How many of you have heard of Zimbabwe? Zimbabwe, yeah. So most of the time when we talk about Zimbabwe, people say, oh, Mugabe, you know.

The first thing they hear is, the first thing they know about is robot Mugabe. But there's more to Zimbabwe than robot Mugabe. So Zimbabwe got independent in 1980 from the UK and after that we had so much promise. It was called the jewel of Africa at the time

and we had so much promise, so much hope for a better country. But 37 years later after independence, our hopes were dashed. Zimbabwe has a massive unemployment and a huge economic crisis. So the government in Zimbabwe really uses a lot of measures to stay in power

and one of those is to keep the media at bay. So you find that in Zimbabwe there is one state-owned television station and the FM radio stations are all either state controlled or have a large influence off the state. The printing press, the press,

the print media is a little bit more free but it's a dying industry in Zimbabwe. So where young people really find themselves expressing their ideas and rebelling is online. So in Zimbabwe we have about 90% mobile penetration

so there's about a cellphone for every man, woman and child and then we have 50% internet penetration rate so which means half the population have access to internet so this is mainly in the urban areas and most people access the internet using WhatsApp,

Facebook and Twitter. Those are the ways that they really get online. So for example, if someone wants to buy a cellphone in Zimbabwe, the first thing they ask is can it access WhatsApp? Can I put WhatsApp on it? Can I put Facebook on it? And if it does, then they go ahead and buy it. So in that situation, you have a situation

with angry young people with access to internet living in a very challenging environment and that is probably a recipe for a lot of great stories. So many of you have probably heard about the US-led Black Lives Matter. Nigeria is bring back our girls but you might not have heard of a recent Zimbabwean

hashtag movement called This Flag. This Flag was founded by Pastor Evan Mwadide when he basically went online and created a selfie video and he used the colors of the Zimbabwean flag which you also see around Munya's neck in order to kind of lament on his frustration, his anger and his disappointment at the current state of Zimbabwe.

And the video itself quickly received thousands of shares and over a million views and really started a powerful online and offline movement. I actually have for you the video that we can kind of watch together so you can get an idea of just how emotional this was for everyone.

This Flag, this beautiful flag. They tell me that the green is for the vegetation and for the crops.

I don't see any crops in my country. And the yellow is for all the minerals. Gold, diamonds, platinum, chrome. I don't know how much of it is left and I don't know who they sold it to

and how much they got for it. The red, the red they say that is the blood. Is the blood that was shed to secure freedom for me and I'm so thankful for that. I just don't know if that they were here. If they were here, they that shed their blood

and saw the way this country is that they would demand their blood be brought back, this flag. They tell me that the black is for the majority, people like me. And yet for some reason, I don't feel like I am a part of it.

I look at it sometimes and I wonder, is this a story of my future or is it just a reminder of a sad past and wherever I go and I put on the colors of Zimbabwe, they look at me and as if they want to laugh,

they ask me, are you from Zimbabwe? But she's second. And sometimes when I look at the flag, it's not a reminder of my pride and inspiration. It feels as if I just want to belong to another country. This flag.

And so I must look at it again with courage and try to remind myself that it is my country. And look at the green and think to myself, it is not just vegetation, but the green represents the power of being able to push through soil,

push past limitations and flourish and grow. That's me, my flag. The yellow yes is about the minerals, but not just minerals that are in the ground, but the minerals above it. Me, you, we are the minerals. We are the value of this land. The red.

Yes, it's blood, but not just blood. It's passionate blood. It is the will to survive. It is the resolve to carry on. It is the want to push through, to see the dreams come to pass this flag. And the black, the black is the night sky,

that which we emerge from and we shine. It is the brilliant colors. It is the wonderful and lovely fruition of everything that we have ever hoped for. It needs a black for it to be visible. This flag.

It is my country, my Zimbabwe. We go through so much. We don't look like much even now, but there is promise in it. I will fight for it. I will live for it and I will stand for it. This is the time that a change must happen. Withstanding on the sidelines and watching this flag fly

and wishing for a future that you are not at all wanting to get involved in this flag. Every day that it flies is begging for you to get involved, is begging for you to say something, is begging for you to cry out and to say why must we be in the situation that we are in this flag.

