Democratization and electoral turnovers in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond

This study criticizes approaches equating opposition electoral victories with democratization in competitive authoritarian regimes. Not only are these approaches theoretically problematic, but there are also important empirical reasons to distinguish between electoral turnovers and democratization. The study goes on to explain why some African turnovers have been successful in bringing about democratization while others have not. This study promotes an approach in which opposition victories may be used as an independent variable that, under certain circumstances, could promote democratization. Using evidence from the cases of Senegal, Ghana, and Kenya, it is argued that electoral uncertainty caused by a low level of party institutionalization has been an important obstacle to democratization by alternation in the African context.     

Un/clothing African womanhood: colonial statements and postcolonial discourses of the African female body

Using the examples of the partially unclothed African woman in Senegal's controversial African Renaissance Monument (2009) and the 2008 proposed Anti-Nudity bill in Nigeria, this article probes postcolonial African engagements with the female body. The essay proposes that such postcolonial African preoccupations with how the female body is presented and seen should be contextualised in the fray of postcolonial African endeavours to resignify Africa, in response to colonial discourses. The essays bind these preoccupations to an ideologico-discursive continuum that has produced and sustained the African female body as a rhetorical element of colonialism then postcolonialism.     

A Regional Analysis of Industrial Production and Labor Productivity Trends in Tanzania, 1965 to 1972

The Charlie Hebdo affair caused major repercussions in Senegal, not least because President Macky Sall took part in the “march in support of republican values” in Paris on Sunday 11 January 2015. Sall came in for fierce criticism for sympathising with the enemies of Islam. This article analyses the different attitudes expressed in the public demonstrations over the ensuing weeks, as well as in the accompanying media debate. Reactions were not unconnected with a profound ambivalence towards France, manifested in another public debate around the Fifteenth Assembly of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) held in Dakar just weeks before. They were also affected by local politics, with the opposition seizing the opportunity to discomfit Sall. Also everywhere in play were local Islamic dynamics, particularly Sall’s on-going difficulties with Senegal’s principal religious families and resistance to his efforts to modernise traditional koranic schools (daaras).     

Ripening Within? Strategies Used by Rebel Negotiators to End Ethnic War

This article explores what strategies rebels use to prepare their ethnic community for negotiated peace. Proposed strategies are distilled from relevant theory and systematically investigated in case analyses of peace negotiations in Sri Lanka, Indonesian Aceh, and Senegal. The empirical findings indicate that although a coercive military capacity underpinned claims to ethnic representation, coercion did not dominate during the prenegotiation phase. During negotiations, noncoercive persuasion, as well as collective and selective incentives, clearly dominated. Moreover, the most important measures were internal to the negotiating rebel group. The successful rebel negotiator appeared to “mobilize in reverse” by initially targeting the core of military leaders followed by competitor groups and constituents. The article systematically examines across cases what measures rebel negotiators have used to “ripen” their own community, how these measures have been sequenced, and against whom they have been directed. The findings have important implications for the concepts of ripeness and prenegotiation and their requirements. The study underscores in particular the relevance of rebels' nonviolent commitment signals, something that has been largely overlooked in the research on nonstate armed actors. The policy implications suggest the possible benefits of third‐party assistance to efforts to promote communication, public outreach, and procedural transparency on the nonstate side in connection with peace talks.     

The impact of electoral reform at the local level in Africa: the case of Senegal's 1996 local elections

Local electoral systems in transitional polities can play a critical role in the growth and development of democratic governance. In this study, the impact of electoral system change at the subnational level in an African nation, Senegal, is examined. Senegal recently altered the electoral system it employs for the selection of its local and municipal councils. The mixed plurality-proportional system, favors the largest parties. It clearly introduced distortions between the distribution of voter support and seats on councils. These distortions are modified by the proportional part of the vote which provides opportunities for smaller parties to obtain seats. The presence and impact of strategic entry and strategic voting, both in rural and urban areas is assessed.     

