South African Journal of International Affairs
ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsaj20
From ‘traitors’ to ‘saviours’: A longitudinal analysis
of Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies’
practice of digital diaspora diplomacy
Ilan Manor & Geraldine Asiwome Adiku
To cite this article: Ilan Manor & Geraldine Asiwome Adiku (2021) From ‘traitors’ to ‘saviours’:
A longitudinal analysis of Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies’ practice of digital
diaspora diplomacy, South African Journal of International Affairs, 28:3, 403-427, DOI:
10.1080/10220461.2021.1948915
To link to this article:  https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2021.1948915
Published online: 21 Jul 2021.
Submit your article to this journal 
Article views: 152
View related articles 
View Crossmark data
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsaj20
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
2021, VOL. 28, NO. 3, 403–427
https://doi.org/10.1080/10220461.2021.1948915
From ‘traitors’ to ‘saviours’: A longitudinal analysis of
Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies’ practice of digital
diaspora diplomacy
Ilan Manor a and Geraldine Asiwome Adikub
aUniversity of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel; bUniversity of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Recent years have seen the emergence of relational approaches to Digital diplomacy; diaspora;
diplomacy that centre on diplomats’ use of social media to foster digital diaspora diplomacy;
relationships with foreign publics. Yet social media may also diaspora institutions;
prove useful in building relationships with diasporas, now viewed digitalisation
by some states as ‘saviours’ who may contribute to the economic
prosperity of origin countries. This article sought to examine how
Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies employ social media
when communicating with diasporas. The article proposes a
conceptual framework for digital diaspora diplomacy which
consists of relationship building, community strengthening and
relationship leveraging. An analysis of 830 Facebook posts,
published in 2016 and 2020, suggests that evaluated embassies
use social media to interact with Facebook followers, respond to
online criticism, publicise offline events and publish information
that is of interest to diasporas. Thus, African embassies may be
able to leverage diasporic ties towards the improvement of their
nation’s socio-economic status.
Introduction
The past decade has seen the emergence of relational approaches to diplomacy which
focus on diplomats’ use of social media to foster and leverage relationships with
foreign publics. However, few studies to date have evaluated whether social media is
used to foster and leverage relationships with diasporas. This article sought to address
this gap by examining Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies’ use of social media
to engage with distant diasporas, strengthen ties with diasporic communities and
enhance the emotional bond between diasporas and their origin country. The article
focuses on the aforementioned countries which, as will be demonstrated below, have
reconceptualised their relationship with individuals within diasporas – no longer are
these viewed as ‘traitors’ who abandoned their origin country, but as ‘saviours’ who
may contribute to the country’s financial prosperity. Moreover, all three countries have
a large and geographically dispersed diaspora. Social media may thus prove an important
tool for these countries through which they can virtually extend their boundaries so that
these encompass diasporas. The article begins with a literature review that examines the
CONTACT Ilan Manor manor.ilan@gmail.com
© 2021 The South African Institute of International Affairs
404 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
emergence of relational approaches to diplomacy following the mass adoption of social
media by diplomatic institutions. Next, the literature review assesses the reconceptualisa-
tion of diasporas among certain African countries as well as the financial motivation which
underpins these countries’ attempts to strengthen ties with diasporic communities. The
article then introduces a novel theoretical framework for assessing the practice of
digital diaspora diplomacy which consists of online relationship building, online and
offline community building and, finally, relationship leveraging. Finally, the article pre-
sents an analysis of more than 800 posts published by nine African embassies.
Literature review
Recent years have seen the mass adoption of social media by embassies and ministries of
foreign affairs (MFAs) in a practice generally referred to as digital diplomacy.1 Through
social media, embassies can narrate their nation’s foreign policy, manage the national
image, and offer citizens consular aid.2 Markedly, the utilisation of social media by
MFAs is a truly global phenomenon. Arab MFAs including those in Egypt, Qatar and
Jordan all operate Twitter accounts, while African nations such as Botswana, Ethiopia,
Kenya and Nigeria operate multiple social media profiles.3 The use of social media by
MFAs has often been conceptualised as synonymous with diplomats’ newfound ability
to create relationships with online publics, as is presented next.
The dialogic nature of social media
Within the realm of diplomacy, social media sites can be employed to converse with
online publics thereby facilitating the creation of relationships between diplomats and
social media users.4 This is due to the dialogic nature of social media that enables two-
way interactions between diplomats and online publics.5 The incorporation of social
media into the conduct of diplomacy has led to the emergence of ‘relational’ approaches
to diplomacy as diplomats no longer seek only to influence online publics, but to con-
verse with them.6
Despite the emergence of relational approaches to diplomacy, several studies have
found that diplomatic institutions often fail to interact with online publics.7 Kampf,
Manor and Segev, found that foreign ministries rarely converse with online publics
owing to limited resources.8 Others have argued that MFAs struggle to adopt new com-
munication practices such as two-way interactions due to a change-resistant institutional
mentality while Manor and Pamment assert that diplomats still favour influence over
relationship building.9
To date, only a few studies have investigated the use of social media for digital dia-
spora outreach. Such studies are evaluated next.
Digital diaspora diplomacy
Conceptualisations of diasporas have broadened from an existential longing for home
and feelings of alienation from one’s destination country to a term of self-identification
among many varied groups who have migrated.10 Borrowing from Sheffer, this article
defines diaspora as ‘ethnic minority groups of migrant origins residing and acting in
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 405
host countries but maintaining strong sentimental and material links with their origin
countries – their homelands’.11 Rana has argued that the practice of diaspora diplomacy
is a novel phenomenon as it was only during the 20th century that nations came to regard
diasporas as diplomatic assets. She defines diaspora diplomacy as engaging a country’s
overseas community to contribute to building relationships with foreign countries. It
was the steady growth and global dispersal of diasporic communities that led nations
to formulate diaspora policies. China, India, Mexico and Israel are examples of nations
that now practice diaspora diplomacy in terms of mobilising diasporas in support of
national policies and encouraging diasporas to trade with their origin country.12
Digital platforms such as Twitter and Facebook offer several advantages to the practice
of diaspora diplomacy, ranging from reducing the cost of communication to helping dia-
sporas retain an emotional link to their origin country. As Rana writes, ‘without that
memory or connection, migration simply becomes one more footnote in the movement
of people that has occurred throughout history’.13 Digital platforms can also extend the
borders of the state so that these come to include the diaspora. In her examination of the
Eritrean diaspora’s use of web forums, Bernal found that these were used to mobilise dia-
sporas into action and discuss government policies. Thus, web forums had a re-territoria-
lising effect and diasporas became a virtual extension of Eritrea.14
Although digital diplomacy is a global phenomenon, scholars have rarely explored the
use of social media by African embassies to foster relationships with their diasporas. This
article contends that this is an important gap given the new relationship between several
African states and their diasporas, a relationship reviewed in the following section.
African diasporas: From ‘traitors’ to ‘saviours’
The worsening economic and political conditions that many African countries encoun-
tered after the independence period of the 1960s led to the sustained exodus of skilled
and unskilled migrants. In response to outward migration, various African governments
formulated policies that made it more difficult for their citizens to migrate.15 Despite
these policies, the search for better standards of living has continued to drive migration;
the estimated total stock of migration from Africa to the rest of the world increased from
1,8 million in 1960 to 5,4 million in 1980, and to 8,7 million in 2000.16
Yet from the last decade of the 20th century, financial institutions such as the Inter-
national Monetary Fund and the World Bank began to tout the benefits of migration
for developing countries, in general, and African countries, in particular. As a 2016
World Bank report shows, these institutions argued that migrants could contribute to
the development of their origin countries not only through skills, knowledge and exper-
tise but also through financial remittances.17 Remittances in this case are a proportion of
migrants’ earnings, sent from the destination country to the place of origin.18 Migrants’
remittances were conceived as a potential source of new investment for countries strug-
gling to boost their economies.19 Remittances to sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries
have risen sharply from less than $4 billion in 2000 to $19 billion in 2010. Remittances
are considered to be crucial to the growth of certain African economies as they constitute
an estimated 1.6% of Kenya’s GDP, 0.6% of Ethiopia’s GDP and an estimated 1.9% of
Rwanda’s GDP.20 Growing remittances and the prospective contributions of the diaspora
appear to have motivated African governments to change their negative posture towards
406 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
their diaspora and begin to formulate policies that will enable them to benefit from their
respective diaspora’s potential wealth.