It's your flag, it's my flag, this flag. So as you can see, it's certainly a very emotional video, even for me, but for a Zimbabwean citizen

on a regular day watching this video on Facebook or on YouTube, many people then started to respond with similar comments and remarks expressing dissent, expressing their own sorrow over the current state of Zimbabwe. And they did so using the hashtag this flag, as you can see there. So very quickly, this began to trend on Twitter, on Facebook, in WhatsApp groups, all throughout Zimbabwe.

And they also took photos with the flag itself, selfies, selfie videos in public spaces in their homes, starting to use the flag as a representation of dissent, both on digital space and also offline. And this was so strong so quickly that the Zimbabwean government actually invoked a law

to make it illegal to wear the flag itself without receiving any kind of permission, which probably wouldn't have been granted anyway. So if we were in Zimbabwe right now, Munu could actually be arrested for wearing this flag in the streets, in his office, really at any time. And so as this flag became more and more popular,

several other protest groups also came and were started in order to represent other community groups. Hashtag Taja Muka, which means enough is enough, was more of a radical protest group that took place. Hashtag Beat the Pots, which you can see here, was a mother's group that formed in order to fight against the inaffordability,

inaccessibility of food in Zimbabwe, bringing their pots from their homes into the streets and banging them as a form of protest. And then we also had This Gown, which you can see here as well, which is a graduate student's protest group, which basically fights against the ridiculous unemployment rate in Zimbabwe. Right now it's 95% unemployment.

So that's 5% formal employment only. So they would wear their caps and gowns in public spaces, playing football, selling airtime, vending, doing whatever they could to make it clear that they can't actually find a job at this point. So all of these things are sort of joining as very serious protest groups and had very powerful implications on Twitter,

but also offline in the streets. But also there were many more comedic and lighthearted approaches to dissent. This Hand, hashtag This Hand, started after a picture of Robert Mugabe's hand was circulating throughout WhatsApp groups online.

And basically it was used then as a tool to kind of mock and to laugh at the ridiculous age of Robert Mugabe, given his very dry and wrinkly hand. So as you can see here, it says, we wish hashtag This Hand safe passage to the underworld movie. And I would definitely recommend that you check out this hashtag

if you have a little bit of time. It's quite hilarious. And there also was, in a less political sense, hashtag This Pork Pie, which was a movement that sort of started after someone went online and tweeted a picture of a pork pie and complained about the fact that there was very little pork in it anymore. And Cole Cumme Meets, who creates the pork pies

or produces the pork pies, actually quickly responded, which is very, very rare at this time. It was one of the first times that a consumer was able to go onto Twitter, complain about something, and actually receive feedback from them saying they would try and improve the state of their pork pie. And it's actually even made it to print media. And so it's actually made a point that right now,

especially at this time, that Zimbabwean Twitter and social media really could no longer be disregarded. If you go online and you're complaining about something, or if you're calling out a politician on something, they have to respond to you. And it really did change the game for young people to be able to express on social media in this way. But back to where we were about a year ago.

So all of these groups, Taja Muka, Beat the Pot, This Flag, were starting to form. And they were having all these small protests coming up throughout Harare, but also throughout the nation. And obviously these were often met with violence. As you can see, there was significant evidence of police brutality, even with very peaceful and small protests

that were occurring throughout the city. The most successful of which was on July 6th, which was a nationwide shutdown. It was a massive strike in which we saw both civil servants as well as the private sector stay home from work, basically rendering Harare and other cities like a ghost town for the entire day, which was a very major success on the part of all of these protest groups.

They were able to come together and make such an impact. Obviously, this did not please the government, and they needed to then reciprocate with an equally kind of oppressive act. So about a week later, they arrested Pastor Ivan Mwadide on the evening of 12th July. And on the morning of July 13th,

we all woke up, we start going online, checking our Twitter feeds, and heard the news that he had been arrested. And immediately across the board, everyone was outraged. And without really any kind of formal organization, or without anyone telling us to do so, thousands began to flock to the high court, to the magistrates court, to demand his immediate release.

And so I actually have here to share with you an episode of The Week, which is produced by Magamba TV. It's a weekly news roundup, which is hosted by a comedian, Comrade Fazzo. And he's actually gonna give you some great footage of what went on that day live from the scene, just so you can get an idea of it.

Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends, welcome to The Week, where this week we are shooting in the streets of Zimbabwe.

