Large-scale protests in a number of countries of sub-Saharan Africa have drastically increased since the years 2010–2011. A publication that looks at current trends in the social movements unfolding across sub-Saharan Africa, explaining the causes and the timing of them, seems thus timely. In her book Political Protest in Contemporary Africa, Lisa Mueller analyses how the current protests in Africa are related to movements in earlier decades, who leads the current protests, and how ordinary people are mobilised to join them. While chapters 1, 2, and 3 define key concepts and situate the phenomenon in the wider context of the economic and political development of Africa, chapter 4 looks at the leaders of protests and chapter 5 uses quantitative data to show what motivates people to participate therein. Niger’s protests movements are analysed in-depth in chapter 6, meanwhile. The concluding chapter 7 also contains policy recommendations. Mueller argues in chapters 1 and 2 that the recent protests constitute a third wave of social movements in sub-Saharan Africa. The first wave of the 1950s and 1960s led to decolonisation, while the second wave of protests in the 1990s induced political and economic liberalisation. Mueller’s core argument, then, is that social inequalities form the basis of the current protests; she sees them as caused mainly by internal factors. She thus rejects the common understanding that the current protests in sub-Saharan Africa were originally inspired by the Arab Spring. Contrary to the popular hypothesis of North–South contagion, Mueller argues that the new middle class in African countries was unsatisfied with the possibilities for political participation and therefore mobilised poor people around their materialist grievances to push for democratic reform. Mueller hence rejects a second prominent hypothesis that explains contemporary protests as simple “bread riots.” Instead, coalitions between the middle class and the poor, as well as the predominantly urban-based occurrence of protests, set the third wave thereof apart from earlier ones. In chapter 3, the author describes the general context of the current protest wave. Despite impressive gross domestic product growth rates, income distribution is extremely uneven in African societies. Stark poverty and limited chances for political Africa Spectrum 2019, Vol. 54(2) 173–175 a The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/0002039719867702 journals.sagepub.com/home/afr

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书评：当代非洲的政治抗议

自 2010-2011 年以来，撒哈拉以南非洲一些国家的大规模抗议活动急剧增加。一份着眼于撒哈拉以南非洲地区社会运动当前趋势的出版物，解释了它们的起因和时间，似乎是及时的。在她的著作《当代非洲的政治抗议》中，丽莎·穆勒分析了非洲当前的抗议活动与前几十年的运动有何关联，谁领导了当前的抗议活动，以及如何动员普通民众加入其中。第 1、2 和 3 章定义了关键概念并将这一现象置于非洲经济和政治发展的更广泛背景下，第 4 章着眼于抗议活动的领导人，第 5 章使用定量数据来说明是什么促使人们参与其中. 同时，第 6 章深入分析了尼日尔的抗议运动。最后的第 7 章还包含政策建议。穆勒在第 1 章和第 2 章中认为，最近的抗议活动构成了撒哈拉以南非洲的第三波社会运动。1950 年代和 1960 年代的第一波导致非殖民化，而 1990 年代的第二波抗议引发了政治和经济自由化。因此，穆勒的核心论点是社会不平等构成了当前抗议活动的基础。她认为它们主要是由内部因素引起的。因此，她拒绝接受撒哈拉以南非洲目前的抗议活动最初是受阿拉伯之春启发的共识。与流行的南北传染假说相反，穆勒认为，非洲国家的新中产阶级对政治参与的可能性不满意，因此动员穷人围绕他们的物质主义不满推动民主改革。因此，穆勒拒绝了将当代抗议活动解释为简单的“面包暴动”的第二个突出假设。相反，中产阶级和穷人之间的联盟，以及主要以城市为基础的抗议活动，使第三波有别于之前的浪潮。在第三章中，作者描述了当前抗议浪潮的一般背景。尽管国内生产总值增长率令人印象深刻，但非洲社会的收入分配极不平衡。赤贫和政治非洲频谱 2019 年的机会有限，卷。54(2) 173–175 a 作者 2019 年文章重用指南：