Currently, African governments such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda appear keen to
leverage diasporas’ potential contribution to their countries’ socio-economic develop-
ment; years of migration policies have seen a (re)-consideration of diasporas from ‘trai-
tors’, who abandoned their nations during worsening political and economic
circumstances, to ‘saviours’who contribute to the state’s efforts for socio-economic devel-
opment and poverty alleviation.21 Moreover, countries such as Ethiopia have come to
believe that diasporas may help shape bilateral ties between origin and destination
countries, especially in the realms of trade.22
When African governments engage with diasporas
The new stance of certain African governments towards their diasporas has led to the
development of diaspora policies that encourage diaspora participation in the political,
economic and social life of their origin country. For example, the Kenyan and Ethiopian
governments in 2014 and 2013, respectively, developed national diaspora policies with
the sole aim of acknowledging the diaspora as a key player in their development
agenda. These policies were developed to facilitate mutually beneficial relationships
between the diaspora and the origin country. The Kenyan Diaspora Policy, for instance,
proposed a number of measures including ‘curbing the high cost of remittances, improv-
ing consular services, using Kenyans abroad to promote tourism and tapping diaspora
talents to reverse the current brain drain’.23
The emergence of social media has made it easier for diasporas tomaintain transnational
connections with their countries of origin.24 At the micro level, social media facilitate easier
and more frequent contact with family members and friends. Technological improvements
alsomake it easier to send remittances to origin countries.25 At themacro level, social media
may enable African governments to interact directly with diasporas, be it in an attempt to
‘tap into’ the diaspora or ‘embrace’ it, a distinction presented in the following section.
Diaspora institutions: ‘Tapping into’ or ‘embracing’ transnational citizens
This article borrows Gamlen’s concept of diaspora institutions to understand African embas-
sies’ engagement with diasporas. Diaspora institutions are defined as formal offices of state
dedicated to emigrants and their descendants.26 Embassies are diaspora institutions in the
sense that, among other responsibilities, they are now tasked with catering for the needs of
foreign nationals overseas and maintaining close ties with them. These institutions suppo-
sedly facilitate remittances, investments, philanthropic donations and tourism dollars from
and through diasporas.27 While diaspora institutions have existed since the 19th century,
they are currently on the rise. As Gamlen notes, in 2000, only 40 UN member states had
one or more diaspora institutions while by 2014 that number rose to 110.28 Notably, all
54 African countries maintain some form of diaspora institutions.
There are two commonexplanations for the emergence of diaspora institutions: a tapping
explanation which focuses on a state’s desire to ‘tap into’ the material resources of the dia-
sporas through engagement, and an embracing explanation which emphasises the state’s
efforts to re-incorporate ‘lost’ members of the nation state.29 According to Gamlen writing
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 407
in 2014, one of the prominent perspectives on diaspora institutions arises from the view of
diasporas as ‘saviours’.30 Diaspora institutions therefore emerged to assist origin countries
to ‘tap into’ theeconomic andhuman resourcesof their diasporas. For instance, diaspora insti-
tutions can cultivate professional and scientific networks to transfer new technologies and
ideas to origin countries thus alleviating possible effects of ‘brain drain’, including poverty.31
As mentioned above, only two studies to date have evaluated African MFAs’ use of social
media.32 Moreover, no study to date has examined how African embassies use social media
to engage with diasporas. Finally, scholars have yet to offer a comprehensive framework for
conceptualising and researching the practice of digital diaspora diplomacy. This article aims
to address these substantial gaps, evaluating the use of Facebook by Ethiopian, Kenyan and
Rwandan embassies and the extent to which they interact with their diasporas online.
Conceptualising digital diaspora diplomacy
This article aims to explore the manner in which Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embas-
sies utilise social media to practice diaspora diplomacy. The study conceptualises these
embassies as diaspora institutions, given that they belong to governments that intensely
court diasporas for development purposes. Despite the fact that digital diplomacy has
existed for more than a decade, scholars have yet to conceptualise the use of social
media in diaspora diplomacy. This article offers a novel conceptualisation of digital dia-
spora diplomacy as consisting of three elements: relationship building, community build-
ing and relationship leveraging.
By relationship building this article refers to the process by which diaspora institutions
can foster closer ties with diasporic communities. By community building it refers to the
efforts by diaspora institutions to foster an emotional bond between the diaspora and
their origin country as well as efforts to increase the cohesiveness of the diasporic com-
munity. By relationship leveraging the article refers to attempts by diaspora institutions to
mobilise the diasporic community and increase its involvement in the prosperity of the
origin country. Notably, the conceptual framework posits that leveraging relationships
with diasporic communities can best be achieved once relationships have been fostered
and communities have been strengthened online.
Building on the digital diplomacy research corpus the study postulates that relation-
ship building can be achieved through two-way interactions on social media in which
embassies engage with, and listen to, online diasporas. According to Taylor and Kent,
organisations can use social media to build online relationships through several pro-
cesses: a positive regard for publics’ input, experiences and needs; interaction with the
aim of relationship building rather than problem solving; seeking counsel with publics
on issues of shared concern; and a recognition by organisations and publics of their inter-
dependence and collaborative action for the good of the community and society.33
Drawing on the work of Rana, the article further postulates that community buildingmay
be achieved by publishing information that is of relevance to diasporas and that enables
them to retain an emotional bond with their origin country.34 Such information could
include political commentary on events shaping the origin country, national and cultural
achievements and celebrations of national or religious holidays. Additionally, community
building is achieved by using social media to involve diaspora members in offline commu-
nity events.
408 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
Lastly, relationship leveraging is achieved by encouraging diasporic communities to
aid their respective origin countries – be it by facilitating trade, increasing investments,
supporting government policies, or sharing embassy social media content. Relationship
leveraging can also take the shape of direct calls on diaspora members to aid their
origin country out of a sense of duty.
Research questions and hypotheses
Research Questions (RQ) and Hypotheses (H)
RQ 1: How do Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan diaspora institutions utilise social media to build relationships with
diasporic communities?
H1: Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies will utilise social media to engage with, and listen to, their
respective diasporas.
RQ2: How can Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan diaspora institutions utilise social media to strengthen diasporic
communities?
H2: Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies will use social media to meet the informational needs of
diasporic communities.
H3: Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies will use social media to strengthen ties within diasporic
communities.
RQ3: How do Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan diaspora institutions utilise social media to leverage relationships with
diasporic communities?
H4: Social media content targeted at diasporas would focus on financial issues and calls to action.
Given that the African nations evaluated in this article have come to regard diasporas
as ‘saviours’, rather than ‘traitors’, we assumed that their embassies would be engrossed in
the process of building online relationships with diasporic communities. As social media
relationships rest on two-way interactions, we also assumed that African embassies would
engage with, and listen to, their social media followers.
In order to utilise social media toward relationship building, diaspora institutions and
embassies must continuously attract relevant audiences to their social media profiles. We
therefore hypothesised that Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies would use social
media to publish information that is of relevance to diasporas ranging from political news
and commentary to cultural achievements. Moreover, we hypothesised that aforemen-
tioned embassies would publish information that could enable diasporas to maintain
an emotional link to their origin country including the celebration of national and reli-
gious holidays and a nation’s culture and collective identity.
Diasporic communities can flourish if diasporas remain involved in community events.
We therefore hypothesised that Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan embassies would
employ social media to strengthen the diasporic community, and meet the communal
needs of diaspora members, by publishing invitations to community events, promoting
community events on embassy social media profiles and inviting community members
to meetings with embassy officials.
The view of African diasporas as ‘saviours’, rather than ‘traitors’, is inherently linked to
aspirations for the economic development of certain African countries. Beyond sending
remittances, African diasporas can aid their origin countries by supporting government
projects and initiatives and encouraging other diaspora members to invest in their
origin country. Thus, we assumed that Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan social media
content, targeted at diasporas, would focus primarily on financial issues ranging from
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 409
investment opportunities to new means of transferring remittances. Additionally, we
hypothesised that social media content would include direct calls to action encouraging
diaspora members to contribute financially to their origin country.
Methodology: Analysing Facebook posts across nine embassies
The study sample initially included all Facebook posts published by nine embassies over a
three months’ period in 2016 – three Ethiopian embassies, three Kenyan embassies and
three Rwandan embassies. Our research focused onKenyan, Ethiopian and Rwandan embas-
sies as these are the SSA countries with the largest numbers of migrants tracked by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment (OECD) in its 2012 report entitled
‘Connecting with Immigrants: A Global Profile of diasporas’.35 According to the report Ethio-
pia and Kenya, for example, had an estimated 248,000 and 231,000 citizens, respectively, in
OECD countries alone. Additionally, the governments of all three countries have moved
many of their operations online and were actively practicing digital diplomacy.36 The Ethio-
pian embassies evaluated in this study were located in the US, the UK and Israel; the Kenyan
embassies were in Sweden, the US and the UK and the Rwandan embassies were in Canada,
Netherlands and theUK. Embassies were selected based on the size of the diasporic commu-
nities in each country as measured in the aforementioned 2012 OECD report.
While the majority of the embassies evaluated in this study operated both Facebook
profiles and Twitter accounts, the study sample consisted solely of Facebook posts.
This decision stemmed from the fact that Facebook is a medium for social interaction
and relationship building while Twitter is a medium for information sharing and
opinion formation.37 Moreover, studies have shown that nearly 80% of content shared
by MFAs on Facebook is also shared on Twitter.38 Thus, it was assumed that Facebook
posts would include similar information to that published on Twitter.