This is The Week with Comrade Fazzo, where we bring you the news faster than it takes for the government to make the Disflag movement of its first rally. And as you can see, the first Disflag rally is happening behind us, because this week, Pastor Ivan Mwadide was locked up and is currently being held on treason charges. Now we're gathered here behind me,

as you can see at the Rotten Road Court. We are gathered here in solidarity with Pastor Ivan, and we're also gonna go around and hear what people's thoughts are about the arrest of the pastor and the trumped-up charges that he's been given. Thank you for joining us.

One of the really angry at this

is because of the political crisis. And we know why we are in this situation. It is because of Mugabe and his cabal of thieves who have mismanaged our resources, who are stealing from us and who are corrupt. And our issue is that they must go. Pastor Ivan, who is incarcerated today, it is a reactive measure by the government after a stay away that was called last week,

and people spoke resoundingly and clear that they are fed up and enough is enough. So Comrade, we are here with Comrade Dirk, Dirk Frey from the Occupy movement. Now Dirk, please tell us why are you here today? I am here, first of all, to support Pastor Ivan in solidarity with him.

But I'd like to say first that this is a very awkward moment for you, Comrade, because usually there's only one of us talking white boys around. So it's feeling a bit crowded right now. I know, Comrades, if you can even see in the background, there are lots of white people here, and normally I'm the only white person, but there are others here, so I'm just giving Dirk two minutes to say his thing, and then we're pushing him off

so then I can just be the only talking white guy. So that was your two minutes of fame. I hope you can go off and get arrested somewhere. But finally tell us who is dressing you today. My country. My country dresses. Where can we find that shop? I know a good place.

If you go downtown, you can find some mochi. They are very affordable. They're being brought in from I don't know where, but they have, of course, means of production. There are so many Comrades asking for selfies. We've decided to do a revolutionary act. We are now charging Comrades for each selfie. They want to take $2.

So far Comrades have taken about 200 photos with us. We find the selfies, and with all the selfies we take, we're going to raise the bell money for Comrade Evan. So Comrades, as you see, Comrades are not just wearing this flag. They are also demonstrating their feelings about what the situation is by their t-shirts.

Now this Comrade here, Judith, she's wearing a t-shirt that obviously says it's no bullshit. So Comrade, I want to ask you, you're outside the courts where Pastor Evan is right now. Why are you wearing this t-shirt that says no bullshit? It simply means no bullshit. For me, you can't charge a person when the person is not committed in crime.

I mean, I'm in country because if I go to a gig and I'm singing and my crowd starts fighting, they can't arrest me. It's them who is fighting. I drink inside the violin. Which violin do you think is inside? So for me, I woke up in the morning and I said, you know what? We have had enough bullshit and I'm going to say no bullshit.

What they are doing to this man right now is tricking him. It's like I was saying here at the courts, Zimbabweans have come out white, black-coloured Indian

and I'm here with a white person and I just want to ask him the question, is he here because he thought it was Haifa happening? Did you think this was Haifa and is that why you came out today or did you actually know it was the court appearance of Comrade Pastor Evan? I'm speaking in British. Today, Haifa. Yeah, yeah. What is it called? No, it's not Haifa. Why are we here with our flags?

Yeah, so he came along with his flag thinking it was Haifa main stage show, even brought a picnic, but now he's here in solidarity anyway, Comrade. So we are for a good cause. You're here for a good cause. And I'm excited to be here. Well, good. I can tell you more about it. Who are we up against then? Who are we playing football against?

Oh, it's not a football. It's not a football game against the governor. It's not a football game against the governor. It's kind of like a football game against the government, except currently they've got about 30 players on the pitch and they're the referee and the coach. And they've given us a ball made of rocks. But apart from that, it's very much like a football game. We keep all the balls.

I wouldn't encourage throwing rocks because otherwise you'll actually be inciting violence. We're here for peace, yes. Well, Comrade, great to see, you know, artists in Zim Hip Hop out here representing, supporting Comrade Evan who's inside there. So especially, I mean, did you come here because you know, you've got your sofa, sofa pansy. Did you come here thinking that they're going to be

my sofa pansy here, sofas you could sit on. Now you've just come out there, no sofas you can sit on. That's why you came here. This is crazy, actually I came here to see white people. But it's been a while, it's been a while. Okay, honestly, I feel like we've got too many musicians, not enough artists, artists of a voice. And the real artists are here, the real artists of a voice and they're standing up for it.

