Reports on the use of social networking websites throughout Africa are increasing, especially since Social media such as Facebook and Twitter were named as contributing factors in the organisation of protestors during the ‘Arab Spring’ demonstrations in North African countries, including Egypt and Algeria. However, while numerous reports are recording social media usage in African countries, many have failed to mention the fastest growing social media website, Tumblr, and how Africans throughout the Diaspora are making their mark on the website.

In light of the waves being made by this rapidly growing site in Africa and beyond, this CAI paper showcases Tumblr and discusses social networking in Africa. Moreover, it considers the impact of social networking sites such Tumblr on the lives of the African Diaspora.

What is Tumblr?

Tumblr was launched in 2007 by founder and current CEO, David Karp, as a social networking website that allows users to share various forms of content. On the surface Tumblr looks and sounds no different from other social networking sites: “In one sentence, Tumblr is a blogging platform that makes it easier to post video, audio, words, social bookmarks, photos and even other people’s blog posts into your blog and share it with other people.”⁽²⁾ In essence, Tumblr is one of the easiest, if not the easiest, blogging platforms, allowing users to share and post their content, while enabling other users to respond and reply to content.

Since its inception in 2007, the website has captured the attention of users in various parts of the world; its support services are now available in multiple languages. Such is the popularity of the network that it has recently been reported that “Tumblr’s main audience comes from the U.S., with 45% of visitors (249 million) to its networks coming from America alone. Brazil makes up a large part also with 49 million visits, with the UK accounting for 34 million visits. To date, Tumblr has seen more [than] 560 million people view content on its networks.”⁽³⁾ Thus far, Tumblr has reported more users than Google’s social networking platform, Google plus, and it has been seen as Facebook’s main rival in terms of social networking. Unfortunately, no statistics have been produced that tell of the network’s users in African countries.

Social networking in Africa

Africa is home to some of the fastest developing telecommunications industries and to some of the fastest growing Internet usage. Over the years, Internet users have grown in numbers throughout Africa, the most recent statistics indicating that “At the end of 2011 Africa had 139 million internet users according to Internet World Stats. In 2000, it was a meagre 4.5 million.”⁽⁴⁾

Foreign Internet companies, such as Google, have taken advantage of Africa’s emergent Internet users by offering services in local indigenous languages and making more features accessible on mobile telephones. Observation of African Internet users indicates that Facebook is the most widely used social networking website in Africa, gaining most of its users from Nigeria and South Africa. Twitter is also a popular social network website in Africa, as demonstrated by the website’s prominent African users ranging from presidents to academics. The enthusiasm for social media websites has inspired many African developers and entrepreneurs to create their own social networking websites, specific to the African market. Many organisations and businesses throughout Africa also rely on social networking sites to communicate to various users in and around Africa. Consequently, numerous start-ups and new sites have arisen.

One of the fastest growing social networking websites in Africa is Yookos. In a reflection of the growing number of websites specifically geared toward the African market, the CEO of the company, Tomisin Fashina, recently stated that “Our early experience suggests there’s a huge need for a quintessentially African social network that helps Africans interact, socialise, share information and access entertainment that is relevant to them, whether they’re in London, New York or a remote village in Africa.”⁽⁵⁾

The African Diaspora on Tumblr

Although Tumblr may not be an African social networking website or African-specific, many young Africans have flocked to the website, as have their Internet-savvy peers elsewhere. The most popular Afro-centric Tumblr blog is ‘Dynamic Africa’, which originally appeared as ‘Fyeah Africa’. The blog positions itself as a news, image and video aggregator of African content from the past and present. It allows users to submit their own content and enables followers and viewers to access diverse images and views concerning Africa. The popularity of Dynamic Africa has spawned similar blogs on Tumblr such as ‘Fyeah Africa Rocks’, amongst numerous others. ‘Africa is Done Suffering’ (A.I.D.S.) is also a popular blog on Tumblr that situates itself as a multi-perspective Africa-centred blog that allows viewers and followers to submit their own opinions and personal stories on Africa.

Interestingly, although many Africans subscribe to ‘Pan African’ orientated blogs, there has been a surge in region- and country-specific blogs on Tumblr. These include, ‘L’Afrique Du Nord’, a North African-specific Tumblr blog that provides photographs of various North African countries, ‘People of the South’, a Tumblr blog devoted to Southern Africa, and various Tumblr blogs dedicated to each country in Africa. In addition to regional and country representation, , language also appears to play a role in the expansive demographics of Africans on Tumblr, as users from Francophone and Lusophone African countries have Africa Tumblr blogs catering to French and Portuguese speakers in the African Diaspora.

