Required Reading (on Talis)

Michael Bratton, Nicolas van de Walle. Popular Protest and Political Reform in Africa Comparative Politics

Naminata Diabate. Naked Agency: Genital Cursing and Biopolitics in Africa. Read the introduction, eBook

Robert M. Press Ripples of Hope. How Ordinary People Resist Repression without Violence Read 7 Individuals Resistance against Repression ((pp. 205-232))

Primary Sources. Newspaper excerpts

Further Readings (on Talis)

Seminar Questions

1. Beginning in the late 1980s witnessed a wave of popular unrest and a push for democratic reforms. Was this the product of the Cold War politics in Africa and the opening up of a new era of Western driven liberalisation, or was this sparked by the foment for political change coming from within Africa's nation states?

2. ‘Weapons of the weak or everyday forms of resistance represent the most significant and effective means of struggle against the (failed) state/authoritarianism’ Discuss.