Geocoded Tweets in African Cities

As social media becomes ever more common and important to international politics, more methods of measuring its usage are arising. Here is a group of maps generated by tweet location from several of Africa’s largest cities.

Below are two of the most contrasting maps, those of Johannesburg and Mogadishu, with tweets identified by purple dots. The distinction between the two is obvious. These maps undisputedly show the divergence of technological progression and internet access in countries with stable democracies (South Africa) versus countries with a lack of government or highly deficient government (Somalia). As one commenter to these visuals pointed out, twitter admittedly may not be the best representation of general internet access. Nonetheless, with the awareness that sites like Twitter and Facebook played in the Arab Spring, we must acknowledge the importance of their availability.