The musicians are somewhere there waiting to get money from the people that don't even support when they need them. Like that guy right there, he's been fighting for a nation, has been fighting for the same art that we do. So we get paid the money that we deserve to get. But right now, I tell you, the musicians are home, but they have got, they need to be artists, they need to have a voice, they need to stand up for something. Cause if you don't stand up for something,

you fall for anything. We thank you for the courage that he's shown our nation, Zimbabwe. We thank you with God for his peaceful demonstration and his call for people to stand together

against injustices. We'll be asked that you would protect him, lead him and guide him. We pray for this trial this morning, Lord. We pray indeed that justice would prove that. At the courthouse, we've been here all day.

It's now evening, it's dark, and we are updating you in a very Zimbabwean style. There's no Zessa. We don't have a flash by using a candle. So we're doing an update by candlelight, doing a protest by candlelight. So we're doing an update by candlelight. Comrade Ewan, Pastor Ewan is still inside.

We still haven't heard a verdict. We're still awaiting the verdict. And people are cheering. They are shouting. They are celebrating. There's been no violence the whole day. There have been prayers. There've been people toying. There's been no violence whatsoever. There's been a fantastic spirit. And so Comrades, we are here. Two pasta gets laid out. Even if our candle runs out,

we'll buy another one. Dollar for two, apparently. Good vendors were selling flags by day. They are now sold out. They are now selling candles. So we are going to buy the candles. We will do a vigil all night until pasta gets laid out. This is a Comrade Fatso outside the courthouse with the candle. I thank you.

So as you can see, it was a very historic day. That was the largest protest in Zimbabwe in 15 years. And unfortunately, since then, we haven't seen any kind of moment like this, any kind of protest like this. Unfortunately, he was released, but then exiled into South Africa and then to the US.

And although he has since returned, there has been more apathy than I think excitement around these movements as of right now. However, there have been a lot of young people who are still taking to Twitter and taking to the internet in order to express themselves. Cool. So in my work, I run a project called Open Parliament. And so we track all these movements,

these protest movements that happen spontaneously from citizens. And then we also track the work that happens in parliament. And we try to match those two and find patterns that match. So in our work as Open Parliament, we aggregate information that comes from Zimbabwean parliament. And we get a lot of engagement from young people

because we tweet from parliament blow by blow every word, everything that's happening. So it's kind of like your Hansard from parliament, but except it's in the form of tweets. So if your MP or your member of parliament comes to parliament drunk, we say that on Twitter. If he comes late or if he's sleeping, we also say that.

And we find that that gives young people a lot of engagement because now they're concerned, they're like, oh, we voted for this guy, why is he sleeping? And we've seen the shift in terms of the patterns where as the initial protest movements were more inclined towards the Arab Spring type of protest where we wanna overthrow the government,

we wanna want all this government to go. So now the shift has shifted from the Arab Spring format to a more localized, okay, I just need to change something in my community, something that affects my livelihood. So we'll give you some quick examples. So one of the initiatives was Data Must Fall.

So this is an initiative that initially started in South Africa. It's a movement that started in South Africa which took on the mobile network operators who were increasing data tariffs on mobile networks for the people. So we adopted this because in January this year, we woke up to the news that one of our mobile network operators

had increased the data prices by 500%, alternatively making it inaccessible for anyone. So young people took to Twitter, Facebook, and targeted the man in the picture there who is the minister responsible for that portfolio and the mobile network operator. And so we started seeing a huge shift

in terms of people moving from that mobile network that had increased the prices to other smaller network operators. And also because they kept tagging the minister. He eventually responded, he was on holiday at the time, came back, and then he put a stop to it. So that was a small victory. They managed to reverse an actual legislation

using social media. And then the next one, this one is a little bit closer to home for us because it saved Motor Republic. This actually happened in February. So Motor Republic is a co-working space where we work from. It's run by Magamba Network. So Martha and I share an office at Motor Republic. So in February, the city of Harare

targeted our hub for demolition. So they just showed up one afternoon and then they started demolishing the container spaces. So the building is made out of shipping containers. So according to our laws, shipping containers are not allowed to be used in construction. So the young people spontaneously took to Twitter

while we were dealing with the issue. They took to Twitter and then they started using Save Motor Republic. And by the time we started getting online, the hashtag was already trending. And using the hashtag, we jumped onto it as well. And then we decided to mobilize our community to target the minister of local government,

target the mayor of Harare, and the town clerk to mobilize everyone so that we stop the demolition. So we targeted at them and within three days, we had 15,000 tweets, 1,800 signatures on our petition. And we had a response from the mayor and the minister who called for the demolition to stop

and not to go ahead. So going forward, we see these small victories leading up to bigger and much better organized local communities, grassroots communities. So Zimbabwe is going towards harmonized elections in 2018 in August.

