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- Convenors:
-
Nicole Beardsworth
(University of York)
Gabrielle Lynch (University of Warwick )
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- Stream:
- Politics and International Relations
- Location:
- Appleton Tower, Seminar Room 2.12
- Sessions:
- Thursday 13 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
Political rallies are central to electoral campaigns across sub-Saharan Africa. Taking decisions to expend significant time and energy in staging public events seriously, this panel asks what can be learnt about party and electoral politics by analysing performances staged during campaign rallies
Long Abstract:
Political rallies - from small roadside meetings to mass gatherings - are central to electoral campaigns across sub-Saharan Africa. Particularly in the context of limited media penetration, rallies are critical sites of voter persuasion and partisan mobilisation (Dan Paget, 2018). Rallies frequently involve popular local artists, traditional leaders and dancers, and local and national dignitaries. They are often marked by the distribution of party paraphernalia, the performance of orchestrated 'defections' from other parties and claims by the key politician to both local relevance and ethnic inclusivity. Informed by a broader literature on politics and performance, this panel takes the decision of parties and individual candidates to expend so much of their time and energy staging these public events seriously. More specifically, the panel looks at what insights can be gained about parties and electoral politics by analysing the performances staged at campaign rallies.
Underlying questions might include: What do politicians decide to talk about and how? How do they seek to present themselves and what are the key messages relayed? Who accompanies aspirants and what does this say about campaign strategies? What do rallies aim to achieve? For example, do they seek to inform local citizens of an aspirant's manifesto or to display their support as a means of influencing voters' assessments of likely outcomes? How are ethnic and national claims performed at these 'local' events, and what does this mean for parties' mobilisation efforts more broadly? How do parties conceptualise the importance of rallies within broader campaign strategies?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 13 June, 2019, -Dan Paget (University of Oxford)
Paper short abstract:
I consider how African election campaigns should be characterised. I argue that the modernist literature homogenises ground campaigns. I argue that ground campaigns vary between the rally-intensive and rally-light, and enumerate features of Tanzania's rally-intensive ground campaigns.
Paper long abstract:
I consider how African election campaigns should be characterised. I revisit typologies proposed by Pippa Norris and others, which distinguish between premodern, modern and postmodern campaigns. Studies of political communication leave this modernism largely unquestioned. I challenge the conceptual linearity that these typologies impose. In particular, I argue that they homogenise ground campaigns. Ground campaigns only feature in these typologies by virtue of their centrality in premodern campaigns and their peripherality in modern campaigns. This denies variation in ground campaigns. In some, rallies are peripheral. In others, rallies are central. By neglecting this variation, current typologies obscure important differences between African ground campaigns, and indeed between ground campaigns across the world. To accommodate this variation, I rework Norris' schema. I propose a distinct ideal type: the rally-intensive campaign. This reworking strips the schema of its modernism and draws its centre of gravity towards the Global South.
I demonstrate how electioneering changes when aggregate rally attendance is high. I do so by drawing on ten months of field work in Tanzania, which hosts Africa's most rally-intensive campaigns. I show that in Tanzania, not only national leaders dedicate substantial effort to convening rallies; mid- and low-level candidates do too. I demonstrate that Tanzanian local rallies are better attended in aggregate than national ones. I show that in Tanzania, mass meeting dwarfs canvassing as a form of direct campaign contact. Lastly, I argue that Tanzanian parties' ground campaign efforts are concentrated on a bundle of activities which I term the 'production' of rallies.
Nicodemus Minde (United States International University)
Paper short abstract:
This article explores the interface between music and politics dramatized during election seasons in Africa. Specifically, it focusses on dramatization of election promises and pledges, through song and dance in party manifestos in Kenya and Tanzania.
Paper long abstract:
Music is a critical site for African social cultural, political and economic activity. This article explores the interface between music and politics dramatized during election seasons in Africa. Specifically, it focusses on dramatization of election promises and pledges, through song and dance in party manifestos in Kenya and Tanzania. While the political party manifestos are colored in fancy development jargon and visual representation, oftentimes this has not been translated into post-election governance and implementation. Political parties in Africa have often used music and dance as mediums of mobilization during election campaigns. Party manifestos pledges have been dramatized in music and dance in campaign rallies with party luminaries joining in the glitz. This article, through a comparative analysis between Kenyan and Tanzanian political contexts, examines the contradictions between election pledges and the development rhetoric in Kenya and Tanzania.
