Whilst scholars of Middle East politics had almost completely neglected the study of Arab Political Parties (with the notable exceptions of Islamist organizations, often outlawed)  arguing that their role was minimal within an authoritarian context, the ‘Arab Uprisings’ –which started in late 2010- seem to have brought the role of political parties back at the attention of international academia. This paper looks at the role of the ‘Egyptian Left’ both before and after the recent ‘Springs’. I will be presenting a general discussion of the situation of the main parties and movements of the Left in Egypt on the eve of the 25 January Revolution and then I will focus especially on the role played by both old and new Left  in the ‘eighteen days’ of Tahir Square and after. Based on my in Egypt , and on the analysis of documents and secondary literature looked through the lens of (modified) social movements theory, this paper aims at highlighting continuities and breaks in the thought and political action of the Egyptian leftist parties before and after the Uprising, and suggests that the Uprisings have offered the Left an unmissable chance to overcome the ‘traditional’ gap between ‘revolutionary rhetoric excellence’ and the its absence amongst the Arab masses. In doing so, I will devote special attention to the trajectory of Hizb al-Tahaluf al-Ishtiraki (Socialist Alliance Party), which was founded in the aftermath of the ‘Revolution’, bringing together older and younger generations of activists.

Gennaro Gervasio . Roma Tre University, Italy . gennaro.gervasio@uniroma3.it

This thesis argues for the prioritized productivity of the local, the ordinary and the violent in the framing and the analysis of the Egyptian revolution. I demonstrate this productivity through a case study in which I analyze the role of the Popular Committees (PCs) – the armed civilian neighborhood-watch groups that were formed in every street in Egyptian cities to compensate for the withdrawal of the police – in the revolutionary contention over the removal of Mubarak. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, I use “the local” as an analytic category to draw the determinants of the variation in political relationships and inter-neighborhood class dynamics of the PCs in Alexandria and Cairo. While I hypothesize the PCs as a contender in a (Trotskyan) state-centered revolutionary situation, I use the lens of micro-sociological theories of Bayat to interpret the identity, the politics and the agency of local, ordinary small actors. I conclude that, while the PCs were socially conservative, their localized, block by block, appropriation of the legitimacy of the use of violence, performance and narrativization of the police enforced a strategically significant nationwide civilian anti-police curfew. They, subsequently, created a dual power situation that restricted the choices of the incumbent regime and permitted those organized regime challengers, sitting-in public squares, to safely and performatively demand the removal of Mubarak and take credit for it. By including the millions of PC members, the public space construction of the streets of Egyptian cities, and the use of force, I rewrite the strategic model of revolutionary contention that removed Mubarak, redraw the political and social map of the early days of the revolution, and explain its later developments.

Ahmed Saleh . American University in Cairo . saleh.ahmed@aucegypt.edu

This paper will analyse the mobilisations of the precarious youth of the Tunisian island of Kerkennah. The social movement aimed to secure an income for its members from the multinational company Petrofac, which extracts natural gas from the nearby waters. In March 2011, during the revolutionary upheaval, the precarious youths of the island forced Petrofac to fund a state-managed employment program for about 250 young unemployed. In January 2016, Petrofac thought the time had come to roll back the concessions and stopped financing the scheme. This reignited the movement, which staged a sit in outside the plant blocking access to it. The riot police attacked the sit in on 3 April 2016 but it was forced to leave the island after twelve days of disorders. Petrofac had thus to sit at the negotiating table again and on 23 September 2016 it signed a new agreement granting employment to the protestors. The aim of the paper will be that of understanding the forms of consciousness and collective action of the Tunisian precarious youth five years after the revolution of which it was the protagonist. This will be done through the lenses of recent Marxist theorisations of existential and employment precariousness. More specifically, it will try to explain how the technical changes in the Tunisian “class composition” – and particularly the prominence of its “surplus” fraction – made possible the emergence of a social movement of this kind. The paper will contextualise the events in the historical perspective of neoliberal restructuring and of the more recent evolution of the Tunisian political landscape since the 2011 uprising. The research will be based on qualitative interviews with the participants and on online archival research.

Lorenzo Feltrin . University of Warwick . l.feltrin@warwick.ac.uk

Through insiders’ co-operative enquiry, I took on exploring Egyptian youth activists’ views and perceptions of their spaces and examining their strategies of forming and sustaining those spaces. Specifically, I questioned our experience with Mesaha, one of activists’ enabling spaces in Cairo, highlighting five layers of interdependent meanings we have articulated about the significance of this space to our activism. I, likewise, identified three strategies have been applied in order to put these meanings into practice and handle the contextual limitations. Examining such questions within the Egyptian context revealed how young activists responded to the on-going transformations and increasing limitations that they experienced throughout the past five years (2011 – 2015).

