Ripples of Hope P R O T E S T A N D S O C I A L M O V E M E N T S Robert M. Press How Ordinary People Resist Repression Without Violence Ripples of Hope Protest and Social Movements Recent years have seen an explosion of protest movements around the world, and academic theories are racing to catch up with them. This series aims to further our understanding of the origins, dealings, decisions, and outcomes of social movements by fostering dialogue among many traditions of thought, across European nations and across continents. All theoretical perspectives are welcome. Books in the series typically combine theory with empirical research, dealing with various types of mobilization, from neighborhood groups to revolutions. We especially welcome work that synthesizes or compares different approaches to social movements, such as cultural and structural traditions, micro- and macro-social, economic and ideal, or qualitative and quantitative. Books in the series will be published in English. One goal is to encourage non- native speakers to introduce their work to Anglophone audiences. Another is to maximize accessibility: all books will be available in open access within a year after printed publication. Series editors Jan Willem Duyvendak is professor of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam. James M. Jasper teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Ripples of Hope How Ordinary People Resist Repression without Violence Robert M. Press Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: Many Liberian women demonstrated for an end to Liberia’s civil war. The women shown here continued their vigils for lasting peace after the war ended in 2003, as part of an organization led by Liberian Leymah Gbowee, a 2011 Nobel Peace prize winner. Photo by Betty Press, Monrovia, Liberia, 2006. Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Typesetting: Crius Group, Hulshout Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the University of Chicago Press. isbn 978 90 8964 748 1 e-isbn 978 90 4852 515 7 (pdf) nur 692 © Robert M. Press / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2015 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Dedicated to the many people of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Kenya who actively resisted repression from regimes in their country, often at considerable risk to themselves; and to my wife and partner in our travels, Betty Press, who believes as much as I do in the future of Africa. Contents Introduction 15 Case Studies and Organization of the Book 18 Part one: Sierra Leone 19 Part two: Liberia 19 Part three: Kenya 20 1 Resisting Repression without Violence 21 Individual Activism 23 Resistance in Abeyance: Organization without Organizations 25 From Abeyance to Formally Organized Resistance 26 Resistance without “Opportunity” 27 Broader, More Fluid Participation in Resistance 29 Establishing a Culture of Resistance 31 New Universal Model for Social Movements 34 Theoretical Implications 35 Structure and Resistance 35 Motives of Activists 38 Part one Sierra Leone 2 Students Shake the Pillars of Power 43 Roots of Resistance 45 Rebirth of Resistance 47 “Opportunity?” 47 Phase I: Student Resistance 48 The Power of Small Groups 50 Regime Repression Stimulates more Resistance 52 Resistance Impact 54 Civil Society Fails to Support Protesting Students 56 Phase II: Political Shape Shift: A “War” of Words 59 The Cost of Resisting Repression with Words 62 Refusing to Flee 63 Independent Journalist Escapes Arrest by Jumping out a Window; Press Dynamited 65 Phase III: Radical Activism: From Seeking Regime Reform to Regime Change 67 Training for Revolution 72 Implications of an Informal Resistance 78 3 Women Help Restore Democracy 81 A Modern David Uses Words, not Stones 82 Tracking Resistance via Energy and Ideas, not just Social Movement Organizations 83 Motives of Activists 86 Deepening a Culture of Resistance: Civil Society Re-emerges 87 Military Abuses 89 Birth of a Social Movement: Women Lead the Charge for Regime Change 90 Growing Civil Society Opposition to Military Rule 95 National Conferences: “The Military Realized Late We Were Serious” 97 Market Women v. the Military: The story of two Maries 98 Implications of a Successful Nonviolent Resistance to a Military Junta 102 4 Mass Noncooperation Helps Defeat a Violent Junta 105 Nonviolent Social Movement 106 Democracy on Hold 108 A Brutal Regime: “The Whole Nation Was Crying” 110 A Critique of Theories of Nonviolence 112 Violent Resistance 115 