Zimbabwe, a country with a population of nearly 13 million, had its draft constitution put to a referendum vote yesterday. News about this event was filled with predictions of chaos and violence on Friday. Thankfully, this prediction turned out to be a false alarm, as the day came and went without any major incidents bar the reported kidnapping of a MDC official.
The Zimbabwe referendum kept social netizens busy on Twitter, starting a day before the event.
Tweet Traffic: Zimbabwe Constitution Referendum Vote (click on image to enlarge)
A 2-week Twitter traffic graph above shows there were previous events that got this SADAC member on Trendsmap.
Media around the world could not miss out on the action, and contributed to Twitter conversations as well.
New York Times on Zimbabwe Referendum
Given that South Africa is one of Zimbabwe’s most important neighbors, I wondered if there was any correlation in the tweeting activity. The graph below indicates that Mzansi has its own issues to tweet about.
Tweet Traffic: Zimbabwe versus South Africa (click on image to enlarge)
Given that Kenya has recently finished its round of national elections, I could not resist the temptation to compare the two countries’ tweeting activities. I must just indicate that Kenya’s population is almost 4 times that of Zimbabwe.
Tweet Traffic: Zimbabwe versus Kenya (click on image to enlarge)
While I expected Kenya’s Twitter traffic to be higher, I was astounded by its volume that dwarfed that of Zimbabwe.
I cannot wait to see how South Africa’s national elections, happening in 2014, will measure against Kenya’s on Twitter. Look out for a post on this subject then, and more.
Tweet Traffic: Zimbabwe versus Kenya versus South Africa (click on image to enlarge)
All the images used in this post come from topsy.com
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