The "Clubs of Heads of State" from Below
Local perceptions of the African Union, ECOWAS and their 2014/15 interventions in Burkina Faso
Published on 8. December 2022
Book
40 pages
978-3-946459-83-5 (ISBN)
Description
African regional organisations such as the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have become key players in managing political crises and resolving conflicts on the African continent. With this power, they have a strong influence on the conditions under which African citizens live today.
But how are these two regional organisations and their interventions perceived and evaluated by local societies? There are divergent assumptions about this. On the one hand, in the academic literature, African regional actors are ascribed a kind of per se legitimacy due to their (cultural and other) proximity to the target societies. On the other hand, there is a widespread and generalised portrayal of African regional organisations in public discourse as "clubs of heads of state" that only pursue their own interests.
Based on the intervention of ECOWAS and the AU in Burkina Faso in 2014/15 after the fall of President Blaise Compaoré, the authors Simone Schnabel
, Antonia Witt , and Adjara Konkobo
elaborate the perceptions and evaluations of and knowledge about African regional organisations. Their study is based on ten focus group discussions and around 60 individual interviews conducted in the capital and in several places in the country by a Burkinabe/German tandem research team.
The authors show that local perceptions of regional interventions are more complex and ambiguous than is generally assumed, and that the two organisations still have some way to go to live up to their claim of being citizen actors.
The report was published in French in August. The English version was published in December.
But how are these two regional organisations and their interventions perceived and evaluated by local societies? There are divergent assumptions about this. On the one hand, in the academic literature, African regional actors are ascribed a kind of per se legitimacy due to their (cultural and other) proximity to the target societies. On the other hand, there is a widespread and generalised portrayal of African regional organisations in public discourse as "clubs of heads of state" that only pursue their own interests.
Based on the intervention of ECOWAS and the AU in Burkina Faso in 2014/15 after the fall of President Blaise Compaoré, the authors Simone Schnabel
, Antonia Witt , and Adjara Konkobo
elaborate the perceptions and evaluations of and knowledge about African regional organisations. Their study is based on ten focus group discussions and around 60 individual interviews conducted in the capital and in several places in the country by a Burkinabe/German tandem research team.
The authors show that local perceptions of regional interventions are more complex and ambiguous than is generally assumed, and that the two organisations still have some way to go to live up to their claim of being citizen actors.
The report was published in French in August. The English version was published in December.