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They go out to protest and the images of the manifestations in social networks are especially aesthetic. The red garments of the participants turn the streets into tides of the color of passion and determination. The soundtrack of that answer is a shout: "Amoulanfé, amoulanfé!" In the Soussou language, it refers to the idea of "this will not work" or "this will not prosper". That is the message that broad sectors of the civil society of Guinea Conakry want to send to the current president, Alpha Condé, who has proposed a change in the Constitution that would eliminate the limitation of mandates that was established as a mechanism to guarantee the alternations and the spare parts in power and would open the door to a third legislature.
Amoulanfé is the currency of this protest movement that is presented as a democracy defense movement. And Amoulanfé is also the key word of the campaign that amplifies, accompanies and completes that civil society response process. Since April 2019, the FNDC (National Defense Front of the Constitution) maintains a pulse with the Condé government.
After different probe balloons, Condé ended up hastily calling for a referendum on the reform of the Constitution for this March 1, taking advantage of the celebration of an already already injured legislative elections. A reform that will abolish the limitation of mandates. The FNDC is a platform that brings together opposition parties and, above all, civic organizations and social actors, committed in recent years to the governance and improvement of the Guinean democratic system. The opposition movement to the third term of Alpha Condé presents another novelty: they have immersed themselves with determination in the digital space. Social networks, websites, digital newspapers and even messaging applications are spaces in which this citizen battle is being fought.
"In the previous crises, since 2007, digital tools have been used," explains Fodé Sanikayi Kouyaté, founder and former president of Ablogui, the country's bloggers association, and one of the pioneers of Guinean cyberactivism. "But it was a very limited use of the diaspora," he continues, "the particularity on this occasion is linked to the democratization of Internet access and the increasing use of social networks." Thus, this expert, one of the most recognized in the country, highlights "a kind of war of images" between the FNDC and the party of power during the demonstrations. "Both use drones," said Kouyaté, "to demonstrate the extent of their mobilizations. This image war is being won by the FNDC because they have shown more capacity for mobilization. These digital communication battles had no precedents in the country. "
March @FNDC_Gn
Acte 7.
Minière # Amoulanfé # 2020UnAutre. pic.twitter.com/ScOkIDLy81
The data explain the interest in this digital environment. The number of Internet users has tripled in four years, since January 2016, and has increased from 770,000 Internet users to 2.55 million, which means that 20% of the population has access to the Network. “For us it is a fundamental instrument of mobilization because it allows us to reach the heart of youth ”, acknowledges Abdoulaye Oumou Sow, FNDC communication manager. "The digital environment is our main means of communication, dissemination and awareness, but also of interaction with citizens, we understand their concerns and share our strategies," he says. The FNDC has deployed profiles on the main social networks, a web, but also an Internet radio and even a webTV.
This FNDC communication manager also notes that the implementation of mobile telephony gives access to remote areas: “There are people in the villages with whom we can communicate through audio messages and inform them of our plans in relation to this fight against the dictatorship. " The number of active SIM cards in Guinea has exceeded this year the number of inhabitants of the country.
In social networks, the hashtag # Amoulanfé collects most of the information about this answering process and has been punctually accompanied by other initiatives. # 2020UnAutre (in 2020, another), in reference to the legal end of the Alpha Condé mandate, has been another of the key labels in this campaign. And more recently, an ironic tone has spread through the #QuiconqueVote ('anyone who votes') campaign. This is a response to statements in which Alpha Condé encouraged his supporters to face “anyone” who tried to prevent the vote, referring to the call to the boycott of the FNDC. "This is not an election, it is a coup d'etat packaged within the packaging of an election so that it goes unnoticed, but we will not allow this masquerade," says Abdoulaye Oumou Sow.
