called ‘decolonization-as-Africanization’ paradigm. There are different

interpretations, opinions and theories on this paradigm, but no clear definition. Ngugi Wa

Thiong’o sees Africanization in education as placing Africa at the centre of the world and

making the university a multilingual institution, as a vehicle for Black Consciousness and black

internationalism.17 Mahmood Mamdani discovered a trap in this paradigm, as it can risk a

reproduction of the exoticization of Africa.18 Frantz Fanon also took a rather critical stance

against the paradigm. Africanization according to him would lead to a kind of self-racism,

because Africanization introduces desires to get rid of the foreigner, which are other Africans

of other nations. Thus, there is a clear distinction between what decolonization of the university

is and how it should be done.

#FeesMustFall in particular is part of the so-called Fallism philosophy along #RhodesMustFall

and consists of “…the reinvigorated process in which the decolonisation project has been

renewed in the higher education system and in society at large.”19 Part of this decolonization

project is the intersectionality of ideologies such as Pan-Africanism, Black Consciousness and

Black Radical Feminism, the three pillars on which Fallism is built.20

Pan-Africanism is a political ideology which awakened during independence struggles

and aims at the unification of the African continent. In the strict political sense, Pan-Africanism

15 Christina Neumayer and Jakob Svensson. “Activism and Radical Politics in the Digital

Age: Towards a Typology.” Convergence 22, no. 2 (April 2016): 140.

doi:10.1177/1354856514553395. 16 Susan Booysen, “Appendix 2: Student Protest Glossary of Terms,” in #FeesMustFall:

Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa, ed. Susan Booysen (South

Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 328. 17 Achille Mbembe, “Decolonizing the university: New directions,” Arts & Humanities in

Higher Education 15, no.1 (2016): 29-45. doi: 10.1177/1474022215618513. 18 Saleem Badat, “Deciphering the meanings & explaining the South African Higher

Education Student Protests of 2015–16,” Pax Academica nos. 1&2 (January 2015): 81-82,

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305999012_ntroduction_Academic_Freedom_in_Af

rican_Universities. 19 Gillian Godsell and Rekgotsofetse Chikane, “The Roots of the Revolution,” in

#FeesMustFall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa, ed. Susan

Booysen (South Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 58-59. 20 Interview with Athabile Nonxuba, PASMA, UCT SRC offices, 11/12/2017.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305999012_ntroduction_Academic_Freedom_in_African_Universities


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means “one central African state that will replace all others.”21 In a more cultural sense, it is a

“shared culture and subjectivity and spiritual essence that stretches across the divisions of

nations as political entities.”22 Essentially, Pan-Africanism is an anti-globalist viewpoint23, in

the sense that it criticizes the Western-dominated world system which is characterized by

capitalism and neoliberalism. Therefore, next to Pan-Africanism, socialist ideologies and

systems like Marxism, communism and African nationalism are also highly valued in the

movement. Marx’ concept of ‘false consciousness’ is applicable here, relating to black South

Africans who have been served the idea of a Rainbow Nation, which exists in theory, but isn’t

reflected in reality.24

Black Consciousness25 is a “philosophy of psychological liberation for black

people…”26 It relates to the liberation from oppression and taking pride in your history and

cultural values. After black political parties like the ANC and PAC were banned by the white-

dominated Apartheid government, the SASO student party was found in the late 1960s. This

party, led by Steve Biko27, introduced the Black Consciousness ideology, who is regarded the

father of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa. South African Black

Consciousness is also heavily influenced by aforementioned theorist Frantz Fanon, who is one

of the most influential postcolonial intellectuals and whose theories have greatly influenced the

#FeesMustFall movement. Psychiatrist and philosopher Fanon analyzed in Wretched of the

21 Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, 1998. The Dictionary of Global Culture

(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998). Cited in: Herman Wasserman, “The possibilities of ICTs

for social activism in Africa,” (2011).

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252286124_The_possibilities_of_ICTs_for_social_

activism_in_Africa_an. 22 Ania Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism (London: Routledge, 1998) in Herman

Wasserman, “The possibilities of ICTs for social activism in Africa,” (2011).


activism_in_Africa_an. 23 Herman Wasserman, “The possibilities of ICTs for social activism in Africa,” (2011): 1.


activism_in_Africa_an. 24 Rekgotsofetse Chikane, “Young People and the #Hashtags That Broke the Rainbow

Nation,” in Young People Re-Generating Politics in Times of Crises, ed. Sarah Pickard and

Judith Bessant (SpringerLink, 2018), 20, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-58250-4_2. 25 In the US, the ideology of Black Consciousness is influenced by notions from American

critical race theory and is organized in the Black Consciousness Movement and the Black

Lives Matter movement 26 “Glossary,” in Students Must Rise: Youth Struggle in South Africa Before and Beyond

Soweto ’76, ed. Anne Heffernan and Noor Nieftagodien (Johannesburg: Wits University

Press, 2016), x. 27 Biko’s death was a consequence of the Apartheid system.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252286124_The_possibilities_of_ICTs_for_social_activism_in_Africa_an






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Earth the psychological consequences of settler colonialism on the colonized. He argues that

colonization by whites gives blacks an inferiority complex and a mind dominated by fear. Fanon

believed that when blacks freed themselves psychologically, they could also free their nation

and their people. For this decolonization of the mind to happen, they have to be politically

conscious and accept their blackness, be proud of it and reject Western values. The revolution

should be achieved collectively, and this by any means necessary, including the use of violence,

as the colonial system in itself is violent.28,29 Some excerpts of Fanon can thus be unrightfully

used to justify violent protest action when they are not being viewed in its historical context

and its spirit of time.30 Biko and Fanon differed in their views on the participation of whites in

Black Consciousness. Fanon in some cases agreed to involve whites. For Biko it was not

allowed, because whites are responsible for the oppression of black people and would only want

to keep the revolution in control. So, the ideas of Fanon are embedded in Black Consciousness

in South Africa, and were articulated by Biko.31 It is important to note that in the South African

version of Black Consciousness, ‘black’ comprises everyone discriminated under the Apartheid

regime, and therefore does not only refer to the skin color.32 Being black is a mindset, an attitude

and relates to the psyche.33

Black (Radical) Feminism is likewise a consciousness which not only focuses on race,

but also on gender. Black women experience discrimination in society because of these two

external attributes.34

Elaborations on digital activism, the #FeesMustFall movement and its connection with

social media will follow in the ‘literature review’ chapter underneath, in which I will also

further explain some of the theories mentioned in this chapter.

28 Malcom Ray, Free Fall: Why South African Universities are in a Race Against Time

(Johannesburg: Bookstorm, 2016), 199. 29 Thomas K. Ranuga "Frantz Fanon and Black Consciousness in Azania (South

Africa)," Phylon (1960-) 47, no. 3 (1986): 189-190, doi:10.2307/274985. 30 Jonathan Jansen, As by Fire: The End of the South African University (South Africa:

Tafelberg, 2017), 79. 31 Malcom Ray, Free Fall: Why South African Universities are in a Race Against Time

(Johannesburg: Bookstorm, 2016), 199. 32 “Glossary,” in Students Must Rise: Youth Struggle in South Africa Before and Beyond

Soweto ’76, ed. Anne Heffernan and Noor Nieftagodien (Johannesburg: Wits University

Press, 2016), x. 33 Thomas K. Ranuga "Frantz Fanon and Black Consciousness in Azania (South

Africa)," Phylon (1960-) 47, no. 3 (1986): 187, doi:10.2307/274985. 34 Susan Booysen, “Appendix 2: Student Protest Glossary of Terms,” in #FeesMustFall:


Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 328.

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3. Literature review and status quaestionis

For my literature review I re-used the articles and books that I had read for my former research

on the views of student parties from UWC and UCT on #FeesMustFall for my Bachelor thesis.

I added new literature on digital activism and #FeesMustFall and social media so that it fits this

research. I entered several keywords in Google Scholar, among others ‘#FeesMustFall’, ‘South

Africa’, ‘social media’, ‘digital activism’, ‘activism’, ‘Facebook’ and so on, both separate and

combined. In some cases, when I needed details, I used alternative keywords to complete my

knowledge on the subjects in question. As #FeesMustFall and digital technologies are

constantly evolving, I deliberately gave preference to the most recent literature. I looked into

the literature not only before my analysis but also after. In this way I was able to emphasize the

relevant information for this thesis. Throughout this chapter, there will also be insights on the

status quaestionis displayed.

I selected literature that would give me an overview of digital activism and the role of Facebook

especially, the #FeesMustFall movement itself and the relation between #FeesMustFall and

social media. Consequently, this chapter will be divided according to these main themes.

3.1 Digital activism

The study field of digital activism is theoretically rich and full of debates. The potential of

digital activism to enact actual change, how digital activism should be studied and the

discussion on the so-called ‘digital divide’ is subject to much debate in the literature. In this

section I will follow these three discussion points to synthesize my findings from the literature

review, taking into consideration the three main debates that make up the research field. The

subsection on Facebook will lead into my contextualization of #FeesMustFall and the relation

between #FeesMustFall and social media.

The first debate in the literature on digital activism derives from the discussion on the potential

of digital activism for social or political change. So much has been written on the positive and

negative effects of digital activism that I will regard it as the ‘big question’ in digital activism

research. Joyce divided the perspectives of scholars on digital activism in optimists, pessimists

and ‘persistents’. Scholars who emphasize the usefulness and effectiveness of digital activism

are the optimists. On the other hand, scholars who focus on the destructive possibilities of

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digital activism are called the pessimists.35 A third stance is that of the ‘persistents’, who are

unimpressed by the potential of digital activism and believe that previous power structures will

just persist.36

What will follow is an explication of the benefits and the drawbacks of digital activism

as found in my selected literature, which seems to lean more unto the optimistic viewpoint. To

be clear, this overview is only an indication of the patterns in my selected literature and is not

exhaustive.

Digital activism has multiple times being said to create new possibilities for

organization, mobilization and the dissemination of information.37,38 Digital activism has the

power to ‘democratize participation’, meaning that it can involve a wider audience in

discussion, politics and collective action. This includes the connection with other movements

as well.39 Online platforms enable personalized communication and are cheap, easy to use and

easy to join for ordinary people and even people who weren’t involved in politics at first.40,41

Informality and discretion of online platforms makes it attractive to state political views,42

35 Marcos Sivitanides, Vivek Shah and Mayur Mehta, “The era of digital activism,” in

Proceedings of the Conference for Information Systems Applied Research (2011): 1-8, doi:

10.1504/IJITCC.2013.059409. 36 Mary Joyce, “Introduction: How to Think About Digital Activism,” in Digital Activism

Decoded, ed. Mary Joyce (New York: International Debate Education Association, 2010), 10-

11. https://murdoch.is/papers/digiact10all.pdf. 37 Maria Bakardjieva, Jakob Svensson and Marko M. Skoric, “Digital Citizenship and

Activism: Questions of Power and Participation Online,” The eJournal of eDemocracy and

Open Government (JeDEM) 4, no.1 (2012): i, doi: 10.29379/jedem.v4i1.113. 38 Tanja Bosch, “Twitter and Participatory Citizenship: #FeesMustFall in South Africa,” in

Digital Activism in the Social Media Era: Critical Reflections on Emerging Trends in Sub-

Saharan Africa, ed. Bruce Mutsvairo (SpringerLink, 2016): 166,

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317568585_Digital_Activism_in_the_Social_Media

_Era_Critical_Reflections_on_Emerging_Trends_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa. 39 Amy Stornaiuolo and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, “Disrupting Educational Inequalities

Through Youth Digital Activism.” Review of Research in Education41, no. 1 (March 2017):

351, doi:10.3102/0091732X16687973. 40 Jordana George and Dorothy E. Leidner, “Digital Activism: a Hierarchy of Political

Commitment,” in Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System

Sciences (2018): 2301, doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2018.288. 41 Christina Neumayer and Jakob Svensson. “Activism and Radical Politics in the Digital

Age: Towards a Typology,” Convergence 22, no. 2 (April 2016): 131,

doi:10.1177/1354856514553395. 42 Bruce Mutsvairo, “Dovetailing Desires for Democracy with New ICTs’ Potentiality as

Platform for Activism,” in Digital Activism in the Social Media Era: Critical Reflections on

Emerging Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. Bruce Mutsvairo (SpringerLink, 2016): 9,


_Era_Critical_Reflections_on_Emerging_Trends_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa.


https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317568585_Digital_Activism_in_the_Social_Media_Era_Critical_Reflections_on_Emerging_Trends_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa


https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16687973



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enabling dissenting opinions that are excluded from the classic political arena to be freely and

limitlessly expressed online, where these ideologies can be identified and reinforced.43,44

Also, the online presence of movements can help them to remain in existence by receiving

movement funding online45 and increase their visibility and impact.46

From all digital technologies that could possibly be used for activism (like SMS and e-

mail), social media is the preferred form of digital activism.47 When open to the public, social

media can enhance the visibility of movements48, for instance when users stumble upon

movements by accident when ‘scrolling’ on social media.49 The impact is especially clear in

the influence of social media on the traditional news media.50 Online there is unedited, raw

news open to interpretation in the form of photos, videos and posts which can be adopted in

regular news reporting.51 This relates to a phenomenon called ‘counternarrative’ or

43 Neumayer and Svensson, “Activism and Radical Politics in the Digital Age: Towards a

Typology,” 132. 44 W.L. Bennett, “New Media Power: The Internet and Global Activism,” (2003) in Herman

Wasserman, “The possibilities of ICTs for social activism in Africa,” (2011): 6.


activism_in_Africa_an. 45 Amy Stornaiuolo and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, “Disrupting Educational Inequalities

Through Youth Digital Activism,” Review of Research in Education41, no. 1 (March 2017):

347. doi:10.3102/0091732X16687973. 46 Jordana George and Dorothy E. Leidner, “Digital Activism: a Hierarchy of Political


Sciences (2018): 2306, doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2018.288. 47 Kate Brodock, Mary Joyce and Timo Zaeck “Digital activism Survey: Report,”

DigiActive Research Series (July 2009). Cited in: Fernando Adolfo Mora, “Emergent Digital

Activism: The Generational/Technological Connection,” The Journal of Community

Informatics 10, no. 1 (2014): 3,

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260019661_emergent_digital_activism_the_generat

ionaltechnological_connection. 48 Christina Neumayer and Jakob Svensson, “Activism and Radical Politics in the Digital

Age: Towards a Typology,” Convergence 22, no. 2 (April 2016): 137, doi:

10.1177/1354856514553395. 49 On social media platforms, people you are befriended with or people you follow can share

posts of other profiles and in this way introduce you to this particular profile or post. Profiles

which are open to the public can always be consulted by everyone, in contrast to profiles

which are private. 50 Maria Bakardjieva, Jakob Svensson and Marko M. Skoric, “Digital Citizenship and


Open Government (JeDEM) 4, no.1 (2012): i, doi: 10.29379/jedem.v4i1.113. 51 Carla Danielle Monteiro Soares and Luiz Antonio Joia, “The Influence of Social Media on

Social Movements: An Exploratory Conceptual Model,”. Cited in: Carla Danielle Monteiro

Soares and Luiz Antonio Joia, “The Influence of Social Media on Social Movements: An

Exploratory Conceptual Model,” in Electronic Participation, eds. Efthimios Tambouris,

Panos Panagiotopoulos, Øystein Sæbø, Konstantinos Tarabanis, Maria A. Wimmer, Michela



https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16687973

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260019661_emergent_digital_activism_the_generationaltechnological_connection


16

‘restorying’52 in which different perspectives are represented to offset the dominant view on a

certain issue, widening the viewpoint of the public. When the movement feels like they are

being negatively represented (which is often the case53) or when they face repression and abuse,

they can use social media to show their side of the story and be transparent. However, George

and Leidner warn that these images can “…lack context and give false impressions…”.54

Valenzuela has argued that social media can ‘mobilize information’ in three ways:

‘identificational’ (contact information and people) locational (time and place) and tactical

(instructions on how to get involved). Due to social media there were other protest tactics

developed which are only possible online, such as hacking (when used for activist ends called

‘hacktivism’), cyberattacks and information leaking.55 In this way, social media can enable

direct action.56

On the pessimist side, while these new protest tactics can be effective for protesters to

convey their message, it is a negative development to the victims of these practices.57 Critics

on digital activism also emphasize the control of corporations and governments as detrimental

for online protesting. Social media platforms are essentially owned and dominated by business

enterprises.58 This means that data will be shared to these companies, giving them the power to

block or censor accounts and share them with governments or police.59 Governments are able

to monitor and supervise citizens’ behavior on the internet, which is especially disturbing in

Milano and Theresa A. Pardo (Springer International Publishing, 2015), 30-33,

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-40346-0. 52 Amy Stornaiuolo and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, “Disrupting Educational Inequalities


351, doi:10.3102/0091732X16687973. 53 Sebastián Valenzuela , “Unpacking the Use of Social Media for Protest Behavior: The

Roles of Information, Opinion Expression, and Activism,” American Behavioral Scientist 57

no. 7 (July 2013): 923. doi:10.1177/0002764213479375. 54 Jordana George and Dorothy E. Leidner “Digital Activism: a Hierarchy of Political


Sciences (2018): 2306, DOI: 10.24251/HICSS.2018.288. 55 Christina Neumayer and Jakob Svensson. “Activism and Radical Politics in the Digital

Age: Towards a Typology.” Convergence 22, no. 2 (April 2016): 137,

doi:10.1177/1354856514553395. 56 George and Leidner, “Digital Activism: a Hierarchy of Political Commitment,” 2299. 57 George and Leidner, “Digital Activism: a Hierarchy of Political Commitment,” 2299. 58 Bakardjieva, Svensson and Skoric, “Digital Citizenship and Activism,” ii. 59 Neumayer and Svensson, “Activism and Radical Politics,” 137.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-40346-0

https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16687973

17

authoritarian, repressive regimes.60,61 Besides this, digital activism is mostly being criticized for

possibly constituting a phenomenon called ‘slacktivism’ or ‘clicktivism’.62 Slacktivism, a term

coined by Gladwell, is a rather derogatory term to describe the process wherein the supporting

of digital activism is not reflected on the ground and lowers engagement ratios. In this sense,

the practices of ‘liking’, ‘commenting’, and ‘sharing’ on social media is merely a feel-good

practice which leads to less participation in ‘real life’ protest actions.63 The success of digital

activism alone is thus not guaranteed according to these scholars and should always be in

combination with ‘offline’ activism64, as they fear that digital activism might replace traditional

activism completely. However, as I already explained in the conceptual-theoretical framework,

I will regard the ‘online’ and the ‘offline’ as merged together in an ‘augmented reality’. Another

concern with digital activism is the possible polarization and fragmentation coming from

reinforced, non-consensual political identities online. The ability of digital activism to mobilize

passive citizens is being questioned as well.65

The optimist ideas about digital activism are clearly contested by the pessimist opinions

and the other way around. Optimist scholars have multiply stated that digital activism does not

have negative effects on offline activism and certainly does not replace it66, while pessimist

scholars continue to defend these theories. I suggest that the ‘positive’ effects can be negative

as well, just like the ‘negative’ effects can have positive outcomes. For instance, when a

movement that is potentially dangerous is present online, the positive influence of digital

60 Maria Bakardjieva, Jakob Svensson and Marko M. Skoric, “Digital Citizenship and


Open Government (JeDEM) 4, no.1 (2012): ii, doi: 10.29379/jedem.v4i1.113. 61 Neumayer and Svensson, “Activism and Radical Politics,” 137. 62 Bakardjieva, Svensson and Skoric “Digital Citizenship and Activism,” ii. 63 Jordana George and Dorothy E. Leidner “Digital Activism: a Hierarchy of Political


Sciences (2018): 2302, DOI: 10.24251/HICSS.2018.288. 64 Maria Bakardjieva, Jakob Svensson and Marko M. Skoric, “Digital Citizenship and


Open Government (JeDEM) 4, no.1 (2012): ii, doi: 10.29379/jedem.v4i1.113. 65 Bruce Bimber, “Information and political engagement in America: The search for effects of

information technology at the individual level,” Political Research Quarterly 54 no. 1 (2001):

53-67. Cited in: Mthokozisi Emmanuel Ntuli and Damtew Teferra. "Implications of Social

Media on Student Activism: The South African Experience in a Digital Age," Journal of

Higher Education in Africa / Revue De L'enseignement Supérieur En Afrique 15, no. 2

(2017): 68, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26640371. 66 Mthokozisi Emmanuel Ntuli and Damtew Teferra. "Implications of Social Media on

Student Activism: The South African Experience in a Digital Age," Journal of Higher

Education in Africa / Revue De L'enseignement Supérieur En Afrique 15, no. 2 (2017): 69,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26640371.



