UNDERSTANDING THE DRIVERS OF MASS PROTESTS IN AFRICAN CONTINENT: THE LESSONS FROM THE ARAB SPRING

Abstract

For ages, one of the veritable instruments of influencing political and economic order, airing of perceived grievances as well as effecting social change in human societies has manifestly remained mass protests. Mass protest is the exposition of long accumulated catharsis by any group or groups as well as the entire society against existing social order deemed antithetical to people’s norms, expectations and interests. Although sometimes, peaceful or violent uprising, mass protests have caused unimaginable crises, conflicts, revolutions, wars and changes of governments and political systems. The African continent from colonial to post –colonial era has never been insulated from this debilitating phenomenon. The Arab spring which started in Tunisia in 2011 and spread like a cosmic hurricane wind is an example of the volcanic impact and revolutionary effect of mass protests, not only in Maghreb North African region, but across the Middle East, with far reaching effects on the rest of the world. In the midst of this tsunami development, what lessons have the African nations learnt from and since the Arab spring? This study which is qualitative in nature with literature drawn from secondary sources of data adopted the Frustration-Aggression Analysis by John Dollard as a theoretical tool in examining the research problem. The finding among others shows that protests are inevitable in human societies when expectations cannot be met, especially in the African continent where leadership failure has resulted in poor governance and underdevelopment. It is recommended among others that peaceful and civil protests against authorities should not be suppressed in any form by the state and should be seen as legitimate instrument for checking bad governance.