Armed with technology, forthright messages, and driven by years of frustration by oppressive regimes, in 2011 the youth of North Africa grabbed world attention in ways that were impossible to even dream of earlier.

With rare persistence, they brought down regimes hitherto perceived as indomitable, paving the way for new political and social experiments.

Even in places like Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria where the revolution failed to blossom fully, some reforms were realised. The courage of the North Africans inspired the “Occupy” protest movements that began on Wall Street in New York to express outrage against corporate greed — then spread to the rest of the Western world, Asia, and Latin America.

Small wonder then the “protester” was named Time Magazine’s 2011 “person of the year.”

The revolt in North Africa toppled three long serving African dictators.

The wave of protests was sparked by the self-immolation of a young Tunisian vegetable seller, Mohamed Bouazizi, mid December 2010, only to spill over to the rest of North Africa. Egypt and Libya witnessed the most dramatic moments with the eccentric ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ending up dead in the streets of in Sirte where he was lynched in a dramatic and bloody end to a 10-month rebellion against his rule. The “king of kings,” as he liked to be called, had been in power since 1979 after overthrowing King Idriss Al Sanusi.
Hosni Mubarak of Egypt reluctantly resigned after days of mass protests in the now famous Tahrir Square in Cairo demanding his exit, joining Ben Ali of Tunisia who fled to Saudi Arabia.

But it was the protests in Tunisia that caught many by surprise. This is a country that had been cited as one of the success stories of Africa, especially for its impressive economic growth rate, implementation of the MDGs, a well-trained youthful labour forceand overall involvement of women in public affairs.

What the world chose not to see was the serious economic disparities — with a huge chunk of the national cake being in the hands of president Ben Ali’s family and cronies thanks to the liberalisation programmes of the 1990s — and a youth bulge that was largely unattended.

According to the African Development Bank, unemployment among university graduates in Tunisia stood at over 20 per cent in 2010 and even higher in the rural areas, the epicentre of the revolution.

Besides the disparities and unemployment, technology played a great role in the youthful revolts, especially in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya to some extent, especially to skirt around the tight media censorship in the countries.

Facebook and other social networking sites made political mobilisation easier than in the past.

In Cairo, the failed structural adjustment programmes that did away with subsidies on essential commodities and privatisation of government businesses resulted in serious discontent across the country.

Then there was the youth empowerment programmes controlled from Washington that ended up creating more liberal Arab youths, with a huge appetite for more democratic ideals.

Mwenda wa Micheni