Impact of the Arab Spring on the Black Spring in Burkina Faso

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Keywords: Arab Spring; Black Spring; Burkina Faso; couvolutions; army; political instability

To cite this article

Issaev L.M., Bobarykina D.A., Andrey V. Korotayev Impact of the Arab Spring on the Black Spring in Burkina Faso. // Lomonosov Oriental Studies Journal. 2022. N 1, p.98–109

Issaev L.M. Bobarykina D.A. Andrey V. Korotayev (HSE University)
(Institute for African Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

In October 2014, mass protests began in Ouagadougou, triggered by the constitutional reform in Burkina Faso, which suggests the possibility of extending the term of the incumbent President Blaise Compaoré in power and his nomination in the 2015 elections. The parliamentary meeting to consider the constitutional amendments was scheduled for October 30, and on the same day the representative of the protest movement Emil Pargi Par announced that “a Black spring is announced in Burkina Faso, similar to the Arab spring”. The references to the events of the Arab spring by the Burkinan protesters are not accidental – the Arab protests of 2011 really played a big role in the dynamics of socio-political instability around the world, acting as a kind of trigger for a global destabilization wave. In this regard, it seems relevant to study the forms and methods of the influence of the events of the Arab spring on the Black spring in Burkina Faso.