In 2020, the authors returned to their sample of embassies to examine if these had
altered their digital strategies since 2016. Indeed, digital diplomacy studies suggest
that digitalisation is a long-term process in which diplomats, embassies and MFAs find
new ways to leverage digital platforms towards diplomatic ends.39 It was thus assumed
that the evaluated embassies may have increased their rates of Facebook activity or
offered more opportunities for two-way interactions with diaspora members.
Procedure
The authors initially analysed all Facebook posts published by the nine embassies over a
three month period. The Ethiopian and Kenyan posts were published between January
and March of 2016 while Rwanda posts were published between November of 2016 and
January of 2017. The Facebook profiles of all nine embassies were visited on a daily basis
during these respective periods. During such visits, the URLs of all posts were recorded
and stored. This procedure ensured that the research sample included all posts published
during the sampling period and that the authors could return and analyse all posts once the
sampling period ended. Notably, all comments published by social media users on embassy
Facebook profiles were also analysed. A total of 542 Facebook posts were analysed.
In 2020, the authors analysed 36 Facebook posts published by the aforementioned embas-
sies, with the exception of the Rwandan Embassy in Canada which was found to be all but
410 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
inactive in 2016. It was decided to analyse 36 posts as this was the average number of montly
posts published by the embassies in 2016. Notably, the sampling period included posts pub-
lished prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which may have altered
the digital strategies of embassies and therefore precluded a comparison between embassies’
2016 and 2020 use of digital platforms. Given that African embassies are not uniform in their
rates of daily Facebook activity, in some instances all 36 posts were published during the
month of February 2020 while in other cases they were published between November
2019 and February 2020. In total, this study analysed 830 Facebook posts.
Measures
In order to test H1, this study evaluated African embassies’ compliance with four elements
identified by Taylor and Kent as contributing to engagement and listening.40 Each of the
four components was conceptualised and measured based on Manor’s recent analysis of
the US State Department’s engagement with its Facebook followers (see Appendix A1).41
In order to test H2-H4, the authors categorised all Facebook posts published during the
sampling period. This process was achieved by employing the methodology of thematic
analysis which is a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns, or themes,
within a research corpus. Notably, in thematic analysis the themes arise from within the
corpus itself. This article followed the roadmap for thematic analysis offered by Braun
and Clarke.42 During the first stage of analysis, one third of all posts comprising the research
corpus were reviewed jointly by the authors and categorised based on their subject matter.
This led to the formulation of subject matter categories into which the entire research
corpus would be categorised. For instance, a large number of Facebook posts dealt with
tourist attractions in the evaluated African countries. Therefore, a category named
‘Tourism’ was created. Similarly, Facebook posts dealing with religious or national holiday
celebrations led to the formulation of the ‘Holiday Celebration’ category.
In the second stage of analysis, 100 Facebook posts were reviewed yet again in order to
ensure the relevance of the identified categories. This led to the formulation of several sub
categories. For example, posts focusing on trade between two countries were categorised
as ‘Trade’ while posts dealing with international trade organisations were categorised as
‘Multilateral Trade’. In total, 20 subject categories were identified (see Appendix A2 for list
of categories and examples).
Once all categories had been created, the authors distinguished between categories that
were of specific relevance to diasporic communities, as opposed to categories that may be
of interest to social media users in general. Twelve categories were judged to be of specific
significance to diaspora members including academic opportunities for African scholars,
embassy consular services, holiday celebrations, national and cultural achievements, invest-
ment opportunities in origin countries and regional news. Eight categories were judged to
be of relevance to general online publics. These categories focused on branding Ethiopia,
Kenya and Rwanda as attractive tourist destinations; portraying these countries as digital
leaders; highlighting their national sports achievements; and discussing their trade relations
(see Appendix A2 for list of diaspora-related and non-diaspora-related categories).
All 830 posts were categorised by the authors. To assess the reliability of the categor-
isation process, both authors analysed a set of 69 Facebook posts. Inter-coder reliability
was assessed by Kappa and was found to be high with a value of 0.81.
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 411
Findings
Relationship building
In 2016, the research found that not one of the African embassies evaluated effectively
engaged diasporas on social media. Notably, engagement was defined as two-way inter-
actions between embassies and their followers, be it in the form of online conversations,
querying Facebook followers in order to gain their counsel, querying followers so as to
improve embassy services or providing opportunities for collaborative action with fol-
lowers. Moreover, the embassies evaluated in this article failed to interact with Facebook
followers as they did not respond to followers’ queries, supply followers with requested
information or respond to criticism raised by followers. Additionally, none of the embas-
sies interacted in any way with comments posted by followers on Facebook. The results
reviewed for that time period suggest that the evaluated embassies did not use Facebook
to build and leverage relationships with their followers, including members of the
diaspora.
However, in the analysis of posts from early 2020, the authors foundmuch higher levels
of engagement by these embassies. For instance, the Kenyan Embassy in the UK engaged
twice with its followers while the Kenyan Embassy in the US engaged with its followers 7
times. The authors also recorded one instance of engagement between the Ethiopian
Embassy in the UK and its followers.
All these instances of engagement included responses to queries published by fol-
lowers as well as responses to follower concerns. For instance, the Kenyan Embassy in
the US responded to a comment stating that small diasporic communities have yet to
be visited by consular officials and have yet to register for Kenyan ID cards. The
embassy also replied to diaspora queries on how to apply for passports for children,
how to check the status of one’s application for a Kenyan visa and how to apply for a
new passport. Similarly, the Kenyan Embassy in the UK responded to concerns by Face-
book users that their emails were being ignored while also providing the contact
details of the consular department. Finally, the Ethiopian Embassy in the UK responded
to a follower’s query following a book launch.
The results presented in this section demonstrate that over a four-year period, the
digital strategies of some African embassies did in fact alter as some were increasingly
willing to interact with followers, respond to queries and even address followers’ griev-
ances and complaints. As such, this study found evidence, by 2020, of two-way inter-
actions between African embassies and their followers, including diasporas. While most
interactions focused on consular issues, the embassies examined did not, however,
query followers in order to identify their needs, nor did embassies provide diasporas
with opportunities for shared creation of online content.
Given these results, H1 was partially validated (diaspora institutions will utilise social
media to engage with and listen to their respective diasporas).
Community building: Meeting the informational needs of diasporas
Table 1 includes an analysis of the daily Facebook activity of all nine embassies evaluated
in this article during 2016. As can be seen, there was a large degree of variance in the
scope of daily activity, with Kenyan embassies publishing on average between 0.1 and
412 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
Table 1. Daily Facebook activities of African embassies (2016).
N = number of Posts published Average Number of Posts
Country Embassies over three months published per day
Kenya Sweden 96 1
UK 12 0.1
US 13 0.1
Ethiopia US 186 2
UK 182 2
Israel 4 0
Rwanda* UK 6 0.1
Canada 0 0
Netherlands 43 0.5
Source: Authors’ research.
1 posts per day, Ethiopian embassies publishing between 0 and 2 posts per day and
Rwanda embassies publishing between 0 and 0.5 posts per day.
In early 2020, the authors found significantly higher levels of Facebook activity. For
instance, the Kenyan Embassy in the UK published twice as many posts as it did in
2016, while the Kenyan Embassy in the US published four times as many posts. Most note-
worthy is the Ethiopian Embassy in Israel, whose monthly average number of posts, pub-
lished over a three-month period, grew from 4 in 2016 to more than 33 in 2020. Similarly,
the Rwandan embassies to the UK and the Netherlands in early 2020 published four times
as many posts as they did in 2016. Ethiopia’s embassies to the UK and US maintained a
high number of monthly posts in this period, as did the Kenyan Embassy in Sweden.
These findings are important given that digital activity breeds followers. As digital diplo-
macy studies have shown, the more an embassy posts, the more it attracts followers, pre-
sumably including members of the diaspora.43
Moving the discussion to content analysis, Table 2 presents an analysis of the Facebook
content published in 2016 by the nine African embassies by subject matter categories.
As seen in Table 2, the most prevalent issues addressed in this period by the Kenyan
Embassy in Sweden were tourism (27%), bilateral relations (22.9%), infrastructure invest-
ment opportunities in Kenya (20.8%), economic growth (19.7%), content marketing Kenya
as a tourist destination (11.4%), encouragement to invest in Kenya in general (11.4%), East
African stability and prosperity (10.4%), regional news (9.3%) and Kenyan national
achievements (9.3%). Of these eight subject matter categories identified as most preva-
lent, six were classified in this study as being of special relevance to the Kenyan diaspora,
but none focused on information that would enable diasporas to retain an emotional
bond to Kenya – namely the Cultural Identity and Holiday Celebration categories.
Similar results were obtained for the Kenyan embassies to the US and the UK.
