African Awakening: The Emerging RevolutionsSokari Ekine, Firoze Manji • What the media has missed – the 2011 uprisings in their African context. The tumultuous uprisings of citizens in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have seized the attention of media analysts who have characterised these as 'Arab revolutions', a perspective given weight by popular demonstrations in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and elsewhere. However, what have been given less attention are the concurrent uprisings in Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Western Sahara and Zimbabwe. The uprisings across Africa and in the Middle East, the book argues, are the result of common experiences of decades of declining living standards, mass unemployment, land dispossessions and impoverishment of the majority, while a few have engorged themselves with riches. Through incisive contributions from analysts and activists across the continent, the essays in African Awakening provide an overview of the struggle for democratisation which goes beyond calls merely for transparent electoral processes and constitutes a reawakening of the spirit of freedom and justice for the majority. Contributors: Charles Abugre, Essam Al-Amin, Massan d'Almeida, Samir Amin, Patrick Bond, Horace Campbell, Lila Chouli, Sokari Ekine, Hassan El Ghayesh, Lakhdar Ghettas, Nigel C. Gibson, Adam Hanieh, Konstantina Isidoros, Peter Kenworthy, Sadri Khiari, Mahmood Mamdani, Firoze Manji, Imad Mesdoua, Fatma Naib, Explo Nani-Kofi, J. Oloka-Onyango, Richard Pithouse, Jean-Paul Pougala, Khadija Sharife, Yash Tandon, Melakou Tegegn, Kah Walla |
Contents
the courage to invent the future | 1 |
perspectives from the African blogosphere | 19 |
history interests and parallels | 34 |
the fall of the Wests little dictator | 42 |
5 Gabons lords of poverty | 51 |
selforganisation for selfemancipation | 56 |
7 Aslema ya Tunis au revoir Ben Ali | 65 |
revolutions without selfproclaimed revolutionaries | 69 |
behind the politics of humanitarian intervention | 151 |
uprising in the slipstream of North Africa | 155 |
21 The lies behind the Wests war on Libya | 170 |
on the murder of Andries Tatane | 180 |
the window is closing fast | 184 |
24 Whose dictator is Gaddafi? | 190 |
25 An African reflection on Tahrir Square | 198 |
26 How might things move forward in Libya? | 211 |
free at last an inside look | 80 |
a protesters firsthand account | 84 |
11 Egypt and the revolution in our minds | 93 |
women of the revolution | 100 |
a protest diary from Cameroon | 107 |
an exercise in shamefaced endorsement | 111 |
the impact on women | 116 |
16 Awakening protests in Morocco and Western Sahara | 122 |
17 Peoples revolts in Burkina Faso | 131 |
why Algeria is different | 147 |
27 The Tunisian revolution did not come out of nowhere | 218 |
28 Imperial neurosis and the dangers of humanitarian interventionism | 231 |
29 International financial institutions and Egypt | 238 |
30 Neoliberal threats to North Africa | 252 |
an Arab springtime? | 273 |
32 Libya the true costs of war | 297 |
Appendix Further readings from Pambazuka News | 311 |
| 313 | |
Back Cover | 327 |