Arab Spring Impact on Africa

In 2011, the actions of a young street vendor in Tunisia initiated a

movement that reverberated throughout the Arab world. Bouazizi’s
startling act of self-immolation highlighted the subdued political
dissatisfaction brewing within the modern Arab state. Within weeks,
the leadership of Tunisia had fallen to dissident forces, and one by one
other nations followed suit. Hundreds of people were left dead in what
many considered political martyrdom while policymakers struggled to
react to the sudden change in this Arab state. 

With Africa’s increasingly potent ties to the Middle East under the
southern spread of Islam, the extension of Arab Spring’s effects into
its sub-continental region could threaten US influence in what has
historically been a region of Westernized colonialism, a growing
example of globalization, and a testimony to the effects of aid on
influence. Should the events of Arab Spring cause a significant impact
on Sub-Saharan Africa, the US would be faced with either setting a
precedent for other Western nations, or remaining silent in what
could be a massive allegiance sector for the Middle East.

As a region highly vulnerable to outside interference and stunted by

the arbitrary divisions of its land, the continent of Africa has struggled
to adjust to the novel ideology of this new democratic era. Despite the
intended purpose of democratic imposition, the economic and
developmental shortcomings of these nations resulted in a series of
unstable or transitional semi-dictatorship democracies. The causes
0f the Arab Spring; underdevelopment, frequent human
rights violations, political suspicions and minority
oppression are undisputed indicators that were evident before the
catalyst occurred, which point towards increasing possibilities of
another wave of democratic uprisings against non-functional
democratic dictatorships in the near future.

According to the BBC, roughly 98 percent of Africa’s fifty-seven

nations are currently “partly free” or “not free” at all, highlighting the
difficulty of discerning true democracy in a region where votes are
easily bought or coerced by those in power. Frequent internal conflicts
and civil wars further complicate the task of attributing authority to a
single entity within each nation, such as the case in Cote d’Ivoire, the
Congo and Somalia. The prevalence of internal conflict as well as the
modern African state’s notoriety for its semi-monarchial tendencies
indicate a substantial and fundamental issue with their progress
towards a democratic status, one unlikely to be resolved without
significant changes in political and social infrastructure.
In 2011, Gambia’s president, Yahya Jammeh, told the BBC that “I will
deliver to the Gambian people and if I have to rule this country for one
billion years, I will, if Allah says so,” also declaring that “critics who
accused him of winning last month’s elections through intimidation
and fraud could ‘go to hell.’” President Jammeh took the presidency in
a coup four elections ago, and has retained office despite numerous
accounts of journalist murder, rigged elections, and voter bribery, as is
similar in other African states. These situations leave citizens
vulnerable to the enticements of political subversion and easy
manipulation by their leaders.
As corruption and civil unrest manifest itself in current African
politics, a political rendition of Newton’s third law reflects a
corresponding increase in protests and demonstrations across the
continent as well. Massive police raids, arson, protests, and riots
have erupted in nearly twelve African states in 2011 alone. Some
discount the likelihood of an “African Spring,” attributing the recent
increase in political protests in Sub-Saharan Africa as an indication of
their freedom to protest. These assertions fail to consider the lack of
progress such protests seem to hold. When coup d’états become the
norm for political articulation, more and more citizens are pushed
towards drastic means of securing their best interests in the face of a
stagnant and non-functional, if not oppressive, government.
Just as in Tunisia, Africa’s economy is poised to be a major
contributing factor to the conflict. In the Arab Spring, the issue was as
much about “bad governance as it was about the economy.” The
United States’ intervention in helping Africa past its economic barriers
to development have caused a significant increase in economic growth
as well as education. Changes in education during a nation’s
transitioning period often precede increased participation (and
subsequent dissent) in politics, as many of those who fuel such
movements tend to be the nation’s youth.

Coincidentally, Africa’s rise in political dissidents coincides with its

steadily increasing educations rates, as is shown in UN reports. In
addition to this, US-based NGO involvement aiding Africa’s climbing
education rates as well as American media’s arrival through attempts
at sub-continental technological development have shown their
influence in African politics. Many African countries have adopted the
same electoral systems, democratic-republican natures and bicameral
legislatures inherent to Western political ideals.

This growing attraction to Western society is reflected in the mass

emigration of sub-continental Africans to Europe and the United
States. Increasing amounts of the African elites migrate to the West
every year to receive an education. This foreign perspective leads to an
increased awareness among the youth of their personal rights,
triggering a wave of internal dissatisfaction when they return to their
native countries. Further conflict is caused by the friction between the
inherited tribal aristocracies within African nations and the educated
self-made youth who often return to their homes bearing
unconventional ideas on interest articulation, political freedom, and
the importance of the common man. As such, African civil wars are
often waged between the older and more established ethno-political
dominant tribes, and the impressionable youth who seek to rise above
the confines of a preset aristocracy.

North African nations have seen the culmination of this in the Arab
Spring movement, whereas in Sub-Saharan nations frequent political
dissatisfaction has often led to a permanent gridlock of ethno-political
civil war. These trends point towards a gradually developing
resentment towards political authority in Sub-Saharan Africa, likely to
boil over with increased influence from their Arab counterparts. Given
the gradual spread of Islam from Northern Africa to the Sub-Sahara
Africa, it is not surprising that such new religious affiliation bears
implications within the sphere of politics. Islamic principles of charity,
unity, and humility are what make it a prime cultivator for democratic
uprising. As a largely democratic and egalitarian faith, autocratic or
corrupt governments are more than ever subject to the scrutiny of the
common man. Considering Africa’s steady conversion, social
instability, and increasing education rates, it is not improbable to
suspect an impending revolution in the near future.