Join us for our in-person African Studies Workshop! The workshop series is a scholarly space for Africa-centered research, offering a diverse range of topics and scholarly backgrounds to explore historical and current conditions.
May 4, 2026
Speaker: Sishuwa Sishuwa, Visiting Scholar, Center for African Studies/ Lecturer, Stellenbosch University.
Title: What Does Democracy Deliver? Civil Society and Democratic Backsliding in Southern Africa
Abstract: This paper examines democratic backsliding in Southern Africa during the 2010s and early 2020s and explains why civil society has been unable to stem the tide. It argues that much backsliding since the 2010s occurred because of the actually limited democratisation during the 1990s, supposedly Africa’s golden age of liberal democracy. It demonstrates how persistently high presidential power acted alongside the perceived failure of electoral democracy to improve material standards for most citizens, the region’s extractive political economy, and the growing influence of illiberal actors (especially China) provided the basis for further encroachments on social accountability. The paper first provides an analysis of how these themes played out from the early 1990s to 2010, when there was a significant change in how executives sought to undermine civil society. It then provides a country-by-country analysis of how these factors, often overlooked during this ‘golden era’ of liberal democracy in the region, enabled the (re)turn of backsliding. More broadly, the paper shows that in Southern Africa, “backsliding” represents a strengthening of tendencies that have always been present – but here under-documented – but which become more or less significant, depending on specific domestic and external conditions.
Discussant: Zoe Marks (Faculty Director, Harvard CAS)
If you are in Cambridge/Boston, we encourage you to join us in the Seminar Room at the Harvard Center for African Studies. If you are joining us virtually, please register here on Zoom. Once you register, you will receive the Zoom Link in your email inbox.
For future workshops, please join our ASW mailing list. All speakers are listed below.
*May 4th is an exciting additional add-on ASW session with Sishuwa Sishuwa, Visiting Scholar at CAS
LOCATION:Harvard CAS Seminar Room. 1280 Massachusetts Ave 3rd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138 STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20260504T160000Z DTEND:20260504T173000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR