during the presidential elections of 2000. Armed with mobile phones, journalists from private media fanned out across the country and called in vote count observations from polling places as they were being read –a first in Senegal and in Africa. Metissacana set up an election watch with people sending email messages and communicating via radio over the Internet, another first. The result was that Diouf, who had been president for almost half that time, was defeated and the longtime opposition candidate Abdoulaye Wade was elected.
In 2011 social media was credited bringing about another regime change and myriad political change. On June 23, 2011, thousands of citizens from across social sectors rallied in front of the Senegalese National Assembly to protest the-then-president’s attempts to force a constitutional change and his insistence on seeking an illegal third term. A similar protest sprung up in different parts of the country and from this was born a mass civic movement called Le M-23. When presidential elections were held the following year, the incumbent president was soundly defeated.
Several months prior to this, using music and messages sent out via various media outlets, a group of Senegalese hip hop artists who called themselves “Y’en a Marre” – which in French means “we’re fed up” had been calling people to claim their civic rights and to demand social and political changes to improve the quality of life for the masses of citizens.
“Social media was essential in Y’en A Marre’s effectiveness,” said Sophiane Bengeloune, a journalist
for L’Enquete, a private daily newspaper in Dakar. “Even before the June 23 rally, there was a movement that existed –it was taking place online,” she said. g
http://tinyurl.com/msumobile
22