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Did the June 23 Movement Change Senegal?
During the Arab Spring, the key to toppling oppressive regimes was mass mobilization against leaders like Ben Ali and Mubarak, whose families controlled state resources and institutions. Mass...
View ArticleThe Return of the Opposition in Gabon
“I left Gabon in a wheelchair; I’ll come back on my two legs. People that have said I’m dead and gone had better prepare to fight against my ghost.” -Gabon’s main opposition leader Andre Mba Obame in...
View ArticleMauritania: Dreaming about the Fall of the Military State
Mauritania has witnessed large protests this year calling for an end to the military regime of General Ould Abdel Aziz (for a useful though slightly out of date overview, see @LISSNUP’s discussion of...
View ArticlePuntland, Multi-Party Politics, and its Place in Somalia
While the world was rightly fixated on the new President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s election, al-Shaabab’s attempt at his assassination, and his inauguration over the last few weeks, another...
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A History of Resistance in the Congo
In light of the recent escalation of violence in the Kivus, the emergence of M23 rebellion, and the ongoing negotiations in Kampala, we thought it important to place the latest cycle of conflict in the...
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The Language of the Political Crowd in Tunisia
“The solidity of the images was theexpression of their permanence.” Elias Canetti Language is critical to the ability to mobilize. The group feeling that was activated in the urban hubs of North Africa...
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Urban Protests and Rural Violence in Africa: A Call for an Integrated Approach
2010 protests outside University of Zalingei, West Darfur.UN photo: Albert Gonzalez Farran African countries appear to be in the midst of an epic shift in the nature of their political struggles. The...
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New Media in Africa and the Global Public Sphere
#OccupyNigeria and Social Media in Lagos Source: Celebregion.com (cc) In analyzing the relationship between a “global public sphere” and social media on the African continent, the...
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Kenya’s Jubilee Election: What Next?
Kenya’s voters are now eager for change.Copyright: Commonwealth Secretariat This year, Kenya celebrates fifty years of independence. In the life of nations and states, Kenya is young. Its new...
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Museveni and the Monitor: Succession Politics in Print
Uganda’s Partly Free PressBy Rachel Strohm via Flickr© Creative Commons On May 28, 2013, the ninth day since the headquarters of the Ugandan newspaper Daily Monitor was closed,[1] the standoff was...
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Women and the 2013 Zimbabwe Elections: A Voice from the Field
Editors’ Note: This digest, written by Ashley Rudo Chisamba, an Information and Membership Officer with the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe provides a local perspective and voice from the field on the...
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Popular Mobilization and the New Politics of Resource Sovereignty in Tanzania
The Roads of Mtwara, Tanzania (2005)Source: Marja-Leena Kultanen (Global.finland.fi) (cc) Creative Commons from Flickr In 1972, a resident of Tanzania’s impoverished southeastern region of Mtwara...
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Social Protest, an African Perennial
“Y en a Marre” protests in Paris, Sept 2011Source: Gwenaël Piaser via Flickr Early one morning in March 2013, residents of Bujagali in eastern Uganda, upset by the deplorable state of the road through...
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Making Sense of the Protests in Khartoum
Protests in Khartoum, September 2013Source: Anonymous In the ten days following September 23, Sudanese cities witnessed the largest anti-government protests in many years. Many of the protesters aimed...
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La Démocratie de l’Angoisse: l’Afrique de l’Ouest et ses Six Élections...
Voting in 2012 legislative by-electionsin Grand Laho, Côte d′Ivoire(Photo: UN/Hien Macline) Cette contribution est la première d’un essai en deux parties par le Dr. Gilles Olakounlé Yabi sur...
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Rwanda’s Twenty-Year Transformation
Esther Mujawayo, Survivor of the 1994 genocide on the April 2014 International Day of Reflection.Photo by Violaine Martin (UN Geneva) This April marks twenty years since the horrifying 1994 Rwandan...
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Protests and the Construction of National Security Threats in South Africa
Protesting police brutality by the Right 2 Know Campaign (Gauteng Branch) at the Johannesburg Central Prison. Source: Jayshree Pather – Right 2 Know, 8 Feb 2014 The revelations by former National...
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Citizens’ Revolt in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso Lt. Col Isaac Zida announcing the resignation of President Blaise Compaoré to protestors. Source: Thomas Leger, Flickr Creative Commons, 1 November 2014 Even the long months of...
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