Civil Society’s Nonviolent Resistance: Junta “Not Wanted” 116 Individual Noncooperation 117 A Minor Theory: the Overlooked Role of Minor Actors in Helping Major Activists 119 Individual Resistance: Part of a Larger Social Movement 120 Resisting and Surviving: “We All Thought We Were Going To Die” 121 Organizational Nonviolent Resistance: Lessons from Gandhi and King 124 Teachers and Labor Strike 126 Journalists Wage Nonviolent “War” against the Military Junta 128 Drawn to activism by their profession 129 Underground Resistance by Journalists 132 A Journalist with a “Revolutionary Fervor” for Democracy 132 Radio Democracy: Psychological Warfare against the “Foot” of State 135 A “Ray of Hope” 136 Invisible Networks Supporting Social Movements in Repressive Settings 138 A Nonviolent Woman “Warrior” 139 Dangerous Marches 140 Marching on the Rebel Leader’s Home: “We Shall Overcome” 141 Final Orgy of Violence: “We Thought We Would All Be Dead” 143 International Interventions: A Nigerian Dictator Helps Restore Democracy 144 Implications of the Noncooperation with a Military Junta 146 Part two Liberia 5 Nonviolent Resistance in Abeyance 151 A History of Authoritarianism and Resistance 153 Cultural Restraints on Resistance? 156 Emergence of Civic Resistance 157 Rice Riots (1979): Opening the Door for the 1980 Coup 160 Short-Lived Hopes for Human Rights and Democracy 162 Resistance in Abeyance: Courage, Commitment, Danger 164 Shooting Books 165 Professional Duty: Pathway to Resistance 167 American Ambivalence over Repression in Liberia 168 Civil War Stirs More Regime Repression – and Resistance 170 Implications of Peaceful Resistance in Abeyance 171 6 Peaceful Resistance during a Civil War 175 One Country, Two Presidents 177 Resisting a Tyrant, Peacefully 179 Moral Basis for Resistance 180 Human Rights Activism – “Delivering Body Blows to Taylor” 183 International Support for Advocacy 184 Ripples of Hope: Activists Inspire Others 186 Array of Tactics in the Resistance 188 Courage and Commitment: Intangible “Resources” in the Struggle for Human Rights 190 Women’s Peace Movements 191 “When Mother Calls” 195 Women Seize Peace Talks Hall 197 Implications of Nonviolent Resistance during a Civil War 198 Part three Kenya 7 Individual Resistance against Repression 205 Professionalism: an Overlooked Entry Path to Activism 209 Resistance despite Repression, Few “Opportunities,” Limited Material Resources 210 Early Resistance 211 Hiding in a Charcoal Truck to Run for Parliament 212 Growing Resistance 214 Freedom Corner: Early Cracks in the Wall of Fear 215 Individual Activism (1): Urban Legal “Guerrillas” 217 Organization without Organizations 219 Unpredictability of Social Movements: Minor Actors; Chains of Events 220 Chess Game of Tactics 225 Individual Activism (2): Resistance by Writers, Clergy and Others 227 Weapons of Words 227 “God’s Kingdom Grows with Opposition” 229 Implications of Individual Activism 231 8 Establishing a Culture of Resistance 233 Mothers’ Strike 235 Small Group Strategic Choices and Tactics: “Exciting the Masses” 238 Breaking the “Wall of Fear:” Saba Saba Rally 1990 239 Widening the Resistance: Kamkunji Rally 1991 242 What Quantitative Studies Miss 244 Organizational Resistance 245 Ethnic Divisions 245 Cycles of Activism 246 New Tactic: National Citizen’s Convention 247 “Foot Soldiers” for Freedom 247 Growing Support for Mass Public Demonstrations 248 Counter Tactics by the Regime: the Chess Game Continues 250 Further Growth of a Culture of Resistance: A “Psychological Revolution” 253 International Resistance against Kenya 255 A “Rogue” US Ambassador Supports Kenyan Human Rights 257 From Regime Reform to Regime Change: Who gets the Credit? 259 Implications of a Culture of Resistance 261 Conclusion 265 Activism and Structural Conditions 267 Uncertainties 268 Arguments Supported 269 Appendix 275 Methodology 275 Structural Issues 275 Interviews 276 Accuracy of Interviews and other Findings 277 Limits of the Interviews 278 Availability of Interview Transcriptions 279 Interviews 279 Comparative Levels of Repression 284 Chronologies 285 Abbreviations and Significant Terms 298 Acknowledgments 303 About the Author 307 Bibliography 309 Index 317 List of Figures Figure 1 Sierra Leone secondary student at a human rights workshop in Bo, Sierra Leone, 2009 14 Figure 2 A street scene in central Freetown, Sierra Leone, 2008 42 Figure 3 Secondary school students and instructor at a human rights workshop in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, 2009 80 Figure 