Thread by @Anna_Colom

First panel session of #ECAS2019. I will try to share via tweet threads as much as I can without flooding the timeline. Now at panel on "Connecting states and citizens: the impact of political coverage on African governance".

Speaker @okanohideyuki on the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone: "The bureaucratic system is replaced by informal network in order to tackle the Ebola crisis. Informal human networks, not a formal bureaucratic system, contribute to establish Ebola response system".

Example below on how these informal networks are mobilised. This is why embeddedness and deep understanding of local political, social and cultural relations is so important.

And great point by @okanohideyuki on the complexity of what makes people respond to mobilisation requests - including the importance of social norms such as respect, economic incentives, etc.

Now attending panel "Technology and Democracy in Africa". @Fromagehomme on the insistence of using tech in electoral processes despite they keep failing argues "technology works best where it is needed least".

Tech will fail if there is no strong electoral commissions and integrity procedures in place. And focusing on voting technology rather than other technologies relevant to the electoral process is creating blindspots, argue @Fromagehomme and Susan Dodsworth. #ECAS2019

The use of tech has become in some cases a black box for domestic electoral observers who they have not been allowed to observe the technology operation itself whereas international observers have, thus reinforcing hierarchies between foreign and local observers.

Dr. Alexander Makulilo, from University of Dodoma (Tanzania) on election rigging in Kenya: "ICTs were introduced to address, among other things, the problems of rigging elections. Contrary to that expectation, ICTs have been used for rigging elections".

Panel session 3. More on Technology and Democracy. @Ogolah speaking on the infra-institutional uses of social media in Kenya. Ogola looks at Twitter trending hashtags. Their "thematic elasticity enables their discursive potential". #ECAS2019

George @Ogolah concludes that social media has provided new possibilities for political practices in Kenya. Even with its material and discursive limitations, these have made users more inventive. #ECAS2019

Important question by @dan_omanga on the use of Twitter in Kenya being specific to a certain socio-economic group. @Ogolah agrees and also states this should not stop us from understanding its political role. #ECAS2019

"African studies was not an academic field, it was an activism field by Africans. (...) 'The day African Studies becomes an academic field, Africans will be excluded from it', they said. And that's what has happened" Prof. Mamadou Diouf, keynote at #ECAS2019

Prof. Diouf: Africa has been excluded from world history and inclusion has required connection with Europe. Not only we need inclusion and revision but also to change the condition (of connection to Europe) on which African studies have been built. #ECAS2019

Second day at #ECAS2019. Very much looking forward to this: "African feminisms today: connections and disruptions". Using feminismS, not feminism, is a political stance, says Rama Salla Dieng @Saalajeng

So interesting to listen to Charlenne Tatenda Muranda, University of South Africa, presenting womanism as an African alternative to feminism that takes into account indigenous ways of being, such as Ubuntu. Social justice emanating from the woman as relational in the community.

I can't summarise in tweets the richness of this panel, including presentations and Q&A. Such a great session. I can see a common ground: such diversity in the socio-political realities across Africa cannot be boxed into one single definition of African feminism. #ECAS2019

Rose Chifaka argues for an Africa-centred Womanist Theory to connect this diversity. Others, such as Monique Kwachou, think that African FeminismS are enough to capture this diversity. #ECAS2019

Another very enriching presentation. @Njokiwamai proposes Njeri Kinyanjui’s 'Utu Feminism' as a framework for feminist research in Africa. #ECAS2019 #Afrifem

*correction* political "brokerage" not coverage!

At the "Cryptopolitics: exposure, concealment and digital media' panel now. @PeteChonka speaking on the role of social media in connecting the Somali language digital public to navigate concealed politics.

"Kenya's Digital Death-Worlds": Digital ethnography by @dan_omanga at the Eastlands, Nairobi, highlighting the centrality of Facebook for surveillance and for police forces seeking to legitimise extra-judicial killings.

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