{"id":12777,"date":"2026-06-04T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/?p=12777"},"modified":"2026-06-11T13:46:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:46:04","slug":"change-in-the-sahel-hashtags-and-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/change-in-the-sahel-hashtags-and-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Changement au Sahel : Hashtags et Pouvoir"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:12px\"><em>Photo credits: \u00a9 Al-amin Muhammad via&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/men-in-hat-and-with-smartphones-in-crowd-20291820\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pexels<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Youth digital activism in the Sahel<\/strong> is not uniformly pro-democracy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media platforms provide citizens with alternative channels through which to express grievances, mobilise protest, and hold authorities accountable; but also facilitates the spread of populist rhetoric, nationalist narratives, and coordinated disinformation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What does this dual reality look like across the seven countries studied?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In <strong>Mali<\/strong>, platforms serve as spaces for mobilisation, debate, and information contestation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In <strong>Guinea<\/strong>, limited internet access constrains broader civic engagement online.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In <strong>Burkina Faso<\/strong>, participation is mostly diffuse, with youth amplifying dominant narratives rather than leading organised action.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In <strong>Togo<\/strong>, social media is a key arena for political expression and mobilisation, with spikes around corruption, hardship, and repression.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In <strong>Chad<\/strong>, online youth engagement remains limited.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In <strong>Cameroon<\/strong>, mobilisation is largely reactive, emerging mainly during crises.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In <strong>Niger<\/strong>, platforms combine political expression with high levels of disinformation and polarised narratives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Across the region, online engagement is often <strong>reactive and crisis-driven<\/strong> during moments of crisis, coups, elections, or political tension, rather than forming sustained movements. And while young people are highly present in these spaces, their voices are often mediated through content produced by journalists, media outlets, or diaspora networks rather than driving the conversation directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, although most states have put digital governance frameworks in place, enforcement and coordination remain weak. Closing this gap will require not just stronger laws, but also stronger institutions, and more space and support for youth to lead and shape digital civic life. Yet these same frameworks carry real risks of abuse. Across the Sahel, laws designed to govern digital spaces have been instrumentalised to silence dissent, restrict online organising, and justify internet shutdowns during moments of political crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"color: var(--clr-tertiary);\" class=\"stk-highlight\">Authors: Zara Schroeder, Marie Batista, Yossabel Chetty, Leslie Dwolatzky, Kola Ijasan and Herman Wasserman<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns has-primary-alt-background-color has-background is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"border-radius:15px\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized has-custom-border\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Report-Change-in-the-Sahel-Hashtags-and-Power.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"724\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cover-image-Change-in-the-Sahel-Hashtags-and-Power-724x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12975\" style=\"border-radius:3px;width:190px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cover-image-Change-in-the-Sahel-Hashtags-and-Power-724x1024.jpg 724w, https:\/\/ahead.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cover-image-Change-in-the-Sahel-Hashtags-and-Power-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/ahead.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cover-image-Change-in-the-Sahel-Hashtags-and-Power-768x1086.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ahead.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cover-image-Change-in-the-Sahel-Hashtags-and-Power-1087x1536.jpg 1087w, https:\/\/ahead.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cover-image-Change-in-the-Sahel-Hashtags-and-Power-8x12.jpg 8w, https:\/\/ahead.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cover-image-Change-in-the-Sahel-Hashtags-and-Power.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons has-custom-font-size is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-3e41869c wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\" style=\"font-size:clamp(14px, 0.875rem + ((1vw - 3.2px) * 0.204), 16px);\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-75\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-color has-tertiary-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-custom-font-size wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Report-Change-in-the-Sahel-Hashtags-and-Power.pdf\" style=\"font-size:14px\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Deep dive into the report <\/strong>[EN]<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>L'activisme num\u00e9rique des jeunes au Sahel n'est pas uniform\u00e9ment pro-d\u00e9mocratie. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"blog","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[95],"grantees":[],"partner":[10],"region":[129],"class_list":["post-12777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-research","partner-waeon","region-sahel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12777"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13043,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12777\/revisions\/13043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12777"},{"taxonomy":"grantees","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/grantees?post=12777"},{"taxonomy":"partner","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partner?post=12777"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ahead.africa\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=12777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}