Mohamed Bassein H. Salman . independent researcher . yassein@mesaha.org

The question of the widespread use of Internet and information and communication technologies (ICT) constitutes a new dimension in the study of political activism and diasporic identities. In recent years, researchers have shown an increased interest in analyse web usage practice of diasporic groups and their influences in political issues concerned with their homelands. Since the Arab Spring was reported in 2010, new transnationals activisms has been attracting a lot of interest in order to explore the potential role of the Internet in new forms of struggles. Considering these evidences, and focus on the Gdeim Izik protest held in 2010 in the Moroccan-occupied areas of the Western Sahara, this proposal attempts to examine the role of the Internet as a new tool to reinforce transnational identities. By employing qualitative modes of enquiry based on visual ethnography and in-depth interviews, I analyse one of the YouTube activism channels of Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara and the impact of these videos in the Sahrawi diaspora, located in the refugee camps (Algeria) and Spain. I argue that these videos, based on direct violence and charged of emotions, strengthen the Sahrawi identity and their hope for the solution of the conflict.

Silvia Almenara Niebla . Universidad de La Laguna . silvia.almenara@ull.edu.es

O artigo pretende situar criticamente impactos do ProSAVANA em relação à usurpação de terras dos camponeses moçambicanos. Enquadra-se no debate: “Sociedade civil e contestação em Moçambique”. Pois o Programa insere-se nos marcos da estratégia (neo)desenvolvimentista brasileira – cuja voracidade por terra demonstra resultados dramáticos (SANTOS, 2013) –, podendo ser caracterizada de natureza subimperialista e neocolonial. Baseado na pesquisa de iniciação científica incoada em 2016, junto ao projeto do Profº Dr. Marco Mondaini, ao Departamento de Serviço Social da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (DSS-UFPE) e Instituto de Estudos da África. Propomos análise teórico-conceitual e histórico-social de abordagem marxista, centrada na categoria totalidade e nos conceitos de direitos humanos e (neo)desenvolvimentismo. O ProSAVANA, inspirado no PRODECER, foi instituído no cenário econômico nacional dependente e extrativista,  apresentando viés ”salvacionista”, de suposto promotor do desenvolvimento agrícola no Corredor de Nacala. Em oposição, organizações da sociedade civil, notadamente a UNAC, denunciam arbitrariedade na imposição do ProSAVANA, ausência de responsabilização pelas terras usurpadas e falta de transparência do processo. Percebe-se nesta conjuntura, os interesses da população em cujas terras será executado o ProSAVANA desconsiderados. Isto se deve ao fato de que o programa tem origem como projeto comercial, político e diplomático, sem real preocupação com a necessidade dos habitantes das zonas rurais, onde mais de 80% dos moçambicanos desenvolvem a agricultura familiar (World Bank, 2012). Assim, como pesquisadoras dos direitos humanos, é necessária reflexão acerca da tensão entre os direitos ao desenvolvimento e à autodeterminação dos povos (SANTOS, 2013).

Ana Caroline N. Nascimento . Universidade Federal de Pernambuco . carolineneves.proatec@gmail.com
Luana A. Coelho . Universidade Federal de Pernambuco . luana.andrade.coelho@gmail.com

For too long the discourse on civil society has been dominated by a Western conception based on classical liberal perceptions. We propose instead a social movement optic which foregrounds the struggle for social transformation. This paper focuses on the dynamics of rural social movements concerned with the re-appropriation of land ownership and livelihood strategies and their interface with Western-type NGOs in Mozambique. In order to decolonize and produce new knowledge about current of civil society dynamics grounded theory has been applied. We contest the North-centric discourse adopted by Western type NGOs (national and international) and show how these organizations actions can exclude much of the grassroots social interaction deemed ‘anti-development‘ or ’uncivil’ and thus not part of duly recognized civil society. Using the example of civil society involvement in the government (Brazil, Japan, Mozambique) supported Agri-Business Project ProSavana a brief overview of alternative actors at district, provincial, national and international level, as well as new spiritual-religious movements, is provided. Contextual influences of land ownership and new ties of solidarity on civil society development and on citizens openness to opt for strategies of resistance rather than dialogue and consensus-building are explained. The exclusion of many local actors, in particular religious and spiritual actors, in mainstream modernization and civil society theory, goes against some of the locally rooted civil society conceptions we identified. We propose a new conceptual framing of civil society generated from the experiences of African countries which differs from the mainstream Western liberal theory of civil society and focuses on social movement formation and actions.
Tanja Kleibl . Dublin City University
Jeremias Vunjanhe . ADECRU