18

activism might be threatening to security, while the negative effects of digital activism might

be able to obstruct the practices of malicious groupings. Digital activism is thus not either

‘good’ or ‘bad’67, and the evaluation of the influence of digital activism as beneficial or harmful

depends to a great extent on the context.

The optimist and pessimist stances to digital activism are difficult to reconcile, but I

believe both sides must be considered in relation to their context. In my research as well I will

both regard the positive and negative effects that digital activism can have on the #FeesMustFall

movement, even though I might be biased because I already knew that social media plays a

crucial role in this movement.

The second debate is situated in the discussion on how digital activism should be studied. Next

to the discussion on quantitative versus qualitative research, Kaun and Uldam detected a

dualism in the literature on digital activism in which either the technology or the context is at

the foreground. The focus on technology is a media-deterministic view, which regards social

movements as derived from digital technologies which are universal, new, exceptional and

revolutionary. It is however an ahistorical viewpoint, as digital activism must be seen in its

context. This contextual viewpoint must consider the social, economic and political factors that

are linked to the digital activism in particular contexts and localities.68 In this way, movements

which are not present online can be taken into account as well. Despite this critique there are

still studies that deliberately employ the universal macro-level approach as a reaction to the

micro-level approach in the shape of case studies.

Obviously, I will take the contextual and micro-level approach in my own analysis

because my research is a case study. Nevertheless, I will here and there link the movement to

the global sphere and give attention to the innovations that were made possible by social media

as well. In the research on digital activism there are both quantitative and qualitative

approaches. The qualitative approach is in line with my interests, preferences and knowledge

as a result of my background as an African Studies student. This means that I did not have a

training in quantitative research methods which are rather associated with disciplines such as

sociology, political science, economics and so on. I will however combine my qualitative

insights with some quantitative findings from the literature to weigh it up against my qualitative

point of view and because quantitative research is indispensable from digital activism research,

67 George and Leidner, “Digital Activism: a Hierarchy of Political Commitment,” 2305-2306. 68 Anne Kaun and Julie Uldam, “Digital Activism: After the Hype,” New Media & Society 20,

no. 6 (June 2018): 2099–2106. doi:10.1177/1461444817731924.

19

which “… is studied within a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology,

political science, media and communication studies, as well as art and design studies.”69 Next

to a qualitative approach in combination with a certain amount of quantitative literature it will

thus be an interdisciplinary study as well.

The last debate is the one between the theorists of the ‘digital divide’ and their critics. This

theory does not originally refer to digital activism, but it has been applied to research on digital

activism nonetheless because it has an influence on the level of participation and engagement

in political causes. The ‘digital divide’ relates to the inequalities in access, affordability and

skills of digital technologies. These inequalities can be connected to the structural inequalities

in the contemporary world order70, and some fear that the ‘digital divide’ might extend these

global inequalities, even though some have also regarded ICTs as a ‘development tool’.71

The digital divide is ascribed to social class, level of education and even geographical

location. Schradie has argued that the working class has a lower level of engagement in digital

technologies than the middle class and upper class.72 Christensen has attributed the engagement

in digital technologies and digital activism as well to the well-educated and politically

interested.73 The digital divide on the geographical scale is quite controversial, because it often

regards Africa as a continent with ‘digital poverty’.74 I believe that this is a stereotypical,

stigmatizing viewpoint on Africa because the role of digital technologies should be viewed in

its context. In Africa, mobile phones have a profound impact75 because it overcomes

infrastructural obstacles like ill-functioning phone lines. Mobile phones are also particularly

69 Anne Kaun and Julie Uldam, “Digital Activism: After the Hype,” New Media & Society 20,

no. 6 (June 2018): 2100. doi:10.1177/1461444817731924. 70 Wasserman, “The possibilities of ICTs for social activism in Africa,” (2011): 1.


activism_in_Africa_an. 71 Wasserman, “The possibilities of ICTs for social activism in Africa,” 1-21. 72 Jen Schradie, “The Digital Activism Gap: How Class and Costs Shape Online Collective

Action,” Social Problems (2018): 65, doi: 10.1093/socpro/spx042 52 73 Henrik Serup Christensen, “Political activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or political

participation by other means?,” (2011). Cited in: Mthokozisi Emmanuel Ntuli and Damtew

Teferra, "Implications of Social Media on Student Activism: The South African Experience in

a Digital Age," Journal of Higher Education in Africa / Revue De L'enseignement Supérieur

En Afrique 15, no. 2 (2017): 68, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26640371. 74 Hayes Mawindi Mabweazara, “Mainstreaming African digital cultures, practices and

emerging forms of citizen engagement,” African Journalism Studies 36, no. 4 (2015): 4-13,

doi: 10.1080/23743670.2015.1119486. 75 Mabweazara, “Mainstreaming African digital cultures, practices and emerging forms of

citizen engagement,” 2.




20

convenient because the majority does not own a personal computer.76 So, despite the

infrastructural and financial limitations, digital technologies - including mobile phones and the

internet – have become very reachable for Africans across social classes.77 The ability to

connect without boundaries, especially through social media, has appeared to be helpful to the

needs and circumstances of Africans.78 Africans use social media to speak up against those in

power. In some cases, for instance in repressive regimes, it is the only tool that ordinary citizens

have to do this. Generally, the digital divide is being rejected as a one-sided viewpoint, which

“…begins from the premise that something is missing, which normalizes Western,

heteronormative, masculinized, White, middle-class, able-bodied, and adult ways of engaging

with digital technologies.” 79

3.1.1 Facebook

There is no ‘killer app’ which makes some movements more successful than others. Especially

Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and many more services can be used for protesting. With

WhatsApp there is only text messaging possible. Facebook has a lot more features than Twitter.

Connections on Facebook are made by ‘friending’ people, ‘liking’ pages, joining a group,

attending an event, messaging and so on. Twitter only has profiles, which can be connected by

following and messaging. Posts on Facebook are called ‘status updates’, while posts on Twitter

are called ‘tweets’. These are essentially the same, but Twitter is limited in the amount of

characters you can use in a post, which makes them shorter. ‘Liking’, ‘sharing’ and hashtags

can be done at both of these platforms. In general, Facebook is more aimed towards people,

while Twitter is more aimed towards topics.

As I will undertake digital fieldwork on Facebook I find it necessary to dedicate a section to

76 Narnia Bohler-Muller and Charl van der Merwe, “The potential of social media to influence

socio-political change on the African Continent,” Africa Institute of South Africa Briefing no.

46 (March 2011): 4,

https://www.academia.edu/2097559/The_potential_of_social_media_to_influence_socio-

political_change_on_the_African_Continent. 77 Narnia Bohler-Muller and Charl van der Merwe, “The potential of social media to influence

socio-political change on the African Continent,” 2. 78 Herman Wasserman, “Foreword,” in Digital Activism in the Social Media Era: Critical

Reflections on Emerging Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. Bruce Mutsvairo (SpringerLink,

2016): v,


_Era_Critical_Reflections_on_Emerging_Trends_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa. 79 Amy Stornaiuolo and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, “Disrupting Educational Inequalities


339, doi:10.3102/0091732X16687973.

https://www.academia.edu/2097559/The_potential_of_social_media_to_influence_socio-political_change_on_the_African_Continent




https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16687973

21

this particular social media platform. Surely, Facebook is not the only social media tool that has

been used in #FeesMustFall, but drawing upon my former research it is safe to say that it is one

of the most popular and effective tools for the movement next to Twitter. Despite this, the

application has not been carefully looked at yet with regards to #FeesMustFall.

According to Edwards et al., the success of social media applications for political causes is

dependent on who the movement targets and on the diversity of tools. If this is the government,

there is more chance to success. Apart from some regional variations on social media

applications, Twitter and Facebook dominate digital activism, and especially Facebook because

99% of campaigns who used social media used Facebook according to Edwards et al.80 While

the positive and negative effects of digital activism that I have described above are applicable

to whatever social media platform, I will elaborate briefly on what makes Facebook unique in

relation to digital activism. Of course, the role of Facebook in digital activism has been

reviewed by both optimists and pessimists, meaning that while some scholars find it an effective

tool for constituting change, others view it as endorsing slacktivism.

Facebook is a social media application founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 and is at the

moment of writing the 3rd most popular website next to Google and YouTube worldwide.81

Even though Facebook was not created for activism, it has changed its initial function and is

now being used for digital activism.82,83 Even though it is still mostly used for entertainment,

Facebook has some characteristics that benefit activism. Certain features such as ‘groups’,

‘events’84 and ‘causes’85 promote political organization and mobilization. Bendor et al. have

interpreted the Facebook-design as a “…dialogical, open-ended mode of discourse, allowing

participants to integrate various styles of expression, personal experiences and forms of

80 Frank Edwards, Philip N. Howard and Mary Joyce, “Digital Activism and Non‐ Violent

Conflict,” (2013): 12, doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2595115. 81 “Topsites,” Alexa, accessed July 25, 2019, https://www.alexa.com/topsites. 82 Mary Joyce, “Introduction: How to Think About Digital Activism,” in Digital Activism

Decoded, ed. Mary Joyce (New York: International Debate Education Association, 2010), 5.

https://murdoch.is/papers/digiact10all.pdf 83 Marcos Sivitanides, Shah Vivek and Mayur Mehta, “The era of digital activism,”

International Journal of Information Technology, Communication and Convergence 2, no.4

(2011): 2-3, doi: 10.1504/IJITCC.2013.059409. 84 Tanja Bosch, “Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa,” Journal of African Media

Studies 5, no. 2 (2013): 122, doi: 10.1386/jams.5.2.119_1. 85 Sebastián Valenzuela , “Unpacking the Use of Social Media for Protest Behavior: The

Roles of Information, Opinion Expression, and Activism,” American Behavioral Scientist 57

no. 7 (July 2013): 925. doi:10.1177/0002764213479375.

https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2595115

https://www.alexa.com/topsites


22

reasoning.” They do however also indicate that Facebook is not useful for decision-making and

achieving consensus.86

Marichal also acknowledges the potential of polarization on Facebook. Because political pages

and groups on Facebook are either opposing or supporting, they engage people with similar

political identities but also exclude others in their non-consensual behavior.87 Marichal has

undertaken an extensive research on political Facebook groups and regards these groups as a

kind of micro-activism, in which political activities on Facebook function as a “…discursive

performance designed to express a political identity…” instead of constituting change. He

recognizes four dimensions that determine the political discourse on Facebook groups, namely

‘expressivity’, ‘resistance/legitimation’, ‘signifiers’ and ‘length’. Expressivity relates to the

central argument: on Facebook, people express their political identities and do not necessarily

have plans for constituting change. These political identities can be resisting or legitimizing.

Resisting political identities are the identities that oppose themselves to a dominant, excluding

group. Consequently, they will attempt to legitimize this standpoint. The signifiers (punctuation

and capitalization) and length of the posts help to express emotions.88 These ideas of Marichal

can be related to Gerbaudo and Treré who indicate the presence of a ‘collective identity’ in

social media which is connected to symbolic, ideological and expressive communication

processes.89

The politics of representation also play a role in shaping the political discourse. On

Facebook, people either adopt an acquisitive self-representation, in which they will focus on

their positive aspects, or adopt a protective self-representation, in which they avoid being

viewed negatively by the public. Marichal also applies Goffman’s theory of the front stage and

the back stage to Facebook, which is a key concept in sociology. This theory a is a dramaturgical

approach, because it employs theater as a metaphor. According to Goffman, individuals behave

in two different contexts: a front stage and a back stage. The front stage is basically where

people behave and represent themselves according to the norms of the public. The back stage

86 B Maria Bakardjieva, Jakob Svensson and Marko M. Skoric, “Digital Citizenship and


Open Government (JeDEM) 4, no.1 (2012): iii, DOI: 10.29379/jedem.v4i1.113. 87 Jose Marichal, “Political Facebook groups: Micro-activism and the digital front stage,”

First Monday 1 no. 2 (2013): 1-7, doi: 10.5210/fm.v18i12.4653. 88 Jose Marichal, “Political Facebook groups: Micro-activism and the digital front stage,”

First Monday 1 no. 2 (2013): 1-7, doi: 10.5210/fm.v18i12.4653. 89 Paolo Gerbaudo and Emiliano Treré, “In search of the ‘we’ of social media activism:

introduction to the special issue on social media and protest identities,” Information,

Communication & Society 18, no. 8: 865-871, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2015.1043319.

23

is where people can withdraw from these societal expectations and be their ‘true selves’, but

still with the social norms in mind as they keep on practicing these socially acceptable

behaviours. According to Marichal, Facebook has both elements of a front stage and a back

stage. In the case of political groups and pages however it is mostly the front stage that comes

forward.90

Facebook has always been one of the most used websites in South Africa.91 South Africans,

particularly students enrolled in tertiary education, use Facebook extensively.92 The paradigm

of global youth disengagement in politics, in which youth are regarded as apathetic towards

politics is being rejected by Bosch based on her study on the behavior of South African youth

on Facebook. Bosch argues that while the youth is less active in mainstream politics since 1994

and is critical towards it because of their inability to address youth issues, they engage in new

forms of political participation, namely sub-activism on social media. Sub-activism is activism

in the private sphere, and in this case social media is the private sphere in which individualized,

personal forms of activism are made possible. By using social media and Facebook in particular,

the youth addresses specific issues and concerns familiar to them.93 Bosch does however

pinpoint that particularly Facebook is used for the “…maintenance and extension of existing

offline networks…”94 instead of creating new networks. There is indeed a division to be made

between social networks which are originally non-digital and move to the internet and the other

way around.95 She also seems to suggest that slacktivism is present, as a lot of students ‘liked’

90 Jose Marichal, “Political Facebook groups: Micro-activism and the digital front stage,”

First Monday 1 no. 2 (2013): 1-7, doi: 10.5210/fm.v18i12.4653. 91 Zama I Dlamini, Linda Malinga, Thulani Masiane and Maduvha Tshiololi, “Social Media

Advocacy in the #MustFall Campaigns in South Africa,” in Proceedings of the 17th European

Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (28-29 June 2018),

https://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/handle/10204/10357. 92 Bosch, “Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa”, 122. 93 Rys Farthing, “The politics and youthful antipolitics: Representing the “issue” of youth

participation in politics,” Journal of Youth Studies 13, no. 2 (2010): 181–95. Cited in: Tanja

Bosch, “Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa,” Journal of African Media Studies 5,

no. 2 (2013): 119-130, doi: 10.1386/jams.5.2.119_1. 94 Marko Skoric and Grace Chi En Kwan, “Do Facebook and video games promote political

participation among youth?,” JeDem Journal of Democracy 3, no.1 (2011): 70–79. Cited in:

Tanja Bosch, “Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa,” Journal of African Media

Studies 5, no. 2 (2013): 121, doi: 10.1386/jams.5.2.119_1. 95 Guobin Yang, (2006). “The Internet and civil society in China: Co-evolutionary dynamics

and digital formations,” in China’s deep reform: Domestic politics in transition, eds. Lowell

Dittmer and Guoli Liu (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006): 303–318. Cited in: Emad

Khazraee and James Losey, “Evolving repertoires: Digital media use in contentious politics,”

Communication and the Public 1, no. 1 (2016): 43.

https://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/handle/10204/10357

24

certain political pages but did not go further than that.96 There are however also several voices

who don’t agree with Facebook constituting slacktivism, because they regard it is a

revolutionary tool, explaining terms like ‘Facebook revolution’.97 Bosch also observed a rather

high degree of trust in the mainstream media and at the same time a low degree of mainstream

news consumption. This is because the youth is generally not interested in traditional media

because they cannot relate to it. They use Facebook as a news source instead.98 There are certain

key individuals, which Bosch calls ‘gatekeepers’ and ‘opinion leaders’ who provide this news,

as on social media there is a minority responsible for the majority of the content.99

Finally, Bosch also recognized a ‘victim discourse’ that came up when a movement felt

threatened.100

3.2 #FeesMustFall: background and contextualization

“…protests should not be judged on their immediate impact but rather on the way they have

transformed political imaginations and ideas about what is possible.”101

This quote from Branch and Mampilly’s Africa Uprising alludes that whether protests are

successful or not, they can sensitize people into self-consciousness and unify them behind a

common goal.102 Based on Branch and Mampilly’s theories, I argue that #FeesMustFall is part

of the third protest wave in Africa, which is distinguishable from former protest waves because

of the absence of leadership and the absence of a clear alternative for the current political

system. So, even though change must happen, it is unclear what this change should look like.103

This ‘vagueness’ makes these movements attractive, because everyone can recognize

themselves in it and join.104 The lack of leadership does however make possible consensus and

96 Tanja Bosch, “Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa,” Journal of African Media

Studies 5, no. 2 (2013): 126, doi: 10.1386/jams.5.2.119_1. 97 Nathan Jurgenson, “When Atoms Meet Bits: Social Media, the Mobile Web and

Augmented Revolution,” Future Internet 4, no.1 (March 2012): 83-91, doi:

10.3390/fi4010083. 98 Bosch, “Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa,” 123-124. 99 Bosch, “Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa,” 124-128. 100 Bosch, “Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa,” 122. 101 Adam Branch and Zachariah Mampilly, Africa Uprising: Popular Protest and Political

Change (Zed Books, 2015), 214. 102 Branch and Mampilly, Africa Uprising 4-6. 103 Branch and Mampilly, Africa Uprising, 82-83. 104 Branch and Mampilly, Africa Uprising, 213.

25

agreement harder to achieve.105

While the first protest wave of anti-colonial protests in the 1940s and 1950s caused

decolonization, the second protest wave of anti-austerity protests in the 1980s and 1990s led to

democratization. Student protests in particular have been around since the first protest wave, as

they were not only concerned with the university itself but also with broader societal issues.

There are however several reasons why Africans felt the need to rise up again, such as poverty

and corruption. Poverty in Africa is however not only the result of neoliberalism and capitalism,

but also of the colonial past, and affects the youth the most.106

Indeed, all discontent that is expressed in #FeesMustFall leads back to the former

Apartheid system in which people were officially segregated along color lines; the whites

favored and the blacks discriminated. Concerning education, this was formalized in the Bantu

Education Act. During that era there were already student protests against educational and

societal policies at large, of which the 1976 Soweto uprising is probably the most memorable.