Keywords: campaign songs, election manifestos, election campaigns, Kenya, Tanzania
Natascha Bing (Leipzig University)
Paper short abstract:
Looking at rallies in Kenya's 2013 elections the paper gives examples of linguistic strategies being used in the politicians' mobilisation efforts. While the political aspirants enforce exclusive identity politics by using "vernaculars", they also operate through polylingual inclusive practices.
Paper long abstract:
Based on the findings of my fieldwork conducted in the forerun of the 2013 Kenyan general election, I will focus on linguistic practices of Kenyan politicians. The talk provides insights into local understandings of language and politics, putting assumptions about the homogeneity of nations, languages and their interrelation to a test. While Kenyan politicians enforce exclusive (sub-)national identity politics, they also operate through polylingual inclusive practices, articulating their belonging to a united yet heterogeneous nation. They appeal to the electorate by using the 'language(s) of the people' and make use of fluid linguistic practices. Peter Kenneth's slogan "tunaswesmake" (we can make it), Rachel Shebesh's designation as "Manzi wa Nai" (Young girl of Nairobi), Raphael Tuju and his "Poa Campaign", as well as Musalia Mudavadi's slogan "Niko Freshi" (I'm fine/fresh/I feel good) are only some examples. A new understanding of a heterogeneous nation, reflected in a fluid use of language, completes the aspiration of a unified homogenous nation commonly expressed in the (stabilized) national language Kiswahili. The 'turbulent' (Stroud 2015) varieties being used in the political campaigns evolve as a symbol and medium of a distinctive Kenyan way of life, labelled as 'Kenya*n'. The gender-star serves as a placeholder for a broad spectrum of the nation's meaning, irritating the homogenous idea of the nation and a standardized stable national language attached to it (cf. 'Metrolingualism' Otsuji&Pennycook 2010). The construction of 'the' nation - as the potential electorate - is diverse and so are its practices dynamic and unstable.
Samuel Mark Anderson (NYU Abu Dhabi)
Paper short abstract:
During Sierra Leone's elections, the apparent chaos of public manifestations in which constituents demonstrate their preferences contrasts with calls from civil society to "say no to violence." Yet such calls often imply restrictions on political speech as much as they urge physical restraint.
Paper long abstract:
This paper maps out the role of spectacle in negotiating the future of Sierra Leone's democracy, tracking tensions and transformations that local actors imagine as leading towards prosperity or towards violence. During 2012 elections, "manifesting for the party" served as the primary means with which constituents demonstrated their priorities and affiliation via public processions sponsored by politicians contesting for nominations. Such acts offered politicians the opportunity to display to party officials their future potential as patrons and brokers capable of managing limited resources and unpredictable populations. Yet this orchestrated chaos also provided the ruling government and international observers with a flashpoint for anxieties about future violence that risked resurrecting the country's 1992-2002 civil war. Thus rallies were accompanied by ceaseless calls from politicians and civil society to "say no to violence"—directives that were facilitated by a range of artists and celebrities including theatre directors, mystic arts performers, and hip-hop stars. However, when interrogating the term "violence" for its local resonances, translations in Krio and Mende reveal that the concept is less tied to vision or injury than to sound, both through onomatopoeia and reference to dangers of "making noise." Saying no to violence thus often implied restrictions on political speech as much as it called for physical restraint. For a variety of reasons, spectacular practices were radically curtailed during the country's 2018 elections, purposely or inadvertently cutting publics out of the political process.
Elena Gadjanova (University of Exeter)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the practice of cross-ethnic endorsements during election rallies in presidential campaigns in Africa and traces its implications for presidential candidates' reverse ethnic coattails and electoral success.
Paper long abstract:
In Africa's highly ethnically-diverse states, presidential candidates must ensure cross-ethnic support to win elections. In addition to vote-buying and co-opting local leaders, recent work has drawn attention to the importance of direct appeals to voters during election campaigns. When addressing members from communities other than their own, presidential contenders often appear surrounded by "local notables" from the groups whose votes are being sought. Endorsements of the presidential candidates by these figures are heavily publicized, ritualized, and celebrated. In this paper, I examine the importance of this practice of public cross-ethnic endorsements for politics in Africa's highly diverse states. I develop the notion of "co-ethnicity by endorsement" and highlight the ways, in which it contributes to the reverse ethnic coat-tails of presidential candidates. Drawing on rally recordings, newspaper reports, and archival sources from Ghana and Kenya, I trace the ways in which the practice has shifted between the single-party and multi-party era. The research helps to explain the apparent puzzle of ethnic block voting for non-coethnics and has implications for which cleavages and identities are emphasized in multi-party elections in Africa.
