Anarchism in Africa refers both to purportedanarchic political organisation of some traditional African societies and to modern anarchist movements inAfrica.
Sam Mbah andI. E. Igariwey inAfrican Anarchism: The History of a Movement make the claim that:
To a greater or lesser extent, all of ... traditional African societies manifested "anarchic elements" which, upon close examination, lend credence to the historical truism that governments have not always existed. They are but a recent phenomenon and are, therefore, not inevitable in human society. While some "anarchic" features of traditional African societies existed largely in past stages of development, some of them persist and remain pronounced to this day.[1]
The reason why traditional African societies are characterised as possessing "anarchic elements" is because of their relatively horizontal political structure and, in some cases, the absence of classes. In addition to that, the leadership of elders normally did not extend into the kinds of authoritative structures which characterise the modern state. A strong value was, however, placed on traditional and "natural" values. For example, although there were no laws against rape, homicide, and adultery, a person committing those acts would be persecuted together with his or her kin. The principle ofcollective responsibility was sometimes upheld.
Class systems had already existed in some African civilisations (such asNubia,Egypt,Axum and theHausa Kingdoms) for millennia, but processes of social stratification accelerated from the fifteenth century onwards.
The French anarcho-syndicalistÉmilie Busquant is commonly credited with creating the first copy of theFlag of Algeria.[2] The anarchistPierre Morain was also the first person from France to be arrested for publicly supporting the cause of Algerian independence.[3]
From the 1890s onwards,Angola became one of the destinations for anarchists that had been exiled by successive Portuguese governments,[4] possibly resulting in the development of a syndicalist presence in the colony.[5] Following the28 May 1926 coup d'état, Portuguese anarchists participated in afailed revolt against the newmilitary dictatorship, after which theGeneral Confederation of Labour (CGT) was outlawed. As a result, in October 1927, the CGT leaderMário Castelhano was himself deported to Angola, where he stayed for two years, before making his way back to Portugal.[6] In the wake of thePortuguese general strike of 1934, theEstado Novo established a concentration camp on the north bank of theKunene River, to which they deported some anarcho-syndicalists that were involved in the strike.[7]
During theAngolan War of Independence, many Angolans began to develop anti-authoritarian systems of "popular power", during which people took control of and transformed their own lives while fighting against the Portuguese colonial authorities. However, onceAngola achieved itsindependence following theCarnation Revolution, people were disarmed by the newMPLA government, which officially adoptedMarxism–Leninism as its ideology and replaced the nascent "popular power" with aone-party state, igniting theAngolan Civil War.[8] The MPLA began to arrest left-wing opposition figures, including Maoists, Trotskyists and anarchists, and broke up workers' strikes for higher pay and better working conditions.[9] In 1977, apower struggle between MPLA moderates (led byAgostinho Neto) and radicals (led byNito Alves), culminated in anattempted coup d'état, after which the radicals were purged from the party's ranks and power was centralized further around the MPLA leadership.[10]
DuringWorld War II, many Spanishrepublicans served as part of theLong Range Desert Group andFrench Foreign Legion during theNorth African campaign.[11] On May 13, 1943, the9th Company of theRégiment de marche du Tchad was established inChad from these Spanish republican volunteers, which included many anarchists.[12][13] In September 1943, the company was transferred toMorocco and then the United Kingdom, as part of the2nd Armored Division, going on to participate in theBattle for Normandy and theLiberation of Paris.[14][15]
The anarchist movement first emerged in Egypt in the late nineteenth century, but collapsed in the 1940s.[16] The movement has reemerged in the early 2010s.