This protest was aimed against the implementation of Afrikaans as the language of instruction

and led to a high amount of killings by the police.107

The democratization wave of 1994 with the election of the ANC and president Nelson

Mandela heralded the transformation of the South African society into a ‘Rainbow Nation’.

Among many other transformations, the democratization contained the re-structuring of higher

education with ‘deracialization’, but also with commodification. This means that previously

segregated universities would now be accessible to all races108, but despite the promise of free

higher education, universities received less funding and needed to rely on tuition fees instead.109

This has jeopardized the academic freedom, as universities became less accessible and

autonomous.110 Even though the democratic freedom was officially established, in practice this

105 Gillian Godsell, Refiloe Lepere, Swankie Mafoko and Ayabonga Nase, “Documenting the

Revolution,” in #FeesMustFall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance in South

Africa, ed. Susan Booysen (South Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 107. 106 Branch and Mampilly, Africa Uprising, 69-74. 107 Zama I Dlamini, Linda Malinga, Thulani Masiane and Maduvha Tshiololi, “Social Media

Advocacy in the #MustFall Campaigns in South Africa,” in Proceedings of the 17th European

Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security (28-29 June 2018),

https://researchspace.csir.co.za/dspace/handle/10204/10357. 108 Hence the ‘historically white’ universities and ‘historically black’ universities 109 Bjarke Oxlund, “#EverythingMustFall: The Use of Social Media and Violent Protests in

the Current Wave of Student Riots in South Africa,”. Anthropology Now 8, no. 2 (2016): 1-

13, doi: 10.1080/19428200.2016.1202574. 110 Francis B. Nyamnjoh, “Introduction: Academic Freedom in African Universities,” Pax

Academica nos. 1&2 (2015): 7,


26

has not been translated to economic freedom and racial freedom111, as South Africa today is the

most unequal country in the world.112 These issues have led to a lot of frustrations, especially

among the black youth who are mostly affected by these socio-economic issues. Today South

Africans “…are more aware of race than ever before, despite the demise of apartheid more

than a decade ago, and list it as a key factor in their self-identification, as well as a key variable

in their discussions and views on mainstream politics.”113 South Africa today is thus being

viewed as an extension of Apartheid. This discontent with the unfulfilled promises of the

Rainbow Nation has led to the contemporary #MustFall protests.114

The Fallist protests started with the #RhodesMustFall movement, when activist

Chumani Maxwele threw human faeces at the statue of Cecil Rhodes on the campus of UCT.115

Eventually, #RhodesMustFall became the harbinger for a series of other ‘Fallist’ movements.

The pillars of these Fallist movements are the philosophies of Black Consciousness, Pan-

Africanism and Black Radical Feminism, which I elaborated on in my theoretical framework.

After the removal of the Rhodes statue, students in other institutions reflected and asked

themselves what ‘must fall’ in their contexts.116 When another fee increase was announced,

students at the University of Witwatersrand in October 2015 shut down the campus, which


rican_Universities. 111 Ndumiso Daluxolo Ngidi, Chumani Mtshixa, Kathleen Diga, Nduta Mbarathi and Julian



International Conference (June 2016): 1-11. DOI: 10.1145/2909609.2909654. 112 Bjarke Oxlund, “#EverythingMustFall: The Use of Social Media and Violent Protests in

the Current Wave of Student Riots in South Africa,”. Anthropology Now 8, no. 2 (2016): 1-7,

doi: 10.1080/19428200.2016.1202574. 113 Tanja Bosch, “Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa,” Journal of African Media

Studies 5, no. 2 (2013): 127, doi: 10.1386/jams.5.2.119_1. 114 Rekgotsofetse Chikane, “Young People and the #Hashtags That Broke the Rainbow


Judith Bessant (SpringerLink, 2018): 19-39. 115 Francis B. Nyamnjoh, “Black Pain Matters: Down with Rhodes,” Pax Academica nos. 1&2

(January 2015): 51-52,


rican_Universities. 116 Thierry M. Luescher and Manja Klemenčič, “Student power in twenty-first century Africa:

The character and role of student organising,” in Student Politics and Protests: International

Perspectives, ed. Rachel Brooks (London: Routledge, 2017), 1,

https://www.academia.edu/35678555/Student_Power_in_21st-

century_Africa_the_character_and_role_of_student_organising.





https://www.academia.edu/35678555/Student_Power_in_21st-century_Africa_the_character_and_role_of_student_organising


27

heralded the start of #FeesMustFall.117 Afterwards, #FeesMustFall protests mushroomed all

over the country118 with the help of social media. It is however important to realize that

#FeesMustFall is about more than the decommodification of higher education119 and that it

addresses issues that go much further than the university.120 It is an intersectional campaign:

“…everything from symbols of colonialism to fees, wages of service staff and managers,

outsourcing, declining government funding for higher education and a general lack of

postapartheid social transformation and racial equality had come under review by the

#…MustFall movement.”121 #FeesMustFall is about a general decolonization of knowledge and

the society at large, as the protests reflect the unfinished business of transformation in post-

1994 South Africa.

Even though some scholars argue that the Fallist movements united “…students across

the country regardless of race, gender, social class, and/or political affiliation,”122 and that

#FeesMustFall is a non-partisan and multicultural movement, it has also been stated that the

movement has become more partisan and racialized over time.123 The focus on race made the

movement evolve into a racial, essentialist, Africanist discourse.124 This decolonization-as-

117 Susan Booysen, “Introduction,” in #FeesMustFall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and

Governance in South Africa, ed. Susan Booysen (South Africa: Wits University Press, 2016),

5. 118 Camalita Naicker, “From Marikana to #FeesMustFall: The Praxis of Popular Politics in

South Africa,” Urbanisation 1, no. 1 (2016): 54, doi: 10.1177/2455747116640434. 119 Robyn Baragwanath “Social Media and Contentious Politics in South Africa,”

Communication and the Public 1, no. 3 (September 2016): 362–66, doi:

10.1177/2057047316667960. 120 Badat, “Deciphering the meanings & explaining the South African Higher Education

Student Protests of 2015–16,” 86,


rican_Universities. 121 Bjarke Oxlund, “#EverythingMustFall: The Use of Social Media and Violent Protests in

the Current Wave of Student Riots in South Africa,”. Anthropology Now 8, no. 2 (2016): 1-7,

doi: 10.1080/19428200.2016.1202574. 122 Mthokozisi Emmanuel Ntuli and Damtew Teferra. "Implications of Social Media on

Student Activism: The South African Experience in a Digital Age," Journal of Higher

Education in Africa / Revue De L'enseignement Supérieur En Afrique 15, no. 2 (2017): 76,

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26640371. 123 Susan Booysen, “Introduction,” in Fees Must Fall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and


15. 124 David Everatt, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants? Successive Generations of Youth

Sacrifice in South Africa,” in #FeesMustFall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and


135.




28

Africanization paradigm is part of the broader ideological and political background of the

students. Their beliefs are consistently being reflected in the protests. Especially the ideas of

Fanon and Biko are being reclaimed and appropriated to their current situation and often quoted

in their revolutionary language.125 The quote that “each generation must, out of relative

obscurity, discovers its mission, fulfil it, or betray it”126,127,128 of Fanon is often used in

#FeesMustFall as a legitimization for their cause.

Also, #FeesMustFall has been associated with violence in the media, in which students

execute vandalism, arson and stone throwing and the police and private security obstructs the

students from protesting with stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets. Protesters however

indicate that the police and private security are the instigators of violence and provoke the

students, which is why they feel the need to defend themselves by using violence too. The media

however mostly portrays the students as violent and don’t report on this interplay.129

Until today, the biggest victory achieved by #FeesMustFall campaigns is the freezing

of tuition fees.130 A lot of other demands have however not been met yet, urging the movement

to continue to exist. What makes #FeesMustFall in particular unique according to Ngidi et al.

is twofold: it is the biggest protest movement since the dawn of democracy in South Africa and

it used social media extensively.131

125 Susan Booysen, “Two Weeks in October: Changing Governance in South Africa,” in


Booysen (South Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 34. 126 Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 2004) in Jansen, As by

Fire: The End of the South African University (South Africa: Tafelberg, 2017), 79. 127 Omhle Ntshingila, in conversation with Richard Ndebele and Virginia Monageng,

“#OutsourcingMustFall through the eyes of workers,” in #FeesMustFall: Student Revolt,

Decolonisation and Governance in South Africa, ed. Susan Booysen (South Africa: Wits

University Press, 2016), 99. 128 Thierry M. Luescher, “Frantz Fanon and the #MustFall movements in South Africa,”

International Higher Education 85 (Spring 2016): 23, doi: 10.6017/ihe.2016.85.9244. 129 Sandile Ndelu, “’Liberation Is a Falsehood’: Fallism at the University of Cape Town,” in

#Hashtag: An Analysis of the #FeesMustFall Movement at South African Universities, ed.

Malose Langa (South Africa: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR),

2017), 63. https://www.africaportal.org/publications/hashtag-an-analysis-of-the-feesmustfall-

movement-atsouth-african-universities/. 130 Camalita Naicker, “From Marikana to #FeesMustFall: The Praxis of Popular Politics in

South Africa,” Urbanisation 1, no. 1 (2016): 55, doi: 10.1177/2455747116640434. 131 Ndumiso Daluxolo Ngidi, Chumani Mtshixa, Kathleen Diga, Nduta Mbarathi and Julian



International Conference (June 2016): 1-11. DOI: 10.1145/2909609.2909654.

https://www.africaportal.org/publications/hashtag-an-analysis-of-the-feesmustfall-movement-atsouth-african-universities/

https://www.africaportal.org/publications/hashtag-an-analysis-of-the-feesmustfall-movement-atsouth-african-universities/

29

3.3 #FeesMustFall and social media

In “Documenting the revolution,” Godsell and three #FeesMustFall student activists describe

the documents that represent the movement: printed documents, documents in between printed

media and social media, social media itself and other forms of protest. Printed documents are

formal agreements, court documents, worker documents and charters. In-between documents

are the notices by university management, open letters and posters, because while these

documents are officially printed they were spread out through social media. In #FeesMustFall,

social media platforms are used as forums in which followers are kept up-to-date about protests

actions, ask for donations and self-document the revolution with photos, videos and personal

stories. Especially the latter is very important in #FeesMustFall, because it gives the protesters

the possibility to report to people not involved in the movement, counter dominant narratives

and show violence enacted on them by the police, security or other authorities. On social media,

#FeesMustFall protesters can portray a pleasing image to the public. More skeptical voices

pinpoint that the social media campaigns by #FeesMustFall haven’t had the ability to effect

more long-term political and social changes and that social media can have its limits with

regards to participation132, when not everyone has access (yet) to these platforms.133 However,

digital activism did not start the movement, it was rather an addition to it.134 Godsell et al. also

mention other forms of protest, such as ‘occupying’ and the name changes of buildings which

are often a consequence of these shutdowns and occupations. Next to that, art, and more

specifically fine art, theatre, music concerts and poetry are utilized as a protest tactic. Another

important aspect of protest actions in #FeesMustFall are songs. The songs used during

protesting are struggle songs that invoke a “…collective struggle memory – and also functioned

to mobilise the students to action…”135 Toyi-toying, a mix of dancing and marching in which

the knees are lifted high and is accompanied by chants, is also being appropriated by the

protesters. Toyi-toyi replaced the old liberation songs when the anti-Apartheid movement and

132 Rebecca Hodes, “Briefing: Questioning ‘#FeesMustFall’,” African Affairs 116/462

(December 2016): 144, https://www.academia.edu/37125758/Questioning_Fees_Must_Fall_. 133 Robyn Baragwanath “Social Media and Contentious Politics in South Africa,”


10.1177/2057047316667960. 134 Lindsey Peterson, Kentse Radebe & Somya Mohanty, "Democracy, Education, and Free

Speech: The Importance of #FeesMustFall for Transnational Activism," Societies Without

Borders 11, no. 1 (2016): 8, https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol11/iss1/10/. 135 Godsell, Refiloe Lepere, Swankie Mafoko and Ayabonga Nase, “Documenting the


Africa, ed. Susan Booysen (South Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 114.

https://www.academia.edu/37125758/Questioning_Fees_Must_Fall_

https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol11/iss1/10/

30

its demonstrations became more militant. The people used toyi-toyi to deter and intimidate the

police and private security.136 In these circumstances music functions as a tool for reconciliation

and a bridge with the past.137

Clearly the ‘hashtag’ plays an important role in the relation between #FeesMustFall and social

media, as we can see in the official spelling of Fees Must Fall as ‘#FeesMustFall’ in academic

literature, news reports and so on. Hashtags label particular stories and issues under a common

‘tag’ while forming a community at the same time as well.138 Even though #FeesMustFall was

bound to particular geographic spaces, they are virtually connected with each other through

hashtags.139

The #FeesMustFall hashtag was listed in a court interdict by the High Court of South

Africa to prevent protest actions at the universities. Universities could apply for this court

interdict, and a few did, such as UCT, Stellenbosch University, Free State University and

CPUT. According to Peterson et al. this worked counterproductively, because when UCT

applied for this court interdict there was a peak in #FeesMustFall hashtags on Twitter, both

locally and globally.140 The distribution of hashtags thus made the acknowledgement of

#FeesMustFall across South African borders possible.

According to Ngidi et al, “few student protests have received global attention within a

short space of time as has the #FeesMustFall movement.”141 It seems that #FeesMustFall has

136 Olivier Urbain, Music and Conflict Transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in

Geopolitics (I.B. Tauris, 2007): 65-71.

https://books.google.be/books/about/Music_and_Conflict_Transformation.html?id=6HwAAw

AAQBAJ&redir_esc=y. 137 Urbain, Music and Conflict Transformation: Harmonies and Dissonances in Geopolitics,

65. 138 Y. Zhang, Y. Wu and Q. Yang, “Community discovery in Twitter based on user interests,”

Journal of Computational Information Systems 8, no.3: 991-1000 in Gillian Godsell, Refiloe

Lepere, Swankie Mafoko and Ayabonga Nase, “Documenting the Revolution,” in


Booysen (South Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 108. 139 Rekgotsofetse Chikane, “Young People and the #Hashtags That Broke the Rainbow


Judith Bessant (SpringerLink, 2018): 32. 140 Lindsey Peterson, Kentse Radebe & Somya Mohanty, "Democracy, Education, and Free


Borders 11, no. 1 (2016): 1-28, https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol11/iss1/10/. 141 Ndumiso Daluxolo Ngidi, Chumani Mtshixa, Kathleen Diga, Nduta Mbarathi and Julian




https://books.google.be/books/about/Music_and_Conflict_Transformation.html?id=6HwAAwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y



31

shifted from the local to a global sphere. Why is this the case? Simply put, #FeesMustFall fits

into a global movement of student protests who regard education as a right and not a

privilege.142,143. Students across the world sympathize with #FeesMustFall because of the

conviction of education and the freedom of speech as a right144 in combination with an

awareness of the bad side effects of neoliberalism.145 Students realize that universities are being

commodified, commercialized and privatized in the global capitalist system at the expense of

many students, who are being financially excluded by issues such as student debt, high tuition

fees and unemployment.146

Twitter is only one of the social media platforms which are used in #FeesMustFall.

Nevertheless, the majority of the research on #FeesMustFall and social media is about Twitter.

I will further discuss this remark in the ‘discussion’ section.

Bosch argues that Twitter plays an important role in the political landscape, both for

politicians and the youth. While the youth are disinterested in politics, ‘Twitter activism’ grants

the opportunity to yet participate in politics, in this case the cause of #FeesMustFall.147 This is

similar to her findings about Facebook and youth politics.

Ngidi et al. regard Twitter in #FeesMustFall as a tool for anti-poverty activism and

counter-storytelling. The messages shared on Twitter display the experiences of poor students

in institutions of higher education. The tweets told “the broader message of poverty, inequality

142 Thierry M. Luescher and Manja Klemenčič, “Student power in twenty-first century Africa:

The character and role of student organising,” in Student Politics and Protests: International

Perspectives, ed. Rachel Brooks (London: Routledge, 2017), 17.


century_Africa_the_character_and_role_of_student_organising. 143 Ngidi et al.,“'Asijiki' and the capacity to aspire through social media: the #FeesMustFall

movement as an anti-poverty activism in South Africa,”: 1-11. 144 Peterson et al.: "Democracy, Education, and Free Speech: The Importance of

#FeesMustFall for Transnational Activism,": 20-21. 145 Luescher and Klemenčič, “Student power in twenty-first century Africa: The character and

role of student organising,” 6. 146 Peters Lindsey Peterson, Kentse Radebe & Somya Mohanty, "Democracy, Education, and

Free Speech: The Importance of #FeesMustFall for Transnational Activism," Societies

Without Borders 11, no. 1 (2016): 17-18,

https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol11/iss1/10/. 147 Tanja Bosch, “Twitter and Participatory Citizenship: #FeesMustFall in South Africa,” in

Digital Activism in the Social Media Era: Critical Reflections on Emerging Trends in Sub-

Saharan Africa, ed. Bruce Mutsvairo (SpringerLink, 2016): 163-169,


_Era_Critical_Reflections_on_Emerging_Trends_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa.






32

and exclusion” as a reaction to traditional media, politicians and university management148,

such as females who wanted to counter the male bias on #FeesMustFall with the hashtag

#PatriarchyMustFall. Reminders of the promises made in 1994 to the South Africans were also

frequent, as well as pictures and quotes of honourable leaders and intellectuals like Frantz

Fanon, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Thomas Sankara and Chris Hani, as a means of

inspiration. Poor children were also often depicted to emphasize the importance of free

education for the future.149

De Kadt investigated the political response on the #FeesMustFall protests on Twitter

and realized that the supportive messages of the political parties to #FeesMustFall were used

for their own political agendas.150

In scholarly literature on #FeesMustFall it is clear that the peak in #FeesMustFall tweets

was between 19 and 25 October 2015, with its highest amount on 23 October 2015, because

this was the day that students marched to the parliament to meet with president Zuma.151,152,153

Next to Twitter, WhatsApp has been said to function as a secure messaging service for the

protesters. However, this is where the literature on #FeesMustFall on specific social media

applications end. While there are a lot of studies on #FeesMustFall on social media, these are

often restricted to general overviews and Twitter. YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram and even

Facebook are left out. There are enough case studies on movements on Facebook, but not yet

about #FeesMustFall. This is one of the biggest reasons on why I chose Facebook as the central

social media platform in my digital fieldwork on #FeesMustFall.

148 Ndumiso Daluxolo Ngidi, Chumani Mtshixa, Kathleen Diga, Nduta Mbarathi and Julian



International Conference (June 2016): 1-11. DOI: 10.1145/2909609.2909654. 149 Ngidi et al.,“'Asijiki' and the capacity to aspire through social media: the #FeesMustFall

movement as an anti-poverty activism in South Africa,”: 1-11. 150 Robyn Baragwanath “Social Media and Contentious Politics in South Africa,”


10.1177/2057047316667960. 151 After his withdrawal, Ramaphosa followed him up as president of South Africa. 152 Lindsey Peterson, Kentse Radebe & Somya Mohanty, "Democracy, Education, and Free


Borders 11, no. 1 (2016): 1-28, https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol11/iss1/10/. 153 Ndumiso Daluxolo Ngidi, Chumani Mtshixa, Kathleen Diga, Nduta Mbarathi and Julian





33

4. Methodology

To examine the role of social media in #FeesMustFall I have conducted qualitative research as

a means to interpret the movement thoroughly. My approach is a combination of interviews and

digital ethnographic fieldwork. The latter approach will be the central research method of this

thesis, while the interviews function as background information, validation and to avoid a

digital-deterministic view which is often the case in quantitative studies.