“A river is not a boundary”: interplays of national and linguistic citizenship in Pulaar language activism

This article examines the interplay of linguistic citizenship and national citizenship within a trans-border language movement. Since the late 1950s, language activists from among the Haalpulaar’en of Senegal and Mauritania have practiced forms of literacy teaching, literary production, theater and journalism in promoting their language, known as Pulaar. These activists’ trans-border collaborations and their emergence from two distinct national contexts – where, in both cases, Pulaar is spoken by a minority of the population – must be understood in relation to one another. Tracing the biographical itineraries of several key activists, this article illustrates how Senegalese and Mauritanian Pulaar militants have collaborated when it comes to language promotion yet frame their grievances within their respective national political arenas. More than a form of local resistance based on trans-border linguistic and cultural ties, Pulaar language activism has emerged thanks to opportunities presented by forms of post-colonial state-building, including the creation of national radio.     

Instrumentalisation de la coopération chinoise et transition politique au Sénégal: analyse de l’ère Wade

In countries like Senegal where democracy seems to be institutionalising itself, evaluation of the quality of this practice often happens at critical points of reference such as elections. The democratic changes between Presidents Diouf and Wade in 2000 and between the latter and President Macky Sall in 2012 are generally deemed to be indicators of the healthy condition of democracy in this country. The present article stipulates that the politicians involved in this alternation plan and prepare for it as much at the heart of their administrations as do the political parties, but often also outside election periods. This article demonstrates that the Wade regime, following that mindset, has instrumentalized its cooperation with China in attempt to consolidate its power.     

The role of nonformal education in promoting democratic attitudes: Findings from Senegal

Civic education has been considered a way in which the behaviours and attitudes associated with democratic citizenship can be fostered among the members of a society. Since the emerging democracies are hard-pressed to develop a political culture supportive of democratic rule, civic education has been identified as one way such a political culture can be constructed. Recent studies, however, point to the limited reach of such programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on survey data, others have failed to find even a relationship between formal education and democratic attitudes in parts of Africa. On the other hand, despite the prominence nonformal education has gained in many developing countries, such as those in Africa, the effect of nonformal education on political attitudes has not been subject to empirical testing. Using data from a survey involving a probability sample of 1,484 Senegalese citizens, this article examines the effects of education, both formal and nonformal, on political attitudes among rural Senegalese. Both nonformal and formal education are found to increase the likelihood that people will embrace democratic, tolerant attitudes in Senegal.     

'The Suffering is Too Great': Urban Internally Displaced Persons in the Casamance Conflict, Senegal

The paper addresses the dearth of studies of displaced peopleliving in urban areas of sub-Saharan Africa through a surveyof a particular group of internally displaced persons (IDPs)created by Senegal's Casamance conflict. They originate in arural area along the Guinea-Bissau border and were displacedinto Ziguinchor, the regional capital, mostly in the first halfof the 1990s. Analysis of survey data reveals the dynamics ofdisplacement and reception, showing how IDPs used pre-existingrural–urban migration chains and social integration processes.The livelihood activities of IDPs are compared with those oftwo other groups who have largely remained in situ: people normallyresident in the periphery of the urban reception area; and peopleremaining in the rural home area. Relative to both groups, IDPlivelihoods are restricted by reduced access to primary productionsites, and IDP livelihood activities are thus more urban-basedeven than those of ordinary townsfolk.     

Policy Decentralization and the Endogenous Effects of State Traditions: Devolution of Water Management in Ghana and Senegal

Abstract

The widely held belief that decentralization of public services would reduce the fiscal burden of deeply indebted states led a large number of developing countries throughout the 1980s and 1990s to embark on devolution and public sector reform. Among the responsibilities that have generally been devolved are the provision and support of drinking water facilities. There is, however, a substantial cross-national difference in implementation records of public service devolution. This paper argues that state-building legacies, which shaped the capacity of local governments and the opportunity structure of local governments to cooperate with indigenous communities, explain this variation. This argument is analyzed in the context of devolution of water supply in Ghana and Senegal. The analysis shows that the weak capacity of local governments is compensated in Ghana, but not in Senegal, through co-optation of historically strong traditional authorities into local governance structures.