Comrade Power! Student Activism and the Kenyan State, c. 1978-2002
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1980s protests
A01=Luke Melchiorre
African activism
African democracy
Author_Luke Melchiorre
Authoritarian regimes
Category=JP
Category=NHH
Category=NHTR1
Comrade Power
Democratic change
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
forthcoming
Kenya politics
Political opposition
Political transition
Postcolonial Africa
Student movements
University of Nairobi
Product details
- ISBN 9781847013590
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 08 Sep 2026
- Publisher: James Currey
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Analysis of one of the most influential and powerful student movements in all of sub-Saharan Africa and its impact on transition in the postcolonial state.
During the late-1980s, waves of protest challenged authoritarian regimes across postcolonial Africa,
on a scale rarely seen since the end of colonial rule decades earlier. In Kenya, as elsewhere on the continent, university students were leading actors in struggles for democratic change. Rallying under the cry of 'Comrade Power!', the student movement at the University of Nairobi emerged as one of the most formidable and militant of its kind in all of Africa, with Nairobi serving as a crucible for generations of nationally prominent political activists.
This vivid account traces the rise and fall of this student movement, showing how it shaped national processes of political change, where its power came from, how it was wielded, and why it dissipated so rapidly from the mid-1990s. Drawing on interviews with student activists, government officials and politicians, it offers new insights into the politics of transition in postcolonial Africa.
LUKE MELCHIORRE is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Marist University, Poughkeepsie, New York.