However, the Kenyan Embassy in the UK did focus on Kenyan national achievements,
which Rana argued engender emotional bonds to the origin country.44
As seen in column four of Table 2, the most prevalent issues addressed by the Ethio-
pian Embassy in the US fell into the categories of Trade (26.3%), Economic Growth
(24.19%), Bilateral ties (24.7%), Stability and Prosperity (23.1%), Regional News (20.4%),
Cultural Identity (19.8%), Investment Encouraging (18.8%) and National Achievements
(11.8%). Of these categories, seven were classified as being of specific relevance to dia-
sporas. These results suggest that the Ethiopian Embassy in the US was working to
both meet the informational needs of diasporas and enable them to retain an emotional
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 413
Table 2. Facebook content based on subject matter categories (2016).
Kenya in Sweden Kenya in UK Kenya in US Ethiopia in US Ethiopia in UK Ethiopia in Rwanda in Rwanda in Rwanda in UK
Issue (n = (96) (n = 12) (n = 13) (n = 186) (n = 182) Israel (n = 4) Netherlands (n = 43) Canada (n = 0) (n = 6)
Academia* 5.2% 0 7.7% 5.9% 0 50% 0 0 0
Bilateral* 23% 41.7% 46.2% 24.7% 8.8% 75% 25.6% 0 16.7%
Branding 11.4% 0 23.1% 6.9% 11.5% 0 2.3% 0 0
Consular Services* 0 0 0 0 0.5% 0 0 0 0
Cultural Identity* 0 0 0 19.9% 5.5% 0 4.7% 0 0
Digital News 8.3% 8.3% 0 1.6% 2.7% 25% 2.3% 0 0
Economic Growth* 19.8% 0 7.7% 24.2% 10.4% 0 6.9% 0 0
Embassy Services* 0 8.3% 30.8% 2.2% 3.8% 0 0 0 0
Holiday 0 0 0 4.3% 7.7% 0 4.7% 0 16.7%
Celebration*
Investment/ 20.8% 0 15.4% 8.1% 10.9% 0 2.3% 0 0
Infrastructure*
Investment 11.5% 0 23.1% 18.8% 12.6% 0 4.7% 0 0
Encouraging*
MFA Appointments 3.1% 0 0 1.6% 0 0 0 0 0
National 9.4% 16.7% 0 11.8% 15.4% 0 9.3% 0 16.7%
Achievements*
Regional News* 9.4% 0 0 20.4% 15.4% 25% 4.7% 0 0
Sports 5.2% 0 0 3.2% 3.8% 0 0 0 0
Diversification
Stability & 10.4% 0 0 23.1% 8.2% 0 4.7% 0 0
Prosperity*
Trade 1.0% 8.3% 30.8% 26.3% 4.9% 0 16.3% 0 16.7%
Trade/Multilateral 4.2% 0 7.7% 9.1% 1.6% 0 0 0 0
Tourism 27% 8.33% 30.8% 7.5% 7.7% 0 62.8% 0 50%
Youth Leadership 0 16.7% 0 0.5% 0 0 0 0 0
Source: Authors’ research.
Note: Categories marked with an asterisk are those that the authors classified as being of special relevance to diasporas.
414 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
link to Ethiopia by focusing on the cultural identity of diasporas and, to a lesser degree, on
holiday celebrations (4.3%). Similar results were obtained for the Ethiopian Embassy in the
UK. Given the low number of posts published by the Ethiopian Embassy in Israel, it was
excluded from the content analysis.
Finally, in a third example from the research, the most prevalent issues addressed by the
Rwandan Embassy in the Netherlands fell into the categories of Tourism (62.7%), Bilateral
ties (25.5%), Trade (16.2%), Economic Growth (6.9%), Cultural Identity (4.6%), Holiday Cele-
brations (4.6%) and Regional News (4.6%). Of these eight categories, six were classified as
being of interest to diasporas (see Table 2). These results suggest that the Rwandan
Embassy focused on issues that are of interest to the diaspora while also enabling them
to maintain an emotional bond to their origin country by dealing with the issues of Cultural
Identity and Holiday Celebrations. Given low levels of activity, the posts by the Rwandan
embassies to the UK and Canada were excluded from the content analysis.
Table 3 presents the findings of the content analysis of the embassies’ posts in 2020.
A comparison between the two tables reveals important findings. First, in 2020, across
most of the African embassies under study, the number of posts dealing with economic
growth, investment opportunities and trade declined sharply. In the cases of the Ethio-
pian and Kenyan embassies, not one post dealing with the issue of economic growth
appeared in 2020. In the case of the Ethiopian Embassy in the UK, the percentage of
posts dealing with investments in Africa dropped from 10% in 2016 to 0% in 2020. Parallel
patterns were found in the posts by the Kenya’s embassies in Sweden and the US, as well
as those by the Rwandan Embassy in the Netherlands.
While trade-related posts accounted for 30% of the posts published by the Kenyan
Embassy in the US in 2016, they accounted for only 2.7% of posts in 2020. Similarly,
while trade issues accounted for 26% of posts published by the Ethiopian Embassy in
the US in 2016, they accounted for only 5.5% of posts published in 2020.
A second important trend was an increase in posts in the categories of Holiday Cele-
brations, Cultural Identity and National Achievements across all embassies. For
example, in 2020, posts focused on the category of Holiday Celebrations accounted for
22.2% of posts published by the Kenyan Embassy in the US, and 16.6% of posts published
by the Kenyan Embassy in Sweden, as opposed to 0% in 2016. Similar findings were found
in Ethiopia’s Embassy in Israel and the Rwandan Embassy in the UK. Moreover, in 6 of the 8
embassies there was a sharp increase in Cultural Identity posts.
These results are significant as posts about Holiday Celebrations, and communications
allowing diasporas to express their Cultural Identity, have been shown to strengthen the
emotional bond between diasporas and their origin countries. 45
In summary, a comparison between 2016 and 2020 finds that African embassies paid
less attention to financial issues or to soliciting financial aid from diasporas, while focusing
more on cultural issues, holiday celebrations and allowing diasporas to express their
unique identity as citizens of both their origin country and their adopted country.
Table 4 presents an analysis of the percentage of posts published by African embassies
that may be of relevance to diasporas in both 2016 and 2020. As can be seen, in both time
periods the majority of posts published by the African embassies were of relevance to dia-
spora members, with the exception of those by the Rwandan Embassy in the Netherlands.
However, the comparison between 2016 and 2020 indicates that the percentage of
posts that were of relevance to diasporas declined in five of the eight embassies (as
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 415
Table 3. Facebook Content Based on Subject Matter Categories (2020).
Kenya in Kenya Kenya Ethiopia Ethiopia Ethiopia Rwanda in Rwanda
Issue Sweden in UK in US in US in UK in Israel Netherlands in UK
Academia 0 16.7% 0 2.7% 2.7% 2.7% 0 0
Bilateral 2.7% 19.% 27.7% 22.2% 8.3% 36.1% 2.7% 5.5%
Branding 0 2.7% 0 0 0 5.5% 25% 22.2%
Consular 0 0 2.7% 0 0 2.7% 0 0
Services
Cultural Identity 5.5% 22.2% 5.5% 2.7% 19.4% 11.1% 0 8.3%
Digital News 8.3% 8.3% 8.3% 0 16.6% 0 2.7% 2.7%
Economic 2.7% 0 0 0 0 0 11.1% 2.7%
Growth
Embassy 0 5.5% 11.1% 2.7% 2.7% 0 0 2.7%
Services
Holiday 16.6% 0 22.% 5.5% 2.7% 0 5.5% 16.6%
Celebration
Investment/ 5.5% 2.7% 0 16.6% 0 2.7% 0 0
Infrastructure
Investment 11.1% 8.3% 2.7% 0 2.7% 0 0 0
Encouraging
MFA 5.5% 0 0 2.7% 0 0 0 0
Appointments
National 13.8% 2.7% 5.5% 8.3% 11.1% 2.7% 0 8.3%
Achievements
Regional News 0 0 0 0 0 11.1% 5.5% 0
Sports 5.5% 0 0 2.7% 0 0 5.5% 5.5%
Diversification
Stability & 0 0 0 19.4% 0 16.6% 8.3% 8.3%
Prosperity
Trade 0 0 2.7% 5.5% 0 0 0 2.7%
Trade/Multi- 0 0 2.7% 2.7% 16.6% 0 0 0
Lateral
Tourism 11.1% 0 2.7% 0 11.1% 5.5% 30.5% 8.3%
Youth 0 5.5% 2.7% 0 2.7% 0 0 2.7%
Leadership
Source: Authors’ research.
noted earlier Rwandan embassies were excluded due to low levels of activity). The authors
contend that this decline does not indicate that embassies shifted their attention from
diasporas. Rather, these results are indicative of two developments. First, in 2020,
African embassies dealt with a greater diversity of issues than in 2016. This was especially
noticeable in the Rwandan Embassy in the UK, which in 2016 dealt solely with Branding,
Holiday Celebrations, National Achievements, Trade and Tourism. Yet in 2020, the
embassy posts fell into the categories of Bilateral Ties, Cultural Identity, Digital News,
Economic Growth and Sports Diversification.