The recent (18/3/16) feminist rally in Maputo, Mozambique to protest against the governmental order that obliges all girls to wear maxi-skirts as the critical measure against sexual harassment in schools, shows how problematic women struggles are, in Africa. The African cultural authenticity argument is foregrounding of an expressive male majority that favours maxi-skirts so to, allegedly, put girls and their mothers into place. On the contrary, the Mozambican feminist and women organisations and intellectuals argue that this is an excuse towards a progressive limitation of women’s human rights in the country and a strong setback in the ideals of independence. The developments, such as the arrest of several activists, the order to extradite a foreign feminist who was present in the rally and the rudeness of the debate in the social media, need attention and a critical exploration to understand what might be at stake. Pursuing an exercise of decolonising feminisms this work aims to reveal some of the abyssal lines (Santos, 2014) and its colonial effect that de-locates the narratives about emancipation and constraints feminist activism to unveil the continuum between colonialism, capitalism and the women’s oppression in Mozambique. This presentation is three folded. In a first moment, we briefly outline the current social and political aspects underlying the pervasive impoverishment, vulnerability and fear of the majority of the population, in particular women and girls. The second part is dedicated to the time and in the course weeks following the arrest and deportation of feminist activists. Finally we analyse and draw the contributions that this work brings to an African situated decolonising feminist perspective.

Teresa Cunha . Centre for Social Studies, university of Coimbra . teresacunha@ces.uc.pt
Terezinha da Silva . Women and Law in Souther Africa – Moçambique . terezinhanoddy@gmail.com

O texto emerge da feitura do trabalho de conclusão de curso (TCC) do Bacharelado Interdisciplinar em Humanidades – BHU, na Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira (UNILAB), situada no Estado do Ceará, Nordeste do Brasil. Metodologicamente efetuou-se uma investigação interdisciplinar em humanidades sobre Mutilação Genital Feminina – MGF como uma prática que viola os direitos humanos das mulheres de Guiné-Bissau.  Analisou-se fontes escritas e orais, sobre a MGF, conhecido no crioulo da Guiné de “fanado de mindjer”, gênero, corpo e história. Especificamente, focou-se na luta dos ativistas para eliminar a prática da Mutilação Genital Feminina na Guiné-Bissau, evidenciando-se as consequências e/ou os riscos físicos/psíquicos de saúde que a MGF pode causar à vida das mulheres, entre eles, a possibilidade de transmissão da SIDA/AIDS, e ainda, destacando-se que o governo, atendendo as reivindicações dos movimentos sociais organizados, aprovou a Lei 14/2011, tipificando a MGF como crime punível com prisão. Em Guiné-Bissau, podemos dizer que o “saber local” (GEERTZ, 1997) encontra-se “amarrado a teias de significados” (GEERTZ, 1973, p.15) de um determinado território, povo, língua, cultura, apresentando “técnicas corporais” (MAUSS, 1974) diversas ao saber/fazer ocidental, cristão e cientificista. Para tanto, mergulhou-se nas contradições internas/externas dos ritos, histórias e das práticas tradicionais dos povos que praticam a MGF. Por fim, evidenciou-se nas fontes problematizadas a necessidade de mediações educativas que possibilitem sensibilizações de luta e resistência contra essa prática que prejudica a saúde das mulheres.

Roberto Kennedy Gomes Franco . Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira – UNILAB . robertokennedy@unilab.edu.br

Elísio Júlio Fernandes

In my paper I will attempt to unpack local political trajectories and power dynamics that civil society actors and grass-root activists find themselves when they engage and respond to the presence of extractive industry (Liquefied Natural Gas project) in the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. The paper will contextualise and historicise local actors, attempting to indicate what shapes them as active agents in relation to international capital in a postcolonial setting. I will attempt to map out other actors, relevant for understanding local power dynamics – international NGOs, local and traditional authorities, state authorities and international capital companies. Such mapping of power dynamics, inspired by James Ferguson criticism of commonly used verticality of “state – civil society” opposition, will allow to better understand possibilities and constraints of everyday citizenship practice and shed light on existing modes of governmentality, which are significantly connected to transnational networks. The paper will become a basis for my master thesis, which, I hope, will be further supplemented with data collected during field study in Northern Mozambique.

Jevgenija Kovaliova . Centre of African Studies, University of Copenhagen . ekovaliova@yahoo.co.uk

Estudarei a posição específica de transição ocupada pela Liga Nacional Africana ao longo dos ano 30 e 40 do século XX. Duas variantes a ter em conta: a questão identitária e a estratégia político-social dos ‘filhos da terra’. Um território peculiar em estudo: os textos poéticos e críticos publicados no Boletim da LNA nessas duas décadas.

