WhatsApp jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwe’s 2017 Coup
This article analyses the dialogue stemming from viral WhatsApp jokes on the Zimbabwean coup in November 2017. It argues that coup jokes have created an opportunity to discuss the nature of Zimbabwean politics since 2000. This dialogue, characterised by ambivalence, multiplicity, and open-endedness,...
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Routledge
2021
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2021.1933398 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589001.2021.1933398?journalCode=cjca20 http://hdl.handle.net/11408/4533 |
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| author | Mangeya, Hugh Tagwirei, Cuthbeth |
| author_facet | Mangeya, Hugh Tagwirei, Cuthbeth |
| author_sort | Mangeya, Hugh |
| collection | DSpace |
| description | This article analyses the dialogue stemming from viral WhatsApp jokes on the Zimbabwean coup in November 2017. It argues that coup jokes have created an opportunity to discuss the nature of Zimbabwean politics since 2000. This dialogue, characterised by ambivalence, multiplicity, and open-endedness, provides insights on the political traits that have dominated Zimbabwe since 2000. These are rendered as politics of personality, chimurenga and partisanship. While the architects of the coup sought to create and propagate one narrative, later described as ‘restoring legacy’, coup jokes carried internal contradictions, doubts and conflicts which made possible an understanding of the coup narrative as inherently dialogic. Selected WhatsApp coup jokes, which circulated between 14 and 24 November 2017, were studied. Insights from Bakhtin's dialogism were applied to the study of jokes in order to illuminate their contradictions, dualities and openness, and how this enabled an understanding of the traits that have dominated Zimbabwean politics. |
| format | Article |
| id | ir-11408-4533 |
| institution | My University |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Routledge |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ir-11408-45332022-06-27T13:49:06Z WhatsApp jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwe’s 2017 Coup Mangeya, Hugh Tagwirei, Cuthbeth Zimbabwean coup Humour Social media Jokes Politics This article analyses the dialogue stemming from viral WhatsApp jokes on the Zimbabwean coup in November 2017. It argues that coup jokes have created an opportunity to discuss the nature of Zimbabwean politics since 2000. This dialogue, characterised by ambivalence, multiplicity, and open-endedness, provides insights on the political traits that have dominated Zimbabwe since 2000. These are rendered as politics of personality, chimurenga and partisanship. While the architects of the coup sought to create and propagate one narrative, later described as ‘restoring legacy’, coup jokes carried internal contradictions, doubts and conflicts which made possible an understanding of the coup narrative as inherently dialogic. Selected WhatsApp coup jokes, which circulated between 14 and 24 November 2017, were studied. Insights from Bakhtin's dialogism were applied to the study of jokes in order to illuminate their contradictions, dualities and openness, and how this enabled an understanding of the traits that have dominated Zimbabwean politics. 2021-11-17T09:51:08Z 2021-11-17T09:51:08Z 2021 Article 0258-9001 1469-9397 https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2021.1933398 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589001.2021.1933398?journalCode=cjca20 http://hdl.handle.net/11408/4533 en Journal of Contemporary African Studies; open Routledge |
| spellingShingle | Zimbabwean coup Humour Social media Jokes Politics Mangeya, Hugh Tagwirei, Cuthbeth WhatsApp jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwe’s 2017 Coup |
| title | WhatsApp jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwe’s 2017 Coup |
| title_full | WhatsApp jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwe’s 2017 Coup |
| title_fullStr | WhatsApp jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwe’s 2017 Coup |
| title_full_unstemmed | WhatsApp jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwe’s 2017 Coup |
| title_short | WhatsApp jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwe’s 2017 Coup |
| title_sort | whatsapp jokes and the dialogue on zimbabwe’s 2017 coup |
| topic | Zimbabwean coup Humour Social media Jokes Politics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2021.1933398 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589001.2021.1933398?journalCode=cjca20 http://hdl.handle.net/11408/4533 |
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