In Africa, music remains the arena where the commingling of political and artistic expressions has thrived, even in countries with high levels of control and censorship. This blend of music and politics is perhaps most evident in the modern era where music is increasingly being used for political messaging during election campaigns. This chapter delves into the discursive role of music in election campaigns from an African perspective, using Zambia as a case study, and more specifically through the lens of the Patriotic Front, the country's largest political party, which effectively used musical lyrics to win the presidency and consolidate its power.

The study focused on identifying innovations deployed by lecturers when teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of Zambia. The interpretivist worldview anchors the study. Researchers adopted a descriptive qualitative case study design. Purposefully and conveniently sampled lecturers ( n = 21) took part in key informant interviews from the university faculties: the school of education, the school of humanities and social sciences and the school of health sciences. Thematic analyses were applied to the data collected using face-to-face and telephone interview schedules. Results show that all lecturers fully know online instruction’s possible challenges. Lecturers have devised innovations that are lecturer-oriented, lesson-oriented, resource-oriented and student-oriented in managing online teaching and learning. The success of online teaching in an EdTech low-resourced university depends on the lecturers’ desire to learn, the availability of essential ICT devices, the use of open educational resources-OER, the potential of the use of devices and the availability of internet connectivity. However, intermittent internet connectivity, student absenteeism, a lack of primary ICT devices, and EdTech illiteracy persist. External support—such as continuous professional development programs (CPDs), import duty exemptions or corporate sponsorships and donations—should be sought to facilitate online lessons. Innovation in teaching and learning does not only entail high-tech educational technologies but the use of what works best for a community of learners in a particular context. Though focused on Zambia, the study results reflect the situation and experience of universities in other countries with similar characteristics.

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This paper interrogates the intermingling of populist politics and the media in Zambia. It analyses populist tendencies the country’s 2011 and 2016 presidential elections. The examination of the 2011 elections considers this coming together of populist Patriotic Front (PF) party figures and the media through the lens of The Post Newspaper, representing ‘old’ media. The 2016 elections examination focuses on alternative media, particularly looking at how the PF utilised popular music and social media, to communicate its populist ideas. The analysis shows that the PF, with and without their populist founder Michael Sata, managed to maintain close ties with the media for their political success. Later, they were willing to utilise and harness the potential of alternative media to meet their objectives in 2016. The paper however warns that the merging of media with populism is a danger that heavily compromises the ability of the media to serve the public as they should.

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