Francisco Soares . Univ. Évora . fmasoares2@gmail.com

Como Jan Vansina famosamente resumiu: “o trilho do leopardo é o trilho do poder”. É sem surpresa, portanto, que em grande parte da África Ocidental e Central diversos movimentos políticos, anticolonialistas porque paralelos à ordem colonial, se valessem das insígnias de poder proporcionadas pelo felino. Seguir a emergência de figuras quiméricas como os ‘homens leopardo’, ngangas tornados ‘bruxos’, e as ‘seitas’ ou ‘sociedades secretas canibais’ permite seguir os trilhos do poder tradicional que, mantendo-se paralelo ou descentrado da ordem colonial, proporcionará as bases para o seu posterior questionamento radical. Neste paper propomos seguir esta pista, tal como ela sobrevém na obra Antropófagos de Henrique Galvão. Central a esta monografia, é o pânico colonial em relação a personagens que se situam no limiar de dois mundos: parte aninais, parte humanas; secretas, mas conhecidas e temidas por todos; garantes da governança, mas possíveis agentes do caos; próximas aos feiticeiros, mas envergando símbolos do poder legítimos. Os ‘homens leopardo’ e os ‘canibais’ são também quimeras porque, apesar de serem uma construção colonial resultante de uma releitura exótica e orientalista de tradições locais, parecem ganhar agência história. Levam assim a administração colonial portuguesa a tomar medias extremas, que revelam não só a sua fragilidade militar e administrativa, como prepotência. Se o “trilho do leopardo” é o “trilho do poder”, este cruza porém diversas ontologias. Percebê-lo, é essencial para lançar as bases de um entendimento dos subsequentes movimentos sociais e políticos angolanos, capaz de fazer justiça interpretativa à forma como diversas reclamações facilmente traduzíveis para o público ocidental amiúde se entrecruzam com agendas alheias à metafísica Europeia.

João Figueiredo . ICS-UL / CEIS20 UC . de.castro.maia@gmail.com

Discutir e compreender a imprensa enquanto canal privilegiado de propagação das ideias nativistas e protonacionalistas no espaço urbano das colónias portuguesas em África é o objectivo central desta comunicação. Entre 1870 e 1926 emergiu e consolidou-se em Angola e São Tomé e Príncipe um conjunto de jornais periódicos que tinham como agenda prioritária as ideias, as causas e os temas nativistas. A imprensa nativa e africana desenvolveu-se nestes territórios coloniais como sintoma das dualidades e contradições do projecto imperial português. Na génese desta imprensa estiveram associações e lideranças nativas (proprietários, comerciantes e profissionais liberais) que fizeram do jornalismo um instrumento para resistir ao programa colonial, para propagar a causa africana e reivindicar do poder local e central políticas e medidas que alterassem a situação laboral, económica, cultural e sociopolítica do povo africano. Através de estudos de caso de Angola e São Tomé e Príncipe, entre 1870-1926, esta comunicação irá discutir a imprensa enquanto espaço de divulgação das ideias protonacionalistas e da luta por melhores condições de vida para a população africana. A comunicação debate como a imprensa africana abordou os temas nativistas e protonacionalistas, destacando que as lutas nativistas foram travadas em três vertentes: a frente da resistência ao projecto colonial; o viés estratégico, com ideais e causas de médio e longo prazo; e o campo factual, com reivindicações pontuais. A comunicação procura compreender o papel desempenhado pela imprensa africana enquanto plataforma da disseminação do nativismo e o seu legado para os movimentos nacionalistas.

Isadora de Ataíde Fonseca . Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal . iataide@hotmail.com

Analisam-se as condições sociais de aproximação, entre o final dos anos 1950 e meados dos anos 1960, de intelectuais e ativistas brancos e negros brasileiros com militantes africanos, em sua maioria angolanos, no contexto de luta anticolonial. Procura-se, através de fontes variadas, mostrar um contexto de possibilidades aberto pelo debate, bem como sua corrosão pelas dificuldades enfrentadas por ambos os lados, institucional e cotidianamente, após o golpe de 1964 no Brasil. Esses intelectuais relacionaram-se através da Política Externa Independente do governo Jânio Quadros (1961-1964), que permitiu a vinda de bolsistas africanos ao Brasil, entre eles militantes do MPLA e apoiadores da descolonização. Este contato ajudou na criação do Movimento Afro-Brasileiro pela Libertação de Angola (MABLA) e teve consequências na vida política e cultural de intelectuais e ativistas interessados na causa da descolonização, em São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro, especialmente. Há poucos trabalhos sobre isso (destacando-se os historiadores Jerry Dávila e José Francisco dos Santos) e as fontes primárias se encontram em arquivos de jornais e/ou da repressão política brasileira (Departamento de Ordem Política e Social – DEOPS).
Mário Augusto Medeiros da Silva . Universidade Estadual de Campinas – UNICAMP . mariomed@unicamp.br