From July until December 2017 I spent one semester at the University of the Western

Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. During my time there I did research for my Bachelor thesis

on the views of student parties on #FeesMustFall at UWC and UCT. The research for this thesis

is thus inspired by the former research, but nevertheless totally new. I will refer to this former

research occasionally during the further course of this thesis.

In my research on the perspectives of student parties, I found the participants by

approaching members of student parties at the UWC campus during their campaigning for the

elections. They were easily recognizable because of the T-shirts they wore of the respective

student parties that they were affiliated to. Because I did not find enough respondents through

this method, I also contacted members of student parties from UWC and UCT via social media.

I sent a message to the respective Facebook pages of the student parties at UWC and UCT and

also to their individual members. My goal was to interview at least one member of each student

party at UWC and UCT, so one member of PASMA UWC, SASCO UWC, EFFSC UWC,

PASMA UCT, DASO UCT and EFFSC UCT. Eventually I interviewed seven individuals in

five interviews in total: one from PASMA UWC, one from SASCO UWC, one from PASMA

UCT154, two from DASO UCT and two from EFFSC UCT. The contacts at UCT were made

possible by Mthobisi Mngomezulu from DASO UCT, who introduced me to the members of

the other student parties. Unfortunately, the interview between me and the member of EFFSC

UWC never took place. All my interviews were arranged with social media applications like

WhatsApp and Messenger and also via e-mail and took place at the two universities.

I gave each participant an information letter and the informed consent form, with a

possibility to remain anonymous.155 Only one participant chose to remain anonymous. All

interviews were recorded with the consent from the participants and were manually transcribed

afterwards. The interviews lasted between 18 and 106 minutes, depending on the input of the

154 The respondent from PASMA UCT is a prominent activist for #FeesMustFall. I will

mention him again further on in this thesis. 155 The informed consents and information letter can be found in the addenda.

34

respondent. I divided my research questions in three panels: student parties, opinions, views

and perspectives, and social media. I asked my respondents if they used social media with

regards to #FeesMustFall, and if so, what they specifically used it for. Next, I asked which

social media they used, and which were the most popular and most effective in this aspect.

Lastly, I wanted to know if they considered social media to be playing a crucial role in

#FeesMustFall. The responses about social media by the actors closest to the movement turned

out not be useful for my previous research question but has inspired this research instead. The

interviews are important for background knowledge, my interpretation and in some cases

validation, but do not play a central role in this thesis, due to the small amount of data derived

from it. The fitting research method for my research question is still digital fieldwork and will

take up the most space.

After reviewing the literature I realized that case studies on digital activism and the role of

Facebook specifically in Fees Must Fall is scarce and almost non-existent in academic research

and I decided to explore this further. After a preliminary study of Facebook pages related to

Fees Must Fall, I realized that a discourse analysis would be the right direction to take for this

research, as it occurred to me that these pages have clear ideological foundations and political

messages. I considered that the page would give me a closer, more personal view on

#FeesMustFall. Also, I found digital fieldwork a fascinating and refreshing research method,

which is why I decided to pursue it. Even though digital fieldwork is a flourishing research

method, it is still underrepresented. Because of this there is not a clear indication yet of how

exactly it should be done. I looked for explanations on how to digital fieldwork, but I did not

find anything suitable. Nevertheless, I aspired to do this digital fieldwork as thoroughly and

attentive as possible.

I came across the Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page by simply putting

‘#FeesMustFall’ in the search bar. At first, my goal was to become part of a group, because the

privacy that a group provides can enable people to be even more open. However, groups are

private and not that active anymore according to an acquaintance of mine who is a

#FeesMustFall activist. This is why I went for pages instead, and especially the page that was

most active and most popular, which was Fees Must Fall Western Cape with 7940 likes and

8041 followers and the most activity.156 In addition, it seemed to be run by a student or multiple

students, which is the central audience of #FeesMustFall. There are dozens of other

156 The amount of likes and followers fluctuates constantly on the page. The amount of likes

and followers written here was the amount of likes and followers at the time of writing.

35

#FeesMustFall Facebook pages, but these were either barely or not active anymore, didn’t have

as many followers, or were #FeesMustFall pages of specific universities. This lack of other

active pages made a comparative perspective difficult. There are pages that oppose to

#FeesMustFall, such as ‘Fees must fall = Cancer’ and ‘Fees must not Fall’, but the amount of

likes or followers and posts on these pages were almost non-existent, which is why integrating

them in a comparative approach would not have been representative enough.

Screenshot 1 search results on Facebook for 'fees must fall'

Screenshot 2 The homepage of Fees Must Fall Western Cape

36

The page is divided into a homepage, posts, reviews, videos, photos, about, community and

events. Eventually, the pictures and posts were most promising and extensive, which is why I

collected all pictures and posts that were shared from the 8th of June 2016 until the 2nd of May

2019. As I already indicated, the page is still very active, so there will be new posts added to

the page at this moment of writing. However, I believe that in this period I managed to untangle

the principal common threads on the page. The pictures can be separately consulted through the

‘pictures’ link on the homepage, in which there are several albums: ‘Mobile Uploads’,

‘Timeline Pictures’, ‘Cover Photos’ and ‘Profile Pictures’. The posts can also be separately

viewed. However, on the homepage itself they merge together.

I used the Windows Snipping Tool software to make screenshots of the pictures and

posts and in some cases, if available, the replies by followers. I put these screenshots in a Word

document and wrote my interpretations down beneath each picture or post (except for photo

series, which I interpreted as a whole). With each post I paid attention to the date, time, privacy

settings and the amount of likes, shares, comments next to the interpretation of the images and

the captions themselves. After researching the page activity for a while in this way I was able

to summarize some insights, which I put in my Word document as well. As the page is public

there are actually no obstacles in the collecting of data. The availability of the data is endless

for as long as the page exists. In total I have looked at 821 photos and the amount of the posts

and videos that I have considered is unknown, as there is no number indicated on the posts and

videos. After collecting and analyzing all the data, I opened a separate document in which I

schematized and summarized my findings. The analysis is based on my interpretations of the

language, images and observations of this page. In some cases, when I needed some more

context, I consulted news websites. The results of this research will be explained in the

‘analysis’ chapter.

My approach is guided by a discourse analysis, as I analyzed the language to assess the

ideologies and political views behind the page. The digital fieldwork on the Fees Must Fall

Western Cape Facebook page, which can be regarded as an ethnography, is the most suitable

approach to answer my research question for several reasons. The virtual spaces that

#FeesMustFall is active in should be taken into account when examining the role of social

media in #FeesMustFall, because social media and #FeesMustFall are inseparable. On other

social network sites like Twitter and Instagram, there are no #FeesMustFall profiles or pages

which are as well-arranged and structured as this Facebook page. Facebook pages can function

as a ‘forum’ in which all information is collected at the micro-level. Moreover, the page is all

37

open to the public, which takes away some ethical issues like the informed consent. However,

out of courtesy I did inform the moderator of the page that I was doing research on the page for

my MA thesis, and he/she agreed upon this. This informed consent is attached in the annex

‘digital fieldwork: informed consent’. However, I could not go into a further conversation with

him/her because I suspected that he/she was not interested in this due to the rather short answer

to my first message and because the conversation stopped very quickly.

After some deliberation I have decided to use my personal every-day account for my

research and not make a separate one in order to have some credible and trustworthy

appearance, as well as to make sure that I would stay up-to-date.

I only evaluated Facebook and only one page which might induce a lack of comparative aspects

in my research. However, Twitter in relation to #FeesMustFall has already been researched

thoroughly by other scholars so it already provided me with some insights on the interrelation

between #FeesMustFall and social media. These researches gave me the idea to acknowledge

Facebook for this thesis. Also, there are no noteworthy counter-movements to #FeesMustFall,

not in the physical world and not on social media. The Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook

page is however a very rich and complex case and its prominence and popularity indicates its

possible influence to the movement.

My already acquired knowledge from my previous research of course plays a role in my

interpretation of the data, but mostly in the positive sense, as it gave me the opportunity to

distinguish the main arguments from the side arguments and focus my attention on the most

relevant aspects of the movement. My position as an outsider could possibly also effect the

results, both in my digital fieldwork and in my former interviews. Certain personal traits such

as my nationality, skin color and educational background could determine how my

interpretations have been formed and my understanding of and access to certain information.

But most importantly I am not a #FeesMustFall activist, and even though I did some interviews

during my Africa-semester, I did not participate in it because at the time the movement was

rather calm and there were no protests. Because of this I do not have an ‘emic’ perspective of

#FeesMustFall and I could have learned a lot more from it if I at least could have interviewed

some people about this page. Apart from some contact with my respondents from my former

research and other students that I met there, I did not do any interviews. My former interviews

about social media and #FeesMustFall will be explained in the next chapter.

38

5. Analysis

In this analysis chapter I will first set out my findings from the interviews that I conducted with

members of the student parties PASMA, EFFSC, SASCO and DASO at UWC and UCT. These

interviews were part of my former research on the perspectives of student parties on

#FeesMustFall at these two universities. However, because I already heard that social media

was very important for this movement, I also shortly asked some question about it in these

interviews. These questions eventually did not get a place in my Bachelor thesis but will be

useful for this Master thesis instead. I will briefly set out the answers of each respondent on the

questions about social media and summarize these insights at the end of the section. An example

of the informed consents and interview transcriptions is attached in the annex ‘informed consent

(selection)’ and ‘interview transcription (selection)’, as well as the information letter in

‘interviews: information letter’.

In the second section I will demonstrate my findings from the digital fieldwork that I undertook

on the Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page. Naturally I divided the data in five

sections: the #FeesMustFall community, addressed issues, the political identity, targets and

finally protest tactics. These sections all interact with each other.

5.1 Personal communications

A first observation is that despite the great differences in length of the interviews, the answers

on the questions about social media are always short and concise. As the questions about social

media came at the end of my interviews, it could have been that the respondents were fatigued

by answering the previous questions. However, as I always asked at the end of the interview if

they had something more that they wanted to tell me, and most respondents did continue to talk

to me about #FeesMustFall and other matters, this does not seem to be the case. Another reason

might be that the students did not find these questions as interesting as the other questions. This

could be possible, but it could also be that these questions were so easy to answer that they did

not feel the need to elaborate on it too much, because it is a kind of ‘common knowledge’.

My main questions about social media were threefold: “Regardless if you are pro or contra

#FeesMustFall, do you and/or your student party use social media with regards to

#FeesMustFall?”. I added three sub-questions to this question, namely if they used it for

organization, mobilization and the dissemination of information. The next question “Which

social media platforms are being used?” also had three sub-questions on why especially these

social media platforms were used, what the most popular tool is and what the most effective

39

tool is. The last question was “Do you think social media has played a crucial role in the past

regarding Fees Must Fall events?”

Khanya Gulwa of SASCO UWC stressed the role of the #FeesMustFall pages of the different

institutions and of the student parties themselves. He said that social media is ‘for everything’,

“because social media is taking over, everyone is on social media these days”. It is useful to

reach people quickly with regards to meetings and group as students. Remarkably, he said that

Facebook is the most dominant social media platform in #FeesMustFall and the most effective

one too. The use of social media to stress their side of the story also came up again. Protesters

address news articles that are one-sided and misleading. 157

Ludwe Nodada of PASMA UWC responded that there will be talked about

#FeesMustFall on their private accounts but also on the #FeesMustFall page of the university

itself on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. These university pages are managed by a certain

group of people. He finds social media beneficial because of the discretion it provides to people

who want to talk about it on their own profiles or comment on the university page. He also finds

social media useful to “shine the light of #FeesMustFall”, hence increase the visibility. He

agreed that these platforms were useful for sharing information, organizing and mobilizing.

When there was a meeting, it would be posted on Facebook and these posts would be shared by

different people. Of the three social media platforms that he mentioned, he believed that

Facebook was the most popular one but that both Twitter and Facebook were the most effective.

Students chose these platforms because “they are the leading social media networks being used

all over the country.” He emphasized the benefits of the ‘share’ function, meaning that a post

put online by one person could be shared by others, reaching more and more people according

to the amount of shares. Social media was crucial for broadening, attracting and teaching people

about #FeesMustFall. People that do not get in touch with #FeesMustFall in their daily lives do

know about it, due to social media. 158

Zukiswa Jack from EFFSC UCT manages some social media accounts.159 She said that

the youth relates more with these platforms. She found it very important to announce mass

meetings to make sure enough people show up. But most importantly, it is for raising awareness

and showing the student perspective. She emphasized the need of updating people by posting

online and livestreaming during the protests. This needs to be done for “exposing the truth of

157 Interview with Khanya Gulwa, SASCO, UWC Residences, 17/11/2017. 158 Interview with Ludwe Nodada, PASMA, UWC ResLife, 8/112017. 159 It is not clear if she manages social media accounts about UCT, EFFSC UCT,

#FeesMustFall or all of these.

40

what is happening”, because the news will be biased and neglect the violence that is perpetrated

towards students. Someone who wanted to remain anonymous in this interview stated that

people are becoming more sympathetic with the students and #FeesMustFall due to this self-

documentation. According to Zukiswa, Facebook and Twitter are the most popular and most

effective in #FeesMustFall to reach out to as much people as possible.160

Athabile Nonxuba of PASMA UCT emphasized the importance of WhatsApp next to

Facebook and Twitter. He said that WhatsApp is used to communicate nationally, for instance

when there will be a national shutdown or when they want to escape security or obstructions.

Public sympathy is crucial, because it is a means for protection: “if the media portrays you as

a terrorist, it means every action done by the institution is justified.” This terrorization of

protesters is what #FeesMustFall absolutely wants to avoid, and the students do this by showing

their side of the story on social media. He said that “there wouldn’t be Fees Must Fall without

social media”, as it would have taken forever to organize without it. Athabile Nonxuba was

also the respondent who told me the three pillars of Fallism (Black Consciousness, Pan-

Africanism, Black Radical Feminism). Before that, I did not know that these were the

philosophies that #FeesMustFall was built on.161

Lastly, I want to draw attention to the responses of members of DASO, who are not that

active in #FeesMustFall in contrast to the aforementioned individuals and their parties. They

use social media instead to critique the movement, express their views on the protests, offer

alternatives and inform students if there will be #FeesMustFall protests happening. Even though

DASO is not necessarily against the movement itself, they disagree with the protest tactics,

such as the shutdowns which are disruptive to students who do not partake in #FeesMustFall.

Christopher Logan did however say that they join marches and support those kind of protest

actions. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular and effective platforms according to these

DASO members, and Christopher said that Twitter is useful because you can follow hashtags

and be aware of what is happening in this way. An interesting remark was on the decline in the

number of protesters. Mthobisi Mngomezulu explained that people talk a lot about

#FeesMustFall online, but don’t necessarily participate in it. Christopher stated that “there is

more attention online which does not reflect on the ground.” He said that the mobilization

160 Interview with Zukiswa Jack and Anonymous, EFFSC, UCT SRC offices, 4/12/2017. 161 Interview with Athabile Nonxuba, PASMA, UCT SRC offices, 11/12/2017.

41

happened through the student parties, of which the most prominent are PASMA and EFFSC,

and the residences on campus.162

In sum, the responses to my questions on social media by the members of student parties at the

two universities are predominantly similar. It mostly confirmed the picture I already had in my

head about the interrelation between social media and #FeesMustFall, but also provided some

new insights.

The most common social media channels in this protest movement according to the

respondents are – ordered by importance – Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram. While

most respondents stated that Facebook and Twitter are equally important, others preferred

Facebook as the leader. This is in contradiction with the scholarly literature, which is focused

on Twitter. In some cases, WhatsApp is also used to organize meetings. Both on Facebook and

Twitter there exist national #FeesMustFall pages and #FeesMustFall pages for the university in

question. Next to that, but to lesser extent, private accounts and the pages of student parties are

included in the social media arena of #FeesMustFall. Social media is being used for

organization, mobilization and the dissemination of information.

What will follow here are the new insights that I got from these interviews. Social media

attracts the youth as well as the broader public, which is now able to see the student perspective

of the protests. By using social media, protesters can clarify their image, in order to attract

public sympathy, which is important in securing their protection. Because of this, it is necessary

for protesters to counter the often biased official media channels and spread awareness.

Even critics of #FeesMustFall use social media with regards to the movement. They may not

use it for organization and mobilization, but to inform their peers and state their opinions.

According to DASO, there is a lot of attention to #FeesMustFall online, which is not reflected

on the ground, a phenomenon called ‘slacktivism’.

These insights shaped my background knowledge about the role of social media in

#FeesMustFall and consequently also my interpretations of the Fees Must Fall Western Cape

Facebook page. Nevertheless, I was able to regard the connection between #FeesMustFall and

social media from a new angle and discovered a lot of new knowledge because of the digital

fieldwork, of which my analysis will follow

162 Interview with Christopher Logan and Mthobisi Mngomezulu, DASO, UCT SRC offices,

13/11/2017.

42

5.2 Digital fieldwork on Facebook

Fees Must Fall Western Cape is a Facebook page that was created approximately eight months

after the start of #FeesMustFall which was in October 2015. In comparison with the amount of

likes and follows the page had at the very start of my research, the numbers have declined. The

description of the page reads the three pillars of Fallism philosophy: “Black Consciousness|

Pan-afrikanism| Black Radical Feminism | Ours is to end the world as we know it.” Next to that

there are some contact details added, such as an email, a phone number, a Twitter account and

a short link to Facebook’s chat application called Messenger. The page is categorized as a

‘community’.163 In analyzing the discourse of the Facebook page Fees Must Fall Western Cape,

I recognized some recurrent patterns. Several elements are characteristic for Fees Must Fall

Western Cape and the #FeesMustFall movement in general. There are differences and

evolutions to be noticed between the earlier and the latest posts on this page. Well-known as

well as new aspects of the movement became clear in looking at the multiple and massive

amount of posts. As I already stated in my methodology, Fees Must Fall Western Cape is the

most active and most prominent social media platform of #FeesMustFall, which makes it

insightful for the #FeesMustFall movement itself as well.

I divided the findings from my discourse analysis in five groups: the #FeesMustFall

community, addressed issues, targets, ideologies and finally protest tactics. This categorization

came up naturally in the course of analyzing my acquired data and concerns the subdivision of

this chapter. In that way I can emphasize and explain certain aspects and frame them in one

particular categorization. However, it will become clear that my observations all interact with

each other and complete each other. The section on the #FeesMustFall community will serve

as an introduction and gives an overview of the most important actors and sites that shape the

movement. The next section on addressed issues obviously will focus on the main (and side)

issues that are addressed on the page and #FeesMustFall in general. This will lead into the

political identity that is carried out on this page. These ideologies will indicate who the page

and the movement targets and blames for their issues and who is expected to address their

demands and resolve them. These four sections are indivisible as they all merge together in one

discourse but are made for the ease of reading. Finally, I will set out the protest tactics that are

used in #FeesMustFall based on the Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page, because it is

163 Facebook pages come in different categories, which you can set yourself. The

categorizations are Local Business or Place, Company, Organization or Institution, Brand or

Product, Artist, Band or Public Figure, Entertainment, Cause or Community.

43

a way of transmitting the discourses that are described before that section. All these sections

will be illustrated with relevant screenshots and diagrams to support my findings and give a

clearer understanding. A selection of my other research objects can be found in the annex

‘digital fieldwork: screenshots (selection)’.

5.2.1 The #FeesMustFall community

Who partakes in #FeesMustFall protests and where do the protests take place? In this chapter I

will – based on the Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page - explain the several spaces in

which #FeesMustFall takes place as well as the broad field of actors that partake in

#FeesMustFall. Different kinds of political parties, organizations, movements, communities

and individuals take part in #FeesMustFall. The Fees Must Fall Western Cape page also has

some links with other, often smaller, Facebook pages.

Beginning with the political parties, there are four main South African parties that are

mentioned on this page. Each of the parliamentary political parties have affiliated student

parties with their branches at university campuses across the country. I have visualized these

parties and their respective student parties in a diagram, which is hierarchical to show which

ones are most and least popular in #FeesMustFall.

Table 1 The presence of political parties and their affiliated student parties in #FeesMustFall,

ranked by importance.

The political party Black First Land First (BLF) is more of an outsider in #FeesMustFall

compared to the official student parties, which is why it is not included in the diagram. Clearly,

PAC/PASMA and EFF/EFFSC are popular parties on the page. A lot of followers of the page

are either PAC-voters or EFF-voters, which I can derive from the honoring and promotion of

PAC/PASMA and EFF/EFFSC members, during and beyond elections, and the invitations to

44

readings by PAC/PASMA and EFF/EFFSC politicians. We also see #FeesMustFall activists

wearing T-shirts of the respective student parties. As PAC/PASMA is a Pan-Africanist party

and the movement is based on Pan-Africanist ideology, it is definitely the most frequently

occurring party on the page.

The links with other Facebook pages consists of other political organizations and causes,

separate pages for certain protest actions and the specific #FeesMustFall pages of the

universities. Political organizations, protest actions and university-specific pages of course

merge together and are not always separated. Concerning the university-specific pages, there

are many pages to be found. However, not every South African university has its own

#FeesMustFall page and not all university-specific #FeesMustFall pages are shared on the page

that I am researching, so some university-specific #FeesMustFall pages may not be mentioned

in here. In the table below I give an overview of these other Facebook pages that are shared on

Fees Must Fall Western Cape. These pages will return in other contexts further on in this

chapter.

45

A movement clearly related to #FeesMustFall is Black Solidarity Action. Black Solidarity

Action was the movement that first was represented on this page. They organized protest actions

in the pursuit of enhancing the lives of black South Africans and also organized the so-called

‘Black Solidarity Consumer Boycott’, which is the agreement between black people to only

buy from shops and companies ran by black people and avoid supporting shops and companies

ran by white people, a so-called ‘buycott’.164 There is not much information to be found about

164 Amy Stornaiuolo and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, “Disrupting Educational Inequalities


337–57, doi:10.3102/0091732X16687973.

Table 2 The links of the main Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page with other pages.

These include polical organization and university-specific pages. UCT has four other

Facebook pages with their own causes.

https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16687973

46

Black Solidarity Action. They did however have a blog on Wordpress, which is not active

anymore for more than two years now.

Of course, the actors in the movement are not all organized in a collective, and the individuals

partaking in #FeesMustFall should be acknowledged as well. I will elaborate more on some

important #FeesMustFall activists further on in this chapter.

Through the assessment of the actors at play in the #FeesMustFall community, there are several

sites or places to be recognized. One important site of action is of course the university, of

which mentioned are UCT, UWC, CPUT, Stellenbosch and to a lesser extent Free State

University and University of Kwazulu-Natal, as the page is limited to the Western Cape. At

these universities, the student centers, central campus and lecture halls are often sites of

protest.165 The residences are important places of organization and mobilization. The page gives

nicknames to universities such as ‘University of Colonial Theatrics’ for UCT and expressions

like ‘racist enclave’ or ‘violent racist institution’ for Stellenbosch, as Stellenbosch is the

university that still contains mostly white students and staff. However, there is no animosity

between the students of several universities whatsoever. They support each other’s protests and

even join them from time to time. For example, students from UWC can go join a protest at

UCT and vice versa, and this is true for all universities. So, there is a lot of inclusiveness and

solidarity among different segments of the population: students and workers support each other

across universities. The protests themselves also take place on the street or at parliament and

other governmental institutions like consulates, embassies and so on.

Next to the universities and social media, the most important place of organization and

mobilization seems to be, next to social media, Kilombo Village in the township of Khayelitsha,

where the Way of Life Church is present. Kilombo Village seems to be the meeting point for a

lot of things and hosts a lot of events. Kilombo village is being regarded as the ‘place of runaway

slaves’, referring to oppressed black people who seek ‘liberation’ at this place. Xola Skosana is

the found and pastor of the Way of Life Church at Kilombo Village and seems to be regarded

as a ‘father’ to oppressed black people. The first few months there were a lot of posts with

preaches from this pastor. He is also known by his nicknames ‘cross bearing pastor’ and ‘ghetto

pastor’ for his yearly township march from Gugulethu to Khayelitsha to raise awareness for the

165 Christina Neumayer and Jakob Svensson. “Activism and Radical Politics in the Digital

Age: Towards a Typology.” Convergence 22, no. 2 (April 2016): 131-146,

doi:10.1177/1354856514553395.

47

inhumane conditions that black people have to endure in the townships. During this march, the

pastor wears a cross on his back, which could be a reference to the crucifixion of Jesus.

Screenshot 3 Poster of the yearly township march performed by Xola Skosana. We see him in

the bottom right corner carrying a cross.

The institution also has a Facebook page called Way of Life Kilombo Village and, again, this

page is not active anymore. Apart from that there is unfortunately almost no information to be

found on Kilombo Village, even though it seems to be a key site of action for #FeesMustFall.

The centrality of the church indicates that the philosophy of #FeesMustFall is being

influenced by religion as well. Nevertheless, we see critical statements on religion on the page

as well. One of the biggest reasons for this skepticism towards religion are the cases of sexual

misconduct in the churches. A recent and well-known case is that of Cheryl Zondi, a 22 years

old lady who allegedly was raped by pastor Omotoso from the age of 14 onwards. Because of

this crisis, there are #ReligionMustFall statements on the page to shut down all ‘foreign

churches’ and go back to African spirituality instead. So, the position by the page on religion is

not clear and quite contradictory at times. On the one hand they have a non-religious, even anti-

religious stance, and on the other hand the Way of Life Church is a very important component

in the #FeesMustFall community.

Finally, an important part of the #FeesMustFall community is also Vernac News. While in the

beginning the page posted more news and updates on its own, it now shares articles of this news

website. Vernac News is a news platform by and for like-minded individuals that counters the

official, often biased media. ‘Vernac’ is an abbreviation of ‘vernacular’, because it is possible

48

to write in the vernacular language. Because of this there are not only English but also Xhosa

and Zulu articles. The slogan of Vernac News is ‘we write what we like’, which refers to Steve

Biko’s book ‘I Write What I Like’ and shows again the importance of Steve Biko for this

particular youthful audience. On Fees Must Fall Western Cape, there is almost exclusively news

shared from Vernac News. Only in rare circumstances we see an article of IOL, PRI, GroundUp

or The Economist shared on the page. The articles of Vernac News about #FeesMustFall are

mostly updates on the protests and on the court cases of the arrested protesters. These are often

accompanied by the words ‘BREAKING NEWS’ to emphasize the importance of a news item.

Not all news by Vernac News is about #FeesMustFall, but a lot of it is and it is all to be found

on the Fees Must Fall Western Cape page. It is however not all positive, there are also critical

opinions on #FeesMustFall published on this news website. The kind of articles that Vernac

News generally publishes are opinion pieces, interviews, gossip, political news, book reviews,

showbizz news, poetry, comedy and so on.

5.2.2 The political identity

The dominant ideologies in #FeesMustFall are very explicit on the page. Like the ‘about’

already indicates, the core philosophy of #FeesMustFall is to be summarized in three pillars:

Black Consciousness, Pan-Africanism and Black Radical Feminism. I find that these pillars are

ranked in importance.

Obviously, Black Consciousness is the most dominant ideology on this page, as there is a lot of

focus on blackness and ‘black pain’ as well as several explicit mentions of Black Consciousness

and its meanings. The symbol of Black Consciousness is a black fist, which we see popping up

on the page several times. In one post even there is a whole caption on a picture explaining its

significance and history, with the slogan ‘black power’ on it as well.

49

Screenshot 4 Explanation on the black fist symbol for expressing black power and black

solidarity

On the page we also see a lot of posts about historical personalities. These can be

commemorations on their birthdays or dates of death, historical facts and quotes. Often there

are also hashtags connected to it. For instance on a birthday of an influential person there will

be a hashtag in the form of #...IsBorn. Quotes and references are to be found in posts, as captions

of pictures, on posters, but also on what I will call ‘quote pictures’, in which we see a picture

of a person with a quote from them on it. To a lesser extent we also see pictures of

#FeesMustFall protesters wearing a T-shirt with the faces of these historical personalities. The

most recurrent historical personalities are undeniably Frantz Fanon and Steve Biko. The

admiration of these Black Consciousness heroes affirms the statement that Black Consciousness

is very dominant on the page. Fragments and quotes from Biko’s book I Write What I Like are

being shared extensively on this page and some of these quotations are being repeated as a sort

of slogan, such as “it is better to die for an idea that will live than to live for an idea that will

die” and “we have set ourselves on a path to true humanity, and somewhere on the distant run,

we can see the glittering prize”. It seems that I Write What I Like by Steve Biko is like a bible

to the #FeesMustFall activists, with Steve Biko as their leader. The administrator of this page

quotes a lot from this book and correlates Biko’s struggle against Apartheid to their

contemporary struggle against fees. The current ‘rainbow nation’ failed to break away

completely from the Apartheid structures that Biko opposed so furiously, which is why he is

ever so relevant to the black South African youth. Biko’s death was a consequence of Apartheid,

50

and when a #FeesMustFall activist dies, there are also often references to Biko and his death. I

will however elaborate more on these cases in the next chapter on ‘addressed issues’. Some

hashtags related to Biko are #BikoIsBorn, #IWriteWhatILike and #WeAreBiko.

Screenshot 5 Quote picture of Steve Biko on Black Consciousness

In the same sense, Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is also a very influential book for these

activists. The quote by Fanon that “each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its

mission, fulfil it, or betray it” is probably the most common quote on this whole page. We see

it on a lot of posters as well. The students believe that the mission of their generation is to

achieve free education and all the other demands that are under the banner of #FeesMustFall.

51

Screenshot 6 Poster for a march to parliament. We see the famous quote by Frantz Fanon on

the bottom of the poster.

Next to Fanon and Biko the leaders from the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and

1960s like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are also frequently quoted and phrased,

especially on their respective birthdays and dates of death. It is clear that the movement relates

to the American version of Black Consciousness as well, because of this admiration of Malcolm

X, Martin Luther King and James Baldwin, but also because of their support for the Black Lives

Matter movement in the United States. Black Lives Matter protests against the mistreatment of

blacks by the police, the legal system and society at large. One of the tactics that Black Lives

Matter uses to raise awareness is the filming and distribution of police shootings and other racist

events.166 These tactics are also present in #FeesMustFall, which I will elaborate on in the

section on protest actions. One of the first protest actions to be documented on this page is the

march to the United States consulate in Cape Town, in which #FeesMustFall activists testified

their support for the movement. In this protest there were banners and placards saying ‘Malcolm

X is our hero’, ‘black lives matter globally’, ‘stop killing blacks’, ‘black power’ and so on. This

protest action was organized by a group called Black Solidarity Action, which seemed to be a

more active group than #FeesMustFall at the very start of the Fees Must Fall Western Cape

page. However, Black Solidarity Action seems to have disappeared completely now. There is

also not much information to be found on this movement either. Manifestos of Black

166 Jordana George and Dorothy E. Leidner “Digital Activism: a Hierarchy of Political


Sciences (2018): 2299-2308, DOI: 10.24251/HICSS.2018.288.

52

Consciousness activist Veli Mbele were frequently posted at the start of this page, as well as

preaches by pastor Xola Skosana on black pain, white privilege and land.

Being an adherent of the Black Consciousness ideology also implies that whites will be

criticized. The treatment of whites a ‘target’ on this page will be explained in the next section

on addressed issues.

Screenshot 7 Picture of the ‘Black Lives Matter globally’ protest action by Black Solidarity

Action at the American consulate in Cape Town.

Next to the more philosophical Black Consciousness ideology, is Pan-Africanism the most

prominent political ideology in #FeesMustFall. We can see this in the #PanAfricanism hashtags,

the honouring of Pan-Africanist figureheads like Robert Sobukwe and Kwame Nkrumah, their

immense support for the political party PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) and its student party

PASMA, the celebration of Pan-Africanist holiday Kwanzaa from the 26th of December until

the 1st of January and symbols that refer to this ideology, PAC/PASMA T-shirts and many

more. Slogans like ‘Africa for Africans’ and declarations of war like ‘peace among Africans

and war against the enemy’ also alludes to Pan-Africanism, and so is the symbol of the outline

of the African continent which shows up frequently. Politicians like Philip Kgosana167, Letlapa

Mphahlele from PAC and Kenny Motsamai from EFF seem to be popular. Kenny Motsamai

was originally a PAC member, more specifically of the military wing APLA, which has been

regarded as a terrorist organization. Motsamai spent 28 years in prison for killing a white police

officer during a robbery. On the page the APLA and Motsamai himself are despite their

167 Philip Kgosana is not alive anymore. There was a memorial service of him broadcasted on

the page.

53

accusations being defended and admired. Motsamai’s actions are framed and explained as a

struggle against the ‘false freedom of South Africa’, which is exactly what #FeesMustFall wants

to address as well. The #FeesMustFall activists on this page seem to relate to it in their fight for

free decolonial education. Slogans like the Zulu expression ‘Mayibuye Africa’ (‘come back

Africa’ or ‘Africa, may it return’) relates to the Pan-Africanist ideology.168 The Xhosa term

‘Asijiki’ means ‘no turning back’ or ‘we won’t turn back’ for that matter. Sometimes we also

see the slogan ‘aluta continua’ popping up, but it is not clear what the meaning is of this

expression.

Black Radical Feminism is another pillar of Fallism, but this is not often explicitly

mentioned on the page. There are some indications of it, but it does not seem such a dominant

ideology as is made out to be. Black women and their struggles are thus incorporated in the

movement, but generally there are not many posts about it on this page. We see some

expressions of it in the addressing of sexual violence and rape culture by raising awareness

about incidents on campus and the Cheryl Zondi case for example. The clearest example of the

inclusiveness of and support for black women are the sit and chat sessions in which black

women participate and of which we can find a couple of pictures on the page. The hashtag

#TrainAWomanTrainANation” relates to a Ghanaian proverb that says that when you educate

a woman you can educate the nation and liberate it (which also accords with the Black

Consciousness philosophy). In line with this idea, we can see a couple of support messages by

the page for projects that are beneficial for women, such as the foundation of new girls’ schools.

Black women are being regarded as the most vulnerable population group in black society

together with children and the elderly, because next to being black they are also female, which

has implications for their security. There are however also utterances of women being powerful,

with the admiration of some female historical personalities such as Saartjie Baartman169, Assata

168 “Izwe Lethu,” Dictionary of South African English, accessed on July 27, 2019,

https://dsae.co.za/entry/izwe-lethu/e03410. 169 Saartjie Baartman was a Khoi woman who was taken to Europe to be exposed in

exhibitions about her body.

https://dsae.co.za/entry/izwe-lethu/e03410

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Shakur170 and Sophie Oluwole.171 #FeesMustFall is also inclusive to the LGBTQIA+

community, which we see in several mentions of queerness.

Screenshot 8 Poster of a 'sit and chat' session about women, queerness and blackness at

Kilombo Village

The #FeesMustFall activists also wield a socialist, even Marxist discourse.#FeesMustFall

activists oppose the commodification of higher education and even though #FeesMustFall is

about free education for all, some adherents are for free education for the poor and the working

class at first, before opening it up to everyone, such as SASCO.172 All the protest actions by

and for the workers at universities also fit in this discourse. In some posts people are referred

to as ‘workers’, ‘workers of the world’, ‘the working class’ or ‘the 99%’. This is a clear

reference to the capitalist system, in which the page shows that it is standing with the 99% and

the workers. The hashtag #CapitalismMustFall also affirms this. Other instances in which we

can see the Marxist discourse is in the revolutionary language that is used on the page.

#FeesMustFall protesters are referred to with several alternative terms: ‘leader’, ‘soldier’,

‘comrade’, ‘cadre’, ‘hero’, ‘fallist guerrillas of Azania’, ‘son of the soil’, ‘the black child’ and

so on. The slogan ‘everything for the revolution and nothing against it’ clearly points into this

170 Member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army in the USA. She became

the first woman to be listed on the Most Wanted Terrorists list after her conviction of a white

police officer and her escape from prison. While some find her a terrorist, others acknowledge

the lack of evidence and defend her because they see her as a victim of a racist American

system. 171 Nigerian philosopher. She was the first female who got a doctorate in philosophy in

Nigeria. She is a pioneer in the Yoruba philsophy. 172 Interview with Khanya Gulwa, SASCO, UWC Residences, 17/11/2017.

55

direction as well. The quote “the revolution is not an apple that falls when it’s ripe, you have

to make it fall” of Che Guevara appears once in a while. In some instances they also show their

admiration for the Russian Revolution173 and the Haitian Revolution.

There are a lot of other references to history too, and especially the black pages of history are

emphasized. I put the relevant historical events for #FeesMustFall in a timeline, which you can

find in the annex ‘timeline’.

These historical events are where the decolonial thought in #FeesMustFall comes from.

On the page we see that many events evoke memories of Apartheid. Anti-Apartheid activists

like Onkgopotse Tiro174 are also touched upon. The slogan ‘be on the right side of history’ is

often used and could be a means to convince people in joining #FeesMustFall. The fact that

these activists feel that Apartheid is not over yet, is also clear in the absence of the ‘Father of

the Nation’ Nelson Mandela on the page. The #FeesMustFall community on this page regard

him as a ‘sell-out’. He is not their hero. Their heroes are Biko, Fanon and many others that

connotate with the Black Consciousness ideology.

5.2.3 Addressed issues

The issues that are addressed on the page are connected to the political identity that I have

described above.

On Fees Must Fall Western Cape there are several indications of the rejection of South Africa,

the ‘Rainbow nation’, which they mockingly call the ‘Reign Boer Nation’ or ‘post-Apartheid

Apartheid society’. The activists express their preference for Azania instead. Azania is the

alternative name for ‘South Africa’ which is used by black people. The Azanian flag also

frequently occurs and embodies this rejection of South Africa, such as does the singing of the

Azanian song instead of the South African National Anthem. There are also some pictures on

the page of the symbolic burning175 of the South African flag and there are indications that this

happens regularly.

173 Also called the October Revolution or Socialist Revolution 174 The graduation speech by student activist Onkgopotse Tiro of 29 April 1972 has been

shared on his day of assassination, in which he already calls for an education system common

to all (South) Africans and acknowledges the responsibility that educated blacks have in the

liberation of ‘their’ people. Tiro can thus be regarded as a forerunner of the cause that

#FeesMustFall is built on today 175 Philippe Hanna, Frank Vanclay, Esther Jean Langdon and Jos Arts, “Conceptualizing

social protest and the significance of protest actions to large projects,” The Extractive

Industries and Society 3, no.1 (2016): 233.

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Screenshot 9 Rejection of the Rainbow Nation.

