Joseph Asunka

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de febrero de 2007. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

Members of the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council and protesters from the surrounding communities hold placards during a picket in Cape Town, South Africa, against the construction of the new Africa headquarters for U.S. retail giant Amazon on Nov. 12. (Shelley Christians/Reuters)

MundoÁfrica

African citizens are raising their voices. In just the past three months, protesters have taken to the streets to demand democracy in Eswatini and to show their opposition to anti-democratic power grabs in Tunisia and Sudan. Since April 2017, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has recorded more than 70 episodes in 35 African countries of protests focused on issues ranging from police brutality and presidential third-term attempts to covid-19 restrictions.

Citizen participation and government responsiveness are cornerstones of democracy. In the first installment in this Afrobarometer series in anticipation of the Biden administration’s Dec. 9-10 Summit for Democracy, we reported that African citizens are committed to democracy — even if they aren’t getting as much of it as they want.…  Seguir leyendo »

South Africans line up in the early morning cold to vote on May 8, 2019, in Bekkersdal, South Africa, west of Johannesburg. (Ben Curtis/AP)

MundoÁfrica

In December, the Biden administration will gather government, private-sector and society leaders in a global Summit for Democracy. The summit will be a forum at which institutions and countries will discuss democratic aspirations, confront threats faced by democracies around the world, and establish “an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal.”

Afrobarometer will participate in the summit, bringing the perspectives of ordinary Africans to the table. The quality of democracy and governance across the continent are Afrobarometer’s core themes, so we have a lot to say, especially since we just completed 48,084 face-to-face interviews in 34 countries in our eighth survey round (2019-2021).…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters against former South African president Jacob Zuma demonstrate outside the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg on March 25. (Denis Farrell/AP)

MundoÁfrica

Although access to information laws offer at least some protection for people’s right to information in about half of African countries, the pandemic has highlighted how weak these protections still are in practice.

In addition to limiting access to information, governments have harassed and arrested activists and journalists for releasing statistics or other information on covid-19 in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria and elsewhere on the continent.

Many African countries — including leading democracies such as Botswana and Namibia — still lack laws protecting access to information. And where laws do exist, they vary widely in quality, implementation and enforcement.

Do citizens believe in their right to information?…  Seguir leyendo »