Abstract
The period leading to Zimbabwe’s elections in July 2013, is remembered for the cyber wars
pitting Facebook characters Baba Jukwa and Amai Jukwa. Both characters joined Facebook in
March 2013, with Amai Jukwa being the first to appear. Both characters still existed at the time
of authoring this paper although the frequency and significance of their Facebook posts had
largely diminished. Edmund Kudzayi, editor of the state controlled Sunday Mail and his brother
Phillip were, in 2014 arrested on suspicion that they were among a syndicate of people behind
the Baba Jukwa page. They faced and denied charges of “attempting to commit an act of
insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism, undermining the authority or insulting the
President and publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state” (Mathuthu
2014)1. In the intense media coverage that followed, Mduduzi Mathuthu, editor of the statecontrolled
Chronicle claimed that Edmund Kudzayi was Amai Jukwa, not Baba Jukwa. The
court case is beyond the scope of this paper.