Africa’s ‘Recovery’: Economic Growth, Governance and Social Protest

Abstract

The reality behind the alleged recovery of Africa from the 2008/09 global financial meltdown, which has been well advertised by multilateral financial agencies, needs investigation, partly because the institutions’ political agenda appears to be to further integrate the continent into a highly volatile world economy, as well as cement Washington Consensus  economic policies. The reality of economic recovery is so contradictory that African elites in countries praised recently for their pro-Washington stance by the Bretton Woods  Institutions (such as Tunisia, Libya and Egypt), are now being challenged by popular movements demanding both democracy and socio-economic justice. From North Africa these are moving to sites such as Senegal, Uganda, Kenya, Swaziland, Botswana and South Africa, and social protests at other sites of exploitation across the continent.