WhatsApp coup jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwean 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,...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | research article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor and Francis Group
2023
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/5476 https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2021.1933398 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1779905624440569856 |
|---|---|
| author | Hugh Mangeya Cuthbeth Tagwirei |
| author2 | Department of English and Communication, Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe |
| author_facet | Department of English and Communication, Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe Hugh Mangeya Cuthbeth Tagwirei |
| author_sort | Hugh Mangeya |
| 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 | research article |
| id | ir-11408-5476 |
| institution | My University |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | Taylor and Francis Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ir-11408-54762023-03-29T06:31:14Z WhatsApp coup jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwean politics Hugh Mangeya Cuthbeth Tagwirei Department of English and Communication, Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe Centre for Diversity Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 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. 40 1 97 112 2023-03-29T06:31:13Z 2023-03-29T06:31:13Z 2021-07-14 research article https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/5476 https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2021.1933398 en Journal of Contemporary African Studies 1469-9397 open Taylor and Francis Group |
| spellingShingle | Zimbabwean coup Humour Social media Jokes Politics Hugh Mangeya Cuthbeth Tagwirei WhatsApp coup jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwean politics |
| title | WhatsApp coup jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwean politics |
| title_full | WhatsApp coup jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwean politics |
| title_fullStr | WhatsApp coup jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwean politics |
| title_full_unstemmed | WhatsApp coup jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwean politics |
| title_short | WhatsApp coup jokes and the dialogue on Zimbabwean politics |
| title_sort | whatsapp coup jokes and the dialogue on zimbabwean politics |
| topic | Zimbabwean coup Humour Social media Jokes Politics |
| url | https://cris.library.msu.ac.zw//handle/11408/5476 https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2021.1933398 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hughmangeya whatsappcoupjokesandthedialogueonzimbabweanpolitics AT cuthbethtagwirei whatsappcoupjokesandthedialogueonzimbabweanpolitics |