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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Beyond Burkina Faso, Africa's 'Black Spring' hopes may be premature |
| 2014-11-07 |
| [TODAYONLINE] "After the Arab Spring, this is the Black Spring," said Martin Aglo, a law student from Benin where the opposition has already organized demonstrations against any attempt by President Boni Yayi to stay in power. Long-serving African leaders, such as those in Angola, Zim-bob-we and Equatorial Guinea, face emerging pressures at home from restless unemployed youth, discontent over inequality and democratization demands, magnified by expanding social media. But not all African states can replicate Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other... 's readiness for change. The poor, cotton-producing state south of the Sahara desert already had a tradition of street protest and military-supported social uprisings. Marxist military captain Thomas Sankara led a popular revolution in 1983 inspired by Fidel Castro's rise to power in Cuba in the late 1950s. Opposition movements elsewhere want Compaore's downfall to serve as a warning to their own rulers. "I am full of admiration for what happened in Burkina Faso ... Our African leaders should draw a lesson from this," said Mierassa in Brazzaville, where Sassou-Nguesso has spent a total of 35 years as president. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Brazzaville, nice place to start an Afri war. Always has been. Democracy, not so much. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2014-11-07 07:04 |