One of the most frequently addressed issues is the ‘land question’, or the restitution of land to

black people.176 The majority of black South Africans are poor and disadvantaged and born in

townships, and these townships are being regarded as a physical proof of black pain. Black pain

is “…the dehumanisation of black people, a daily struggle that comes from the violence that

exists in systems that privilege whiteness or is institutionally racist.”177 The majority of the land

still belongs to white people, which is one of the domains in which whites are privileged over

blacks in South Africa. The reoccupation of land from these whites is believed to be the primary

solution for blacks to break out of the cycle of poverty. Whiteness and white privilege is thus

also one of the main addressed issues, which I will elaborate more on in the next section on

targets. The followers also believe that land should be used for the people and for housing and

not for profit, explaining the existence of the Reclaim The City organization (see Table 1). I

relate this movement to the ‘right to the city’ idea of Henri Lefebvre, which is a call to

collectively reclaim the city of capitalism, commodification and class struggle in a

revolutionary way. Urbanization is being connected to capitalism and vice versa.178

176 However, there is some debate on who the land actually belongs to. Some people regard

the Khoisan population as the rightful owners of the land. 177 Susan Booysen, “Appendix 2: Student Protest Glossary of Terms,” in #FeesMustFall:


Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 328. 178 David Harvey, Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution (Verso

Books: 2013), ix-25.

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The popularity of the political party EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters)/EFFSC (Economic

Freedom Fights Student Command) in #FeesMustFall can also be explained through the land

question, as land restitution is a central demand in their program. EFF chairman Julius Malema

is also often mentioned on the page. The fact that he got banned from the ANC following his

hate speech convictions and the fear of him sparking racist conflicts again makes ANC even

more unlikable to the followers on this page. The focus on the land is expressed in several

slogans and quotes, which are often used on the page. One is “student wars are labour wars

and labour wars are land wars”, relating to the need for education and land in establishing a

socially justified system, and the straightforward expression “land or death”, emphasizing the

urgency of this cause. The Zulu expression ‘Izwe Lethu’ (‘the land is ours’) is very frequently

used on this page and shows their conviction that the land belongs to them.

A verse often put on this page is:

We reject the FLAG, it has not given us the LAND.

We reject the NATIONAL ANTHEM, it has not given us the LAND.

We reject the CONSTITUTION, it has not given us the LAND.

We reject IMPERIALISM, whether emerging East or established West.

Let South Africa FALL and Azania RISE from the ruins and the ashes of South Africa.

Or the shortened version:

South Africa Must Fall

Azania Must Rise

We reject the FLAG

We reject the ANTHEM

We reject the CONSTITUTION

This is one of the many examples in which we can see that #FeesMustFall activists use

revolutionary language, not only on this page but in the movement in general. Azania is an

indication of what this revolution should look like. It is however not clear what Azania exactly

means.

Of course, next to the land question, the main message of the Fees Must Fall Western Cape

page is – to be complete – free, decolonized, Africanized, socialist and intersectional education.

Slogans on their demands are obviously ‘#FeesMustFall’ but also ‘Free education for all’, ‘free

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decolonial education now’ and ‘end outsourcing’. These are all present on a banner that seems

to come along with the protesters a lot:

Screenshot 10 ‘The National Question, Free Decolonial Education Now, #FeesMustFall,

#EndOutsourcing’ is a banner that is often used in #FeesMustFall protests

Some of the slogans are motivational and perhaps provocative, such as ‘victory is certain’, ‘we

will not relent’, ‘we will defend ourselves by any means necessary’. The call for the

improvement of the education system in South Africa also includes the addressing of other,

more specific concerns for the wellbeing of students, such as the residence crisis and sexual

violence at universities, which are present outside of the higher education sphere as well. The

well-being of the workers at campus is a big concern as well. Students and workers often work

together in #FeesMustFall to end outsourcing and obtain a more decent wage (minimum of

10000R), which is being expressed by the popular hashtag #OutsourcingMustFall. There have

been a lot of protests by students and workers at universities for this cause and this page focuses

on it heavily as well.

A big amount of the Facebook page content are solidarity actions to protesters who were

arrested or passed away. The calls for releasing the arrested #FeesMustFall protestors is a big

issue on this page. Whenever #FeesMustFall activists get arrested they are being supported

tremendously in the form of posts with updates on their condition, calls for attending their

court appearances, financial support through fundraising to pay for their bail and the

organization of protest actions to free fellow activists. These arrested activists seem to be the

most well-known and admired #FeesMustFall activists on the page and are often shown in

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photos of protest actions: Athabile Nonxuba179, Masixole Mlandu, Jodi, Zano, Bonginkosi

Khanyile and to a lesser extent Asanda Bleki, Sinoxolo Bloyi and Napoleon Webster. The

situation of these arrested students is communicated via hashtags, in which #Free is being

followed by an individual name or by a university and a number, which relates to the number

of students arrested after a protest action at a certain university. For instance, there are the

hashtags #FreeMlandu, #FreeZano, #FreeJodi, #FreeBonginkosiKhanyile for individual cases,

and hashtags like #FreeUWC35 for collective cases. The general hashtag

#BringBackOurCadres is one of the most popular hashtags used on this page. It is however

never clear why exactly these student activists have been arrested. While they may be

officially charged for violent acts, the page sees these arrestations as proof for a racist state.

A lot of attention also goes to protesters who died. On the page they refer to them as

‘fallen cadres’. There are a lot of pictures of them to be found with extensive captions added

to it. A quote that often returns is “your blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of

free education”, a pronunciation originally from Solomon Mahlangu.180 It is an adaptation

from fruits of freedom to fruits of free education, as they relate freedom to free education and

vice versa. It implicates that they see the death of the cadres not as useless but as an inevitable

part of the struggle. For all these people there were multiple vigils and memorials organized,

which were also communicated through the posters. These vigils were often extensively

reported through photos and videos. During these vigils, who can be combined with a

demonstration, there is sometimes a cross carried, which symbolizes death. Not all

remembrance posts have an actual meeting as a result, they are being repeatedly shared to

make people attentive to it. The moderator of the page and its followers are clearly hurt by

these incidents and put a lot effort into making these events known to the public. These posts

are being shared a lot by other people on their profiles to do this.

The most outstanding cases are that of Philela Gilwa, Ras Moziah, Luxolo Mlunguza,

Kelvin Baloyi and Benjamin Phehla. Four of these five men were murdered. First Ras Moziah

was killed in the township of Khayelitsha, and a few weeks after the same happened to Philela

Gilwa. Both were activists for land occupation for black people and were present in

#FeesMustFall and Kilombo Village as well. Philela was a PASMA member as well. The

death of these two men are regarded as evidence for townships being uninhabitable by the

179 I interviewed him in my former research. 180 Godsell, Refiloe Lepere, Swankie Mafoko and Ayabonga Nase, “Documenting the


Africa, ed. Susan Booysen (South Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 101-124.

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page, as they were both stabbed in separate incidents. The court cases on this incident have

not being handled in a good manner, as they have been postponed and withdrawn due to not

enough evidence. According to this page however there are enough witnesses and evidence,

and they directly address the government in a post about this issue.

Screenshot 11 Call for justice for Philela Gilwa and Ras Moziah, whose trials did not progress.

The fact that a picture of Philela Gilwa (wearing a T-shirt with Biko’s face and a famous quote)

has been the profile picture for years also confirms that the page is used as an awareness

campaign. It was even reposted to remind the followers of the page that it has been two years

since he died, and that his killers have not been arrested:

61

Screenshot 12 Profile picture of Fees Must Fall Western Cape. It has been posted again to raise

awareness for his death and his case. He wears a T-shirt with a picture of Biko on it and the

recurrent quote.

Kelvin Baloyi, a student from the University of Johannesburg, was allegedly killed by private

security forces.181

TUT (Tshwane University of Technology) student Lesego Benjamin Phehla was killed in a hit-

and-run during a protest.182 It is not clear if this murder happened on purpose or if it was an

accident.

#FeesMustFall activist Luxolo Mlunguza, nicknamed ‘Gadget’ due to his passion for film and

photography, died of an illness. Next to his filming and photographing he was also active in

media and social media that reported on the situations of black people. After his death the page

set up a fundraising for his tombstone, organized an exhibition of his work and provided a

forum for black photographers.

The case of Kholisile Ngubombi is different in the sense that he was not a #FeesMustFall

protester. He was an old man who was denied pension and medical treatment by the South

African government and died because of it. Fees Must Fall Western Cape organized a memorial

service for him at parliament and protested against the inhumane decision of the government.

181 “Mozambican student at University of Johannesburg killed at year end party,” Club of

Mozambique, accessed on July 28, 2019, https://clubofmozambique.com/news/mozambican-

student-shot-killed-university-johannesburg-south-africa/. 182 “TUT student leader dies after motorist crashes into protesters,”, News24, accessed on July

28, 2019, https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/tut-student-leader-dies-after-motorist-

crashes-into-protesters-20161021.

https://clubofmozambique.com/news/mozambican-student-shot-killed-university-johannesburg-south-africa/


https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/tut-student-leader-dies-after-motorist-crashes-into-protesters-20161021


62

In all these addressed issues white privilege and white supremacy returns. I will explain more

on this ‘targeting’ of whites in the next section, as well as on the other targets that characterize

the #FeesMustFall discourse on this page.

5.2.4 Targets

Screenshot 13 Very controversial and interacted with post, which gives a good impression of

the ideologies and targets of this page.

The addressed issues indirectly give an idea on who they blame for these problems. We can get

an understanding of the #FeesMustFall ideology by looking at who they target. Despite their

inclusiveness to a certain audience, they also give an impression that not everyone is that

welcome to the #FeesMustFall movement. While these targets are to be derived from a

substantial amount of posts, this one post may be the most interacted on and controversial post

on the page and has an encompassing and summarizing quality to it for this whole chapter.

A clearly addressed issue is white supremacy, white privilege and overall whiteness.

White privilege is “…a set of advantages or access to certain benefits that have been

exclusively developed for white people. White people have white privilege because a system of

whiteness is present in South Africa and across the globe, which means that society is structured

around white people and their culture.” Whiteness is “…a system that privileges white people

at the expense of black people. It is present in all institutions in South African society and it is

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assumed to be the standard of how things should be, but it is inherently racist.” 183

Whites are being seen as settlers, invaders, colonizers and as ‘the enemy’ in general, and are in

some instances called ‘Boers’ (an offensive term for white South Africans) because of the

violent and oppressive history that is related to them. #FeesMustFall activists on this page are

fed up with the unequal society that they live in and believe that white people are to blame for

it. With slogans like ‘black pain is a white commodity’, ‘one settler one bullet’ and ‘kill all

whites’ they make this message very clear. In a post on the death of activist Ras Moziah, there

is a fragment in the caption that says “Biko forewarned us, non-whites are a danger to Black

people. Though a black man has pulled a trigger, every white person is implicated in his death.”

They don’t seem to differentiate between poor or rich whites, as they generalize all whites to

be rich. Of course, whites in high positions are especially targeted. White people are collectively

stigmatized. There was for instance a photo posted on Fees Must Fall Western Cape in which

the moderator of the page resented the fact that ‘the white students with their Macbooks were

going to class while we were protesting for free education’. This post got a lot of backlash in

the comments from several people, stating that it was racist and downright inappropriate.

Screenshot 14 Picture of students attending class during #FeesMustFall, which is not

appreciated by the page. It is a very controversial and interacted with post.

Next to whiteness, several authorities are being targeted: the police, private security, politicians,

university management, the government and the state as a whole.

183 Susan Booysen, “Appendix 2: Student Protest Glossary of Terms,” in #FeesMustFall:


Africa: Wits University Press, 2016), 329.

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Concerning the police and security, #FeesMustFall activists especially resent them for their use

of violence during #FeesMustFall protests as an attempt to stop the students from protesting.

Especially the private security forces at campuses (such as Securitas) are said to be violent. It

is remarkable that in all photo series of protest actions there are pictures made of the police and

of the opposition between the police and the protesters too.

Screenshot 15 Example of a photo showing the opposition between the police and protesters.

This and their targeting of the legal system for not solving the cases of Philela Gilwa and Ras

Moziah also show similarities with the Black Lives Matter movement again.

Screenshot 16 Symbolic picture. We see the the rubber bullets used by the police to stop

protesters with flowers put in it.

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With politicians, they mostly target the corrupt and lobbying politicians and the ANC (African

National Congress) politicians, because they are the ones who failed in recovering South Africa

from Apartheid. On the page there are several posts explaining why the ANC is bad, including

an open letter. Leading up to the national elections of 2019, the moderator of the page called to

not vote for the ANC and even to steal the ID’s of elders so they could not go voting. On the

other side, SASCO and to a lesser extent DA/DASO are criticized a lot. However, drawing

upon my former research I suggest that SASCO also participates in #FeesMustFall.184

Nevertheless, the ANC/SASCO is a target because this is the party that promised change and

progress in the post-Apartheid Rainbow Nation and didn’t succeed to fulfil it. The fact that thé

#RhodesMustFall activist Chumani Maxwele is affiliated with the ANC is not appreciated by

the people on this page and #FeesMustFall at large. He is however still important and relevant.

His opinions and his presence at protests are being reported several times on the page.

#FeesMustFall is the successor of Rhodes Must Fall, so his participation in #FeesMustFall is

highly valued. He however opts for a non-partisan #FeesMustFall movement. The page

sometimes also opts for the complete abolishment of the partisan involvement in #FeesMustFall

or for the parties to work together, which we can already see in the rather peaceful cooperation

between the student parties EFFSC and PASMA. Despite the fact that the page as well as

#FeesMustFall in general tries to be non-partisan again, it is clear which parliamentary political

parties and student parties they prefer or despise. In some cases, the DA (Democratic Alliance)

and DASO (Democratic Alliance Student Organization) are also being tackled.

An explicit demand of dismissal185 was directed to Blade Nzimande from the SACP

(South African Communist Party), who was the Minister of Higher Education and Training

until 2017. There are several puns on his name used as slogans, which can be found on banners

such as ‘Sharpen the blade!’, ‘Don’t wys us Blade’ and ‘Razorblade’. The mock funeral186

protest action with the coffin is another example of this. In one of the pictures on the page we

see a coffin with a picture of former Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade

Nzimande, and ‘fees’, ‘debt’ and ‘DA’ written on it.

184 Interview with Khanya Gulwa, SASCO, UWC Residences, 17/11/2017. 185 Philippe Hanna, Frank Vanclay, Esther Jean Langdon and Jos Arts, “Conceptualizing


Industries and Society 3, no.1 (2016): 224. 186 Hanna et al., “Conceptualizing social protest and the significance of protest actions to large

projects,” 228.

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Screenshot 17 Mock funeral of Blade Nzimande.

Concerning university management, former rector of UCT Max Price is especially targeted in

demands for his dismissal. Why is not very clear. In general, university management is being

targeted because of not resolving the issues of the students addressed in #FeesMustFall.

Universities themselves are also criticized for not being decolonized (yet) and for lacking an

Afrocentric curriculum.

The government and parliament are being targeted for not providing free education

despite the massive upswing of #FeesMustFall. The ANC is the dominant party in the

government, and on a demographic level, whites make up most of the government set-up. In

this way, we can see how different targets often go together: whites, the ANC and the

government. The state as a whole is being targeted in the sense that the #FeesMustFall activists

call the state of South Africa ‘Azania’, showing that they want a completely different society,

a revolution so to say.

Former president Jacob Zuma, who ran the country at the peak of the #FeesMustFall

protests, is however not that despised on this page in comparison with the other targets. The

#ZumaMustFall protests are not supported by #FeesMustFall because they believe Zuma is not

the central issue, but whiteness is and that Fallism should not be appropriated by them when

they don’t support the other Fallist movements. After all, Zuma has announced at the end of

2017 that free education for the poor and the working class will be implemented.187 Even though

this victory could have made the movement satisfied, they proceeded with protesting

187 The ‘poor’ are the students who come from families who earn less than R350000

(approximately €21307) a year.

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nevertheless. The cause was to achieve free education for all and not only for the poor and the

working class. The provisional decision has urged the movement to continue with

#FeesMustFall, because they want to ensure that their exact demands are being met. They are

content with this step in the right direction, but a lot of issues have not been addressed yet, like

the decolonization of the university and society at large and some of the protesters still need

their charges to be dropped. The universities still have the capability of increasing their tuition

and residence fees, which happened at UCT and UWC despite the announcement of Zuma. The

success of #FeesMustFall is thus not yet confirmed.

This targeting of certain segments of the population does not always go without repercussion.

Sometimes we see heated debates in the comment section of the posts of Fees Must Fall Western

Cape. This phenomenon is called ‘flaming’: “the act of posting deliberately hostile messages

online, generally in chat rooms and on discussion boards. While most “flamewars” start out

as a heated debate over a political or social issue, some malicious Internet users (trolls) flame

for the sole purpose of offending other users.” Both flaming and an occasional troll are to be

found on Fees Must Fall Western Cape. The moderator of the page however does not respond

to it often, and if he/she does, it is a short answer.

For example on a post about the imprisonment of UWC students after #FeesMustFall

protests there are surprised comments that these students are being put in the same building as

serious criminals, alternated by comments stating that they are criminals because they burned

down buildings:

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A typical troll comment is this one, as it is purposely offensive:

Screenshot 19 Example of a troll comment.

Screenshot 18 Flamewar between opponents and supporters of the imprisonment of

#FeesMustFall students.

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5.2.5 Protest tactics

After elaborating on the discourse that composes #FeesMustFall, I want to demonstrate how

social media and this particular Facebook page helps with the dissemination of information,

organization and mobilization of #FeesMustFall to actually transmit this discourse. This implies

explaining the different forms of protest actions that have occurred in the #FeesMustFall

movement, with special attention to some of the more major and profound protest actions that

took place. Until now there is no clear account of the protest tactics used in #FeesMustFall,

which is why I find it important to elaborate on this -unexpected- insight resulting from my

research. The #FeesMustFall protest actions differ in who, where, when, why and how they

take place as well as in the size and impact of these actions. I use the term ‘protest action’ not

solely to refer to ordinary, practical protest actions as we know it, like demonstrations and such,

but also to protesting in a more subtle way through social media. Social media and the online

sphere in general provide a new and innovative way of expressing concerns. I will both

elaborate on the more traditional ways of protesting which are still present in #FeesMustFall

and the more unusual and recent protest tactics which the internet made possible, more

specifically on this particular #FeesMustFall Facebook page. A helpful guideline for appointing

and describing the protest tactics this was the research by Hanna et al., who established an

exhaustive glossary of protest actions in “Conceptualizing social protest and the significance

of protest actions to large projects”.188 In short, all ‘traditional’ protesting tactics are still

present in #FeesMustFall, but some protest actions are innovative in the way that they are

communicated. This is where the ‘augmented reality’ theory of Jurgenson comes forward: all

these events happen on the ground but are being communicated online, and some things are

even exclusively communicated online. In this way, the ‘online’ and the ‘offline’ cannot be

viewed as two separate realities but instead form an ‘augmented reality’. This perspective is

crucial for the further understanding of this section.

All protest actions are announced on the Fees Must Fall Western Cape page. The pictures below

show that the posters can be both printed and digital:

188 Philippe Hanna, Frank Vanclay, Esther Jean Langdon and Jos Arts, “Conceptualizing


Industries and Society 3, no.1 (2016): 217-239.

70

Screenshot 20 Printed poster announcing a march to parliament.

Screenshot 21 Digital poster announcing a march to parliament.

