Mobilising restless radicals: the #AmINext movement and the formation of feminist digital counterpublics against gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa

The #AmINext movement in response to the sexual assault and murder of Uyinene Mrwetyana in 2019 reignited the public discourse of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide in South Africa. The prevalent research on feminist hashtag activism has made critical links between the use of social media and the platforming of women's rage as a form of mobilising protests against GBV and femicide. However, less analysis has focused on the political significance of affects such as rage within feminist hashtag activism against GBV and femicide in South Africa. This research undertakes a literature review of feminist hashtag activism across the world to situate this form of mobilising in global feminist debates connected to how marginalised genders experience patriarchy differently in diverse contexts. A thematic analysis of 1,600 tweets is employed to investigate how affects form these movements through activists' responses to #AmINext. It uses theories of feminist digital counterpublics to show that digital responses to GBV and femicide may be new, but they are connected to histories of women's resistance. This study argues that #AmINext mobilises rage and grievability to contest the assumptions of how GBV and femicide operate within the coloniality of gender. It found that rage and grievability circulated by activists in #AmINext work to counter hegemonic discourses that render GBV and femicide as extraordinary, reflecting how stories of injustice are bound with emotions that make individuals act politically in ways they would not otherwise.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Political Studies

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Senne, Busang

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Maluleke, Gavaza

• Politics

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41346

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41346