Table 4. Posts that are of relevance to African diasporas in 2016 and 2020.
Posts that of relevance Posts that of relevance
Country Embassies to Diasporas in 2016 to Diasporas in 2020
Kenya Sweden 75% 61%
UK 66.7% 63.8%
US 61.5% 77.7%
Ethiopia US 83.2% 80.5%
UK 83% 50%
Israel 100% 86.1%
Rwanda Netherlands 41.8% 33.3%
Source: Authors’ research.
416 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
Second, some embassies placed an emphasis on branding their nations as tourist desti-
nations. For instance, in 2020 Tourism accounted for 30.5% of posts published by the
Rwandan Embassy in the Netherlands. Similarly, Branding accounted for more than 20%
of all posts published by Rwanda’s Embassy in the UK. According to the theoretical
model used in this study, these posts would not be of particular relevance to diasporas.
The results reviewed in this section demonstrate that, when the African embassies
evaluated in this study were active on social media, the majority of those embassies uti-
lised Facebook to publish information that is of relevance and interest to diasporas – poss-
ibly enabling those diasporas to maintain an emotional bond with their origin country.
This was, however, not the case with Rwandan embassies. Thus, H2 was partially validated
(H2: Diaspora institutions will use social media to meet the informational needs of diaspo-
ric communities).
Strengthening ties with diasporic communities
Table 5 details the number of Facebook posts dealing with offline diasporic community
events in 2016 and 2020.
Notably, in 2016 only three embassies published posts that included information about
community events, invitations to community events or invitations to meet embassy
officials. For istance, the Kenyan Embassy in the US published three posts dealing with
community events – an invitation to attend a rugby match where diasporas could com-
plete their ID registration, and two posts consisting of pictures from diasporic community
events. The Ethiopian Embassy in the US published 11 posts dealing with diasporic com-
munity events. These included a weekly newsletter highlighting offline diasporic events
and a series of four posts consisting of videos and pictures from events organised by dia-
sporic communities throughout the US (eg, Washington DC, Denver, Florida). Similarly,
the Ethiopian Embassy in the UK published six posts dealing with diasporic community
events.
By contrast, all embassies evaluated in this study published posts dealing with diaspora
community events in 2020. Kenya’s embassies invited diasporas to partake in offline
holiday celebrations, youth leadership conferences and trade fairs. Ethiopia’s embassies
published summaries of offline events including archaeological conferences, book
launches and religious festivals attended by tens of thousands of diaspora members.
Rwandan embassies invited Facebook followers to offline national celebrations of
heroes, celebrations of international women’s day, and Rwanda Day celebrations.
Table 5. Facebook posts dealing with diasporic community events.
Country Embassies Posts Dealing with Community Events 2016 Posts Dealing with Community Events 2020
Kenya Sweden 0 2
UK 0 11
US 3 7
Ethiopia US 11 4
UK 7 7
Israel 0 3
Rwanda Netherlands 0 1
Rwanda UK 0 8
Source: Authors’ research.
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 417
The results presented in this section suggest that the majority of African embassies
under study used Facebook to strengthen ties within the diasporic community as they
published posts dealing with offline community events; posts promoting future events
or invitations to meet embassy staffers. However, this was especially true in 2020; in
2016 the number of such invitations was limited. Markedly, embassy posts often depicted
the cohesiveness of the local diaspora as events promoted online were attended by thou-
sands of diaspora members. Given these results, H3 was validated (H3: diaspora insti-
tutions will use social media to strengthen ties within diasporic communities).
Relationship leveraging
Given the variance in African embassies’ scope of daily Facebook activity, the authors eval-
uated the prevalence of diaspora-related subject matter categories across all embassies
from the same country in 2016 (ie, all Ethiopian or Kenyan embassies). The results of
this analysis are summarised in Table 6.
The most prevalent categories of diaspora-related issues addressed by Kenyan embas-
sies in their 2016 posts were: Bilateral ties (37.5%), Investment in Infrastructure (25%),
Economic Growth (22.7%), Investment Encouraging (15.9%), National Achievements
(12.5%) and Stability and Prosperity (11.4%). Notably, national achievement posts often
dealt with financial issues such as Kenya’s yearly rate of economic growth or the robust-
ness of Kenya’s economy.
Results obtained in 2020 found that the most prevalent categories of diaspora-related
issues addressed by Kenyan embassy posts were: Bilateral ties (10%), Holiday Celebrations
(7%), Academia (5.5%), Investment Encouraging (4.4%), and National Achievements
(4.4%) (see Table 7 below). These results echo those of the previous section and
suggest that in 2020, Kenyan embassies no longer focused solely on financial issues.
The most prevalent categories of diaspora-related issues addressed by Ethiopian
embassy posts in 2016 were: Regional News (20.7%), Economic Growth (20.1%), Bilateral
ties (20.1%), Stability and Prosperity (17.9%), Investment Encouraging (17.9%) and
National Achievements (15.5%), which again often focused on Ethiopia’s economic
accomplishments.
In 2020, the most prevalent categories of diaspora-related issues addressed by Ethio-
pian embassy posts were Bilateral ties (22%), Stability and Prosperity (12%), Cultural
Table 6. Diaspora related issues across embassies (2016).
Issue Kenya (n = 88) Ethiopia (n = 323) Rwanda (n = 21)
Academia 1.1% 4.0% 0
Bilateral 37.5% 20.1% 57.1%
Consular Services 0 0.3% 0
Cultural Identity 0 14.6% 9.5%
Economic Growth 22.7% 20.1% 14.3%
Embassy Services 5.7% 3.4% 0
Holiday Celebration 0 6.8% 14.3%
Investment/Infrastructure 25% 10.8% 4.8%
Investment Encouraging 15.9% 17.9% 9.5%
National Achievements 12.5% 15.5% 23.8%
Regional News 10.2% 20.7% 9.5%
Stability & Prosperity 11.4% 17.9% 9.5%
Source: Authors’ research.
418 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
Table 7. Most prevalent diaspora related issues across embassies (2020).
Issue Kenya (n = 36) Ethiopia (n = 36) Rwanda (n = 36)
Academia 5.5% 2.8% 0
Bilateral 10% 22% 57%
Economic Growth 3.7% 0 14.3%
Holiday Celebration 7% 2.8% 14.3%
Investment/Infrastructure 4.6% 6.5% 0
Investment Encouraging 4.4% 6.5% 0
National Achievements 7.4% 7.4% 23.8%
Stability & Prosperity 0 12% 8.3%
Source: Authors’ research.
Identity (11.11%), National Achievements (7.4%) and Investment in Infrastructure (6.5%).
Here again there is a partial departure from financial issues and a focus on issues that
foster closer emotional bonds between diasporas and their origin country.
The most prevalent categories of diaspora-related issues addressed by Rwandan
embassies in 2016 were: Bilateral ties (57.1%); National Achievements (23.8%); Holiday
Celebrations (14.3%); and Economic Growth (14.3%); as well as Regional News, Stability
and Prosperity, Investment Encouraging and Cultural Identity (each of which accounted
for 9.5% of all posts). In 2020, the Rwandan embassy posts addressed Bilateral ties
(57.1%); National Achievements (23.8%); Economic Growth (14.3%); and Holiday Celebra-
tions (14.3%). In addition, Cultural Identity, Regional News and Prosperity and Stability
each accounted for 9.5% of published posts.
In 2016, the authors found eight instances in which embassies directly called on dia-
sporas to invest in and contribute to their origin country. All of these were published
by Ethiopian embassies. Six posts were published by the Ethiopian Embassy in the US
and focused on the drought in Ethiopia and the dire need for financial aid; a call for
increasing awareness of tourism opportunities in Ethiopia and a general call urging dia-
sporas to increase investments in Ethiopia. Moreover, the embassy published two invita-
tions to business forums in which embassy staff briefed diasporas on new investment
opportunities in Ethiopia. No such calls were found in 2020.
The results presented in this section only partially validated the fourth research
hypotheses (H4: Social media content targeted at diasporas would focus on financial
issues and calls to action).
Digital diplomacy then and now – what impact on diaspora diplomacy?
This article sought to explore the manner in which Ethiopian, Kenyan and Rwandan dia-
spora institutions utilise social media to reach out and engage with diasporas using a con-
ceptual framework that consists of three elements: online relationship building, online
and offline relationship strengthening and relationship leveraging. Notably, according
to the wider literature, relationship leveraging towards development goals can best be
achieved if diasporic communities – no longer seen as ‘traitors’ but rather as ‘saviours’
– are strengthened and if they retain an emotional bond to their origin country.