4 The author, political, police and military officials (from left to right) at a human rights workshop in Bo, Sierra Leone, 2009 104 Figure 5 Saxophone player in a public event in Monrovia, Liberia, 2006 150 Figure 6 Coffee house in the northern city of Ganta, Liberia, 2006 150 Figure 7 Kofi Woods, human rights activist, Monrovia, Liberia, 2006 174 Figure 8 Elizabeth Sele Mulbah, peace activist, Monrovia, Liberia, 2006 174 Figure 9 Young street salesman, Monrovia, Liberia, 2006 202 Figure 10 Village home, Liberia, 2006 202 Figure 11 Human rights activist Rumba Kinuthia, Nairobi, Kenya, 2002 204 Figure 12 Slum and downtown skyline, Nairobi, Kenya, 2006 264 Figure 13 Police attack mothers and supporters protesting for release of political prisoners, Nairobi, Kenya, 1992 264 Figure 14 Family in their street sales stall, Nairobi, Kenya, 1991 274 Figure 15 Hope for the future: sign board with image of Africa’s first elected female President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Monrovia, Liberia, 2006 274 Figure 16 Looking to the future: young couple in Freetown, Sierra Leone, 2009 302 Figure 1 Sierra Leone secondary student at a human rights workshop in Bo, Sierra Leone, 2009 Photo by Betty Press Introduction This book is about the human spirit and the kind of people Robert F. Kennedy may have had in mind when he spoke in South Africa in 1966 during the harsh days of apartheid, two years after Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. 1 Mothers, students, teachers, lawyers, clergy, and many others featured in this book, from uneducated market women to professors, stepped out of the shadows and relative safety of anonymity into the often dangerous spotlight of repressive regimes. Mostly without violence, they stood up for democratic freedoms and human rights, for dignity and a better life. Their nonviolence does not mean they did nothing: they engaged in nonviolent strategies, and they took action. Few studies have focused on the importance of such nonviolent resist- ance in Africa in challenging repressive regimes. But this study also offers insights into civil resistance anywhere. Unlike some of the more recent struggles in the Arab world, including North Africa, most of the struggles highlighted in this book occurred before the use of Facebook and Twitter; activists stayed in touch through informal channels. Their struggles were not immediately successful, but eventually they were. Not all the activists stayed true to their stated goals once change had come, but many did. In most cases the peaceful resistance alone was not responsible for forcing the regimes out of power: international pressures, sometimes military interven- tion played an important part. But without the domestic pressure against the regimes it is unlikely that change would have come as soon as it did. This is a timeless book and a global story: the kinds of struggles portrayed continue today in many parts of the world, often in the form of mass protests that offer some sense of support in terms of numbers. But around the world there are many other people who challenge repressive regimes in small 1 Robert F. Kennedy, “A Tiny Ripple of Hope” (Day of Affirmation address at Cape Town Uni- versity, Cape Town, South Africa, June 6, 1966), American Rhetoric . http://www.americanrhetoric. com/ speeches/rfkcapetown.com/. 16 RiPPles of HoPe groups or even as individuals. This book is about some of those people in three sub-Saharan African countries and how they challenged regimes that used detention, torture, even murder to try to keep them quiet. They insisted on a halt to political detentions, state murders, torture, and the lack of the rule of law. In most cases, they had never been asked in detail about their nonviolent activism; most seemed eager to tell their story, stories seldom heard in the West. Shortly after Nelson Mandela’s death in late 2013, one newspaper published the names of some of the political activists in prison in ten countries includ- ing Russia, China, Ethiopia, and Vietnam (where Vietnamese Catholic priest and pro-democracy dissident Father Thadeus Nguyen Van was completing his twentieth year in prison since the 1970s for advocating for freedom and democracy). 