Nicole Beardsworth (University of York)
Paper short abstract:
This paper uses data from two opposition party campaigns to contest the prevailing consensus that Zambian politics is driven by an ethnic logic, instead highlighting the diverse strategies used by parties to persuade potential voters in two close elections.
Paper long abstract:
Building on innovative new research on campaigns and rallies in Africa (Paget, 2018; Horowitz, 2016), this paper explores the campaign strategy of Zambia's largest opposition party - the United Party for National Development (UPND). Long described as an 'ethnic' party in a party system defined by high levels of co-ethnic voting, the UPND was not expected to be able to break out of its traditional vote base in the 2015 and 2016 polls.
However, the party defied expectations, going on to lose the elections by the smallest of margins. Drawing on participant observation of over a dozen rallies, video and audio recordings as well as internal campaign documents and GIS mapping of electoral data, this paper will argue that the UPND's campaign strategy does not conform to traditional assumptions about ethnic electoral mobilisation.
While co-ethnicity might be leveraged for political purposes on the campaign trail, this serves to create an air of inevitability of UPND success and demonstrate that the party is the most nationally viable candidate, despite widespread claims of being a 'tribal' party. This paper will explore the performance of 'ethnicity' at rallies, highlighting the ways in which it diverges from and challenges existing academic theories of co-ethnic mobilisation.
Hannah Waddilove (University of Warwick)
Paper short abstract:
Political rallies are generally used for politicians to appeal to, or interact with, prospective voters in order to win elections. However, this paper argues that rallies also play a role in elite alliance-building, where local politicians seek to secure political futures beyond elections.
Paper long abstract:
Rallies during election periods are opportunities for parties and individual politicians to appeal to, and interact with, prospective voters to win elections (Dan Paget, 2018). However, this paper suggests that rallies are also important contests for local politicians to affirm alliances with national figures to secure political futures beyond elections. This is especially relevant in contemporary Kenyan politics where the system of devolved government has introduced new influential low- and mid-ranking layers of political office, animating the interaction between different levels of politics. This paper takes the example of a presidential campaign rally during Kenya's 2017 elections held in Marsabit County, where the two main rival gubernatorial candidates were supporting President Uhuru Kenyatta's re-election. Investing in distinct party merchandise that distinguished the supporters by colour, and ensuring strict separate crowd control to make it clear how many 'numbers' each party had, staff of both gubernatorial campaigns emphasised that this rally was an opportunity for both teams to show the presidency "a show of numbers"; in other words, that both candidates should be seen as helping with his re-election even if they subsequently lost the gubernatorial seat. This rally reveals how mass performances are also important contests for local politicians to display their alliances with powerful national figures in order to secure political futures beyond the election itself.
McDonald Lewanika (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Paper short abstract:
What is the purpose of the rally? Through a mapping of ZANU-PF's 2008 and 2013 bigwig rallies, this paper suggests rallies are an integral element of ZANU-PF's legitimacy seeking tools, and a platform at which the party preys on emotions to inspire action, activate structures and grow voter base.
Paper long abstract:
Political analysis on Zimbabwean elections is usually centred on outlines of ZANU-PF's authoritarian tendencies, proximate election day encounters, and technical elements of elections. While these issues are important, there is a limited focus on the most popular tool that political parties use to engage the electorate, the rally. This paper looks at ZANU-PF bigwig rallies/Star Rallies and argues first, that where, when and with whom they are staged can tell us about ZANU-PF's motives for campaigning, and whether they do so to enhance their legitimacy. Second, It analyses the kinds of appeals that are made and uses a dynamic redrawing of the 2008 and 2013 campaign trail, and messages that were communicated to argue that contrary to popular opinion, ZANU-PF rallies are a potent persuasive part of a dynamic political machine, used to win hearts and minds of voters. It argues that what some in the scholarship dismiss as instrumentalisation of history and Mugabe's history "lectures" at rallies were actually a play at persuasion aimed at manipulating peoples' emotions. In this respect, the articulation of history at rallies in Zimbabwe, for instance, also becomes the articulation of a record and a shared history aimed at inspiring pride, invoking shame and instigating fear. Beyond preying on emotions in various ways, rallies were also a key activation processes for ZANU-PF activists both in terms of direct instructions from the leadership as well as coded messages steeped in the knowledge of the ways of the party, and history.