‘Enlightened’ West African Dictatorship Challenged by State Capture? Insights from Benin, Togo and Senegal

Francophonie in Sub-Saharan Africa: Post-Colonial Dependence or Self-Determination?

“…in seeds and essential medicine. Corrupt and oppressive governments in SSA have been recognised as far as they were entitled to sell the country's resources and to dispose of the proceeds of such sales, to impose debt service obligations and thus to bind the country's present and future population, and even, in authoritarian states, to use state revenues to buy the means of internal repression (Pogge, 2006;Kohnert, 2022d).…”

“…The movement was inspired by the heroes of the West-African anti-colonial liberation struggle, notably Amilcar Cabral of neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, and the Burkinabé President Thomas Sankara, both murdered by their adversaries (CIIP, 2018). Although Y'en a mare was structured relatively hierarchically to enhance its vigour it tried to compensate for this through regular meetings representative of grassroots groups (Kohnert, 2022d).…”

“…They demanded President Macky Sall to resign from the presidency of his party (APR) to organize a transparent and credible audit of the electoral lists and institutional reforms, including the independence of justice (Kohnert &Marfaing, 2019). Because the mobile telephone penetration rate had exceeded 100 % already in 2016 social movements like Y'en a marre were able to act largely independently of traditional media (CIIP, 2018;Kohnert, 2022d). Y'en a marre proposed a redefinition of the country's social contract by considering new forms of consensual democracy and the institutionalization of the political role of marabouts (Veilleux, 2021).…”

“…However, the leaders of the movement were economically and socially in a privileged position, compared with their rank-and-file activists, and the complex and often abstract demands of the former were not entirely shared by the latter (Veilleux, 2021). (Alltucker, 2018;Kohnert, 2022d). Within the framework of language and culture, Sub-Saharan francophone novels and movies could provide a medium to enable Africans to invent a new rationality, a new way of defining oneself in the face of the world, and to solve the problem of social inequalities which prevail in the postcolonial African Francophonie.…”

“…Y'en a marre and other movements clearly expressed their opposition to President Sall's third candidature in 2024. In March 2021, the country experienced unprecedented violent riots with members of Y'en a marre at the forefront(Dimé, 2022;Kohnert, 2022d).Y'en a marre was not the only protest movement in Senegal. Other groups focussed on issues related to exploitation by foreign firms and countries, like France Degage with about 100,000 followers on Facebook (FRAPP, Front pour une Révolution Anti-impérialiste Populaire et Panafricain, Dakar) and Cos M23.…”