2 In Bogota, Columbia, David Ravelo was serving an eighteen- year sentence for aggravated homicide; international human rights groups called the charge bogus and said he was imprisoned for speaking out on human rights violations in his country. Others were being held in Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and Tibet, where popular singer Lolo was sentenced to six years in prison in 2013 for writing and performing songs that advocated independ- ence from China. In Bahrain, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, the father of Bahrain’s human rights movement, was serving a life sentence following his arrest after a series of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011. And in Rwanda, two women journalists – editor Agnes Uwimana Nkusi and reporter Saidath Mukakibibi – were imprisoned for their independent reporting that was allegedly inciting civil disobedience. This book tells the story of how people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Kenya stood up to repressive regimes and eventually helped force the abusive leaders out of power. It builds on existing theories of social movement but suggests revisions that help explain nonviolent social movements in repres- sive settings. The model presented includes individual and organizational activism, as well as mass demonstrations. In all three countries, the nar- rative traces the growth of what became a culture of resistance. This study differs from most studies of social movements in several ways. This study: – focuses on activism by individuals and small groups, rather than the usual focus on large, often formal organizations (this approach reveals 2 Dominque Mosbergen, “Nelson Mandela Was Released From Prison after 27 Years. These 10 Political Prisoners Are Still Waiting,” The Huffington Post , December 7, 2013, accessed December 18, 2013, http://www.huff ingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/political-prisoners-nelson- mandela_n_4401305.html#es_share_endedhese. in tRod uc tion 17 a broader range of participants in nonviolent social movements than is normally recognized); – shows that when it is too dangerous to pursue formal, organized chal- lenges to a regime, individuals and small groups can sometimes manage to continue informal “resistance in abeyance” (at low levels), while waiting for safer times when they can emerge more fully and openly; – traces how social movements actually start in poor, repressed countries; – explains how nonviolent resistance movements can survive with mini- mal material resources and little in the way of the external advantages that are usually associated with social movements’ progress, especially in the democratic West. Here are three examples of the kind of nonviolent resistance this book is about. In Sierra Leone, just days after a military coup, independent reporters were being arrested by the new regime. It fell to veteran journalist Olu Gordon, as secretary general of the national journalists association to deliver a protest letter to the junta headquarters. “I was petrified. At the time we just took chances – we did what had to be done.” 3 Later some independent newspapers began operating from secret locations, distributing their copies hidden inside the pages of pro-government papers. (The story of the resistance by underground reporters and treatment of some who were caught is related in Chapter 4.) Three Kenyan mothers, including Milcah Wanjiku, were convinced that the state was about to execute their imprisoned sons. They organized a nonviolent protest with a small group of other mothers of political prison- ers, camping out in a park in downtown Nairobi. The government warned them not to do it but the women were undeterred. “What can I be afraid of when my son had been locked up? I felt my son would be hanged,” Wanjiku said. Unsure how to respond, especially against mothers, the government waited several days before sending in police armed with clubs and teargas to disperse them, as well as the growing number of volunteers protecting them. But the mothers reassembled at a nearby church and, with the help of domestic and international publicity and pressure, eventually won the release of all but one of the prisoners. Years later Milcah Wanjiku said she 3 Olu Gordon, in an interview with the author, November 28, 2008, in his newspaper office in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Gordon, who died in 2011, was a longtime independent journalist and a former faculty member at Fourah Bay College. 18 RiPPles of HoPe would protest again if her son was in danger. 