These posters are ways of mobilizing information. They are self-made and standardly consist

of a relatable picture with text on it stating the title of the protest action and its date, time, place

or meeting point with a slogan or quote and hashtags. The hashtags are an important tool of

mobilization and dissemination. The moderator of the page often asks to share a post in an

attempt to reach a wider audience. Hashtags are a useful tool for that. There are hundreds of

different hashtags to be found on the page, which makes it impossible to list them all up in the

scope of dissertation. I will however consider the most popular hashtags throughout this

chapter. Sometimes there is also an ‘agenda’ or description of the event and contact details for

enquiries like a phone number, name or social media page. Remarkably, these posters are

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usually posted on the page the day before. This and the contact details seem to indicate that the

people behind these protest actions want to avoid to be obstructed by the police, the state or the

university management. In the end, the page is still completely open to the public. Posting

information on a protest action only the day before or even a few hours before may reduce the

chance of interference by authorities. The contact details may be shared to ensure that not all

details are shared to the public but encourage the people interested in joining the protest to ask

for details in person. To convince people in joining, we often see the words ‘CLARION CALL’

as captions for the posters, which is a strongly expressed demand or request for action.189

Screenshot 22 Poster for a meeting.

The kind of protests that are announced on these posters are (mass) meetings, marches,

occupations, pickets, vigils for #FeesMustFall protesters who passed away, days of

remembrance of historical personalities and announcements of court appearances of arrested

#FeesMustFall protesters which are open for the public to attend and even shutdowns.

The meetings or mass meetings either take place at Kilombo Village or somewhere at

the university. These meetings often contain an ‘agenda’ or ‘program’ for the issues that are to

be discussed on that particular meeting. They are often recorded and posted on the page, with

activists publicly addressing the crowd. They are a way of organizing and mobilizing the people

189 “Clarion call”, Merriam-Webster, accessed July 28, 2019, https://www.merriam-

webster.com/dictionary/clarion%20call

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clarion%20call


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into protest.190

The marches generally come in two types: regular marches in the streets or townships and

marches to parliament. The latter needs an explicit permission of the parliament in order to take

place and often start with meeting at a university first. In the demonstrations and marches, the

activists hold up banners and placards, which is a classic way for delivering the message.

Repertoires like dance and songs are also present in #FeesMustFall, such as the singing of

struggle songs from Apartheid and toyi-toyi. But also practices like ululation191 occur during

the protests.

The occupations are inspired by the international Occupy movement, when people

occupied the streets and other important places to protest against social inequality (‘we are the

99%’) and power of corporations over governments. Occupation is a protest tactic in which a

person or a group of people literally occupy a symbolic place to raise awareness to an issue. In

#FeesMustFall also students occupy certain places for protesting and raising awareness, which

we can see in hashtags such as #OccupyClifton, #OccupyStellenbosch, #OccupyChrisHani and

the overarching #Occupy4FreeEducation.

Screenshot 23 Activists holding up a banner '#Occupy4FreeEducation'

Picketing refers to the practice of performing a picket protest, which is a protest tactic

originating in labor unions. During a picket, a group of workers establish who have problems



Industries and Society 3, no.1 (2016): 231. 191 Ululation is “to utter a loud, usually protracted, high-pitched, rhythmical sound especially

as an expression of sorrow, joy, celebration, or reverence” (Merriam Webster dictionary)

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with their employer establish a ‘picket line’ outside a building to prevent other workers from

entering the building.192 Picketing can however also take place in other circumstances and is

not always work-related. It should not be confused with striking, in which workers refuse to

work because of discontent with their employer, because there is no picket line in that situation.

Striking also happened in relation to #FeesMustFall, namely in the #OutsourcingMustFall

protests. In #FeesMustFall a picket has been organized by Black Solidarity Action outside the

Public Protector’s Office. On this picture we can remark that the contact person for this picket

was Xola Skosana, so it seems like Black Solidarity Action was related to the pastor and vice

versa.

Screenshot 24 Poster announcing a picket.

A picket has also been organized outside Goodwood Prison, to raise awareness for the

imprisonment of Asanda Bleki.




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Screenshot 25 Picture with a caption announcing a picket.

Curiously enough, announcements of shutdowns are sometimes also shared on the page, either

before or after, but are however not that detailed. These shutdowns are thus not as secretive as

I first anticipated. A shutdown is the barricading of the entrances or exit of a particular place

and occur to put pressure on university management for addressing their demands, of which the

most important are the implementation of free education and bringing back the arrested

students. A UCT shutdown has been extensively reported on this page with a photo series.

During these shutdowns the university buildings are often daubed with graffiti. This tactic

however goes together with disruptions of the academic program, which is successful for

putting pressure on university management, but at the same time also affects the students who

are obstructed in going to class and writing exams.

Screenshot 3 Poster announcing a shutdown at UWC.

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On these posters there are also so-called days of remembrance heralded: “the declaration of a

specific day to commemorate a protest event, person or issue.”193 They can be one-off or

annually. The commemorations are for the birthdays and deaths of historical personalities like

Steve Biko and momentous historical dates like the 16th of June for the Soweto Uprising of

1976 and the 16th of August for the Marikana massacre of 2012. The upheaval of Rhodes Must

Fall in on the 9th of March in 2015 also seems to belong to this list of important dates already.

These commemorations can simply take place within a demonstration or can just exist in shares

on the Facebook page as an awareness or as a form of political mourning.194

Furthermore, academic events like public lectures, congresses and seminars are also

communicated on the page, but only if they are in line with their ideas. For instance when

Rachel Dolezal195 was going to talk at the University of Johannesburg the page called for

sabotaging this event. The lectures are by influential people such as artist Pitika Ntuli, academic

and author Ngugi wa Thiong’o, academic Mahmood Mamdani and academic Lwazi Lushaba.

These academics and artists are also activists and advocates for the Africanization-as-

decolonisation paradigm. The lectures by these intellectuals are therefore also on this subject.

Cultural events like concerts, performance art, dance shows, documentary screenings,

theatres and so on are also communicated via posters. This protest art is of course in the theme

of #FeesMustFall and helpful for strengthening the movement. The documentaries are shown

for raising awareness to a specific issue or to express a protest message. They can be both

professionally made and low-budget.196 A quite remarkable performance art/protest action is

that of ‘whiteface’, as a subversion of ‘blackface’, in which black people their bodies and faces

were whitened. The message is that to make it through the university, you have to be white.197



Industries and Society 3, no.1 (2016): 223. 194 Hanna et al., “Conceptualizing social protest and the significance of protest actions to large

projects,” 230. 195 Rachel Dolezal is a woman from the United States who provoked controversy as she is a

Caucasian woman but defines herself as black. 196 Hanna et al., “Conceptualizing social protest and the significance of protest actions to large

projects,” 224. 197 Godsell, Refiloe Lepere, Swankie Mafoko and Ayabonga Nase, “Documenting the


Africa, ed. Susan Booysen (South Africa: Wits University Press, 2016),113.

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Screenshot 25 Performance of 'whiteface' at UCT.

Next to the forms of protest actions that I’ve already explained there are also online petitions,

open letters, letter-writing campaigns, boycotting, silent protests, name adaptations, naming

and shaming, broadcasting, crowdfunding and fundraising campaigns (solidarity actions).

Some of these tactics are amplified due to digital activism, such as the petitions and open letters,

and some are even typical for online protesting, namely the naming and shaming.

There are several petitions that appear on the Facebook page for bringing back the

students who got arrested, but also a shared petition for the removal of a scholarly article that

is being regarded as racist. A petition is a “…collection of signatures in support of a particular

cause…” to put pressure on politics for addressing a specific issue. “The number of signatures

collected is the measure of the potential power of the petition.” Originally, petitions were not

online, but these days they are increasingly made and signed online.198

Open letters are often shared on the page in an attempt to prove something, like the ‘UCT

exposed’ letters wherein UCT tutors expressed their discontentment with the coloniality of the

university (which is evidence for the university not being decolonized) and a report in which

‘independent observers’ expressed the opinion that it is the private security agents which started

the violence at a protest (which is evidence for the biased media image of students being

violent). A letter posted by the page itself also explained the reasons why ANC is bad.

#FeesMustFall also wrote an open letter to the health ministry to request assistance to elders




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who are protesting in harsh weather conditions. However, there is no sign of officialness of

these letters, so they could be written by anyone.

By boycotting, the movement wants to influence the consumption behavior of

individuals by withdrawing them “…from a specific company, institution or product…” in

order to impact the financial situation of those targets.199 I already mentioned the Black

Solidarity Consumer Boycott at the beginning of this chapter, which is the agreement between

black people to only buy from shops and companies ran by black people and avoid supporting

shops and companies ran by white people, a so-called ‘buycott’.200 Again we see the symbolism

of the upward fist on the banner:

Screenshot 26 Banner of the Black Solidarity Consumer Boycott.

Letter writing, namely “the coordinated campaign to have large numbers of people write letters

or emails to targeted decision-makers…” also occurs in #FeesMustFall. More specifically the

page called its followers to write letters to arrested cadre Bonginkosi Khanyile to support him

while he is in prison. A picture of a written letter by a child to Bonginkosi Khanyile in prison



Industries and Society 3, no.1 (2016): 221. 200 Amy Stornaiuolo and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, “Disrupting Educational Inequalities


337–57. doi:10.3102/0091732X16687973.

https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16687973

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has also been shared to raise awareness to his situation and let the people on the page empathize

with him.

Screenshot 27 Letter written by a child to Bonginkosi Khanyile to support him in prison. It was

part of a mass letter writing campaign.

In a silent protest, activists use the power of silence to gather (media) attention.201 The tactic is

present in #FeesMustFall as well when UWC SRC leader Songezo Booi refused to sing the

Afrikaans and English parts of the national anthem202 during the graduation ceremony. When

the song reached these parts, he sat down quietly until it ended. He refused singing the anthem

because he rejects Apartheid, the 1994 resolution and South Africa in general. The vigils can

also be seen as a form of silent protest, as silent protest is often done by candlelight.203 Vigils

are protest actions in which people stay awake to for an amount of time to express their devotion

to a cause.204



Industries and Society 3, no.1 (2016): 232. 202 In Apartheid South Africa, the national anthem was called Die Stem and contained

Afrikaans and English parts only. After the end of Apartheid in 1994, the new national

anthem became a mix of Die Stem with the song Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica by Enoch Sontonga. 203 Hanna et al., , “Conceptualizing social protest and the significance of protest actions to

large projects,” 232. 204 Hanna et al., , “Conceptualizing social protest and the significance of protest actions to

large projects,”234.

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Screenshot 28 Vigil at UCT.

Language politics are thus also an important issue for #FeesMustFall, which we can also see in

the many references to the Soweto uprising in 1976, in which students demonstrated against the

implementation of Afrikaans as the language of instruction. Afrikaans thus seems to be sensitive

to #FeesMustFall, because they relate it to Apartheid, whiteness and general oppression.

A consequence of this language politics are name adaptations, which often happen

during occupations and shutdowns. In these situations, names changes are applied on university

buildings and other topographical names. At UCT for example protesters stuck another name

next to the names of the buildings signposts. The original names did not necessarily refer to

people (or white people for that matter), but the protesters do prefer to name the building after

memorable black South Africans. The Jameson Memorial Hall at UCT, which was the object

of debate for a long time, was called the Marikana Memorial Hall on this page, as well as its

plaza. Eventually, the name was officially changed to Sarah Baartman Hall. These name

adaptations are being seen as a step in the right direction to decolonization of the university and

society at large.

The incident at Clifton Beach, in which a group of black people got evicted by some

guards, sparked a lot of disapproval among a group of people, as they related this practice to

the Apartheid era in which public places like beaches were segregated. This led to the

#ReclaimClifton or #OccupyClifton protests, of which one protest action was to just swim,

under the slogan ‘swim by force’. They show their comparison with the Apartheid era by

referring to historical personalities like Allan Hendrickse and Desmond Tutu who set foot on a

beach that was only intended for whites during the Apartheid era as a way of protesting. Certain

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people wanted the name changed from Clifton Beach to Makhanda Beach, after Xhosa warrior

Makhanda who drowned when wanting to escape Robben Island. He is a symbol for the

resistance to the Cape Colony. This name change has however never been pursued. The

#ReclaimCliftonBeach protest was heavily promoted on the page. The protest actions for

Clifton Beach also consisted of a ceremony in which sheeps were slaughtered to ‘cleanse’ the

beach of ‘racist spirits’. The page Black National Crisis Committee (see diagram) was made

especially for this protest action. The content on it is very similar to Fees Must Fall Western

Cape, meaning that it could be the same moderator.

Screenshot 29 Poster of the Clifton Beach protests.

Opponents to #FeesMustFall are criticized through ‘naming and shaming’, “…a strategy that

attempts to build commitment or compliance to expected norms and/or good practice by

publicizing the names of wrong-doers or offenders…”.205 Critical and hostile comments on the

posts of the page are being screenshotted and put uncensored on the page as a sort of public

pillory. ‘Trolls’ are often the subject of this naming and shaming. Trolls deliberately put hostile

comments online to offend other users.206 There are also some videos of racist incidents to be

found on the page, in which the perpetrators are not censored, again as a way of counter-



Industries and Society 3, no.1 (2016): 229. 206 Talia Whyte and Mary Joyce, “Glossary,” in Digital Activism Decoded, ed. Mary Joyce

(New York: International Debate Education Association, 2010), 218.



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storytelling. There are many photos, videos, posts and news articles of Vernac News updating

on the protest actions. This is a way of broadcasting, which is a very important form of

protesting for #FeesMustFall.

Screenshot 30 An example of naming and shaming. After a racist comment on the page by a

troll, the name is put out by the page.

Fundraising is an umbrella term for all sorts of raising money for a particular cause.

#FeesMustFall however mostly uses the crowdfunding technique. Crowdfunding is “an

internet-based fundraising technique, typically where large numbers of people each contribute

small amounts to a cause. Because of the mass scale, these campaigns can result in very large

sums being generated.”207 Crowdfunding campaings are deployed for the payment of legal costs

of arrested students for their bail or for dismissed workers to take their case to court and for

raising money for disasters, funerals and charity. The crowdfunding is thus often for solidarity

actions. An impressive crowdfunding campaign was that of WALK4ACCESS, in which a group

of protesters walked from Cape Town to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to raise money for the

cause of free education. At one instance there was even a fundraising party combined with

private donations to help one individual to clear her student debt, the so-called ‘Vosho




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challenge’. A challenge is “a form of fundraising or awareness raising that involves a

particular challenge or target…”.208

Screenshot 31 Picture with bank details as a means of raising funds.

Screenshot 32 Example of a solidarity campaign. Someone got medical help due to the fundings

raised by the page.

There are also several cases of the movement spreading overseas, which we can see in some

pictures posted on the page. In New York City a group of staff and students from NYU have

shown their solidarity with #FeesMustFall in South Africa by protesting with banners and

placards with supportive messages (on the picture below however there is someone commenting

208 Hanna et al., “Conceptualizing social protest and the significance of protest actions to large

projects,” 222.

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that they are stupid: does #FeesMustFall not appreciate this or is this particular individual

critical of #FeesMustFall?).

Screenshot 33 #FeesMustFall support action in New York City at the university.

Finally, it should be noted that there is also space for humor on the page. The page Bring Back

Mzansi Now (see diagram) is a light hearted page with memes, jokes and news. Humor on Fees

Must Fall Western Cape is often expressed in the form of ‘memes’. A meme is “a satirical or

humorous modification of a popular image, for example by adding a slogan or comment.” These

memes are very popular on the internet and are apparently also produced and circulated for

protest causes.209 The memes are not made by the moderator of the page but mostly come from

Vernac News and from followers of the page. There are however not many memes. I only

counted four, which is a very small amount in comparison with the massive circulation of

memes on Facebook and the Internet at large. It is also remarkable that the memes on Fees Must

Fall Western Cape are most of the time in another language than English, such as Xhosa or

Zulu.




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Screenshot 34 Example of a meme shared on the page.

It is clear that Facebook and more specifically Fees Must Fall Western Cape is important to

understand #FeesMustFall. First of all the different players in the community were construed.

We see the different actors and sites that are at play represented: the individuals, the other

political organizations and movements and the political parties and affiliated student parties.

The sites in which #FeesMustFall takes place are the universities, the streets and Kilombo

Village. Then I explained the main issues that were addressed on this page. While there are

many side issues as well, these are not at the core of their demands. Next to the demand for

free, decolonial, Africanized, intersectional, socialist education #FeesMustFall is also occupied

with the fate of the workers in #OutsourcingMustFall and the rape culture on campus. The land

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question, whiteness and the concerns with the arrested and dead fellow activists are also big

issues on the page and #FeesMustFall at large. The addressed issues clearly indicate some

targets: whites, police, private security, universities, politicians, the government and the state

are all subjected to critique on this page, with some demands of dismissal to certain individuals

(like Blade Nzimande and Max Price). Who is targeted on the page is inseparable from its

political ideologies. This comes down to the main ideologies: Black Consciousness, Pan-

Africanism and Black Radical Feminism (the three pillars of Fallism), Marxism and socialism

and decoloniality. The importance of historical personalities, of which most prominent are

clearly Biko and Fanon (with Biko as absolute forerunner) affirms this. Finally, I gave an

extensive overview of the protest actions that are present in #FeesMustFall. Based on the

glossary of Hanna et al., I could recognize approximately 33 different protest actions.210 What

this all means in a broader context will become clear in the next chapter.

6. Discussion

In this chapter I will first answer my research question and introduce my main argument, after

which I will give my interpretations of the analysis. This will be followed by a comparison of

the theoretical framework and literature review with my findings, in order to indicate which

theories are affirmed or challenged by this case and which of my interpretations are completely

new in the study of #FeesMustFall and social media. I will end this chapter with an explanation

on the possible limitations of this research and give some proposals for further research.

My research question “What is the role of social media in the #FeesMustFall movement when

looking at the discourse of the Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page?” has definitely

been answered through my theoretical framework, literature review and analysis. Although it

is obvious that social media plays a central role in #FeesMustFall, the discourse on its Facebook

page has never been researched, even though it is a key forum and driving force for the

movement in several ways. Fees Must Fall Western Cape seems to be a movement and a news

source on itself, with a particular audience and its own character. The positive and the negative

effects of digital activism come forward in this case study, which shows that digital activism

210 Alphabetically ranked these are: (mass) meetings, (street) marches, shutdowns,

occupations, online petitions, (mass) letter writing, open letters, name adaptations, naming

and shaming, pickets, strikes, vigils, days of remembrance, graffiti, disruptions, barricade,

political mourning, mock funeral, land re-occupation, public lectures, public addressing,

broadcasting, protest songs, documentary screenings/films, sabotage, protest art, open letters,

(mass) letter writing, boycotting, silent protests, fundraising and crowdfunding, memes and

humor.

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can be good and bad at the same time. I suggest that the discourse on Fees Must Fall Western

Cape could influence the movement, both in the sense of unification and polarization.

The results indicate that the discourse on Fees Must Fall Western Cape is a racial and

revolutionary discourse, together with a discourse of suffering and victimhood.

There are several evolutions to detect on the Fees Must Fall Western Cape page. While

the news and updates shared on the page first came from one person, there is now a gathering

of multiple digital players that inform people about the movement. In the beginning the

moderator of the page posted a lot of own content, such as manifestos by one of the important

personalities, updates and invitations to protests and photo series. Gradually the page posted

less of its own content and started sharing a lot from other pages and from Vernac News. The

page also devoted itself to #FeesMustFall after Black Solidarity Action seemed to have faded

away. However, the page does not limit itself to only #FeesMustFall, it addresses a lot of other

causes to under this banner. The general mood of the page also depleted. It seems like the page

has shifted its energy and effort from organizing protest actions to attempts to get the arrested

activists released. While there was still a lot of hope, motivation and belief in the victory of the

cause (quotes such as ‘victory is certain’) in the beginning, this changed into a more concerned

atmosphere, in which the most content is on the activists who got arrested or died.

