Globalisation and youth in 4 WIDE Ethiopia sites:

Communication media, leisure and cultural practices

Alula Pankhurst

Presentation to 20th ICES

Mekele

Outline

– Globalisation & communication media • TV and Satellite TV • Radio and mobile phones • Internet and social media

– Globalisation, music and leisure • Music • Leisure activities

– Globalisation and cultural practices • Clothing, hairstyles, jewelry and fashion • Food and diet • Drink, smoking, chat, and shisha

– Conclusions

Yetmen: East Gojjam

Aze Debo'a: Kembata

Sirba: East Shewa

Harresaw: East Tigray

SNNP Oromia Amhara Tigray

TV and Satellite TV: nationwide and local rapid recent change

• 2008 only 1 private provider: EBS from US, – Silver Springs, Maryland Amharic (16% of market)

• 2016 4 new; all from Nile Sat Egyptian. In our sites – Kana TV, (Dubai)

• Indian and Turkish soaps dubbed in Amharic (34% of market)

– JTV, (US Phoenix Arizona)

• (Yosef Gebre alias Yossi formerly at EBS (10% of market)

• Spiritual channels (25 listed in Wikipedia) – Presence TV (Aze Debo)

Electric transformation and TV and Satellite TV

• Electricity brought the world visually into the communities with rapid increase over the past 4 years

• In the centre of all 4 communities by WIDE3 (2010-13); earlier in Sirba from 2005.

• All sites some rural “extension” of lines from urban central parts.

• TVs in Cafes and bars, very few private TV and even less satellites at time of WIDE3

TV and Satellite TV: Location, wealth and gender differences

• Urban/rural divide – Rural radio vs urban TV + satellite in bars, cafes.

• Wealth – Very rich households satellite TV dishes,

– Arab-sat, Nile Sat. Still very few in all sites.

• Gender – Young men able to watch in bars and cafes,

and go to town to watch football (Sirba, Aze Debo)

– Some Young women go to neighbours’ or relatives’ houses at weekends and holidays (Harresaw)

What is accessible and who watches what?

• Local/ National – Ethiopian national EBC and regional by site

• Satellite international – EBS and JTV (all 4 sites) – Kana (3 sites, in Harresaw women migrants in towns); – Eritrean TV in Harresaw

• Sports channels: young men, football – DSTV Champions and Premier League

• Sirba and Aze Debo, Yetmen on local TV

– Wrestling in Harresaw (2012).

•

• Religious (Protestant Spiritual) – 2 sites Aze Debo and Sirba.

• Presence TV, Prophet Eyu Chufa

Preferences: youth entertainment young women dramas, young men sports

• TV mainly youth for entertainment:

– music videos; drama, comedy shows.

• Urban youth dramas, rural and elderly more news (Yetmen)

• Young men sport football, wrestling (Harresaw)

• Young women prefer Kana and EBS dramas (Yetmen, Sirba)

• Youth not interested in government and political programmes.

• During period of political instability more watching of news (Yetmen and Harresaw)

• Some youth prefer spiritual channels (Aze Debo)

Kana and spiritual TV controversies

• Some men concern Kana distracting students, affecting

women’s domestic work, and children’s behaviour. – Sirba “children watching, people complaining”; “dangerous

habit for children” “creating dependency”,

– “entering sexual relations earlier” “young men seducing girls > unplanned pregnancies (HEW 6 girls 4-9 grade).

• Some young women in Yetmen disagreed, – watch selectively, no other entertainment, no ‘abnormal

behaviour’.

• Spiritual. Church leaders and elderly (False prophets bring down fire from sky, Aze Debo).

Radio: mobile FM transformation

• Rural elderly • Among Young – FM Radio on mobile music and entertainment, Switch between channels to listen to music • Urban/rural divide.

– Rural radio/urban TV (Yetmen). TV preferred as “visual” (Sirba) – In town no longer use radios, in rural still rely on them for news. Poorer as

well as rural in Sirba radio. Some at school (Sirba).

