Protest and Mass Mobilization: Authoritarian Collapse and Political Change in North Africa by Merouan Mekouar

Author:Merouan Mekouar [Mekouar, Merouan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regional Planning, Public Policy, Social Science, Political Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781317074236
Google: 3EqpCwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 29443351
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

Kabylia’s Black Spring of 2001 and the Failed Promise of a Revolutionary Cascade

The Determining Role of Regional Actors

If civil society actors failed to generate popular mobilization during the Arab Spring of 2011, the Berbers of Kabylia also witnessed their attempts at revolution obstructed in 2001 after showing early promise. Indeed, the experience of the Berbers highlights the importance of the involvement of intermediate actors in the early stages of informational cascades. The 2001 riots in Kabylia, which claimed dozens of lives and lasted seven weeks, demonstrate that the involvement of intermediate actors at the regional level was key in signaling to the population in Kabylia that an opportunity for protest was possible, and it led to a successful informational cascade at the regional level. However, as the following discussion will show, the non-involvement of the national intermediate actors prematurely ended the powerful informational cascade that was successfully forming in Kabylia at the time.

On April 16, 2001 an 18-year-old Berber student named Massinissa Guermah was arrested in the village of Beni-Douala in Kabyla by members of the local gendarmerie, who were investigating an assault perpetrated a few hours prior by a small group of students. While in custody, the young man was shot by one of the policemen responsible for guarding him and died as a result of his injuries two days later (Alilat 2011; Robert 2003, 292; Ruedy 2005, 279). The news of his death (which coincided with the anniversary of another Berber uprising in 1980) resonated strongly with the local population, which spontaneously mobilized to denounce the abuse of the local police. Between April 22 and 29, daily confrontations between the police and local youth, chanting angry pro-Kabylia slogans, became particularly violent and quickly spread to the rest of the region. By the end of the month, the police had killed more than 38 people and had arrested hundreds (International Crisis Group 2003, 8; Ruedy 2005, 279).

In a gesture that would later be replicated by Presidents Ben Ali and Mubarak during the 2011 social unrest in their respective countries, President Bouteflika made a televised speech on April 30 in order to diffuse the tension that had been building in the region during the previous 12 days. As was the case in Tunisia and Egypt, the televised speech had the opposite effect (Mortimer 2004, 193). The local population received the news about the creation of a commission mandated by the government to examine the roots of the insurrection with much resentment and riots continued spreading in the region (International Crisis Group 2003).

After two weeks of spontaneous popular demonstrations, the conflict between the local population and the state took on a new dimension with the involvement of local intermediate actors, notably the RCD and the FFS (the two Berber-based parties in the region), and, more importantly, local traditional leaders who were angered by the contempt of the central authorities and the level of state repression in the region. In reaction to the President’s speech, Saïd Sadi’s RCD withdrew from the government

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