I understand now that what 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg referred to as “a disaster of unspoken sufferings for enormous amounts of people” is worse than a drought, flood, or heatwave. It’s not treating climate change like wildfire, and casually burning down the house in the process.

Many African dictators are facing new wave of dissent enabled through social media. The information monopoly has been challenged; ordinary citizens can now organize and confront their autocratic regimes from below. As they become more interconnected and bypass severe information control, citizens across these repressive countries have become emboldened in the face of armed repression.