'It is true that the immediate trigger for Arab uprisings is failed internal governance, but sub-Saharan African regimes have also been spared the extra layer of Middle Eastern geopolitical complications which so discredited Arab regimes widely seen as repressive yet impotent,' argues this article in assessing the extent to which popular protests in North Africa will spread to the rest of Africa. 'More crucially, sub-Saharan states are more ethnically pluralist, lacking in the linguistic and ...read more
'It is true that the immediate trigger for Arab uprisings is failed internal governance, but sub-Saharan African regimes have also been spared the extra layer of Middle Eastern geopolitical complications which so discredited Arab regimes widely seen as repressive yet impotent,' argues this article in assessing the extent to which popular protests in North Africa will spread to the rest of Africa. 'More crucially, sub-Saharan states are more ethnically pluralist, lacking in the linguistic and relative ethnic homogeneity that have underpegged mass mobilisation of popular Arab action.'