Activisms in Africa

The apartheid was a basis of the government’s policy of South Africa since 1948, fixative the power of the white minority, based on the segregation and discrimination of black, colored and Asian people, stored in state laws. In 1976 the authorities of South Africa modified the policy of apartheid, moving away from its basic assumptions and eliminating manifestations of segregation and racial discrimination; However, this did not mean the liquidation of the system of apartheid. In the presidency of F.W. de Klerk (1989-1994) began the process of the fall of the apartheid system and its replacement for a system of parliamentary democracy, respecting the rights of all living in South Africa’s racial groups. In 1995 South African government established the Truth and Reconciliation Commision to uncover the truth about human rights violations, which were commited during the apartheid’s period. It is estimated that in years 1948-1994 21 000 people were killed and 2000 others were forced dissappeared, the faith of most of them is still not known. The families of victims are pending the lawsuits against the torturers and murderers of the apartheid regime. More than 19,000 injured require financial compensation from the authorities for the damages, made to them in the days of apartheid. The South African museums and memory sites, like the Sol Plaatje Museum and Library, the Museum of Apartheid, the Freedom Park or the Liliesleaf Farm, document the events of the years 1948-1994 and show, how the country is dealing with its difficult past.

 
Karolina Baraniak . University of Wrocław . karolina.baraniak@onet.pl

This research focuses on the current situation of human right defenders and activists in Kenya. It goes back from to the Independency and the creation of the Republic of Kenya in 1963. It draws on participant observation and in depth interviews with activists of twelve different social movements. All of them took place in Nairobi, tough their activism was not circumscribed to the capital. The study discusses the tensions that these activists face by focusing their struggles on human rights in a continent in which what these mean is subject to debate. The non-full acceptancy of human rights tends to be sustained in two main ways: on the one hand, the concept of Human Rights, and the ways to develop it, are said to come from the Global North, without paying attention to cultural specific contexts, making it easy to interpret the whole frame as an Imperialist trap that aims at destroying non Western cultures. On the other hand, the government implies precisely the argument that Human Rights are not African to evade applying them. This, nonetheless, seems paradoxical in a country fully integrated in Capitalism -an economic system which is also not African. Nonetheless, these activists claim and show how Human Rights are contemplated in African Tradition, even if framed in other ways, as a way to ensure the harmony in their societies.From there, activist claim regret that both governmental and social stratum seems to have accepted the individualist aspects of economic rights and not the social and political rights. Thus, the conflict around human rights is not seen as a cultural one, but rather a strategy to maintain power in the same hands, leaving women and minorities (by origin, ethnic, sexual and abilities) out of the decision making processes.

Ruth Caravantes Vidriales . Tangaza University College of Nairobi (Kenya) . ruthcaravantes@gmail.com

This Paper examines the concept of Women’s Situation Room as a model of peace building initiative carried out by women. The purpose of this paper is to build a bridge between theoretical and contextual debates around Women Peace and Security and the cultural translation  within different context. I first give an overview of the United Nations Security Council Resolution as a tool for women’s creative and substantive participation in conflict resolution and peace building. Second , I discuss the success, opportunities,weakness and challenges of the Women Situation Room Nigeria as a case study. Finally I explore avenues for the institutionalization of Women Peace and Security through Women Situation Room.

Joy Onyesoh . WILPF Nigeria . dzoious@yahoo.com

The right to development (RTD) is the most controversial human rights of our time. Questions on the nature, content, duty bears, rights holders, justiciability and binding nature of the RTD have fueled the controversy amongst scholars and diplomats. Even in Africa where the RTD is binding, states do not agreed on the content and nature of the RTD. This disagreement can be observed in the state reports to the African Commission on measures taken to give effect to the RTD. In these reports, the RTD is either presented as a right to culture or right to land or various other items. Yet in recent time, as a result of civil society activism and advocacy, the RTD had been given a meaning and its nature had been clarified by the African Commission. The latter underlines the multifaceted of the RTD which comprises elements of non-discrimination, participation, accountability, transparency, equity and choices as well as capabilities. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of civil society in giving a meaning to the RTD in Africa and beyond. To this end, the paper explores how significant was the involvement of civil society organisations in cases which shaped the RTD. As part of assessing the significance of civil society’s action in shaping and furthering the RTD, the paper will examine the extent to which civil society organisations have led RTD litigations, the outcome of these litigations and the impact they have on the RTD discourse in Africa and beyond.  In this enquiry, the paper relies on the jurisprudence of African the Commission on the RTD. Ultimately, it concludes that civil society action had been essential in shaping and furthering the RTD.