The movement re-entered global view when a number of anarchist groups took part in the2011 Egyptian revolution, namely the Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement and Black Flag.[17] The Egyptian anarchists have come under attack from the military regime and theMuslim Brotherhood.[18][19][20] On October 7, 2011, the Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement held their first conference inCairo.[21]
In 2003, theZabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) began to build an underground presence in Eswatini, with Swazi members joining the organization.[22] ZACF began to openly support the pro-democracy movement and popularised anarchist ideas among young people, with some members even working within theSwaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO).[5][22] On October 1, 2005, eight SWAYOCO members, including the ZACF member Mandla Khoza, were arrested by police during a youth demonstration inManzini, which had been protesting against the suppression of the pro-democratic opposition.[22]
At the turn of 2006, 17 petrol-bombings were carried out by pro-democracy militants against state targets. Several democracy activists were arrested and charged with treason, while an article in theTimes of Swaziland accused ZACF of having carried out an attack on a police vehicle during a demonstration in Manzini. This claim was denied by the ZACF, who issued a statement to the Times in which they reiterated their support for the pro-democracy movement and stated that the Swazi ZACF branch had denied taking part in the bombing.[23] The ZACF subsequently noted the emergence of an armed struggle tendency within the pro-democracy movement, but they considered this to not be a viable option for liberation, instead proposing the construction of a mass movement for a participatory economy, while not ruling out armed self-defence.[24]
At the December 2007 ZACF congress, it was decided to restructure the organisation, establishing the Eswatini section as its own autonomous group. Members of SWAYOCO subsequently set up an anarchist study circle inSiphofaneni, organizing the transport of anarchist materials from South Africa into Eswatini. Mandla Khoza also attempted to establish a community project in this time, but activity in the following years was limited, due to the poor living conditions of many pro-democracy activists.[25] The year of 2008, which PUDEMO had slated to be the year of democratization, passed without any democratic reforms taking place.[4]
In the 1960s, students atAddis Ababa University began to protest against the absolutist rule ofHaile Selassie I, establishing the University Students Union of Addis Ababa (USUAA) in 1966 to coordinate the campaign,[26] which culminated in ageneral strike in early 1974, called by theConfederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions (CELU).[27] This campaign against the monarchy eventually resulted in acoup d'état by amilitary junta known as theDerg, which overthrew theEthiopian Empire and established aMarxist-Leninistone-party state in its place. During theRed Terror, the Derg used the term "anarchist" to describe many of its enemies, ordering the purge of "anarchists" fromEthiopia.[28] Some more radical Ethiopian students, who saw themselves as the true standard-bearers of the Ethiopian Revolution, came to label the Derg as "fascist", after a number of students had been arrested by the government, with some accused of being "anarchists" for opposing the land reform program.[29]
In 2020, theHorn Anarchists collective was established to spread anarchist ideas throughout theHorn of Africa, particularly inEthiopia and within the Ethiopian diaspora.[30] The Horn Anarchists have been active in the campaign against theTigray War, which they have described as a "genocide",[30] analyzing it as a product of the risingnationalism and a political shift to the right-wing under the government ofAbiy Ahmed and the rulingProsperity Party.[31]
Between the 10th and 14th centuries CE, theBalanta people first migrated from Northeast Africa to present-day Guinea-Bissau, to escape drought and wars. During the 19th century, the Balanta resisted the expansion of theKaabu Empire, earning them their name, which in theMandinka language translates literally to "those who resist". The Balanta organize their society largely statelessly and without social stratification, with elder councils deciding on day-to-day matters. They also practice gender equality, with Balanta women taking ownership of what they themselves produced. Property and land are mostly held in common among the Balanta, with some personal property being allowed for subsistence farming and themeans of production being held by individuals and their families.[32]
In 1885, theBerlin Conference brought the entire territory of Guinea-Bissau under theeffective occupation of thePortuguese Empire,[33][34] which had previously only occupied a few settlements in the area. During the 1890s,Portuguese Guinea was established as a separate military district, to promote Portugal's occupation,[35] which began to impose taxes on the indigenous population and grant concessions to foreign companies to fund its expanding occupation.[36][37] During this time, Guinea-Bissau was in part used as a penal colony for anarchists that had been exiled by successive Portuguese governments.[4] Indigenous resistance to colonial rule continued well into the 20th century.[38] By the time that the28 May 1926 coup d'état established amilitary dictatorship in Portugal, most of Guinea-Bissau had been occupied, administered and taxed,[39] a process that was finally completed by theEstado Novo in the mid-1930s.[40]
In the 1950s, the Bissau-Guinean activistAmílcar Cabral began to agitate against the Estado Novo, advocating for the independence of Portugal's African colonies. He established theAfrican Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) to coordinate the struggle, though he insisted the party "is not a system of chieftainship,", instead organizing along anti-elitist and anti-bureaucratic lines, in contrast tovanguardism.[41] Power instead lay in self-administering village committees, which were elected and recallable, rather than in party officials,[42] as Cabral had stated that "we do not want any exploitation in our countries, not even by black people."[43] In 1963, the independence struggle evolved into theGuinea-Bissau War of Independence, in which theRevolutionary Armed Forces of the People (FARP) led an armed guerilla war against the Portuguese colonial authorities. The FARP was itself made up of unpaid volunteers and was not hierarchically structured, instead decentralizing command as much as possible.[44] These decentralist tendencies ledStephen P. Halbrook to consider Cabral as "one of the great libertarians of our age",[45] although this libertarian socialist characterization is disputed.[46]
