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Chatora, A. (2012). Encouraging Political Participation in Africa: The Potential of Social Media Platforms. Institute for Security Studies. Retrieved March 22, 2012 from http://www.iss.co.za/uploads/15Mar2012SocialMedia.pdf This situation report is from the Institute for Security Studies (a pan-African applied policy research institute based in South Africa), and examines the role of social media in facilitating political participation. It uses as its catalyst the recent popular protests dubbed the 'Arab Spring' to explore the possibility of an 'African Spring' protest movement. The report includes case studies on several African countries highlighting difficulties faced by different countries utilising social media, which includes historical experiences, institutional arrangements and socioeconomic and political conditions. Of note are the actions taken in Cameroon where the government blocked the Twitter service for ten days during the Arab Spring protests for reasons of 'national security', and in Uganda when the 'walk-to-work' protests were successfully initiated by protest groups making use of social media such as Twitter, the government suspended the use of social networks causing 'walk-to-work' protests to lose their momentum. The report concludes that despite the severe challenges facing Africans in taking up social media, that ultimately "engaging with these platforms will allow citizens to circumvent the wide range of tactics used to stifle public opinion". I find this report to be a valuable resource as it explores the current environment, requirements, and limitations within Africa for movements to successfully incorporate social media such as Twitter into their political protests.

This article discusses the potential for political protests in African nations, in light of the recent activism in Arab countries. I found this article beneficial, as it clearly highlights the profound difficulties that are faced in some African nations, and discusses elements that are not covered in other articles related to the topic. An element of particular importance was the consideration of historical context when investigating the potential for political activism, both online and offline. The widespread poverty and clear digital divide between some people in Africa, is of significance as many choose to engage in activities of survival, rather than that of political action (Chatora, 2012, p.4). Computer literacy skills and the willingness of people to disobey controlling governments must also be considered, as people in Angola have shown no signs of retreating from political discussion and the organization of protests online, compared to people in Cameroon and Zimbabwe who are facing various difficulties against repressive regimes (Chatora, 2012, p.9-10). The importance of historical context clearly resonates with the article I discussed - "Protest 2.0: Online Interactions and Aboriginal Activists." The Aboriginal activists were uncomfortable with using new technology, due to a lack of computer literacy, as well as, the evident interference it made with the historical context of communication in their culture, as visual storytelling is favoured over the written word used online (Petray, 2011, p.927). This article adds value to the discussion of political activism as it is of great relevance to the topic and appears to be a reliable source of information. Whilst it does comment on various elements not covered in other articles, it also highlights an area of significance regarding the uptake of social media in African nations - clearly implying that there will be future developments in this area of research. Reference: Petray, T.L. (20