This book uses empirical research to bring together a broad range of protest contexts in twelve chapters. From the formation of Maroon societies in the early colonial period, to female mobilisation in authoritarian contexts, via urban youth culture, women or mineworkers in trade unionism, as well as pro- and anti- gay rights activists, the protagonists here all insist upon their rights to protest in a variety of ways. Sometimes popular protest is expressed through religion, often (and sometimes violently) by young people, exasperated by their long wait for social achievement. Electoral wars and the formation of militias reveal a geography of violence in urban areas, which, in some sectarian excesses, can be displaced to rural areas, as described in the study on Boko Haram.
Michel Cahen is CNRS Senior Researcher at Sciences Po Bordeaux, Centre "Les Afriques dans le monde", and historian on colonial Portuguese history. His last book (with Ã. Morier-Genoud) is Imperial Migrations. Colonial Communities and Diaspora in the Portuguese World (Palgrave, 2012).
Marie-Emmanuelle Pommerolle, is a political scientist and Senior Lecturer at Paris1-Sorbonne, affiliated to l'Institut des mondes africains (Imaf). She is currently director of the French Institute of Research in Africa (IFRA) based in Nairobi.