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Young people across the African continent have read the Greater Inclusion of African Youth in Governance and Public Service report and are calling for its implementation on social media. Project Pakati’s Change Makers posted their call to action throughout the month of March 2021, and it can be seen on their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Following the launch of the Greater Inclusion of African Youth in Governance and Public Service report, the AU Youth Envoy, Aya Chebbi - within the confines of social distancing and the limitations on travel due to the pandemic - was able to meet the Namibian President, Hage Geingob, in October 2020. She was also able to secure a speaking enagagement at the opening of the South Sudan National Dialogue, where the tenets and recommendations of the report were put forward.

2019 Tutu Fellow Ronak Gopaldas has had a paper, Digital Dictatorship versus Digital Democracy in Africa, published by SAIIA – the South African Institute of International Affairs. The paper kicks off with a quote from writer Umair Haque, ‘Twitter could have been a town square. But now it’s more like a drunken, heaving mosh pit.’ The quote illustrates the gap between the potential of social media and the internet, and its dark side.

Not that long ago, social media fueled the Arab Spring, bringing down governments. Since then, though, bots, trolls and disinformation campaigns pushing trending algorithms have subverted campaigns such as Brexit and the 2016 US elections and how smartphones and privacy have blurred the line between engagement and surveillance.

Tutu Fellow Ross Garland is the founder and owner of Rogue Star Films, responsible for producing hit movies including the award-winning U-Carmen eKhayelitsha and Confessions of a Gambler. Now with three successful Spud movies under his belt, he’s well placed to reflect on the changing face of filmmaking trends.