The 2016 analysis of the digital diaspora diplomacy practised by these three African
states revealed a rather grim picture, as not one of their embassies under study were
effective in building online relationships with followers, seen in the fact that they did
not engage in two-way interactions with social media users. Moreover, embassies
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 419
missed opportunities to strengthen the emotional bond between diasporas and origin
countries, failing to publicise offline diaspora events. Lastly, it was found that even
though they had neglected the stages of relationship and community building, these
embassies tried to leverage diaspora relationships towards financial ends.
Yet the results from 2020 offer a very different picture. First, the majority of the same
embassies under study interacted with social media users, whether through supplying
requested information, providing guidance and assistance or responding to online criti-
cism. Although embassies did not query followers to assess their needs, or offer opportu-
nities for co-creation of content, they did engage in discussions with followers. These
findings are important as most past digital diplomacy studies have failed to identify
online interactions between diplomats and social media users.46
A further analysis of posts published by the nine embassies in the first three months of
the COVID-19 pandemic (March-June 2020) found that all embassies, save the Rwandan
Embassy in the UK, interacted with followers while responding to dozens of comments
and pleas for aid. Indeed, the Kenyan Embassy in the US offered consular assistance to
19 social media users, while Ethiopian embassies in Israel and the UK interacted with
five social media users. These findings solidify the study’s earlier 2020 results.
Equally important, all nine embassies were more active online in 2020 than they were
in 2016. Taken together, the results presented thus far indicate that the evaluated embas-
sies may have attracted more followers, thanks to high levels of activity, and built relation-
ships with these followers, thanks to two-way interactions.
The 2020 findings also indicate that embassies transitioned from dealing mainly with
financial issues and the need for diaspora remittances, to helping diasporas celebrate
their identity and cement their emotional bond with their origin country. This was
evident in the overall decrease in financial posts and overall increase in posts in the cat-
egories of Holiday Celebrations, National Achievements and Cultural Identity. There was
also a general increase in invitations to offline diaspora events as well as a flurry of posts
summarising such events. Moreover, in both time periods most embassy posts dealt with
issues that were of relevance to diasporas. All these activities facilitate community build-
ing with diaspora communities. These results are in line with recent relational approaches
to diplomacy which argue that social media can be utilised to facilitate relationship build-
ing with online communities.47
Finally, as opposed to 2016, the 2020 analysis found no direct calls for aid on behalf of
embassies or fundraising events in which diasporas were directly called upon to donate
funds to their country of origin. The authors do not contend that financial remittances no
longer underpin African embassies digital activities but, rather, that they now focus more
on relationship building, following which they may engage in the leveraging of relation-
ships for financial purposes. In this regard, the evaluated African embassies seem to
employ more effective strategies than their Western peers including Israel, India and
Mexico, whose embassies still practice one-way digital diaspora diplomacy and fail to
use Facebook towards relationship and community building.48
In summary, during 2020 the African embassies studied here practiced both relation-
ship building and community building. The question is why and what accounts for this
shift in digital practices?
The authors contend that the framework of ‘saviours’ versus ‘traitors’ can help account
for the profound change in African embassies’ digital activities. In both time periods, the
420 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
African embassies examined in this study viewed diasporas as a reservoir of ‘saviours’who
could assist their origin country.49 This was evident in the publication of posts that were of
interest to diasporas and the provision of information on events shaping origin countries’
political landscape. However, in 2016 embassies sought to ‘tap into’ such reservoirs by
soliciting financial aid from diasporas. By contrast, in 2020 embassies transitioned to an
‘embracing’ approach, to use Gamlen’s terms, whereby the focus of digital activities
was on building and solidifying emotional ties between diasporas and their origin
countries.50 ‘Embracing’ was evident in two-way interactions with diaspora members,
addressing community grievances, responding to community criticism and enabling dia-
sporas to celebrate their bond with their origin country through holiday celebrations and
posts emphasising diasporas’ cultural ties to their origin country. Crucially, in early 2020
embassies linked their online and offline activities by inviting diasporas to offline events
and publishing summaries of diaspora events attended by tens of thousands of members
of their diasporas. These all demonstrated the cohesiveness of the respective diaspora
communities.
Many nations now seek to use social media to foster relations with diasporas, and
mobilise diasporas towards diplomatic ends. Yet as our conceptual framework argues,
relationship leveraging is impossible if embassies do not first build relationships with
social media users and use social media to build an online vibrant community, a com-
munity that celebrates diasporas’ emotional bonds with origin countries.51 Studies
examining Indian, Mexican and Israeli digital diplomacy suggest that these fail to
create online relationships with social media followers.52 As such, these nations may
be unable to leverage diaspora communities towards diplomatic ends such as strength-
ening bilateral ties and bilateral trade. The results of this study indicate that African
embassies may be better placed to leverage diaspora relationships thanks to a more
user-centric approach, where diplomats meet the informational and emotional needs
of diasporas.53
Notably, the authors also argue that the ‘digitalisation’ of diplomacy may help account
for African embassies’ altered digital strategies. Manor has argued elsewhere that the
‘digitalisation’ of diplomacy is a long-term process in which diplomats adopt the norms
and values imbedded into digital technologies.54 Markedly, every foreign ministry is
undergoing its own process of digitalisation which may be shaped by national goals,
economic stability, experience with digital technologies and specific government policies.
The authors contend that over a four-year period, African diplomats from at least three
states embraced the norms of social media which have given rise to platforms that
centre on information sharing and two-way interactions.55 This was evident in higher
levels of Facebook activity as well as a clear transition towards two-way interactions
with followers. In other words, between 2016 and 2020, African diplomats learned to
master social media sites while embracing social media’s norms and values – critical in
view of the observation that those who do not publish and interact with followers on
social media encounter a form of social death;56 they attract fewer followers and are
ignored by social media users.57 The evaluated African embassies no longer face the
risk of social death and it is thanks to their new digital strategies that African embassies
can best utilise social media for diaspora outreach. After all, one cannot practice digital
diaspora diplomacy without first attracting diasporas on social media.
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 421
Importantly, the new digital strategies of African embassies do not necessarily mean
that all evaluated countries enjoy fruitful relationships with their diasporas. Nations
that are lambasted by diasporas, or that view diasporas with suspicion, may still try to
utilise social media to converse with more supportive diasporas. For instance, although
Jewish diasporas are now more critical of Israel’s Mid-East policies, Israeli embassies still
prioritise digital diplomacy efforts while focusing on relationship building with those dia-
sporas willing to engage with the state. In other words, online activities do not necessarily
mirror the sometimes tenuous relationship between nations and their diasporas.
Lastly, it is important to note this article’s limitations. First, the article’s sample included
only three embassies, each, from Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. Such a small sample pre-
cludes the authors from reaching broad conclusions on how these countries interact glob-
ally with their diaspora as other embassies may be more active online and more focused
on relationship building. Second, the analysis of Rwandan embassies was especially
limited given low levels of online activity. In addition, the sampling period was also
limited to six months. Lastly, the article’s results cannot be applied to African countries
in general but are limited to the countries evaluated in this study. Future studies
should build on this article’s framework to further examine how African embassies use
social media for diaspora diplomacy. Such an analysis should far exceed our sample as
social media use is on the rise in foreign ministries throughout the continent. Additionally,
scholars are encouraged to investigate if and how African Ambassadors might use social
media and whether their activities target diasporas or foreign opinion makers such as
journalists, news editors, other diplomats and lawmakers.
Conclusion
This study, focused on diaspora diplomacy, found that select African embassies altered
their digital practices between 2016 and 2020. The majority of sampled embassies pub-
lished more content that was targeted at diasporas; engaged with diasporas more fre-
quently and published content that enabled diasporas to retain an emotional bond
with their origin country. The differences between the two time periods lend credence
to the assertion that digitalisation is an ongoing process as diplomats adopt, and come
to master the use of digital technologies towards the obtainment of diplomatic goals.
The differences between the two time periods should motivate scholars to re-examine
the digital practices of embassies and foreign ministries across the globe. It is possible
that other nations have also adopted new practices that focus on leveraging social
media sites towards relationship building, be it with foreign populations or diasporas.
Studies should also examine how digital diplomacy departments have evolved over the
past five years and whether they are now home to diplomats as opposed to social
media experts and journalists, as was the case in 2016. Finally, studies should examine
whether diasporas are willing to engage in conversations with diplomats or whether
they visit embassy social media sites simply to access relevant information.
Notes
1. Corneliu Bjola and Marcus Holmes, Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice (Oxon: Routledge,
2015).
422 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
2. Brian Hocking and Jan Melissen, Diplomacy in the Digital Age (Clingendael: Netherlands Insti-
tute of International Relations, 2015); Ilan Manor and Elad Segev, ‘America’s Selfie: How the
US portrays itself on its Social Media Accounts,’ in Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice,
eds. Corneliu Bjola and Marcus Holmes (Oxon: Routledge, 2015), 89–108; Ilan Manor, ‘Amer-
ica’s Selfie–Three Years Later,’ Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 13, no. 4 (2017): 308–24;
Jan Melissen and Matthew Caesar-Gordon, ‘Digital Diplomacy and the Securing of Nationals
in a Citizen-Centric World,’ Global Affairs 2, no. 3 (2016): 321–30.
3. Ilan Manor, The Digitalization of Public Diplomacy (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
4. Hocking and Melissen, Diplomacy in the Digital Age
5. Geoffrey Cowan and Amelia Arsenault, ‘Moving from Monologue to Dialogue to Collabor-
ation: The Three Layers of Public Diplomacy,’ The Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science 616, no. 1 (2008): 10–30; Ilan Manor, ‘Are We There Yet: Have MFAs Realized
the Potential of Digital Diplomacy: Results from a Cross National Comparison,’ Brill Research
Perspectives in Diplomacy and Foreign Policy 3, (2016): 1–110.
6. James Pamment, New Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century: A Comparative Study of Policy and
Practice (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012); Rhonda S. Zaharna, Amelia Arsenault, and Ali Fisher,
eds., Relational, Networked and Collaborative Approaches to Public Diplomacy: The Connective
Mindshift (New York: Routledge, 2013).
7. Corneliu Bjola and Lu Jiang, ‘Social Media and Public Diplomacy: A Comparative Analysis
of the Digital Diplomatic Strategies of the EU, US and Japan in China,’ in Digital Diplo-
macy: Theory and Practice, eds. Corneliu Bjola and Marcus Holmes (Oxon: Routledge,
2015), 89–108; Ilan Manor and Marcus Holmes, ‘Palestine in Hebrew: Overcoming the
limitations of traditional diplomacy,’ Revista Mexicana De Politicia Exterior 113 (2018):
538–74.
8. Cristina Archetti, ‘The Impact of New Media on Diplomatic Practice: An Evolutionary Model of
Change,‘ The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 7, no. 2 (2012): 181–206; Ronit Kampf, Ilan Manor
and Elad Segev, ‘Digital Diplomacy 2.0? A Cross-National Comparison of Public Engagement
in Facebook and Twitter,’ The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 10, no. 4 (2015): 331–62.
9. Daryl Copeland, ‘Taking Diplomacy Public,’ in Relational, Networked and Collaborative
Approaches to Public Diplomacy: The Connective Mindshift, eds. Rhonda S. Zaharna, Amelia
Arsenault, and Ali Fisher (Oxon: Routledge, 2013), 56–69; James Pamment, ‘Digital Diplomacy
as Transmedia Engagement: Aligning Theories of Participatory Culture with International
Advocacy Campaigns,’ New Media & Society 18, no. 9 (2016): 2046–62; Manor, ‘America’s
Selfie: Three Years’.
10. Robin Cohen, Global Diasporas: An Introduction (Oxon: Routledge, 2008), 6; William Safran,
‘Diasporas in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return,’ Diaspora: A journal of Trans-
national Studies 1, no. 1 (1991): 83–99.
11. Elizabeth Chack and Peter H. Gebre, ‘Leveraging the Diaspora for Development: Lessons from
Ethiopia,’ GeoJournal 78, no. 3 (2013): 495–505.
12. Shay Attias, ‘Israel’s new peer-to-peer diplomacy,’ The Hague Journal of Diplomacy 7, no. 4
(2012): 473-482; Kishan S. Rana, ‘Diaspora Diplomacy and Public Diplomacy,’ in Relational,
Networked and Collaborative Approaches to Public Diplomacy: The Connective Mindshift, eds.
Rhonda S. Zaharna, Amelia Arsenault, and Ali Fisher (Oxon: Routledge, 2013), 70–85;
Amanda Clarke, ‘Business as Usual? An Evaluation of British and Canadian Digital Diplomacy
as Policy Change,’ in Digital Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, eds. Corneliu Bjola and Marcus
Holmes (Oxon: Routledge, 2015), 145–63.
13. Rana, ‘Diaspora Diplomacy’, 70.
14. Victoria Bernal, Nation as Network (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014).
15. Aderanti Adepoju, ‘Migration in Africa: An Overview,’ in The Migration Experience in Africa
eds. Jonathan Baker and Tade Akin Aina (Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1995), 197–
219.
16. Marie-Laurence Flahaux and Hein de Haas, ‘African Migration: Exploring the Role of Develop-
ment and States,’ International Migration Institute 105 (2014): 1–34.
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 423
17. Dilip Ratha, Supriyo De, Sonia Plaza, Kirsten Schuettler, William Shaw, Hanspeter Wyss
and Soonhwa Yi, ‘Migration and Development Brief April 2016: Migration and Remittances -
Recent Developments and Outlook’ (Policy Brief, World Bank, Washington, 2016).
18. Ernest Kwamina Yedu Addison, ‘The Macroeconomic Impact of Remittances’ (paper, Confer-
ence on Migration and Development in Ghana, La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, September 14–16,
2004), 1–33.
19. Dilip Ratha, ‘Leveraging Remittances for Development’ (paper, Migration, Trade and Develop-
ment, Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Migration, Trade, and Development, October 6,
2006), 173–86.
20. OECD, Connecting with Emigrants: A Global Profile of Diasporas (Paris: OECD Publishing 2012);
World Bank, Migration and Development Brief 26 (Washington: World Bank, 2016).
21. Eva Østergaard-Nielsen ed., International Migration and Sending Countries: Perceptions, Policies
and Transnational Relations. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
22. Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Diaspora Policy
(Addis Ababa, 2013).
23. Republic of Kenya, Kenya Diaspora Policy (Nairobi, 2014), 2.
24. Steven Vertovec, ‘Trends and Impacts of Migrant Transnationalism’ (Working Paper 04-03,
Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford, Oxford 2004).
25. Ratha et al, ‘Migration and Development Brief’.
26. Alan Gamlen, ‘Diaspora Institutions and Diaspora Governance,’ International Migration Review
48 (2014): 184.
27. Barry Kim, ‘Home and Away: The Construction of Citizenship in an Emigration Context,’
New York University Law Review, 81, no.1 (2006): 11–59; Manuel Orozco, ‘Central American Dia-
sporas and Hometown Associations,’ in Diasporas and Development, eds. Barbara J. Merz,
Lincoln C. Chen and Peter F. Geithner (Cambridge: Global Equity Initiative, 2007), 215–54;
Natasha Iskander, Creative State: Forty Years of Migration and Development Policy in
Morocco and Mexico (Ithaca: ILR Press, 2010).
28. Gamlen, ‘Diaspora Institutions’, 184.
29. Gamlen, ‘Diaspora Institutions’, 183.
30. Peggy Levitt, ‘Social remittances: Migration driven local-level forms of cultural diffusion, ’
International Migration Review 32, no. 4 (1998): 926–48; Hein De Haas, ‘Migration and
Development: A Theoretical Perspective,’ International Migration Review 44, no. 1 (2010):
227–64.
31. Gamlen, ‘Diaspora Institutions’, 187
32. Manor, The Digitalization
33. Maureen Taylor and Michael L. Kent, ‘Dialogic Engagement: Clarifying Foundational
Concepts,’ Journal of Public Relations Research 26, no. 5 (2014): 384–98.
34. Rana, ‘Diaspora Diplomacy’.
35. OECD, Connecting with Emigrants: A Global Profile of Diasporas (Paris: OECD Publishing 2012);
World Bank, Migration and Development Brief 26 (Washington: World Bank, 2012).
36. Manor, The Digitalization.
37. Haewoon Kwak, Changhyun Lee, Hosung Park and Sue Moon, ‘What is Twitter, A Social
Network or a News Media? (Paper, Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on
World Wide Web, 2010): 591–600; David John Hughes, Moss Rowe, Mark Batey and Andrew
Lee, ‘A Tale of Two Sites: Twitter vs. Facebook and the Personality Predictors of Social
Media Usage,’ Computers in Human Behavior 28, no. 2 (2012): 561–9.
38. Kampf, ‘Digital Diplomacy 2.0’.
39. Philip Seib, The Future of Diplomacy (Cambridge: Polity, 2016).
40. Taylor and Kent, ‘Dialogic Engagement’.
41. Manor, ‘America’s Selfie: Three Years’.
42. Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, ‘Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology,’ Qualitative
Research in Psychology 3, no. 2 (2006): 77–101.
43. Ilan Manor and James Pamment, ‘Towards Prestige Mobility? Diplomatic Prestige and Digital
Diplomacy,’ Cambridge Review of International Affairs 32, no. 2 (2019): 93–131.
424 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
44. Rana, ‘Diaspora Diplomacy’.
45. Rana, ‘Diaspora Diplomacy’.
46. Kampf, ‘Digital Diplomacy 2.0’; Seib, The Future of Diplomacy.
47. Zaharana, Arsenault and Fisher Relational, Networked and Collaborative.
48. Laeeq M. Khan, Muhammad Ittefaq, Yadira Ixchel Martínez Pantoja, Muhammad Mustafa
Raziq and Aqdas Malik, ‘Public Engagement Model to Analyze Digital Diplomacy on
Twitter: A Social Media Analytics Framework,’ International Journal of Communication 15
(2021); Manor, The Digitalization.