According to oral tradition, theKikuyu people were once ruled by a despotic king who was deposed in a popular uprising, which instituted a democratic system in the place of monarchy. This saw the establishment of the Ituĩka ceremony, a tradition in which the old guard handed over the reins of society to the next generation, to avoid the institution of a dictatorship.[47] The Kikuyu subsequently lived under a system of social equality, without class or gender stratification, where a federation of councils organized society from the bottom-up. But with the arrival of theImperial British East Africa Company and establishment of theEast Africa Protectorate, the new British colonial authorities reintroduced a centralized autocratic system, appointing chiefs to rule over the Kikuyu.[48] The last Ituĩka ceremony passed power from the Maina generation to the Mwangi generation in 1898.[49][50] The next scheduled Ituĩka ceremony was eventually thwarted by the British colonial authorities, which cemented its centralized rule over the Kikuyu with the establishment ofKenya Colony.[47]
During the early 20th-century, theGhadar Movement gained support fromIndian expatriates in Kenya,[51] remaining active up until theindependence of India.[52]
In 1952, theMau Mau uprising broke out, during which theKenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA) revolted against the rule of theBritish Empire in Kenya, fighting for Kenyan independence. The KLFA was largely decentralized, with action being initiated by local cells, re-organizing the bottom-up council system that had been dissolved by colonial rule.[53] The capture of rebel leaderDedan Kimathi on October 21, 1956, signalled the defeat of the Mau Mau.[54] However, the rebellion survived until after Kenya's independence from Britain.[55] The Mau Mau Uprising was described byStephen P. Halbrook as "the expression of centuries of anarchism and resistance to authoritarianism, among the Kikuyu people"[56] although this characterization is disputed.[46]
Popular opposition to the arap Moi government eventually led to thedemocratization of the country in 1992 and the victory of theNational Rainbow Coalition in the2002 Kenyan general election. Following this period of political opening, left-wing ideas and groups began to re-emerge throughout Kenya. In part influenced by the materials of theZabalaza Anarchist Communist Front,[5] the Anti-Capitalist Convergence of Kenya (ACCK) was established in 2003, as a coalition of Kenyan anarchists and socialists.[57] The Wiyahti Collective was established in 2004 as a specifically anarchist section of the ACCK,[58] with ZACF also establishing contact with the Wiyathi activist Talal Cockar.[4]
Italian anarchists were among the prominent opponents to theinvasion of Libya, as part of a broader anti-militarist campaign against the expansionism of theItalian Empire. During the campaign, the anarchist sailorAugusto Masetti shot a colonel as he was addressing troops that were departing for Libya and shouted "Down with the War! Long Live Anarchy!". Anarchists also organized demonstrations and strikes to prevent troops from embarking.[59][60]
The Nigerian anarchistSam Mbah identified anarchic elements within theThird International Theory proposed in theGreen Book ofMuammar Gaddafi, particularly in the concept of theJamahiriya.[61] The government of theGreat Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya officially stated that Libya was adirect democracy without any political parties,[62] governed by its populace through local popular councils and communes (namedBasic People's Congresses). Official rhetoric disdained the idea of anation state,tribal bonds remaining primary, even within the ranks of thenational army.[63] However, Mbah noted that these principles were followed "more in the breach than in practice"[61] and criticized the Libyan government's poorhuman rights record.[64]
The organizing among theanti-Gaddafi forces during theFirst Libyan Civil War was described as having used anarchic methods.[65] These includeddecentralization, with the daily life of rebel-held territory largely being coordinated by the local councils that were established in various cities of Libya at the outbreak of the conflict,[66] andprefigurative politics, with young volunteers self-organizing the solicitation ofblood donations, establishment offood banks and the collection and distribution of basic necessities.[67] The role of the Libyan People's Committees was praised by the Syrian anarchist Mazen Kamalmaz, who argued that they should form the foundation of a newdirect democracy in Libya, rather than just acting during the transition to a new regime.[68]
The Libyan anarchist Saoud Salem was among those that condemned theUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which sanctioned airstrikes against Libya, and rejected the prospect of foreign intervention byNATO states such as France, the United Kingdom and United States, demanding instead that the rebels be left to "finish the problem of Qaddafi by ourselves".[69] This sentiment was echoed by foreign anarchists, who also condemned theNATO-led intervention in Libya, disputing its "humanitarian" characterization.[70][71][72]
During the 1980s, theIMF imposed harshausterity measures across Madagascar,[73] leading to the withdrawal of police, soldiers and government bureaucrats from much of theCentral Highlands region. When the anthropologistDavid Graeber visited the region, he described the formation of ananarchist community inArivonimamo, where decisions were made viaconsensus, apparently leading to a very low crime rate.[74]
Anarchism in Morocco has its roots in the federalism practiced byAmazigh communities in pre-colonial Morocco.[75] During theSpanish Civil War, Moroccan nationalists formed connections with Spanish anarchists in an attempt to ignite awar of national liberation against Spanish colonialism, but this effort was not successful.[76] Despite the brief establishment of an anarchist movement in post-war Morocco, the movement was suppressed by the newly independent government,[77] before finally re-emerging in the 21st century.