Even though it appears that African Tumblr blogs contain mostly photographs and news on various countries, many African bloggers are using the website as a platform to display and spread diverse African interests. ‘Prepaid Africa’ (The Prepaid Economy: African Edition) blog is the only Tumblr blog thus far that collects and publicises news, views and interviews on sub-Saharan African economies and opportunities. Other Tumblr bloggers have created blogs that promote specific fields, such as music. ‘Obun Radio Tumblr’ is a popular blog that draws attention to contemporary genres of music and African musicians throughout the continent. ‘Nigerian Cover Project’ aims to encourage interest in African music through their album covers. Another Tumblr blog, ‘Cut from a Different Cloth’, provides a platform to showcase African clothing, African fashion designers and African fashion events. It also provides information to subscribers on where to acquire clothing that has captured their sights. Furthermore, individual African bloggers on Tumblr are increasingly using the website as an avenue to promote their art, products and merchandise and projects to a diverse community in Africa as well as to Africans living abroad.

As Tumblr caters to, and is mostly used by a young demographic, the website is also renowned for its humorous memes and gifs. African users on the website are constantly creating gifs and memes that relate to Africa and African media. A popular gif Tumblr blog is ‘Nollywood Gifs’, which provides amusing gifs from popular Nollywood films. Other favoured Tumblr blogs include ‘Chantal Biya’s Hair Tumblr’, a priceless blog dedicated to the hairstyles of Cameroon’s First Lady, and the ‘African Problems Tumblr’ blog, a meme user generated blog covering typical ‘African problems’ in a comical manner.

Sceptics of Tumblr, who initially brushed off the site, may be surprised by its rise as one of the fastest growing social networking websites. Such is the popularity and importance of the website that even the United States’ President, Barack Obama, has joined the network, as “Tumblr has become a go-to platform for publications and organisations looking to show a more human, approachable side. Accordingly, the Barack Obama Tumblr, run by the 2012 election campaign staff, is meant to focus on user submissions, behind-the-scenes shots and grassroots support.”⁽⁶⁾ In addition, several non-governmental organisations outside of Africa are joining Tumblr as it allows organisations to access information and disseminate it to a youthful and energetic demographic. The largest organisation that has joined to date is Doctors Without Borders.

Concluding remarks

While Tumblr has captured the imaginations of millions worldwide, it’s potential to spread awareness about African issues and to bring about social change remain largely untapped. “Tumblr released some staggering numbers: 20 billion posts, 50 million blogs - many of them from the increasing number of brands and publishers using it as a hub for social-content efforts.”⁽⁷⁾ Tumblr has announced plans for other developments that will avail users to more tools to share content and for businesses to reach more users.

However, thus far, no noticeable African leaders, brands, publications or institutions have joined Tumblr or announced any plans to do so. Seeing the social networking popularity among the youth, businesses and institutions elsewhere have taken advantage of the website’s far reach. Considering the powerful vehicles for imitating change that social networking sites have proven to be in Africa, it is advisable that African entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders who have slowly taken to websites such as Facebook and Twitter should embrace Tumblr as another avenue for reaching a wide and diverse, dynamic African youth and Diaspora. It is unclear whether African entrepreneurs and leaders will adopt Tumblr as another avenue to communicate with the African Diaspora.

In the meanwhile, young Africans, both at home and abroad, continue to ‘tumble’ away and network in a space that allows them to spread and discuss their own visions of Africa. Perhaps the networks formed on the social networking website could lead to collaborations between wide ranges of young Africans who, through a shared vision, can transform Africa.

Written by Puseletso Nkopane ⁽¹⁾

NOTES:

(1) Contact Puseletso Nkopane through Consultancy Africa Intelligence’s Optimistic Africa Unit (optimistic.africa@consultancyafrica.com).
(2) Dannen, C., ‘What the hell is Tumblr? And other worthwhile questions’, Fast Company,13 May 2009, www.fastcompany.com.
(3) Brian, M., ‘Tumblr hits 20 billion posts, nears 50 million hosted blogs’, The Next Web, 28 March 2012, www.thenextweb.com.
(4) Fripp, C., ‘Africa’s Internet Usage: The Lowdown’, IT News Africa, 9 February 2012, http://www.itnewsafrica.com.
(5) Neethling, T., ‘Scramble is on for social media users in Africa’, Business Day, 20 March 2012, www.businessday.co.za.
(6) Sniderman, Z., ‘President Obama adds Tumblr to his list of social profiles’, Mashable, 25 October 2011, http://mashable.com.
(7) Teicher, D., ‘Tumblr founder David Karp explains new tools for users and brands’, Creativity Online, 12 April 2012, www.creativity-online.com.