Social movement struggles in Africa
This special issue of the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) arose from a conference held in Paris in January 2010, organised by three of the issue's co-editors: Richard Banegas, Marie-Emm...
Social movements in Africa
Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco: since early 2011, television news worldwide has shown people protesting against their governments on a nearly daily basis. Not only is the frequency of media reports on the protests new, but also that the demonstrations are explicitly presented as political move‐ ments. When tens of thousands of people marched in numerous cities (such as Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, Douala in Cameroon, or Port‐au‐Prince in Haiti) around the globe against the high costs of living in 2008, their protests were called ‘food riots’ and put in the socio‐economic frame of hunger and poverty. This is not to say that socio‐economic grievances were not behind the 2008 demonstrations – but those ‘food riots’ equally aimed at bringing down governments and initiating political change, and high prices might also have been a trigger of what is now called the ‘Arab spring’. We current‐ ly observe that political resistance is perceived as something positive: media and ‘Western’ politics do no longer call for an almost apolitical ‘civil society’ but appreciate social movements that aim at bringing down their respective governments. We argue that in some respect, there is a new quality in how African social movements are presented in ‘Western’ media and politics: Recently, trying to bring down governments is presented in positive ways whereas in the years before, social movements were supposed to be a ‘civil society’ almost stabilizing the state. Speculations circulate that the current protests will not stop in Northern Africa and the Middle East: “Will the Ar‐ ab Uprising Spread to Sub Saharan Africa?”, Nairobi’s Daily Nation head‐ lines 2 , referring to Zimbabwe, Uganda and Senegal.
“Social Media Misinformation”—An Epidemic within the COVID-19 Pandemic
"Social Media Misinformation"-An Epidemic within the COVID-19 Pandemic.