Abstract
What will be the role of ordinary citizens in fostering changes needed for a peaceful and sustainable civil society in African countries? Civic participation and, in particular, social protest, as a means to effect pro-social and democratic change in African countries, promises to play an increasingly significant role. In this chapter, we discuss the context of social protests in Africa, present several case examples, and report views on peaceful protests expressed by 301 citizens from eight African countries. Qualitative data from surveys are presented along with percentages of responses in different categories to illustrate themes of engagement and agency. Our results revealed a very strong affirmation of the right to peaceful protest and a smaller majority of responses indicating personal agency in responding to police violence against peaceful protestors. Implications of these results and the need for research and action to advance social, economic, and democratic development are discussed, and recommendations are made for enhancing the role of citizens in advancing peace in the region.
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Kibanja, G. et al. (2013). African Perspectives on Peaceful Social Protests. In: Malley-Morrison, K., Mercurio, A., Twose, G. (eds) International Handbook of Peace and Reconciliation. Peace Psychology Book Series, vol 7. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5933-0_17
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