Local Perceptions of Regional Interventions: AU and ECOWAS in Burkina Faso and The Gambia
African regional organizations such as the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have become central actors in the area of peace and security in Africa. In their peace-making activities, both organizations are guided by a ‘people-centred’ discourse, which is for instance reflected in norms of ‘local ownership’ and ‘inclusive peace-making’. Yet contrary to this rhetoric, the perspectives of those affected by these norms and interventions have hitherto received scant attention in the scholarly debate. Against this background, this research project seeks to turn the hitherto dominant top-down perspective on African regional organizations upside down, by scrutinizing how people in societies affected by regional interventions perceive and evaluate both the intervention and its responsible regional organization. On the one hand, this aims at establishing a new analytical perspective on African regional organizations. On the other hand, reconstructing concrete experiences and perceptions of interventions will allow us to generate new knowledge on the legitimacy and effectiveness of African intervention politics.
The project explores two cases of regional interventions - Burkina Faso (2014/15) and The Gambia (2016/17) - in which AU and ECOWAS intervened in the midst of a political crisis and thus decisively shaped how this crisis came to be resolved. Methodically, the project is based on focus group discussions, interviews as well as media analyses. The project draws on a collaborative research approach in which field research as well as data analysis and the publication of project results have been conducted in collaborative tandems with researchers from Burkina Faso and The Gambia.
Part of the collaborative research approach is not only to present the project results to an academic audience, but also to feed them into practice and the broader political debate in both countries. The project team has presented and discussed the results to date in various transfer formats in Burkina Faso and The Gambia, for example with participants in the focus groups and civil society actors, parliamentarians and representatives of international organisations and embassies. In June 2024, the project team also discussed the practical lessons of the research for ECOWAS and its future cooperation with citizens of the region in a multi-day delegation trip to the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja, Nigeria.
African regional organizations such as the African Union (AU) or the Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) are mandated to promote peace and security and to protect democracy and human rights on the African continent. In this context, they intervene more and more frequently in their member states: for example via mediation and negotiation in political crises, after coups or contested elections. This has for instance happened after unconstitutional changes of government in Madagascar, Niger, Mali, and, more recently, in The Gambia, when long-standing President Yahya Jammeh refused to acknowledge opposition leader Adama Barrow’s victory in the 2016 presidential elections.
But what happens during such interventions? During this workshop in January 2017, which was organized by Antonia Witt (PRIF), Augustin Loada (Université de Ouaga 2) and Ulf Engel (University of Leipzig), the participants addressed the following questions: How are abstract goals of restoring “constitutional order” and promoting democracy translated into concrete action? How do African interveners cooperate with respective national and local actors, be they political elites or civil society? How do African societies perceive these regional efforts and how are their results evaluated? What alternative conceptions of peace, democracy and order can be identified beyond the official negotiating tables?
The choice of location is no accident: Burkina Faso also experienced such a regional intervention after the fall of long-time President Blaise Compaoré in October 2014, although it has received mixed reviews in retrospect. In two interactive sessions with representatives of civil society organizations and public intellectuals, the aim was to reflect on the different experiences of this period of regional intervention. The workshop also focused on the role that academics and universities can play as multipliers of ideas, as places where solutions to crises are rethought, and as a source of ideas of order that could possibly represent an alternative to those currently promoting regional interventions.
Publications
- How African Regional Interventions are Peceived on the Ground: Contestation and Multiplexity
| 2024
Witt, Antonia; Bah, Omar M; Birchinger, Sophia; Jaw, Sait Matty; Schnabel, Simone (2024): How African Regional Interventions are Peceived on the Ground: Contestation and Multiplexity, International Peacekeeping, 31: 1, 58–86. DOI: 10.1080/13533312.2023.2262922 - Perspectives sociétales sur les interventions en Afrique : trois approches méthodologiques
| 2023
Witt, Antonia (2023): Perspectives sociétales sur les interventions en Afrique : trois approches méthodologiques, in: Döring, Katharina P.W./Engel, Ulf/Gelot, Linnea/Herpolsheimer, Jens (eds), Recherches sur la vie intérieure de l’Architecture Africaine de Paix et de Sécurité, Leiden: Brill, 85–110.
