Digital Media, Conflict and Diasporas in the Horn of Africa

Th e Horn of Africa is one of the least connected regions in the world. Nevertheless, digital media play an
important social and political role in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia (including South-Central Somalia and
the northern self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland). Th is paper shows how the development of
the internet, mobile phones and other new communication technologies have been shaped by confl ict and
power struggles in these countries.
It addresses some of the puzzles that characterize the media in the region: for example, how similar rates of
penetration of media such as the internet and mobile phones have emerged in Somalia, a state which has not
had a functioning government for two decades, and in Ethiopia, one of the countries with the most pervasive
and centralized political apparatus in Africa.
Th e paper also gives particular attention to the role played by diasporas, which have been highly infl uential in
starting the fi rst websites, blogs and forums covering the politics of the Horn and facilitating debates among
Eritreans, Ethiopians and Somalis living at home or abroad.
Th e paper concludes by discussing the often-innovative, but little acknowledged, ways in which digital media
have blended with their predecessors to fashion unique hybrid media and communications systems.