Reversing “Liberal” Aspirations: A View from “Citizen’s” Movements in Africa

ABSTRACT

Since Tahir Square, a series of movements and uprisings have spread around Africa. Redefining themselves as “citizens” movements to emphasise their “rights”, one of the most significant characteristics is their tendency to couch their aspirations in terms that resonate the liberal moral order. Yet in so doing they also create a new subjectivity and redefine democracy, development and human rights. With the cases of Y'en a Marre in Senegal, and LUCHA in DRC, the article analyses this rearticulation, not as reproducing the dominant discourse, but as a reversed discourse that criticises and challenges the status quo. Following Foucault's approach, the paper embraces the circular, contradictory and tactical nature of discourses, but expands it with African political theory and resistance theory to articulate resistance as acts that attack and subvert power at the same time that create new subjectivities.

KEYWORDS:

• African citizens movements
• resistance theory
• coloniality

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all interviewees that shared their views. My gratitude also goes to the editors for allowing me to contribute to this issue, to Kathryn Fisher, for her loving friendship and to Editorial Assistant Alexandre Christoyannopoulos for his support and patience while trying to submit in the midst of my maternity leave.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Daniel Flynn. “Reggae Star Fakoly Tells Senegal’s Wade ‘leave power’.” Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Reuters, December 13, 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2008.

2 Jeune Afrique. “Sénégal: L’Opposition en Marche contre la Réforme Constitutionelle de Wade.” Accessed February 10, 2015. http://www.jeuneafrique.com/Article/ARTJAWEB20110623091359/senegal-arrestation-opposition-presidentsenegal-l-opposition-en-marche-contre-la-reforme-constitutionnelle-de-wade.html.

3 Fadel Barro, Interview, Dakar, Phone Interview, 8 December 2014.

4 Jeune Afrique. “Senegal: Wade fait Machine Arrière sur la Réforme Constitutionnelle.” Accessed February 10, 2015. http://www.jeuneafrique.com/Article/ARTJAWEB20110623140859/senegal-opposition-president-manifestationsenegal-wade-fait-machine-arriere-sur-la-reforme-constitutionnelle.html.

5 Interviews with two Senegalese diaspora members, London, 10 December 2014.

6 Limitations of research funding implied that only French sources were analysed.

7 Forty references (Y’en a Marre 2020).

8 Posts between 2011 and 2021.

9 In particular songs by Thiat and Kilifeu in their álbums Public Opinion and Reglement du Compte. Interviews to Fadel Barro and Aliou Sané in BBC (2012), New York Times (2011), France 24 (2020) and African Studies Quarterly (Nelson 2014).

10 Some of this material was published as an interview article (Iñiguez de Heredia 2014).

11 Fred Bahuma, LUCHA member, Interview Goma, 5 August 2014.

12 Micheline Mwende, LUCHA member, Interview, Goma, 5 August, 2014.

13 Luc Nkulula, LUCHA members, Interview, Goma, 1 August, 2014.

14 In particular, and unless stated, the analysis draws on site posts (LUCHA 2021a) 4 January 2021; 3 July 2020; 7 January 2020; 19 December 2019; 5 September 2019; Facebook posts (LUCHA 2021b) 20 January 2021–6 July 2012.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marta Iñiguez de Heredia

Marta Iñiguez de Heredia is a Lecturer at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her research is focused on the historical sociology of peace and conflict and on everyday forms of resistance.