Africa
The African continent is not readily summed up in suffrage, political traditions or anything else. Some distinctions are, however, helpful. A line has often been drawn between the communities of the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa but Islam, Christianity, and animism have been similarly influential in shaping responses to civil society and democracy. Also important have been the various influences of formal and informal empires, whether the French, the British, the Italian, the German, the Portuguese, the Spanish or the American. Combinations of indigenous and external forces have shaped perspectives and influences in ways that have been both empowering and debilitating. In other words, specific traditions matter. Even with the inauguration of pan-African initiatives such as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on Women’s Rights that came into force in 2005, generalizations should only be made with caution. While genital mutilation and discriminatory family law still curb many lives, there are positive signs such as the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, as well as Tawakkol Karman of Yemen.
Africa Suffrage Timeline
Right to Vote |
Right to Stand for Election |
|
|---|---|---|
Algeria |
July 5th, 1962 | July 5th, 1962 |
Angola |
November 11th, 1975 | November 11th, 1975 |
Benin |
1956 | 1956 |
Botswana |
March 1st, 1965 | March 1st, 1965 |
Burkina Faso |
September 28th, 1958 | September 28th, 1958 |
Burundi |
August 17th, 1961 | August 17th, 1961 |
Camerooon |
October 1946 | October 1946 |
Benin |
1956 | 1956 |
Cape Verde |
July 5th, 1975 | July 5th, 1975 |
Central African Republic |
1986 | 1986 |
Chad |
1958 | |
Comoros |
1956 | 1956 |
Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) |
May 3rd, 1967 | April 17th, 1970 |
Congo Republic (Brazzaville) |
December 8th, 1963 | December 8th, 1963 |
Cote d’Ivoire |
1952 | 1952 |
Djibouti |
1946 | 1986 |
Equatorial Guinea |
December 15th, 1963 | December 15th, 1963 |
Eritrea |
November 4th, 1955 | November 4th, 1955 |
Ethiopia |
November 4th, 1955 | November 4th, 1955 |
Gabon |
May 23rd, 1956 | May 23rd, 1956 |
Gambia |
1960 | 1960 |
Ghana |
1954 | 1954 |
Guinea |
October 2nd, 1958 | October 2nd, 1958 |
Guinea-Bissau |
1977 | 1977 |
Kenya |
December 12th, 1963* | December 12th, 1963* |
Kenya Notes |
“The right to vote and stand for office had been given to European women in Kenya in 1919; in 1956, those rights were extended to African men and women under certain conditions related to educational level and property ownership.” | “In 1963, all Kenyans, regardless of color and other previously restricting factors, were given the right to vote and stand for election” (p. 209). |
Lesotho |
April 30th, 1965 | April 30th, 1965 |
Liberia |
May 7th, 1946 | May 7th, 1946 |
Madagascar |
April 29th, 1959 | April 29th, 1959 |
Malawi |
1961 | 1961 |
Mali |
1956 | 1956 |
Mauritania |
May 20th, 1961 | May 20th, 1961 |
Mauritius |
1956 | 1956 |
Morocco |
May 1963 | May 1963 |
Mozambique |
June 25th, 1975 | June 25th, 1975 |
Namibia |
November 7th, 1989 | November 7th, 1989 |
Niger |
1948 | 1948 |
Nigeria |
1958* | 1958* |
Nigeria Notes |
*“Women in Nigeria’s southern region were enfranchised in stages, beginning in 1950, whereas women in the northern region (predominantly Muslim) were not. Southern women voted and contested offices in the 1959 federal elections, but no northern women were allowed to do so. Northern women finally received their full electoral franchise (to vote and contest office) in 1976” (p. 286). | |
Rwanda |
September 25th, 1961 | September 25th, 1961* |
Rwanda Notes |
*”For all offices except that of president of the republic; that restriction was removed in 1978″ (p. 323). | |
Sao Tome and Principe |
July 12th, 1975 | July 12th, 1975 |
Senegal |
February 19th, 1945 | February 19th, 1945 |
Seychelles |
August 6th, 1948 | August 6th, 1948 |
Sierra Leone |
April 27th, 1961 | April 27th, 1961 |
Somalia |
1956 | 1956 |
South Africa |
May 21, 1930 (“whites”)/ March 30th, 1984 (“coloreds and Indians”)/ January 14th, 1994 (“blacks”) [p. 351] |
May 21, 1930 (“whites”)/ March 30th, 1984 (“coloreds and Indians”)/ January 14th, 1994 (“blacks”) [p. 351] |
Sudan |
November 1964 | November 1964 |
Swaziland |
September 6th, 1968 | September 6th, 1968 |
Tanzania |
1959 | 1959 |
Togo |
August 22nd, 1945 | August 22nd, 1945 |
Tunisia |
1957 (“municipal elections”)/ June 1st, 1959 |
June 1st, 1959 |
Uganda |
1962 | 1962 |
Zambia |
October 30th, 1962 | October 30th, 1962 |
Zimbabwe |
Before 1957 (“Only men and European women”)/ After 1957 (“a qualified right to vote was gradually extended over the years to black women”) [p. 429] |
March 1978 |
Resources
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, http://www.achpr.org/english/_info/women_en.html
“African Women’s Human Rights Annotated Bibliography” (Sept. 30, 2008), http://www.cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca/projects/power/uploads/African-womens-human-rights-ann-biblio.pdf
Arab Human Development Reports, United Nations Development Programme, http://www.arab-hdr.org/
Feminist Africa (beginning 2002), http://www.feministafrica.org/index.php/home
Gawayam Rose and Rosemary Semafumu Mukasa. 2005. “The African Women’s Protocol: A New Dimension for Women’s Rights in Africa,” Gender and Development. 13: 3. November. 42-50.
Rebouché, Rachel. 2006. “Labor, Land, and Women’s Rights in Africa: Challenges for the New Protocol on the Rights of Women.” Harvard Human Rights Journal. 19. 235-256.
Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR), a coalition of 36 civil society organizations; http://www.soawr.org/en/
Africa for Women’s Rights/l’Afrique pour les droits des femmes, a campaign by regional and international human rights and women’s rights organizations, http://www.africa4womensrights.org/