Sergei Djoyou Kamga . Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, University of South Africa . dkamgsa@unisa.ac.za

Uprisings in Tunisia started a new are in the region of Arab countries. Street activism, manifestations took place in the country not only after the immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi but also even after the Jasmine Revolution had happened. As a result of these manifestations, Tunisian people changed the political regime in the country. Transition to democracy from autocracy brought discussions regarding the new political spectrum. In addition to these discussions, people started to question the place of religion and the compatibility of Islam with democracy. Consequently, from the beginning of the Arab Spring, Tunisia has always been in the spotlight of international politics. The journey of a great country with its majorly Muslim population became the latest example of how street activism might shape the political life. Although the initial phase of the aftermath of the revolution brought much hope to the people in Tunisia, it is also possible to say that within the discussions of forming a new political system, place of religion, and inter-state relations with other countries, a large portion of Tunisian population have disappointments. Within this context, in order to analyze the frustration of the people and understand their hope for the future of their homeland, the authors have spent seven months in Tunisia between July 2013 and February 2014 for the project titled “SpringArab – Social Movements and Mobilisation Typologies in the Arab Spring” and financed by the Marie Curie Actions 7th Framework Programme.
Didem Doganyilmaz Duman . Halic University . didemduman@halic.edu.tr
Goshen Duman . Istanbul Aydin University . gduman@aydin.edu.tr

Ghana has a long history of civilian protest and social movements: In the country’s history, students, workers, members of the middle class and of different professions successfully protested on the streets and at the courts, applying different forms of resistance. Already in the 1890s, some inhabitants of the Gold Coast were fighting a land bill by the British that threatened traditional land tenure. Discussions among the local population culminated in the foundation of the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society which sent a delegation to London to explain the locals’ point of view to the British government. This laid the foundation for political action which finally lead to independence. Protests of different groups trying to assert their demands remained no exception also after the struggle for independence. In 1978, members of the middle class protested against a model called Union Government by which the then military head of state Acheampong sought to perpetuate the military into government. Today in democratic Ghana, civil society organizations remain key agents in putting pressure on the government: In 2014, frequent power cuts and rising fuel prices persisted, an economic boom seemed to give way to an economic crisis. In July 2014, several hundred activists protested in the country’s capital Accra against the crisis, expressing frustration and anger about the current government. Following this demonstration, several new pressure groups evolved, among them “Occupy Ghana”. The proposed paper will discuss the role of civil society and social movements in bringing about regime changes in Ghana’s history. It will assess the possibilities to act and the success of different agents of civil society against the backdrop of different political regimes in Ghana’s history.

Andrea Noll . University of Hamburg . nollan@uni-mainz.de
Jan Budniok . University of Hamburg . jan.budniok@uni-hamburg.de

In April 2011, an Egyptian delegation of popular diplomacy visited Addis Ababa to promote Egyptian relations with Ethiopia. This visit has taken place after the January 25 revolution. In the same month, Ethiopia announced the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. In order to finance the dam, the government has mobilized its diaspora community to purchase bonds issued for supporting the construction of the dam. Since 2011, both regimes in Egypt and in Ethiopia have been in transition that has encouraged the civil society participation in the Nile politics together with the officials and technocrats who used to dominate the issue of the Nile water management. For Egypt, the January revolution has opened the public arena for civil society in general. Building up community dialogues with other Nile peoples became a possible sphere where different forms of civil society were then able to participate and specially within enjoying the state blessing. On the other side, the GERD is considered in Ethiopia as a key component in economic transition because water is an initial natural resource to generate energy for strategic development plans. Aside from the Ethiopian and Egyptian governments’ inducement of the civic engagement in the Nile issue for different purposes, it is an opportunity for the civil society to consolidate its roots in the political system though the political systems are not tolerant enough with civil society. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore the states’ causes and tools to allow their peoples to have voice in the Nile politics, to assess the forms of civic engagement in the Nile management and to identify which form is able to attain a meaningful influence in the Nile management.

Beer Rabei Youness . Faculty of Economics and Political Science – Cairo University  . abeer_rabei@feps.edu.eg

Many scholars have conceptualized in the last years the wave of protests that has taken place since the Arab Spring. Probably, Manuel Castells’ concept of “Networked social movements” (2012) has been one of the most praised and discussed ideas. By this, Castells argues that, despite all these protests take place for locals reasons, they all share some common global features, such as: the leading role of an urban youth precariat, the use of social networks and innovative practices as new repertoires of social action, as well as the presence of underlying demands (social justice, protection of common goods, political transparency and accountability, democratic participation…)  that show a huge crisis of democratic representation. Nevertheless, in this global discussion about the pattern of the protests, Sub-Saharan African uprisings have been tremendously absent and overlooked. Likewise, authors as Branch and Mampilly (2015) have also challenged that this general framework might be applied to African protests, since, according to both authors, African protests are just a continuation of resilience and social-political action that characterizes the post-colonial history of many African societies. By analysing some relevant African protests (from Senegal 2012 to DRC 2016), the purpose of this paper is to discuss to what extent this kind of social mobilizations fits into Castells’ concept, which are the main limits and contradictions of this debate when reflecting on the African reality, which are, all in all, the most important aspects that might be characterising these mobilizations and that could, at the same time, nurture the debate about the global wave of protests since 2011.

Oscar Mateos . Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations (Barcelona’s Ramon Llull University) . omateosm@gmail.com

Since colonial times, Equatorial Guinea has a long history of autocracy. The Spanish colonial regime was authoritarian and, after the independence, in 1968, Francisco Macías Nguema inaugurated the first Nguemist dictatorship. Since the 1979 coup d’état, Teodoro Obiang Nguema has been the head of what is known as the second Nguemist dictatorship. The colonial and postcolonial authoritarian regimes asphyxiated civil society, especially regarding individuals and groups that sought political participation. Nonetheless, the country’s political history is also made by “possible transitional periods”. They are possible and not actual transitional periods because democracy never superseded the authoritarian regime, but were felt by civil society actors as opportunities to change. In my paper I do a historical comparative analysis of three moments that could predict a regime change: 1931 (transition from the Bourbon Restoration to the Second Republic), 1979 (transition from the first to the second Nguemism) and 1991 (transition from the single-party system to the multi-party system). I also consider the independence context, in 1968, a hinge moment between the colonial and the post-colonial forms of authoritarianism. The objects of my analysis are the instruments and discourses used by excluded individuals and groups who had the goal of participating in the political reforms and ultimately change the regime. In addition to identifying and characterising these groups both socially and politically, I will also take an in-depth look to the characteristics of the authoritarianisms where these individuals and groups acted.

Ana Lúcia Sá . CEI-IUL . ana.lucia.sa@iscte.pt

At the beginning of the 1990s, Cameroon, like many African countries, was swept by Huntington’s “third wave of democratization”. One main characteristic of the democratization process in Africa was the birth of the civil society with associations which mushroomed in many African countries. They played important roles in some of these countries, notably in Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, and Congo, where they contributed in regime change. Curiously, in Cameroon, in spite of the existence of the civil society, no regime change has taken place. Instead, the regime has been strengthened as elections have been organized. The Head of State is serving the fifth term in office and his party, the Cameroon People Democratic Movement is overwhelmingly dominating the parliament. It is evident that the civil society has failed in changing the regime in Cameroon as there has been no alternation. What explains this failure of the civil society in Cameroon? This paper, through a keen analysis of the political process started in 1990, contends that, in Cameroon, the regime in power when the democratization process started, amalgamated the civil society with the opposition and cracked them down so fiercely that the civil society died. It resurrected thanks to a regulation that gave less leeway to the civil society to undertake actual politically-oriented actions. This new civil society is yet to gather enough courage and imagine new avenues and methods in order to contribute significantly towards a regime change in Cameroon alongside other segments of the Cameroonian society.

Mokam David . University of Ngaoundere . david.mokam@gmail.com