4 (The story of the mothers’ protest is detailed in Chapter 8.) Liberian human rights attorney Tiawan Gongloe had been challenging authoritarian President Charles Taylor’s abuses of the rule of law despite the risks to him. Then he was detained and subjected to a long night of torture in a police station. Word of his plight quickly spread and a large crowd of his supporters quickly gathered spontaneously outside the station, following him the next morning when police took him to a local hospital. The crowds made him realize that “people did appreciate the things that we [he and other human rights attorneys] were doing for protecting the rights of the people. I think they [the regime] intensi- fied human rights advocacy by their repression because – the more they became repressive, the more people became resilient.” 5 (His story is told in full in Chapter 6.) Olu Gordon, Milcah Wanjiku, and Tiawan Gongloe were among the many ordinary people of their countries who became heroes in the eyes of their fellow citizens. They provided some of the “ripples of hope” that encouraged others to protest as part of nonviolent social movements that resisted repressive regimes. In most studies of social movements, this kind of individual or small-group contribution has often gone unnoticed. Case Studies and Organization of the Book The book is based on some 170 interviews by the author over a ten-year period in the three countries, mostly with former activists and others, plus extensive archival research and review of relevant literature. Interviews provide a window on resistance that archival studies and event counting do not, offering insights into the strategic choices participants take and revela- tions regarding their motives. As one noted scholar of political contention/ social movements notes: “As we move from supposedly objective political opportunities to more subjective ones, perceptions become crucial, and the only way to get at perceptions is through interviews.” 6 Chapter 1 offers theo- retical perspectives on nonviolent social movements in repressive settings; 4 Milcah Wanjiku, in an interview with the author, Nairobi, Kenya, October 12, 2002. Wanjiku is the mother of human rights attorney Rumba Kinuthia. Her daughter, Margaret Wangui Kinuthia, also took part in the protest and was injured. 5 Tiawan Gongloe, in an interview with the author, Monrovia, Liberia, June 19, 2006. 6 James M. Jasper, e-mail message to author, February 22, 2014. in tRod uc tion 19 the conclusion presents implications of such resistance. The Appendix gives details on methodology, a list of interviewees, an historic comparison of repression levels in the three countries, country chronologies, and abbrevia- tions. Each of the three case-study countries went through long periods of repressive rule during which people nonviolently challenged the regimes. In Sierra Leone and Liberia people suffered civil wars during the study period, but as in Kenya, the nonviolent resistance occurred mostly in their respective capitals except when the fighting reached those cities. The book is organized as follows: Part one: Sierra Leone Chapter 2 focuses on a nationwide student uprising in 1977 that never fully developed into a social movement because of the repression and co-optation of the regime and for lack of planning and coordination with potential allies. But it helped launch a culture of resistance. Chapter 3 looks at how women, primarily, helped push a military junta out of power during a civil war and helped restore democracy through a widespread, open social movement. Chapter 4 examines how mass noncooperation against another, more violent military regime weakened it and set the stage for international military intervention that ousted the junta. During this time, a fragmented and often clandestine resistance in abeyance kept the culture of resistance alive under extremely dangerous conditions. Part two: Liberia Chapter 5 shows how a model for a social movement developed in Liberia in the 1970s. Then in the 1980s, nonviolent resistance was forced into abeyance because of the extreme violence of the Samuel Doe regime that overwhelmed brave efforts by individual attorneys, independent journal- ists, students, and others. For several years after Doe was murdered, as a civil war continued from late 1989 to 1996, there was a period of democratic interim government when human rights organizations established roots. Chapter 6 analyzes how, after rebel leader Charles Taylor became president, these roots enabled a nonviolent social movement to courageously chal- lenge Taylor despite his repressive efforts against activists. A second social movement, open and not directly threatening Taylor, involved campaigns by women for peace.