The Evolving Political Crisis in Burkina Faso: Observations from Ouagadougou

Let me share an update on the ongoing crisis: The Evolving Political Crisis in Burkina Faso: Observations from Ouagadougou

Elections présidentielles au Faso : les candidats

Pour une fois de l’actualité : le dépôt des candidatures pour l’élection présidentielle du 11 octobre a pris fin vendredi à minuit. La liste officielle des candidats sera publié samedi prochain, mais évidemment, les noms des candidats sont déjà connus (en tout cas de ceux qui ont un chance réelle de jouer un rôle durant cette campagne électorale). Voici une vue d’ensemble, publié par l’hebdomadaire Jeune Afrique.

Pre-Transition Politics in Burkina Faso [Updated]

Sahel Blog

On October 11, Burkina Faso will hold presidential and legislative elections. Senior members of the current interim government, which took office in November 2014 following the fall of long-time ruler Blaise Compaore the previous month, are ineligible to run in the elections. For now, though, the primary political struggle in the country is not over the October vote, but over who will wield power today, and what the role of different factions of the military will be in the government.

In recent weeks, NGOs and media outlets have buzzed with discussions of tension between the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) and Prime Minister Yacouba Isaac Zida, a conflict that could, at worst, derail the transition. Although both Zida and Compaore belonged to the RSP in the past, the elite unit has reasons to fear that it will be disbanded and punished: in December, Zida called for its dismantling, and in February, a political…

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Veranstaltungshinweis: Neues Kino aus Burkina Faso

Gutes Kino hat Publikum – auf dieser einfachen Idee basiert der privat initiierte und von der DEZA mitgetragene Fonds zur Förderung des Filmschaffens Succès Cinéma Burkina Faso. Am 22. und 23. Juni 2013 können wir die durch Succès Cinéma Burkina Faso geförderten Filme erstmals in der Deutschschweiz zeigen, und zwar im kult.kino atelier Basel. Erlebt mit uns diese Filme, die in den vergangenen Monaten die Kinos von Burkina Faso füllten und helft mit, dass Burkina Faso uns auch in Zukunft mit attraktiven Filmen überrascht!

• Booklet mit kurzem Beschrieb der Filme (pdf, 350 kB)
• Plakat mit Programm (pdf, 1.4 MB)

Mehr Informationen zum Projekt gibt es auf der offiziellen Website von Succès Cinéma Burkina Faso succescinema-bf.com. *I like*

Open Data for Africa

opendataforafrica.org is a very interesting platform, launched three month ago by the African Development Bank Group. Data covers a wide range of topics in 20 African countries: Algeria, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, Republic of Congo, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The data collection isn’t exhaustive but nevertheless, it is a very promising mine for data diggers yet.

Tracking violence in Nigeria

Melina Raquel Platas

On Tuesday, Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states, Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa. Raids by the Nigerian army have started in Borno, targeting Boko Haram. Boko Haram has killed over 1000 people since launching their insurgency in 2009, but as the figure above shows, the Nigerian army has been complicit in many killings as well. The Council on Foreign Relations has a security tracker for Nigeria with more information here.

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Veranstaltungshinweis: Die Geschichte Südafrikas in einer neuen Form

Wieder einmal ein Beitrag in meiner Lieblingsrubrik “spannende Arbeiten ehemaliger Studentinnen und Studenten”, diesmal verbunden mit einem Hinweis auf eine bevorstehende Veranstaltung in Basel:

Nach wie vor ist die Aufarbeitung der Geschichte Südafrikas heikel, ganz besonders, wenn es um Rassenfragen geht. Einen neuen Weg sind die Macher von Chimurenga, einem Magazin aus Kapstadt, gegangen. Sie haben eine Chronik in Form einer fiktiven, auf die Woche der Gewaltausbrüche von 2008 zurückdatierten Zeitung herausgebracht. Das Zentrum für Afrikastudien Basel bringt uns diese neue Form der Geschichtsschreibung und -verarbeitung näher, und zwar anlässlich einer Podiumsdiskussion am 2. November. Mit von der Partie sind  die Professoren Ute Holl, Elísio Macamo und Stephan Meyer von der Universität Basel und die beiden Chimurenga-Autoren Henri-Michel Yéré und Melanie Boehi.

Genaue Informationen zur Veranstaltung gibt es hier.

Mali – a surprising coup d’Etat?

Polling station in the region of Sikasso, Mali during the 2007 parliamentary elections.

Five years ago, I had a great experience in observing the parliamentary elections in Mali. Affected in Sikasso, I was deeply impressed by the quality of the organization of the poll as well as by the deeply rooted public support for democracy.

So it was surprising for me to get the news about the coup d’Etat two weeks ago. Jonathan van Eerd, a PhD candidate and good old fellow who conducts his research work on democratization in Sub-saharian Africa, wrote a quite clear analysis about what happened in Mali. I would like to recommend this article to everybody interested in questions about stability and the importance of power balances in emerging and new democracies.

• Read the article “Gaddafi’s Demise Is Not The Only Reason for The Military Coup in Mali“
• Jonathan van Eerd’s Blog

Why electors participated in Burkina Faso’s presidential election 2005?

Well, this is a little ad for a recent publication of one of our students which merites to be considered:

• Monsch, Gian-Andrea, 2008. “Der Klient und sein Patron – oder warum man in Burkina Faso wählen geht.” CIS Working Paper No. 37, ISSN 1662-7504. [pdf, available online, in german]

Abstract: Monsch analyzes the varying voter turnouts in the 45 provinces of Burkina Faso on the occasion of the presidential elections on the 13th november of 2005. Through a comparative macroanalysis he shows that the force of President Compaore’s patron-clients relations, measured by the total result of his electoral victory, strongly influences the level of the provincial turnout. In addition to this, local poverty, ethnic aliation and geographical proximity to the capital bears on positively the voter turnout.

Afrobarometer II

Afrobarometer data doesn’t cover the whole continent yet, but the collection increases rapidly. But as different research institutes work on that project, you need to run around for obtaining recent updates. Here’s an example: if you’re looking for not aggregated data on Cape Verde which was included in the second round, you’ll find the data actually on the project site of ICPSR at Michigan University.