The Politics of Opposition in Contemporary Africa

This book is mainly devoted to a discussion of the broad experiences of the opposition parties that have emerged as a part of the movement towards multi-party politics in Africa. The contributors to the book tackle an interesting mix of issues from a critique of opposition politics in the context of the economic decline in Africa to an assessment of the effors made by the opposition to establish an effective presence under extremely difficult circumstances. The book also draws attention to the many internal organisational/leadership problems that have contributed as much to the weakness of the opposition as the machinations of the ruling parties. Ethnicity, religion and regionalism are identified as crucial factors militating against the opposition. Case studies are drawn from Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.