Digital Media: a New Platform to Present Identity and Gender Performance

Abstract (English)

ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic grossly affected life as we used to know it: the way we live, from education to economy, agriculture, security, practice of religion, etc. However, despite the impression and belief that the populace of the Global South does not have much to offer the global populace, especially in medical services. Some Africans attempted to find solutions to the pandemic. Most of these enthusiasts are women who do not have much formal health training, but they have some indigenous health information and ideas. They attempted to deploy their Indigenous knowledge of African traditional medicine to curb the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have worked on mediated memories and the evolutions in the digital age (B. Jacobsen, 2020; Van Dijck,2023; Yingyi Han, 2023). However, they did not work on digital media as a new way to construct Identity and gender performance in digital space. Also, most researchers did not approach their studies from an ethnographic perspective. This is the gap this study intends to fill. It focuses on digital media as a new platform to construct Identity and gender performance in digital space using an ethnographic approach. The study will discuss the concepts of African Indigenous knowledge, African religiosity, Gender issues, indigenous media and Gender performance in Africa and their effects on the soy. The thrust of this study is its interdisciplinary nature and methodological approach (ethnographic method).