These arrestations and deaths show that there is still a lot of violence in protests and in

townships and this evokes memories of Apartheid with the #FeesMustFall activists. These

associations with Apartheid seem to be a confirmation for the protesters that not much has

changed in the society since 1994. Especially the horrific outcome of the 1976 Soweto uprising

is being recalled. It could be that the students refer so furiously to these historical events to

reach the audience that might want to repress them, in order to not let history repeat itself.

According to the adherents of this page, they react to the provocations by the police and private

security with violence as a means of self-defense. It is however still not clear how the peaceful

#FeesMustFall protests often turn into violence and why this is the case: is it the fault of the

police and private security, the fault of the students or is the truth somewhere in the middle? If

the police would be the instigator of violence, would it be because they fear that the discourse

that #FeesMustFall carries out could possibly overthrow the South African state and they feel

the need to repress the movement because of it? Or if the instigators of violence would be

students, would it be because of the Fanonian discourse that might legitimize violence against

the police and private security?

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There are however different viewpoints on the same reality. The movement deals with these

frames of reality by self-documentation of the movement as a way of storytelling. The fact that

the cases of the arrested and dead activists are being put in the spotlight that much seems to be

a cry for attention and a means to raise awareness, especially because these cases do not seem

to have a righteous outcome. Also, even though they do not seem to target the media explicitly,

this self-documentation is especially useful for counter-storytelling the media, which portrays

the students as violent. In this way, they want to enlarge their public sympathy so that they are

protected for repression. This is why we do not see the violence that is perpetrated by students,

but only the violence that is enacted upon them. This ‘restorying’ is one of the most important

positive effects of social media in #FeesMustFall.

Looking at the page we can really see how many protest actions there have been in the

past few years, and these do not all have to do with #FeesMustFall. The communication of

protest actions through posters is valuable for the organization and mobilization of the

movement, which is another positive effect of digital activism for the movement. With slogans,

which can be motivational, convincing and assertive, the page wants to speak to the followers

and a wider audience as well. In general, we see that the boundaries between the ‘online’ and

the ‘offline’ world are blurred and merge together in a liminal space. Instead, there is only one

reality which is amplified because of the existence of this page.

The page reaches out to those who feels left out or oppressed and convinces them to join

#FeesMustFall. In this way, #FeesMustFall functions as a refuge for the oppressed and

disillusioned black youth who are disappointed about the Rainbow Nation which did not give

them what they were promised. It seems like the page seems to want to unite people by their

blackness, instead of only for their support for #FeesMustFall, which is what this page is said

to represent. The awareness campaigns for the issues of blacks in South Africa on the page are

shared to achieve solidarity and to create a bond between all black South Africans and even

black people internationally. Fees Must Fall Western Cape is made by and for black people and

all information that is relevant and useful for its audience is being shared. This means that not

everything that is shared on Fees Must Fall Western Cape is related to #FeesMustFall and its

demands. Sometimes, it even seems to be a movement on itself, as the page is not only active

on the cause of #FeesMustFall but has a lot of other causes as well. Thus, while it was already

clear that #FeesMustFall is about more than the falling of fees, this page has surpassed it. The

adherents on this page aspire a completely new state called ‘Azania’, a revolution. What Azania

means however, is not clearly stated on this page. I argue that Azania seems to be a utopia, a

nostalgia to what the country was before it was colonized in 1652. Linking it to the ‘imagined

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community’ theory of Benedict Anderson, I suggest that Azania is an imagined homeland in

which colonialism and Apartheid never happened. The land question refers to this desire for

restitution of the land to the original inhabitants. The three pillars of Fallism (Black

Consciousness, Pan-Africanism and Black Radical Feminism) seem to give direction to what

the Azanian state should be, just like the seven ‘antis’: anti-racism, anti-white supremacy, anti-

capitalism, anti-fascism, anti-colonialism, anti-sexism and anti-patriarchy. All of this is

beneficial for shaping a collective, political identity.

However, all the characteristic ideologies, philosophies and viewpoints that belong to

#FeesMustFall and are present on this Facebook page are both beneficial and harmful. While

the page is inclusive and solidary for the people included in the political identity of this

discourse, they are excluding other-minded people in the process. The targets on the page often

merge together. Of all these targets, whites and ANC-voters are the most stigmatized. This

inclusiveness/exclusiveness is already clear in the type of audience following this page and also

in the actual physical movement itself. The fact that ‘black’ in Black Consciousness means

everyone oppressed under Apartheid, does not seem to be consistent in the movement. In the

population of #FeesMustFall we can see that the majority is black and a PAC or EFF voter.

Even though the #FeesMustFall movement is still inclusive to a certain extent, it is losing its

inclusive nature which was more substantial in the beginning. The movement is becoming more

polarizing due to the fixation on race and the increasing partiality. So, even though the

population group that Fees Must Fall Western Cape despises might support #FeesMustFall,

there are too many obstacles for them to support the movement, which explains the small

amount of white South Africans in the movement. The racial discourse on this page and

probably the movement at large has polarized white and black again in a country which has

suffered so much from segregation in the past. We can ask ourselves if the protesters are

‘barking up the wrong tree’ by targeting mostly whites, and if this is not harmful for the

movement in terms of support and sympathy.

It occurred to me that my digital fieldwork has filled a lot of gaps in the literature. While the

universities and political parties in #FeesMustFall have been mentioned in the literature before,

the analysis has manifested some actors that were not known yet. Movements and organizations

connected to #FeesMustFall like Black Solidarity Action, Reclaim the City and Black National

Crisis Committee have been noticed. But the most important reveal is Kilombo Village and its

Way of Life Church, which is such a central site of organization and mobilization for

#FeesMustFall that it is astonishing that there is absolutely nothing to be found about it in the

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literature. The connection between #FeesMustFall and the ‘land question’ is not as researched

as should be. It does however seem very important in the discourse of the movement and was

one of the revelations that I encountered on the page. A more detailed approach to the arrested

and fallen cadres had also not been undertaken yet. It shows that #FeesMustFall is even more

than what is generally thought.

A clear outline of targets has been provided in this thesis and has been contextualized.

Sometimes, these targets merge together. #FeesMustFall targets a lot of segments of the

population and it is clear that whites take the most critique. This is in accordance with the

philosophy of Steve Biko, who didn’t want to include white people in the Black Consciousness

ideology because they are unavoidably connected to the black pain and want to join their

movements to keep control of the situation in which blacks would constitute a revolution. Other

targets like the government are however also important to acknowledge, because through this

targeting #FeesMustFall did achieve some success (freezing of fees and free education for the

poor and the working class). This might affirm the theory that movements that target the

government are most successful. #FeesMustFall however is not finalized yet. It still fights for

the other demands under its banner.

The ideologies, especially the pillars of Fallism, are not explicitly mentioned enough in

the literature, despite the fact that my respondents and my analysis clearly point out that this is

what #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall are based on. The historical personalities such as

Biko and Fanon are confirmations of the political beliefs, but even if these were not present, it

would have been clear as they explicitly express their ideologies. Undeniably these historical

personalities have become more relevant than before.

At the same time, the advocating for black females and the LGBTQIA+ were not that

clear in my analysis, which is odd in comparison with its recognition in the literature.

Unexpectedly I realized the importance of several protest tactics that shape

#FeesMustFall. A clear outline of this has not been put out until now. The page offers the

possibility to recognize a timeline with all the kinds of protest actions that have happened, at

what time and at which place together with its respective poster.

Some topics are emphasized more on this page than they are in the literature. Why this is the

case is not clear. It might be that Fees Must Fall Western Cape differs to the general

#FeesMustFall movement and might be only a part of it, meaning that it is not that

representative of the movement. It could also be possible that due to the novelty of the research

on #FeesMustFall and social media, these ideas have not been discovered yet. However, due to

the absence of Facebook in the research on digital activism and #FeesMustFall, the second

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hypothesis seems more plausible. #FeesMustFall is a recent and constantly evolving

phenomenon, so not everything might have been recorded yet.

Looking back at the literature review and theoretical framework, several theories were affirmed

and contested as well. Both the positive and the negative effects of digital activism occur in this

case study. #FeesMustFall can reach a wider audience with the help of social media, both in its

own area (South Africa) and across national borders, as the #FeesMustFall hashtag is to be

found in other places as well as a means of supporting the movement. Next to these support

messages, there have been actual #FeesMustFall demonstrations as well. This expansion of

#FeesMustFall, however, is not enough to be able to speak of #FeesMustFall as a transnational

movement. Even though #FeesMustFall relates to a lot of people, especially students, it is still

connected to its South African context. This relating to other movements also happens the other

way around: Black Lives Matter is a movement which #FeesMustFall relates to and supports.

The page also clearly helps with organizing, mobilizing and disseminating information.

Information is mobilized in the ways that Valenzuela had described: ‘identificational’ in the

contact details on the posters (e-mail, Twitter account, Facebook account, phone number) and

locational in endowing the time and place of protest actions. The tactical aspect (instructions

on how to get involved) seems to be absent, as the movement seems to be formed already.

It is however not clear if people who were not involved in politics beforehand can be convinced

by this page. It does bolster the political and collective identity, apart from classic parliamentary

politics.

As the page is public, visibility and impact could be increased. This is especially the case

with influencing the traditional media. On the page, the movement is documented to update

people on protest actions, ask for donations (while it does organize fundraisings, these are not

to finance the movement itself but for other causes like bailing activists out of prison, helping

certain individuals with their study fees and paying for court costs) and most importantly for

counter-storytelling the media who is negative about the movement already. This is a very

important reason for the existence of this page. It is however also true that some of this self-

documentation can give the wrong impression and lack context, as I sometimes had the idea

that some documents could have been made by anyone.

There are no indications that #FeesMustFall does protest tactics like information leaking,

hacking and cyberattacks. In general, every protest action that is present in #FeesMustFall does

not necessarily need a digital platform to happen, it does help a lot, as traditional protest actions

can be amplified through digital activism. More action is possible because of digital activism

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than would have been possible without it. It is very difficult to separate the online and the offline

world, and I argue that this is not possible. Jurgenson’s theory of ‘augmented reality’ is very

truthful for this research. It also seems like social media in general is the preferred way of digital

activism for this movement.

Concerning the negative effects of digital activism, there is less proof. There seems to be

no interference of the government or the Facebook company in Fees Must Fall Western Cape.

The moderator does seem to avoid the obstruction of the government and university

management by not giving away all the details on the protest actions on the ‘front stage’. It

made me wonder what happens at the ‘back stage’ of the page, namely in private conversations

on Messenger between its followers and in face-to-face interactions between the activists. It is

not clear if slacktivism is present in this case. It is true that the amount of people at the protest

actions on the photos are less than the amount of people following this page. However, looking

at the posts individually there are usually not many ‘likes’, ‘comments’ or ‘shares’ anyway and

#FeesMustFall is part of a whole realm of (digital) communication systems. Nevertheless, the

massive amount of people interacting about #FeesMustFall online cannot possibly reflected on

the ground, which is why I cautiously argue that slacktivism could be present in #FeesMustFall.

Apart from this it does remain a question if there are more or less activists joining the protests

because of Facebook and social media. As I have already explained, the polarization and

fragmentation are present, and so is the non-consensual behaviour of the people on this page in

relation to their opponents.

The theories of Bosch and Marichal, namely of Facebook as a tool for sub-activism and

Facebook as a tool for micro-activism are applicable to this case study. It is clear that the

paradigm of youth disengagement is being challenged throughout my research. Fees Must Fall

Western Cape functions as an ‘opinion leader’ as Bosch calls it, because the moderator

expresses the issues and concerns on the page. #FeesMustFall is not only against the state in

their ideologies, but also in their type of activism. Marichal’s four dimensions of expressivity,

resistance, signifiers and length are also present in the entire body of posts of this page.

I cannot make a statement on the digital divide, as there is not enough evidence for this.

However, concerning that this movement has erected out of discontent with poverty and most

adherents are consequently poor and still participate in digital activism on this page, I suggest

that the digital divide is absent. Especially because this theory is rather Eurocentric and

stigmatizing to Africans, I do not want to elaborate on it too much.

92

Obviously, digital activism is not just good or bad but rather be good and bad at the same time,

also in this context. Looking at the amount of arguments, I do however suggest that there are

more positive effects of digital activism on #FeesMustFall. This could also be because of my

background knowledge in that I already knew that social media plays a crucial role in

#FeesMustFall, but I have tried to be as open as possible to both the benefits and the pitfalls of

digital activism in this case.

Like Branch and Mampilly already said, the success of activism is not only in the

achievement of their demands but also to make the people conscious and change their

perceptions. As I have already explained, #FeesMustFall belongs to a protest wave in which

lack of leadership and vagueness is pervasive. However, I argue that #FeesMustFall is not

clueless in what the change should look like: free, decolonial, socialist, Africanized,

intersectional education, the insourcing of workers, restitution of the land to black people and

a general overthrow of the state into ‘Azania’, explaining the revolutionary language on the

page. While all these terms are still vague, they do have an indication of what the change has

to be.

The idea of #FeesMustFall as a non-partisan, multicultural movement that is inclusive to

all races, genders, classes and political affiliations is being challenged. This view is outdated.

While #FeesMustFall is open to all genders, the other characteristics are not present anymore.

The social media platforms that have been associated with #FeesMustFall in the literature

are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram and show that #FeesMustFall

contains a whole system of communications across several social media platforms, next to

personal communications. Despite this, there is a bias towards certain popular and effective

social media tools in relation to #FeesMustFall. At this moment it is safe to say that most

scholars believe that Twitter is most prominent in this movement, because the majority of the

literature is on the interplay between #FeesMustFall and Twitter, excluding other influential

applications. According to my respondents, Facebook and Twitter were equally important in

#FeesMustFall, and some even stated that Facebook was more important than any other social

media. WhatsApp is also important to communicate in a secure and private manner and avoid

repercussions. However, the findings on Twitter by other scholars can be compared to my

findings on Facebook. The counter-storytelling is definitely present, and so is the anti-poverty

activism, the references to historical events, the role of children for empathy, the peak of posts

in October and so on. The #PatriarchyMustFall hashtag is not popular though, and Nelson

Mandela is not being resonated with, on the contrary even.

93

The findings from my research do have some limitations. The analysis is fully based on my

own interpretations and is focused on one page only, which could influence the

representativeness of this thesis as I might have gotten false impressions due to a lack of context.

I did not speak to the moderator or followers of the page, but I did have my background from

my former research in which I interviewed #FeesMustFall adherents who were members of a

student party. There was a consensus among the respondents that social media is crucial in

#FeesMustFall for the several reasons that I have explained here. In some cases, the contact

with the Fees Must Fall Western Cape community would have been beneficial to understand

some things. The page provided a lot of new information on the movement and not everything

could be validated by the literature. Also, the page is constantly evolving as there are new posts

shared almost every day, so if some things might be excluded in this thesis it is because of this

reason. It is also important to remember that #FeesMustFall is part of a larger realm of social

media, and that Facebook is not the only way in which we can look at the role of social media

in #FeesMustFall.

More research on the subject would be desired, to possibly validate my findings and to answer

the questions that have not been answered here. What should Azania look like according to this

movement? How big exactly is the role of Kilombo Village? What will the racialization mean

for the future of the movement? There are many more topics to be explored on this subject, and

on Facebook especially. I believe that Facebook should be the next step in the research on

#FeesMustFall and social media.

7. Conclusion

In this thesis I anticipated to find out what the role is of social media in #FeesMustFall when

looking at the Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page. I argued that although it was

already clear that social media plays a crucial role in #FeesMustFall, the main Facebook page

of the movement and its discourse had not been researched yet, even though it is a key platform

for the movement for several reasons. The page itself functions as a counter-storytelling news

source and a movement in itself, as it comprises much more than only #FeesMustFall and has

its own specific audience and character. The discourse constitutes both positive and negative

effects of digital activism. While the page constitutes unification in a collective identity, it also

produces racial and political polarization at the same time. It shows how the ‘online’ and the

‘offline’ merge together in one reality.

94

The discourse is racial, revolutionary and a discourse of suffering and victimhood. The

movement attracts mostly black people who are financially excluded and culturally alienated in

the post-Apartheid South African universities, which is blamed on whiteness. This ‘born free’

generation of students believes that breaking out of poverty and disadvantage is possible with

free higher education and a complete revolution to a utopian, decolonial state called ‘Azania’

in which the land will be restituted from whites to blacks. The pillars of Fallism, namely Black

Consciousness, Pan-Africanism and Black Radical Feminism, is an indication of what this new

state should look like and are inspired by the ideas of Steve Biko and Frantz Fanon. The

discourse on the page establishes both positive and negative effects of digital activism on the

movement, of which the positive are counter-storytelling the biased media, shaping a collective

identity, increasing the visibility and impact of the movement and facilitating the organization,

mobilization and dissemination of information through the communication of protest actions.

While the Facebook page might be useful for unification and forming a political identity in

#FeesMustFall, its discourse also produces polarization in the movement and maybe even

beyond. The emphasis on the inequality between black and white reproduces the racial

oppositions that were already present in society, which in combination with the increasing

partiality in #FeesMustFall leads to polarization. In general, we can view digital activism not

as either good or bad, but rather good and bad at the same time, as this case about the role of

social media in #FeesMustFall illustrates.

While the findings in my literature review and theoretical framework matched with my

own insights for a large part and gave me the possibility to recognize the dynamics of digital

activism in my case, there were also many new insights and questions that arose. My first ideas

about the role of social media in #FeesMustFall came from my interviews from my former

research. Through my digital fieldwork on the Fees Must Fall Western Cape Facebook page, I

had the opportunity to research the movement in another way, gather new knowledge about the

movement and fill gaps in the literature about #FeesMustFall and social media, which is exactly

what I hoped for when pursuing this research method. Looking at how the ideologies, targets

and addressed issues were explicitly but also subtly carried out on this page and in the

movement itself was refreshing and gave me the opportunity to untangle the main and side

ideologies, targets and issues that characterize this movement. It showed me what is behind the

banner of #FeesMustFall, which is even more than what I already anticipated. The most

remarkable insights were those on the land question, Azania, Kilombo Village and the protest

tactics used in the movement to convey their ideas and demands. It would be interesting to

further research what an Azanian society would look like according to these activists. The

95

centrality of Kilombo Village and the Way of Life Church in #FeesMustFall is massively

underrepresented in the literature and is also a very interesting case to explore.

Even though my research is a case study and based on one Facebook page, it is a very

rich and complex case which contains a lot of information on the movement and its place in

society. Despite its prominence and popularity for #FeesMustFall activists it has been left out

in the literature, until now. It challenges the dominance of Twitter in the research on

#FeesMustFall and social media.

So, my overview of the discourses on the Fees Must Fall Western Cape and its role in

the #FeesMustFall movement has been an addition to the knowledge about #FeesMustFall and

especially its connection with social media. With this page, people can bond behind a common

goal, organize into protest and self-document their own stories to oppose negative

representations but unfortunately also reproduce racial and political polarization in the process.

In the end, the revolution that #FeesMustFall wants to unleash feeds the hope of these activists

for a better future after a history of oppression and discrimination, which is why the movement

is so popular and influential among young people in South Africa today.

96

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