And we see this pattern of young people using social media to reclaim their vote. So 14% of young Zimbabweans are registered to vote despite the fact that they constitute 60% of the population. So we're seeing a huge shift in the way that they use social media. They're using it now to mobilize young voters

to register to vote. And just maybe, just maybe, we can have the Zimbabwe that we want. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, there's one question. There's two, there's three, there's three questions. So just because we don't have much time, maybe we make one question while we have already changing a little bit on the stage. And if there are more questions, I'm sure they will be outside there.

Okay, cool. Hi there. A very, very inspiring talk. I'm Ken, I live in South Africa. Obviously, Mugabe's been there for what, 37 years now. But I think my belief is that the other African leaders have a role to play in this. So what's your take on even like Zuma

and the other African presidents or prime ministers just supporting his dictatorship in many ways and not putting enough pressure on him to step down and abdicate? Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think it's a generational thing. So you have what we call the leaders

of the frontline states, which was South Africa, ANC, Zimbabwe, Zanu Piaf, and they all kind of supported each other during the liberation movement era. And then when they got into power, they kind of maintained that network. So they actually never go against each other when it comes to influencing each other's policies

in each country. So it's actually something that they do deliberately. So yes, I do think if South Africa, if South Africa does have a say in what happens in Zimbabwe, like what happened the last time we had a government of national unity, which was brokered by Thabo Mbeki.

So South Africa is our biggest trading partner. So it has a huge influence when it comes to what happens in Zimbabwe. So I do think, I totally agree with you that if other countries around Zimbabwe put pressure on our government to change, we would have transformation. Thank you.

Maybe there will be some more questions, but please, maybe outside, because we are also hearing, well, one more question. We are here very family, so let's do it. Thank you. My name is Elifas Nyamogo. I'm from Nairobi, Kenya. First of all, I want to congratulate you guys for what you're doing.

It's very impressive. Now, what we know is that in a lot of these African countries where there's very little space, where there's very little freedom, the leaders have always tried to clamp down on access to the internet, social media. And you just said that about 50% of the young people in Zimbabwe have access to the internet.

Why do you think the government has not tried on that front to make it very difficult for people to go onto social media? Because it seems that it's working, but what we know, what we read is that the situation is not improving much on the political front. Actually, I think they're working right now. They're working towards clamping down on that.

Unfortunately, we had only 30 minutes to talk about it, but we would have talked about a new legislation which is coming actually from the African Union, and then filtering through to SADC, which is the Cyber Crimes and Computer Crimes Bill, which is being adopted by all African countries, apparently.

So for Zimbabwe, that bill, which is very ambiguous in the way that it targets social media activists or Twitter, people who protest on Twitter, it's very vague in its description, which makes it porous that someone who blogs about something anti-government can actually be targeted

and they can use that law to get them arrested. So for Zimbabwe, that bill is actually coming on later on in this year, it's being tabled before Parliament, and it's something that we are also very much concerned about, that the government is starting to clamp down on social media. But also, the mobile network operators have a huge role to play in Africa,

because whereas in Europe and the United States, government is the one that controls the internet infrastructure and then shares it with business, in Africa, it's the MNOs, the mobile network operators who raise their own money. So for example, in Zimbabwe and across Africa, Liquid Telecoms raises billions of dollars

from investors around the world, and then it invests that money in creating a fiber optic backbone across Africa, and the government has zero influence over that. So unless the government comes in and says, we wanna shut down the internet, Liquid can stand up to them and say, hey, this is our operation and it affects our business.

So that's where mobile network operators and civil society can have a role to play together to defend Africans' voices. Yeah, and I would just add, also on July 6th, that same day of the nationwide shutdown, they actually did successfully shut down the internet for a few hours, trying to basically make it impossible for people to organize through WhatsApp groups,

through Facebook, through Twitter. So they have already had some good success, a few incidences here and there, that we definitely have to worry about in the next couple of upcoming elections as well. Thank you, Marta, thank you, Munir.