From the 1890s, theKingdom of Portugal began to deport anarchists to jails inPortuguese Mozambique. One of these Portuguese anarchist prisoners was the print-worker José Estevam. Upon Estevam's release from prison in the early 1900s, he established the Revolutionary League (RL) inLourenço Marques, which became the first known anarchist organization in the country.[57][58][78] By the 1920s, an anarcho-syndicalist tendency had developed among Mozambican trade unions, which were allied with theGeneral Confederation of Labour (CGT).[79][5] Following the28 May 1926 coup d'état in Portugal, the nascent Mozambican workers' movement was suppressed.[4]
Anarchism in Nigeria has its roots in the organization of various stateless societies that inhabitedpre-colonial Nigeria, particularly among theIgbo people.[80] After the British colonization of Nigeria,revolutionary syndicalism became a key factor in the anti-colonial resistance,[81] although the trade union movement deradicalized and took a morereformist approach following the country's independence.[82] The contemporary Nigerian anarchist movement finally emerged from the left-wing opposition to the military dictatorship in the late 1980s and saw the creation of the anarcho-syndicalistAwareness League.[83]
In 1981, thesocialist politicianAbdou Diouf succeededLéopold Sédar Senghor asPresident of Senegal, overseeing the country's transition to amulti-party system.[84] This new environment ofpolitical pluralism brought anarchism into the public light, with Senegalese anarchists establishing the Anarchist Party for Individual Liberties in the Republic (PALIR) at a congress inGorée, declaring their aim to establish a libertarian socialist society, based around the principles ofdecentralization,federalism,common ownership of themeans of production, anddirect democracy. The PALIR's conception of libertarian socialism took inspiration from the social formations of theLebou andBalante peoples, who organized themselves without social classes ortribal chiefs.[85] It is unknown what became of the PALIR in the ensuing years, due to the lack of studies on anarchism in Africa.[4]
With the overthrow of the socialistFirst Republic of Sierra Leone in acoup d'état and the outbreak of theSierra Leone Civil War, various competing factions began to vie for control of the country'sdiamond mining industry.[86] The poor working conditions in the diamond fields eventually gave way to the rise of a Sierra Leonean branch of theIndustrial Workers of the World (IWW).[79] Led by Bright Chikezi, the IWW became particularly active among diamond miners, organizing up to 3,240 workers under their banner.[87] They financed their activities through their mining work, while also receiving financial aid and literature from IWW branches in Britain.[88] However, the effects of the civil war eventually came to a head in 1997, when theArmed Forces Revolutionary Council seized control of the country in a military coup and began looting from diamond workers, forcing many IWW militants into exile inGuinea, where they attempted to organize amongGuinean miners.[87] As a result of the coup, the international IWW lost contact with the local delegate in Sierra Leone.[89]
Anarchism dates back to the 1880s in South Africa, when the English anarchist immigrant Henry Glasse settled inPort Elizabeth in the thenCape Colony.[90]
Swept up in the atmosphere created by what at the time appeared to be a victorious worker revolution inRussia in 1917, therevolutionary syndicalistInternational Socialist League (ISL) and the Industrial Socialist League (IndSL) dissolved into theCommunist Party of South Africa (CPSA) at the latter's founding in 1921, providing many notable early figures until theComintern ordered the expulsion of the syndicalist faction in the party. Unaligned syndicalists likePercy Fisher were active in the miners' 1922Rand Rebellion, a general strike-turned-insurrection, and strongly opposed the racism of a large sector of the white strikers. The IWA meanwhile merged into theIndustrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) in 1920, one reason the ICU exhibited syndicalist influence.[91]
.jpg)
