Elections and communication in Mozambique

Between humor, memes, and the internet

Abstract

Humour may be synonymous with several realities, but the political dimension that it may have been rarely discussed. If throughout history, humour has been used to express different feelings, little or almost nothing has been studied, from a political perspective, in the case of Mozambique. Thus, based on the 2019 General Elections and through a qualitative methodology (semi-structured interviews and netnography), this article discusses how humour can be a way of doing politics in electoral seasons. As a result, beyond the limitations of Internet access in the country, the examples reveal the existence of a growing trend of the use of images and memes as a form of political action, highlighting practices of political mockery or simple acts of laughter or propaganda. Equally notable is the need to use humour as an alternative to the fact that there is an apparent closure of civic space for acts of activism and political participation, given the existence of permanent impediment for people to express their political thoughts in electoral seasons. Thus, the Internet’s social networks emerge as an “escapism” to be considered.