• Gender divide: – More young men than women as fewer have mobiles

• Generation: – Older generation VoA and Deutsche Welle (Harresaw and Yetmen – during

uprising everyone about politics but jammed).

• Regional and national. – Aze Debo Debub FM, and Kambata programme from Durame. – Harresaw: Young women listen to ‘modern’ music and also non Tigrayan and

news. Information on health and child feeding, farming…

Mobile phones access widespread: Wealth, gender, education, migration and

smartphones

• Mobile phone access now widespread. – One per household, some poor still have none (Harresaw).

• Gender: more young men than young women

– Few women wealthy households have their own (Sirba)

• Education

More educated sent texts & internet til banned (Aze Debo)

• Smartphones and touch screens status symbol

– Returnees from Arab countries all have (Harresaw) – Richer and some youth Samsung and Techno (Aze Debo) – Diaspora from South Africa send to sibling (Aze Debo)

Mobile phones usage: communications, information, livelihoods, entertainment

Communication: “Make life easier and faster” • Contact relatives (notably emergencies, funerals) • Migrants, remittances, help (brokers and traffickers ransoms,

Information • Better informed about national and international news • Educational materials online (for school children)

Livelihoods • Business, trade, information on jobs, markets

Entertainment (very important for Youth) • listen to FM, music and videos. School children share music and videos. • Young men to flirt with girls (Yetmen).

Internet and social media: Youth elites, migrants and recent uprisings

• Very much dependent on education

– young men and some migrant women

– high school students (Yetmen),

– Google & opera - clever students references -not common (Aze Debo)

– Sometimes going to town to use (Yetmen).

• Mainly Facebook among youth

• Messaging: Viber, Skype, Imo, Instagram, Whatsapp.

– pictures of prospective brides to South Africa (Aze Debo)

• Especially during uprising (Yetmen)

– When blocked went to town internet cafes (Aze Debo)

Social media and facebook concerns

• Churches trying to prevent young people from spending too much time on social media (Aze Debo)

• “Unnecessary social media like facebook” (Sirba, rich farmer)

• Facebook “evil, devil”. (Medium wealth woman, Sirba).

– Unease about posts by Jawar Mohammed, “does not feel good when youth talk about his posts”.

– “Social media prevent youth from raising questions to government directly and clearly”

– Expressed relief when service blocked

Entertainment: Music and videos, regional, urban and national interests

• Music from FM radio to mobile phones; video clips on memory sticks, downloaded and shared on mobiles.

• More access young men than women and better off.

“Young men addicted to music” (Yetmen)

• National and/or regional music. Not much interest in foreign music.

• Site differences (Sirba Oromo singers)

• Linking with and emulating urban areas. “Can entertain themselves like young people in towns and cities”.

Youth Leisure activities: Gendered and limited opportunities

• Highly gendered, with more freedom and options for young men • But evidence of interactions in school, churches and the community

• Young men – billiards, table football, (Yetmen concern too many, gambling). – Sport: Football and volleyball students (Yetmen, Aze Debo - for money), – Drinking tea/coffee in bars, tella and bottled beer in bars and some smoking

• Young women – do not go to bars, sit with friends; join coffee ceremonies, mehabers

(Harresaw), – meet friends, relatives, go to church (Yetmen), – Parental restrictions on girls going out, seeing TV, some harassment (Sirba)

• Limited facilities for young people, especially young women – especially out of and after school > concern, gambling and drinking, – Aze Debo summer football for boys, kebele youth officers training, and girls

and NGO World Vision sport outfits but not distributed.

Clothing: global urban youth culture and local cultural/religious ‘revival’

• Clothing styles mediated by urban ways, migrants and availability (less TV etc)

• Western/urban clothing becoming common, wedding tights suits (Aze Debo)

• But also traditional ‘revival’.

– Yetmen: Orthodox young men, cotton shawls with biblical sayings

– Sirba: Oromo cultural clothes, revival or reinvention.