"The resistance is increasingly organized through the Internet and Guinean civil society uses it to mobilize, oppose, propose and fight," says Sally Bilali Sow, an award-winning Guinean blogger and an active and popular member of the cyber-activist community of country. “The activities that take place in the streets are spread through the networks, because citizens have thus understood the message of the fight against the third mandate is amplified and reality is shown,” adds this blogger, who recalls that this movement often does not have access to conventional media.
Alpha Condé en campagne à Boffa: plusieurs militaires et sans aucun militant. # Amoulanfé # Gassata # Elazolga pic.twitter.com/lA2R7NMPPm
- Barry Minkael (@BMinkael) February 26, 2020This young reference of the Guinean blog also highlights that the digital strategy of the answering movement has favored a new cohesion. "20 years ago we could not know what was happening in Lola or Yomou (two locations in the southeastern regions farthest from Conakry), but today if there is a demonstration in Lola we know how it developed immediately," says Sally Bilali Sow. For him, this last mobilization demonstrates an important transformation process in the country: “We are facing an increasingly digital civil society, which allows us to release the word, observe, answer, denounce and also challenge”.
This assault of the networks is not a coincidence. Practically during the last decade and especially since the last presidential elections, a small group of cyber-activist enthusiasts have patiently built a community around the association of bloggers of Guinea, Ablogui, with whom they have been showing and demonstrating the usefulness of ICT for meet the objectives of civil society around governance.
In 2015, with little support, they deployed an unprecedented network of observers that allowed them to transmit and share electoral results in real time and monitor the transparency of the elections. From that moment, they have been deploying campaigns and actions from the control of electoral promises to the denunciation of the state of the roads, while they were building deeper ties with other citizen organizations and providing them with these digital tools. “The experience of Guinean civil society,” says Sally Bilali Sow, “and, above all, of Ablogui, shows another form of resistance. Sometimes people think it is enough to write the words scrambled, answered or revolution to occur, but it is not so. Today there are enough actors from the Guinean civil society with a long experience of actions in the digital environment, committed, determined and transparent actors ”.
Meanwhile, the FNDC, accumulates more than 130,000 followers on its Facebook account and 13,000 on its Twitter profile, and the # Amoulanfé label has become a channel in which ordinary citizens spread the news about the demonstrations in different points of the country, some acts of sabotage to prevent a vote that is considered trick from the beginning, as well as the movements of the police and the army and, above all, of the international community. "The world is being taught that the Guineans oppose a third mandate, because it hides the Machiavellian intentions of a clan that wants to eternalize in power, while the Guineans want a real alternation, for a real change in the country," says the young blogger.
The number of active SIM cards in Guinea has exceeded this year the number of inhabitants of the country
The tension has been growing as the referendum date approaches and the clash between the authorities willing to deploy all the electoral machinery and the sectors of civil society that have called to prevent what they consider a "masquerade" becomes more evident. . Security is increasingly gaining importance, although throughout the process there has been a severe repression of demonstrations, arrests and even fatalities.
Security is also one of the motivations of the digital strategy. "You cannot hold meetings at any time having insecurity, so coordination through digital tools allows you to continue mobilization," says Sally Bilali Sow. The reasons are repeated from the FNDC itself. “It is the only channel that keeps us safe from the arrests that are taking place. We can work remotely, through different channels and applications, ”confesses the FNDC communication manager, with a smile that shows how he measures his words so as not to give clues. “It's a matter of security,” says Abdoulaye Oumou Sow, “both for us and for our collaborators in the interior of the country. The digital channels allow a little avoidance of the monitoring of the information services of the State ”. This prominent member of the platform recognizes: "We know that they listen to our conversations over the phone, that's why we take other security measures in the digital environment."
All these experts and activists agree that the digital environment is a basic mobilization tool, but they warn that this mobilization is important because the changes are achieved in the streets. "The real struggle does not occur in the networks, it occurs in the field," says Abdoulaye Oumou Sow. And although the eyes remain on what happens next Sunday, March 1, another of the recurring messages on the networks is that resistance and the response to the third term of Alpha Condé will be a long road.
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