Newswise — N’Dri Assie-Lumumba, a professor of Africana Studies at Cornell University who was raised in Ivory Coast and has recently traveled to Tunisia, comments on the emerging demand for political freedom in Africa and the Middle East.
She says:
“Like Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisia was colonized by France, although officially Tunisia was a protectorate. Until the 1993 Military Coup in Côte d’Ivoire, the two countries were presented as success stories. Their first presidents had similar worldviews and conceptions of modernity, and development of educational institutions have led to the emergence of a relatively highly educated class demanding jobs and political freedom.
“Unanticipated or anticipated but undesirable outcomes of education, especially at the university/higher education level, include increased consciousness and high expectation for socio-economic attainment. A university graduate from Sidi Bouzid with no job resorted to selling produce on the sidewalk and set himself on fire in a dispute with the police. This is the event that unleashed the popular energies that had been building over the years.
“Since the 1990s many countries in the various sub-regions of the African continent have adopted liberal democracy rule. However liberal democracy has been more in form than substance. The popular demand for more genuine democratic and transparent governance is increasing. The Tunisian situation before the ongoing movement has been compared to Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Algeria, Libya.”
RSS