In 2003, the platformistZabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZACF, or ZabFed) was founded, drawing in the BMC and Zabalaza Books (whoseZabalaza journal became the journal of the ZACF) as well as a number of other collectives that had been set up inSoweto and Johannesburg, including a local chapter of theAnarchist Black Cross. In 2007, to strengthen its structures, ZabFed reconstituted itself as the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF, or ZabFront). The new ZACF is a unitary "federation of individuals", as opposed to a federation of collectives like ZabFed, and has recently also come under the influence ofespecifismo, a tendency which originated within theFederación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU, or Uruguayan Anarchist Federation). While committed to promoting syndicalism in the unions, ZACF work was in practice largely focused on the so-called "new social movements", formed in South Africa in response to the perceived failures of theAfrican National Congress (ANC) government post-apartheid.[92] The ZACF was involved in the campaigns of theAnti-Privatisation Forum (APF) and theLandless People's Movement (LPM). It has also been involved in solidarity work withAbahlali baseMjondolo and theWestern Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.[93] In addition to such work, the ZACF is active in organising workshops and propaganda.
Following the1989 Sudanese coup d'état which broughtOmar al-Bashir to power, a coalition of opposition groups formed theNational Democratic Alliance (NDA), to coordinateresistance to the new government.[94] In 2001, an NDA commander made contact with the South African Bikisha Media Collective and requested information on anarchist organization and tactics, to which the collective responded by directing them towards the theoretical works ofplatformism.[95] The civil war was eventually ended in 2005 by theComprehensive Peace Agreement,[96] after which the NDA signed a deal with the government to cease hostilities. The peace deal and subsequent legalisation of opposition parties caused a fracture within theSudanese Communist Party, leading certain far-left tendencies inspired byMaoism andlibertarian communism to break away from the party.[95] In the wake of theSudanese Revolution that overthrew al-Bashir, anarchists inKhartoum that had participated in theresistance committees came together to form the "Sudanese Anarchists Gathering", ananti-authoritarian group that has raisedanarchist flags atprotests during thetransition to democracy and following themilitary coup.[97]
TheAfrican socialist program ofUjamaa, developed by thePresident of TanzaniaJulius Nyerere following hisArusha Declaration, was described by the Nigerian anarchistSam Mbah as "indisputably anarchistic in its logic and content."[98] TheUjamaa village program encouraged peasants to organize self-governing communal societies, where themeans of production and social produce were held in common.[99] Although Nyere himself stated that "viable socialist communities can only be established with willing members,"[100] theUjamaa program was eventually brought understate control and bureaucracy began to take over the previously self-governing communities.[101] At the behest of theWorld Bank, the Tanzanian government began to set production quotas and enforced the sale of produce to the state at a fixed price.[102] Mbah held that "corruption and bureaucracy are the two basic factors that led to the collapse of theUjamaa system."[103]
Workers' control was also practiced in several factories and hotels during a strike wave from 1972 to 1973 over anger at the ineffectiveworkers committees, although the government ofJulius Nyerere initially supported the factory takeovers, it later repressed them, with some analysts arguing it was a form ofco-optation.[104]
Anarchism in Tunisia has its roots in the works of the philosopherIbn Khaldun,[105] with the modern anarchist movement being first brought to the country in the late 19th century by Italian immigrants.[106] The contemporary anarchist movement arose as a result of theArab Spring and the aftermath of theTunisian Revolution.[107]
Uganda was largely stateless until the rise ofstates, such as Kitara andBuganda, in the 13th century. Thereafter,stateless societies continued to exist within Uganda, particularly among theLugbara people of theWest Nile – a horticultural society made up of decentralizedsegments, withoutchiefs ormonarchs.[108]
Following thecolonization of areas north of theZambezi river by theBritish South Africa Company, what is today Zambia was brought under the direct rule of theBritish Empire, establishing the protectorate ofNorthern Rhodesia. As a reaction to the introduction of British capitalism and the beginnings of a vast mining industry, workers in the region began to gravitate towards anarchist andsyndicalist ideas, organizing the country's first trade unions. During the 1920s, the first wave ofanarcho-syndicalism spread throughout much of Africa, with the South AfricanIndustrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) even establishing a section in Northern Rhodesia, although the ICU ended up collapsing by the early 1930s.[79] Nevertheless, trade union organizing persisted, with African mineworkers organizing the1935 Copperbelt strike over poor safety standards and increased taxes.[109] In 1940, miners in Northern Rhodesia went on strike again, using the leverage of their importance to the Allied effort inWorld War II to demand higher salaries.