– Harresaw: women wedding, fusion traditional + modern styles.

Clothing: differentials and gender

• Wealth and migration; migrants dress better, new styles and more ostentatiously.

• Young men: tight skinny (Chinese) jeans, faded, ripped, (Yetmen) without belt sagging style, imitating TV actors, (Harresaw), T-shirts, pyjamas (Sirba); influence of urban styles, migrants and from videos (Aze Debo).

• but also cultural (Yetmen cotton shawls +biblical sayings, Sirba, revival Oromo costumes),

• Young women: short skirts and trousers, scarves, underwear, influence of migrants,

– reaction from older generation in Harresaw and Sirba.

– In Harresaw only wear in town. Traditional costumes with more expensive materials, notably for weddings (Harresaw).

Hairstyles and jewellery; Urban and foreign influences, migrants and footballers

• Hairdressers for women and for men in urban parts – Harresaw many men’s barbers

• Young women:

– Traditional braiding but increasingly foreign influences: – straightening “shiny” or curling “freeze”, wigs, artificial hair & colouring, – hair dressers in the villages especially for weddings. – Migrants expensive jewellery

• Young men:

– copy urban styles and from TV (Yetmen) – Recent Football stars styles (Nani, Balatoni, Messi – Yetmen, Aze Debo). – Strong opposition to young men who colour their hair red and brown and

twist it , ring in ear (Harresaw).

•

Food and diet: More variety and processed and imported food

• More vegetables,

– potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, (Yetmen).

• More Injera and wheat bread,

– Less barley porridge (Harresaw).

• More processed and imported food

– Pasta (macaroni), rice, (Harresaw)

• Many shops with imported food

Drinking: Rise in bottled alcohol and perceived risks

• Increase in soft drink and especially beer.

• Drinking seen as linked to unemployment frustration failure in education and migration – Please ask Hailemariam to pay for our drink

as he is responsible for our unemployment (Harresaw)

• Potential adverse consequences: – disturb community by night (Harresaw)

– Influence teenagers to drink

– Young women with young men who drink and smoke and watch videos on mobile want to engage in sexual behaviour (Aze Debo).

Smoking, chat and shisha: ‘deviant’

behaviour seen as linked to unemployment

• Seen as behaviour of youth who are ‘deviants” – Duriye “louts”; Fedala “day labourers”, youth “out of control” – Increase shisha water pipe, costly, bad for health (Sirba) – Previously in hiding or in town; church and family disapproval (Aze

Debo), some in tea/drink houses, woods, areqe houses at night

• Seen as related to unemployment, landlessness, loss of hope;

some blame government for unemployment.

• Consequence of sitting idle and drinking and smoking perceived as leading to gambling, cheating, thieving

Conclusions (1): technology as a midwife of rapid globalization?

• Technological changes rapidly and recently brought rural sites into the 21st Century gobalisated world,

– electricity, TV and satellite TV, mobile phones and social media

• Influences on consumption patterns,

– including food and drink, clothing fashions and hairstyles,

– some countervailing cultural and religious influences.

• Influences mediated by urbanisation, migration and market forces

• Blurred differences between rural areas and towns,

– entertainment, music etc with regional and national dimensions.

Conclusions (2): differential impacts – location and gender

• Within sites Urban/rural: Urbanised parts accessing TV, rural areas radio, mobile access may be reducing differences.

• Between sites: differences in global/urban influences.

– Sirba>Yetmen> Aze Debo > Harresaw

• gender:

• young men more access to mobiles TV, Satellite TV in public spaces and in towns;

• Restrictions on young women; differences in what they watch (drama v. sport)

Conclusions (3): differential access, inequalities and generational divide

• Wealth: smart phones symbol;better status of migrants

• Education: texting, access to internet, social media.

• Generational what young people and old people listen to and watch (technology for leisure, entertainment music)

• Tensions between the generations

– clothing and hairstyles, consumptions habits, social media, especially where more present