Popular Struggle and Army Take-Over: Citizen Perspectives on Democracy from West Africa

In this lecture, I discuss the frequency of coups d’états and army take-over in West Africa, despite decades of democratization and popular struggles. In particular, I contrast common perspectives among West African public opinion with those of the so-called international community. By drawing on ongoing joint anthropological field research in Burkina Faso and Mali, as well as the West African region more generally, I seek to identify opportunities for democracy in West Africa in a context of crisis and insecurity.Sten Hagberg is Professor in Cultural Anthropology at Uppsala University. For decades, he has conducted research in Burkina Faso and in Mali. He has published extensively on dispute settlement between farmers and herders, poverty and development. Nowadays his research concerns ethnicity, local politics, democracy, popular struggle, and security, as well as methodological developments and engaged research. Sten Hagberg is Director of Uppsala University's Forum for Africa Studies.