Digital Leadership and Crisis Management: A Study of African Presidents' Facebook Usage During COVID-19

This study explores how African leaders used Facebook for reactive communication during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on five populous countries: Egypt, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research analyzed 276 Facebook posts from the presidents' official accounts between February 1 and July 31, 2020. Five key reactive strategies used to analyze the communication include pre-emptive action, offensive response, defensive response, diversionary response, vocal commiseration, rectifying behaviour and deliberate inaction. Findings show that vocal commiseration was often combined with diversionary responses, while rectifying behaviour was used independently. Leaders mainly communicated through text and photos, with minimal use of videos. A significant observation is that African presidents did not engage in two-way communication with followers, despite receiving many comments and reactions. The study highlights the variation in digital communication across African countries and the impact of reactive strategies on public trust and national image. While these strategies addressed psychological and social effects, diversionary responses risked contributing to misinformation. The research calls for more effective digital communication, inclusive information policies, and further studies on African leadership communication during crises. Keywords: Reactive Communication, Leadership Communication, Social Media, African Leaders, COVID-19, Crisis Communication.