In the mid-1990s, the anarchist Hamba Kahle Wilstar Choongo, who worked as a librarian at theUniversity of Zambia (UNZA), began writing a series of articles inThe Post that criticized the newConstitution of Zambia and argued instead fordecentralization.[110] Wilstar Choongo was himself inspired by theanti-authoritarian tendencies of his own tribe inSouthern Zambia, which he described as a "flattened, chiefless hierarchy", and suggested these tendencies could help to advance anarchism in Zambia.[85] Wilstar Choongo and a number of young members of the UNZA's Socialist Caucus moved towards anarchism, setting up the Anarchist Workers’ Solidarity Movement (AWSM) in 1998, which they considered affiliating with the South AfricanWorkers' Solidarity Federation (WSF). However, Wilstar died from malaria in 1999, at the age of 35, with the AWSM apparently collapsing in the wake of his death.[110] In 2009, a former AWSM member Malele D Phiri reflected on the new institutional role of trade unions and NGOs in Zambia's civil organization, describing it as the "dialectical opposite" of the ruling structure established byZANU-PF in Zimbabwe.[111]
In the 1920s, the first wave ofanarcho-syndicalism spread throughout much of Africa, with the South AfricanIndustrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) even establishing a section inSouthern Rhodesia.[4] The Southern Rhodesian ICU developed a substantial rural base, responding to the question of land rights with the policy of a union ownership scheme, aiming to establish a "collective, de-colonised and decommodified working class and black ownership".[112] Although the ICU dissolved in the early 1930s, the South Rhodesian section continued to operate as theReformed Industrial Commercial Union until the 1950s, when the region was incorporated into theCentral African Federation.[4]
Following theRhodesian Bush War, trade union activity rapidly increased, bringing with it an increase in strikes and industrial disputes, even against the wishes ofZANU-PF.[113] The new government responded by breaking up the strikes, suppressing and taking over existing trade unions,[114] revoking union control of wage negotiations and instituting the party appointment of union officials.[115] From a merger of six trade union centres, ZANU-PF established theZimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), aiming to reduce industrial disputes and increase the influence that the government had over the trade union movement.[116][117][118] But by 1987, unions again began to establish their independence from ZANU-PF, to which the government responded with police terror.[115] The government even began to lose control over ZCTU, which increasingly criticized government policy surrounding trade unionism,[113] eventually outright opposing the government due to itsneoliberal economic policies, corruption and authoritarianism, going on to form an alliance of opposition groups which became theMovement for Democratic Change (MDC).[119][120] However, the MDC soon strayed from its working class base, taking on areformist andliberal-conservative party line, instituted by a middle class leadership.[121] Dissilusionment with the MDC led to libertarian socialism emerging from the opposition movement, with some Zimbabwean anarchists establishing the Uhuru Network to organise amongst working class communities.[122]
With the outbreak of the2016–2017 Zimbabwe protests, Zimbabwean anarchists characterized the protest movement as representing a new society based on "solidarity, equality, grassroots democracy, free of all forms of oppression", identifying it with the anarchist approach to a bottom-up struggle against the state.[123] In the wake of the2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état, in whichEmmerson Mnangagwa seized power fromRobert Mugabe as part of a power struggle within ZANU-PF, Zimbabwean anarchists offered ananti-state perspective for the future of Zimbabwe, proposing mass action as a means to build libertarian socialism.[124] There has since been movements to develop a specific anarchist organisation in Zimbabwe, in the hopes of forming a broad-based libertarian movement against the Zimbabwean state.[125]
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)