49. De Haas, ‘Migration and Development’; Levitt, ‘Social remittances’.
50. Gamlen, ‘Diaspora Institutions’,185.
51. Rana, ‘Diaspora Diplomacy’.
52. Manor, The Digitalization; Khan et al, ‘Public Engagement’.
53. Rana, ‘Diaspora Diplomacy’; Manor, The Digitalization.
54. Manor, The Digitalization.
55. Hughes et al, ‘A Tale of Two Sites’; Kwak, Lee, Park and Moon, ‘What is Twitter’.
56. Deborah Lupton, Digital Sociology (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014).
57. Ilan Manor and Louise Soon, ‘The digital industries: Transparency as mass deception,’ Global
Policy (2018).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Note on contributors
Ilan Manor is a digital diplomacy scholar at the University of Tel Aviv. Manor’s 2019 book, The Digi-
talization of Public Diplomacy, was published by Palgrave Macmillan. His 2021 co-edited volume
examined Public Diplomacy and the Politics of Uncertainty. Manor has contributed to numerous jour-
nals including The Cambridge Review of International Affairs, International Studies Review, The Hague
Journal of Diplomacy, Media, War and Conflict and Place Branding and Public Diplomacy.
Geraldine Asiwome Adiku is a Lecturer at the Department of Sociology at the University of Ghana.
Her interests include the Sociology of Development and the Sociology of Migration. She has con-
tributed to the Ghana Social Science Journal and International Migration. Her book chapter
‘Returns of failure: Involuntary return migration and social change in Ghana’ was published in
the 2019 edited volume Transnational return and social change: Social hierarchies, ideas, and
social identities.
ORCID
Ilan Manor http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2039-3721
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 425
Appendix
Appendix A1. Conceptualisation and measurements of engagement and listening.
Taylor and Kent (2014) Conceptualisation (Manor,
Components 2017) Measuring Engagement Measuring Listening
Engagement requires Embassies will meet the Recording all instances in
demonstration of positive needs of Facebook which embassies
regard for stakeholders’/ followers by answering responded to
publics’ input, experience questions, supplying followers’ queries,
and needs. requested information and supplied information
will respond to user on demand, published
comments. user-generated
content or responded
in any other way to
followers‘ comments
on posts.
Engagement requires Embassies will invite Recording all instances in Recording all instances in
interaction with followers to converse with which embassies which embassies
stakeholders/publics for them on issues of shared invited followers to responded to concerns
relational purposes outside concern and hold converse with them. raised by Facebook
of an immediate problem/ continuous conversations followers.
issue. with followers by
addressing issues or
concerns raised by
Facebook followers.
Engagement requires Embassies will query Recording all instances in Recording all instances in
interaction with followers by posting which embassies which embassies query
stakeholders/publics for questions relating to their queried social media social media followers
their advice and council on activities and their followers so as to gain so as to understand
issues of organisational/ informational needs or their advice or counsel, their needs and desires
public/community concern. services they require from or in an attempt to or queries in response
the Embassy. They will also better Embassy to follower comments.
query followers on how services.
they can best serve the
Diasporic community.
Engagement also requires Embassies will offer followers Recording all instances in
interaction that contributes collaborative opportunities which embassies
to a fully functioning society, such as co-creation of offered opportunities
whereby organisations and content, co-creation of for collaborative action,
publics recognise their social media campaigns or conducted shared
interdependence and act joint online activities that online campaigns, co-
together for the good of the serve the community. created content to raise
community. awareness to issues of
shared concern.
Source: Authors’ compilation based on Maureen Taylor and Michael L. Kent, ‘Dialogic Engagement: Clarifying Founda-
tional Concepts,’ Journal of Public Relations Research 26, no. 5 (2014): 384-398;. Ilan Manor, ‘America’s Selfie–Three
Years Later,’ Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 13, no. 4 (2017).
426 I MANOR AND G A ADIKU
Appendix A2. Subject matter categories.
Category Name Description Example
Academia* Academic opportunities for studying abroad, Kenyan college ranked one of the best in the
news relating to scholarships, academic world in Tourism studies
achievements of African scholars
Bilateral* News relating to bilateral ties between two Ethiopian Foreign Minister holds meeting with
countries including state visits, meetings UK parliamentarians to discuss promoting
between diplomats and local parliamentarians, regional security and prosperity in Africa
scope of ties between two countries, security
and financial collaborations
Branding Information regarding African countries’ Ethiopian coffee stand in UK is representative
branding campaigns, online content that is of Ethiopia’s unrivalled quality of coffee;
used to present a positive national image, Ethiopian Foreign Minister briefs parliament
online campaigns aimed at bettering the on nation branding efforts
image of Africa countries
Consular Services* Information pertaining to Embassy consular Kenyan Embassy to operate stand in Las Vegas
services, changes to national consular policy, where nationals can register for an identity
scope of consular services offered at an card
Embassy
Cultural Identity* African countries’ cultural achievements, paying Celebrating the father of Ethiopian Jazz; festival
tribute to cultural icons, celebrating national in Ethiopia attracts global media
culture, cultural celebrations with Diasporas
Digital News News pertaining to new digital service by African Kenyan companies to receive international
countries, news relating to technological investment for developing Green agricultural
achievements of African companies, news technology; new smartphone application
relating to digital platforms that enable helps diasporas send money home
sending remittances from abroad
Economic News pertaining to growth rate of African IMF ranking of African economies exceeds
Growth* countries, projections of economic growth, expectations; Kenyan President states that
international ranking of African economies, economy is expected to continue growing in
identifying growth engines of African the following year
economies
Embassy Services* Information pertaining to Embassy services, Ethiopian Embassy in US to be closed for
Embassy opening and closing hours, Embassy holidays; Ethiopian Embassy in US to hold
events for Diasporas Diaspora event in Las Vegas
Holiday Celebrating national and religious holidays, Images from Christmas celebrations in Ethiopia,
Celebration* images and videos from national celebrations, live streaming of Christmas celebrations in
images and videos from Diaspora celebrations, Ethiopia
invitations to holiday celebrations
Investment/ News regarding mass infrastructure projects in 11th Council of Ministers for the Eastern African
Infrastructure* African countries, presenting opportunities to Power Pool (#EAPP) has endorsed a master
invest in African infrastructure, presenting plan to inter-connect the region through
investments in infrastructure as a boost to the energy
economy (e.g., construction of airports, high
speed internet)
Investment Presenting investment opportunities in Africa Ethiopian Minister meets with corporate
Encouraging* countries, discussing the financial potential of representatives in America to discuss
African countries, presenting examples of opportunities for investment in Ethiopia
successful investments in African countries
MFA Appointments of diplomats to various positions, Kenya appoints new diplomat to head South
Appointments new appointments at embassies Sudan peace talks
National Celebrating national achievements in diverse Nairobi tops the list of Foreign Direct
Achievements* fields such as culture, arts, economics, science Investments’ destinations in Africa
and technology
Regional News* News from the region of African countries such Updates on South Sudan peace talks; Prime
as collaborative infrastructure projects, Minister says Ethiopia is regional island of
collaborative peace missions, joint stability
technological initiatives and multilateral
summits
Sports African achievements in diverse areas of sports Ethiopian female athlete wins 3000 m final in
Diversification championship games held in Portland
(Continued )
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 427
Appendix A2. Continued.
Category Name Description Example
Stability & News relating to the stability and prosperity of Kenyan foreign minister addressed annual
Prosperity* Africa, joint initiatives to contribute to the meeting of the C-10 (Committee of ten
stability and prosperity of Africa African ministries of finance and central bank
governors); updates on South Sudan peace
talks
Trade Information pertaining to trade with African Ethiopia and Brazil announce plans to boost
countries, scope of trade between Africa and trade between both countries; Special aid to
other world regions, signing of new trade Ethiopian Prime Minister gives interview on
agreements, discussing ways to increase trade increased trade between Ethiopia and China,
between countries India, Turkey and EU
Trade/Multilateral Multilateral trade initiatives between African and WTO chief encourages states to seize on
non-African states, African diplomacy at Nairobi’s financial potential; Nairobi to host
multilateral forums (e.g., WTO), collaborative The United Nations Conference of Trade and
trade initiatives between several African Development
countries
Tourism Tourist attractions in Africa, branding an African Kenyan President says tourism is one of the
nation as a tourist destination, tourism’s pillars of economic development; live
contribution to national economy streaming from Kenyan nature reserves
Youth Leadership Achievements of African youths in arts, science Minister from Kenyan High Commission in
and sports London meets with youths who won the
Commonwealth Citizen’s Award
*Category is of significance to diasporas.
Source: Authors’ research.