Publication - Forging an African Union Identity: The Power of Experience
| 2023
Witt, Antonia (2023): Forging an African Union Identity: The Power of Experience, Global Studies Quarterly, 3: 3, 1–12. DOI: 10.1093/isagsq/ksad052 - “Siding with the people” or “Occupying force”? Local perceptions of African Union and ECOWAS interventions in the Gambia
| 2023
Birchinger, Sophia; Jaw, Sait Matty; Bah, Omar M; Witt, Antonia (2023): “Siding with the people” or “Occupying force”? Local perceptions of African Union and ECOWAS interventions in the Gambia, PRIF Report, 3, Frankfurt/M. DOI: 10.48809/prifrep2303 - The “Clubs of Heads of State” from Below
| 2022
Schnabel, Simone; Witt, Antonia; Konkobo, Adjara (2022): The “Clubs of Heads of State” from Below. Local perceptions of the African Union, ECOWAS and their 2014/15 interventions in Burkina Faso, PRIF Report, 14, Frankfurt/M. DOI: 10.48809/prifrep2214 - Heimvorteil?
| 2022
Witt, Antonia; Bah, Omar M; Birchinger, Sophia; Jaw, Sait Matty; Schnabel, Simone (2022): Heimvorteil?. Lokale Perspektiven auf die Friedensbemühungen afrikanischer Regionalorganisationen, Forschung Frankfurt, 2022: 1, 30–34.
Publication - Les « syndicats des chefs d’État » sur le terrain
| 2022
Schnabel, Simone; Witt, Antonia; Konkobo, Adjara (2022): Les « syndicats des chefs d’État » sur le terrain. Perceptions locales de l’Union Africaine, de la CEDEAO et de leurs interventions au Burkina Faso en 2014/2015, PRIF Report, 11, Frankfurt/M. DOI: 10.48809/prifrep2211 - Societal Perspectives on African Interventions
| 2021
Witt, Antonia (2021): Societal Perspectives on African Interventions, in: Döring, Katharina P.W./Engel, Ulf/Gelot, Linnéa/Herpolsheimer, Jens (eds), Researching the Inner Life of the African Peace and Security Architecture. APSA Inside-Out, Leiden: Brill, 78–100.
Publication - Mehr als Wahlen
| 2020
Schnabel, Simone (2020): Mehr als Wahlen. Burkina Faso wählt friedlich, doch der Frieden ist weit entfernt, PRIF Spotlight, 16, Frankfurt/M. - Understanding Societal Perspectives on African Interventions
| 2020
Witt, Antonia (2020): Understanding Societal Perspectives on African Interventions. A Methodological Agenda, PRIF Working Paper, 50: 50, Frankfurt/M. - Taking Intervention Politics Seriously
| 2020
Witt, Antonia; Schnabel, Simone (2020): Taking Intervention Politics Seriously. Media Debates and the Contestation of African Regional Interventions ‘from Below’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 14: 2, 271-288. DOI: 10.1080/17502977.2020.1736415 - Where Regional Norms Matter
| 2019
Witt, Antonia (2019): Where Regional Norms Matter. Contestation and the Domestic Impact of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, Africa Spectrum, 54: 2, 106–126.
Publication - Whose Charter?
| 2019
Witt, Antonia (2019): Whose Charter?. How civil society makes (no) use of the African Democracy Charter, PRIF Spotlight, 5, Frankfurt/M. - African Regional Organizations Seen From Below: Theorizing Legitimacy Beyond the European Nation-State
| 2018
Schnabel, Simone (2018): African Regional Organizations Seen From Below: Theorizing Legitimacy Beyond the European Nation-State, PRIF Working Paper, 42, Frankfurt/M. - African Peace Interventions Seen ‘from Below’
| 2018
Witt, Antonia (2018): African Peace Interventions Seen ‘from Below’. Politics and Disconnects.
Publication - Studying African Interventions ‘from Below’
| 2018
Witt, Antonia (2018): Studying African Interventions ‘from Below’. Exploring Practices, Knowledges and Perceptions, South African Journal of International Affairs, Special Issue, 25: 1, 1–19. DOI: 10.1080/10220461.2018.1417904 - Towards Studying African Interventions ‘from Below’ – A Short Conclusion
| 2018
Witt, Antonia; Khadiagala, Gilbert M. (2018): Towards Studying African Interventions ‘from Below’ – A Short Conclusion, South African Journal of International Affairs, Special Issue, 25: 1, 133–139. DOI: 10.1080/10220461.2018.1438917