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Updated: African leaders on Facebook (October 2011)

October 2, 2011  »  Statistics3 Comments

africa-transThis post is an update of June 2011’s list of African leaders with a Facebook presence. The numbers and a couple of links have been adjusted. Stats from July 2010, December 2010, and March 2011 are still available.

As always, the challenge is determining what share of fans of these pages are diasporans. A solid number of nations – most notably Burundi, Cameroon, and Gabon – have seen extraordinary Facebook fan page growth in the past 4 months. Pages for leaders from Angola and Cape Verde were relatively new as of last post, and have growth figures of 2,600% and 4,000%, respectively. Impressively, two leaders – Cameroon and Gabon – now have official pages and the fan counts have grown by 350-400% over 4 months. Updates for October 2011 include:

  • Cameroon: Paul Biya’s page is clearly marked as official and even has a welcome landing page
  • Chad: Idriss Déby’s page with 5,000 fans has been removed. Top unofficial pages now have 500-600 fans.
  • Gabon: Ali Bongo’s page now is very official, complete with landing page.
  • Mali: Both two groups for Amadou Touré are about to be archived due to inactivity. An active group of 200 fans now exists.
  • Senegal: The page for Abdoulaye Wade, with 4,600 fans in June, no longer exists.
  • Sierra Leone: The most popular group for Ernest Bai Koroma is flagged for removal due to inactivity. A new group with 1,300 fans now exists.
  • Somalia: Had previously missed page of Sharif Ahmed which has 3,400 fans.
  • South Sudan: Have added the new nation to the list. President Salva Kiir Mayardit, although lacking an official page or group, has 750 fans for a community page.
  • Togo: Added unofficial page for Faure Gnassingbe (4,400 fans).
  • Zimbabwe: The most popular unofficial page for Robert Mugabe has been removed. The second most popular remains.

Growth trends & countries of interest:

  • Median fan growth rate: 15% (was 23% from March-June 2011)
  • Pages for leaders of Seychelles and Swaziland lost fans over the time period.
  • Fan count growth of leader pages with greater than 10,000 fans: Algeria 17%, Nigeria 13%, Ghana 10%, Ivory Coast 9%, Tanzania 8%, Kenya 5%, Morocco 5%, Zimbabwe 3%
  • Less than 5% growth in Benin, Comoros, Guinea, Mauritius
  • The page for Libya’s Col. Gaddafi grew by another 20%
  • Mauritania still only has 4 fans of the community page for Ba Mamadou Mbaré. Guinea-Bissau is not much better with 11 fans for Malam Bacai Sanha
  • Central African Republic shows 20% growth after none for 3 months
  • 51% growth for Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia – now 1,000 fans
  • Solid growth in Southern Africa: 71% Namibia, 69% Zambia, 34% South Africa. Still surprising how few fans the (community) page for Jacob Zuma has
  • In order of sheer fan base there is no change in order: Nigeria (653k), Kenya (94k), Morocco (84k), Zimbabwe (65k), Tanzania (32k)

The list as of October 2, 2011:

CountryPresident (or other title)Facebook Page Type (hyperlinked)# of Likes% Change since June 2011 (4 months)
AlgeriaAbdelaziz BouteflikaOfficial Page2026917%
AngolaJose Dos SantosCommunity Page21912673%
BeninThomas Yayi BoniOfficial Page63454%
BotswanaSeretse Khama Ian KhamaUnofficial Page658014%
Burkina FasoBlaise CompaoréUnofficial Page93926%
BurundiPierre NkurunzizaCommunity Page315385%
CameroonBiya PaulOfficial Page9696479%
Cape VerdePedro PiresCommunity Page8744062%
Central African RepublicFrancois Bozize YangouvondaPersonal Profile?17920%
ChadLt Gen. Idriss DebyPublic Profile 1 | Public Profile 2609 / 527-88%
ComorosAhmed Abdallah SambiCommunity Page754%
Congo, Republic ofDenis Sassou-NguessoOfficial Page | Private Profile6603 / 126910% / -4%
Congo, Democratic Republic ofJoseph KabilaPrivate Profile | Official Page4177 / 4256-2% / 24%
Cote d'IvoireAlassane OuattaraUnofficial Page148459%
DjiboutiIsmail Omar GuellehUnofficial Page?43165%
EgyptMohamed Hussein TantawiCommunity Page8264%
Equatorial GuineaBrig. Gen. (ret) Teodoro Obiang Nguema MbasogoCommunity Page7771%
EritreaIsaias AfeworkiUnofficial Page73025%
EthiopiaMeles Zenawi (PM)Community Page104151%
GabonAli Bongo OndimbaOfficial Page6781354%
The GambiaYahya JammehUnofficial Page58438%
GhanaJohn Evans Atta-MillsUnofficial Page2011410%
GuineaSékouba KonatéUnofficial Page36264%
Guinea-BissauMalam Bacai SanhaCommunity Page1183%
KenyaMwai KibakiUnofficial Page941275%
LesothoKing Letsie III (King)Unofficial Page50099%
LiberiaEllen Sirleaf JohnsonCommunity Page110646%
LibyaCol. Mu'ammar al-QadhafiUnofficial Page726322%
MadagascarAndry RajoelinaUnofficial Page144111%
MalawiBingu wa MutharikaGroup | Community Page19659%
MaliAmadou Toumani ToureUnofficial Page | Group 1 | Group 2221n/a
MauritaniaBa Mamadou MbaréCommunity Page40%
MauritiusSir Anerood JugnauthUnofficial Page7974%
MoroccoKing Mohamed VI (King)Unofficial Page843155%
MozambiqueArmando Emilio GuebuzaOfficial Page?351713%
NamibiaHifikepunye PohambaCommunity Page59771%
NigerSalou Djibo (Head of Military Junta)Unofficial Page13107%
NigeriaDr. Goodluck JonathanOfficial Page65299913%
RwandaPaul KagameUnofficial Page1903413%
Sao Tome & PrincipeFradique De MenezesCommunity Page1233%
SenegalAbdoulaye WadeUnofficial Page | Community Page911/ 587n/a
SeychellesJames MichelPublic Profile4834-1%
Sierra LeoneErnest Bai KoromaCommunity Page | Unofficial Page1284n/a
SomaliaSharif AhmedUnofficial Page3440n/a
South AfricaJacob Gedleyihlekisa ZumaCommunity Page396134%
SudanOmar Hassan al-BashirCommunity Page13925%
South SudanSalva Kiir MayarditCommunity Page750n/a
SwazilandKing Msati III (King)Community Page66-31%
TanzaniaJakaya KikweteOfficial Page319548%
TogoFaure Gnassingbe"Fan Club"4408n/a
TunisiaFouad MebazaaUnofficial Page3930%
UgandaLt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta MuseveniUnofficial Page / Profile6462 / 13469% / 40%
ZambiaRupiah BandaCommunity Page41669%
ZimbabweRobert Gabriel MugabeCommunity Page538331%
ZimbabweMorgan Tsvangirai (PM)Official Page653723%

The above table lists all top African heads of state (usually President) and provides a link to the one or two most popular Facebook pages, groups, or profiles for a given leader. The final column shows how many users are interested in the particular leader. Loose definitions of the page-types:

  • Official page: A page run by the actual leader.
  • Public profile: A presidential account with a public wall and information about the leader.
  • Private profile: An seemingly real account without a public wall or information about the leader.
  • Unofficial page: A user-created page that serves as the leader.
  • Group: A user-created group dedicated to a leader.
  • Community page: A placeholder courtesy of Wikipedia for cases when no user-generated page exists.

3 Comments »

  • […] of Facebook adoption within the leader’s nation). To know how your leader is performing checkout the Researchers detailed report This way African leaders can easily crowd-source ideas from everyday people. What do you think? […]

  • Boko Henry says:

    President
    Paul Biya through his entry on facebook is showing how versed he is with the
    new technologies and his intentions are clear, it is a strategy meant at
    getting close to the youths who are the greatest consumers of these
    technologies.

  • oAfrica says:

    A smart move by his campaign/administration to win support and ease tensions…YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook accounts are certainly impressive.