By Dibussi Tande
Since the mass protests that led to the toppling of authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, there has been lots of conjecture and discussion about the probability of similar protest movements spreading to sub-Saharan Africa.
(c) everyday ritual
There has also been a lot of hand-wringing over the fact that it may be difficult for these protest movement to catch on in this region with its fair share of sclerotic regimes that have long gone past their expiration date.
In fact, since the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings, activists and politicians in a number of sub-Saharan African countries (Gabon, Cameroon…), have tried to replicate the Maghrebian model with little success. Undaunted, others are still planning to give it shot (Angola, The Gambia, Senegal, Uganda etc.) in the near future. In the case of Cameroon, activists, mainly in the Diaspora, used social media sites to try and nudge Cameroonians towards an Egypt-type uprising against the 29- year old regime of President Paul Biya. February 23, the third anniversary of the 2008 protests, was selected as the beginning of this protest movement. In the weeks leading up to that date, dozens of “Biya Must go” or similarly named groups and pages were created on Facebook.
In the end, the February 23 protests produced nothing but whimper to the dismay of activists who could not understand why their calls for mobilization on social media sites largely went unheeded to, and did not translate into mass mobilization on the ground in Cameroon.
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