We were around twenty local residents, members of the association, from various villages located around 120 kilometers from the sugar plantations in central Cameroon. On July 6, 2023, we gathered peacefully in front of the headquarters of a multinational company in Yaoundé’s administrative district to demonstrate our dissatisfaction with the destruction of our crops by the pesticides dumped on the fields by the company’s planes. In protest, we dumped the contaminated and visibly burnt crops-cassava leaves, groundnuts-in front of the agro-industrial company’s head office. […]

Ben Kamuntu belongs to the generation of young Congolese born during the war who have never known peace. From an early age, he had to endure the death of his loved ones, the looting of his family’s possessions and the displacement caused by the war. As an adult, Ben Kamuntu joined the nonviolent citizens’ movement Lutte pour le changement LUCHA to urge the Congolese authorities and the international community to promote peace, justice and freedom in the Democratic Republic of Congo. […]

Ben Kamuntu fait partie de la génération des jeunes Congolais nés pendant la guerre et n’ayant jamais connu la paix. Dès le bas âge, il a dû supporter la mort de ses proches, le pillage des biens de sa famille ainsi que le déplacement du fait de la guerre. Devenu adulte, Ben Kamuntu intègre le mouvement citoyen non violent Lutte pour le changement afin de pousser les autorités congolaises et la communauté internationale à promouvoir la paix, la justice et la liberté en République Démocratique du Congo. […]

Last month, a silent march organized by AAR SUNU Élection gathered hundreds of Senegalese to demand the date of the presidential election to be set and political prisoners to be released. A few days after this popular demonstration, the two main demands were met. The Senegalese authorities released the political prisoners and set the election date for this Sunday, March 24. […]

Le mois dernier, une marche silencieuse organisée par AAR SUNU Élection a réuni des centaines de Sénégalais pour exiger la fixation de la date de l’élection présidentielle et la libération des prisonniers politiques. Quelques jours après cette manifestation populaire, les deux principales revendications ont été répondues. Les autorités Sénégalaises ont libéré les détenus politiques et fixés la date des élections à ce dimanche 24 mars. […]

“Despite the independence of African states and the abolition of slavery, African democracies offer very few positive prospects in terms of good governance. The people of Africa are still faced with corruption, democratic backsliding and a range of other ills. As in the past, Africans are not giving up in the face of the predatory oligarchies in power. In many countries, activists and nonviolent movements have emerged to campaign against rulers’ abuse of power and to push nonviolently for good governance. […]”

“Malgré l’indépendance des Etats africains et l’abolition de la traite transatlantique des êtres humains, les démocraties africaines offrent très peu de perspectives positives. Les populations africaines sont toujours confrontées à la corruption, aux reculs autocratiques et à divers maux. Comme par le passé, les Africains ne baissent pas les bras face aux oligarchies prédatrices qui les dirigent. Dans de nombreux pays ont émergés des activistes et des mouvements non-violents qui militent pour faire reculer les abus de pouvoir des dirigeants et qui poussent de manière non-violente en faveur de la bonne gouvernance. […]”

The Taliban takeover on August 15, 2021, was a huge setback for civil liberties and the young democracy in Afghanistan. The takeover was a tragedy for all Afghans, women in particular. Within weeks, the Taliban banned girls’ education beyond the sixth grade (11-12 years old) and imposed restrictions on women’s work in the public and private sectors. With half of the country’s population deprived of education and work, that means more than 20 million Afghans are deprived of their basic human rights. Through my recent work, I have spoken with some of the female protesters in Kabul and Mazar Sharif. […]

Trade union membership worldwide has been on the decline for years, and my country, Kenya, is no exception. Does this mean trade unions are no longer relevant actors for social change? Can we no longer expect to see trade unions mobilizing and galvanizing society-wide nonviolent action as we saw in major episodes of nonviolent history like the Polish resistance to Communist rule and Chilean resistance to defeat dictatorship in the 1980s? […]