Popular Protest, Political Opportunities, and Change in Africa

This book offers a fresh analysis of third wave popular protests in Africa, shedding light on the complex dynamics between political change and continuity in contemporary Africa. The book argues that protests are simultaneously products and generators of change in that they are triggered by micro-and-macrosocial changes, but they also have the capacity to transform the nature of politics. By examining the triggers, actors, political opportunities, resources and framing strategies, the contributors shed light onto tangible (e.g. policy implementation, liberal reforms, political alternation) and intangible (e.g. perceptions, imagination, awareness) forms of change elicited by protests. It reveals the relevant role of African protests as engines of democracy, accountability and collective knowledge. Bringing popular protests in authoritarian and democratic settings into discussion, this book will be of interest to scholars of African politics, democracy and protest movements.

Edalina Rodrigues Sanches is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences - University of Lisbon.

1. Introduction: Zooming in on protest and change in Africa 2. Shaking up democracy from below: Protest and change in Cabo Verde 3. Popular protest, resources and political opportunities in Ghana: Contextualising the case of occupy Ghana 4. Y'en a marre: catalyst for an indocility grammar in Senegal 5. Nothing will be as before? The 2014 Insurrection in Burkina Faso and its political impact 6. Feminist demands, opportunities, and frames: strategic silencing within Morocco's February 20 Movement? 7. Social movements in rural Africa: How and why the Mozambican state closed the Prosavana program 8. 'We got a taste for protest!' Leadership transition and political opportunities for protest in Angola's resilient authoritarian regime 9. How the January 2015 protests influenced Joseph Kabila's strategy of 'Glissement' 10. From voting to walking: the 2011 walk-to-work protest movement in Uganda 11. Anatomies of protest and the trajectories of the actors at play: Ethiopia 2015-2018 12. Pro-Democracy Protests in the Kingdom of Eswatini 2018-2019 13. Conclusion: Comparative implications and new directions