In Search of an African Revolution

In Search of an African Revolution

24 February, 2011 | Analysis by Azad Essa (IPS/AJ)
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DURBAN, South Africa, Feb 24 (IPS) - Demonstrations are
continuing across the Middle East, interrupted only by the
call for prayer when protesters fall to their knees on cheap
carpets and straw mats and the riot police take a tea break.
Meanwhile, in 'darkest Africa', far away from the cameras of
international mainstream media, reports have surfaced of
political unrest in a host of sub- Saharan nations.

As international audiences

watched 18 days of

nonviolent protests

topple

longstanding president

Hosni Mubarak this month,

Egypt

suddenly became a

sexy topic. But, despite the

fact that the rich

banks of

the Nile are sourced from

Central Africa, the world

looked upon the Egyptian uprising solely as a Middle Eastern issue.

Few seemed to care that Egypt was also part of Africa, a continent
with a billion people, most of whom are living under despotic
regimes and suffering economic strife and political suppression just
like their Egyptian neighbours.

"Egypt is in Africa. We should not fool about with the attempts of
the North to segregate the countries of North Africa from the rest of
the continent," says Firoze Manji, the editor of Pambazuka Online,
an advocacy website for social justice in Africa.

"Their histories have been intertwined for millennia," he explains.
"Some Egyptians may not feel they are Africans, but that is neither
here nor there. They are part of the heritage of the continent."

And, just like much of the rest of the world, Africans watched
events unfold in Cairo with great interest. "There is little doubt that
people [in Africa] are watching with enthusiasm what is going on in
the Middle East, and drawing inspiration from that for their own
struggles," says Manji.

He argues that globalisation and the accompanying economic
liberalisation has created circumstances in which the people of the
global South share very similar experiences.

These include "[i]ncreasing pauperisation, growing unemployment,
declining power to hold their governments to account, declining
income from agricultural production, increasing accumulation by
dispossession – something that is growing on a vast scale – and
increasing willingness of governments to comply with the political
and economic wishes of the North," Manji explains.

Rallying cry

"The events in Tunisia and Egypt have become, within Africa, a
rallying cry for any number of opposition leaders, everyday people
harbouring grievances and political opportunists looking to liken
their country's regimes to those of [Tunisia's deposed Zine El
Abidine] Ben Ali or Hosni Mubarak," says Drew Hinshaw, an
American journalist based in West Africa.

"In some cases that comparison is outrageous, but in all too many it
is more than fair," he explains. "Look at Gabon, a tragically under-
developed oil exporter whose GDP per capita is more than twice
that of Egypt's but whose people are living on wages that make
Egypt look like the land of full employment."

"The Bongo family has run that country for four decades, since
before Mubarak ran nothing larger than an air force base, and yet
they're still there," Hinshaw says. "You can understand why the
country's opposition is calling for new rounds of Egypt-like protests
after seeing what Egypt and Tunisia were able to achieve."

But with little geo-political importance, news organisations seem
largely oblivious to the drama unfolding in the West African nation.

Elsewhere on the continent, protests have broken out in Khartoum,
Sudan where students held Egypt-inspired demonstrations against
proposed cuts to subsidies on petroleum products and sugar.
Following those demonstrations on Jan. 30, the New York-based
Committee to Project Journalists reported that staff from the weekly
Al-Midan were arrested for covering the event.

Ethiopian media have also reported that police there detained the
well-known journalist Eskinder Nega for "attempts to incite" Egypt-
style protests.

And in Cameroon, the Social Democratic Front Party has said that
the country might experience an uprising similar to those in North
Africa if the government does not slash food prices.

"There are lots of Africans too who are young, unemployed, who
see very few prospects for their future in countries ruled by the same
old political elite that have ruled for 25 or 30 or 35 years," says
CSM Africa bureau chief Scott Baldauf.

"I think all the same issues in Egypt are also present in other
countries. You have leaders who have hung onto power for decades
and who think the country can only function if they are in charge," he
adds. "A young Zimbabwean would understand the frustration of a
young Egyptian."

Divide and rule

Just as self-immolation was not new in Tunisia, whose Jasmine
Revolution was sparked when poor vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set
himself ablaze, discontentment and rising restlessness is not alien to
Africans. Acts of dissent and their subsequent suppression are the
bread and butter of some oppressive African states

In the past three years, there have been violent service delivery
protests in South Africa and food riots in Cameroon, Madagascar,
Mozambique and Senegal.

But whether the simmering discontent in Africa will result in protests
on the scale of those in Egypt remains to be seen.

"All the same dry wood of bad governance is stacked in many
African countries, waiting for a match to set it alight," says Baldauf.
"But it takes leadership. It takes civil society organisation,"
something Baldauf fears countries south of the Sahara do not have
at the same levels as their North African neighbours.

Emmanuel Kisiangani, a senior researcher at the African Conflict
Prevention Programme at the Institute of Security Studies in South
Africa, believes the difference in the success levels of protests in
North and sub-Saharan Africa can be attributed in part to the ethnic
make-up of the respective regions.

"In most of the countries that have had fairly 'successful riots' the
societies are fairly homogeneous compared to sub- Saharan Africa
where there are a multiplicity of ethnic groups that are themselves
very polarised," he explains.

"In sub-Saharan Africa, where governments have been able to
divide people along ethnic-political lines, it becomes easier to hijack
an uprising because of ethnic differences, unlike in North Africa,"
Kisiangani says.

An important year

This is an important year for Africa. Elections are scheduled in more
than 20 countries across the continent, including Zimbabwe and
Nigeria.

But as food prices continue to rise and economic hardship tightens
its grip on the region, it is plausible to imagine Africans revolting and
using means other than the often meaningless ballot box to remove
their leaders.

"What people want is the democratisation of society, of production,
of the economy, and indeed all aspects of life," says Manji. "What
they are being offered instead is the ballot box."

But, Manji argues, "Elections don't address the fundamental
problems that people face. Elections on their own do nothing to
enable ordinary people to be able to determine their own destiny."

This, according to Kisiangani, is because "the process of
democratisation in many African countries seems more illusory than
fundamental."

"The protests have created the 'hope' that ordinary people can
define their political destiny," he says. "The uprisings…are making
people on the continent become conscious about their abilities to
define their political destinies."

Courtesy