Generative Repression: Radical Organizing and the State in Senegal and Congo after Independence
Matthew Swagler
Moderator: Pedro Monaville
11 February 2025 | 6:00 PM Gulf Standard Time (3:00 PM CET) | Zoom (Webinar)
Stories of state repression often mark “the end” of chapters of intense radical organizing or mass protest in the global 1960s. Focusing on Senegal and Congo-Brazzaville, this talk instead shows how attempts to stifle young activists generated mass upheaval in both countries following formal independence in 1960.
Even before the national flags were raised, incoming African state leaders faced harsh criticism from young activists for signing accords that perpetuated colonial institutions. New governments tried to quiet this dissent by breaking up opposition organizations, cutting students’ scholarships, and jailing opponents. Repression was deeply disruptive in both countries, creating gaps in organizing and periods of demoralization, but it was rarely terminal. Often, it led to intense, shared experiences that echoed rituals of initiation into adulthood, particularly for young men. Heavy-handed state actions allowed marginalized radicals to rally the broader population to their demands, characterize themselves as victims of injustice, and create nostalgia around failed struggles.
The presentation argues that the 1963 popular uprising that toppled Congo’s first government and the 1968 general strike that nearly did the same in Senegal became mass movements largely in response to campaigns of state repression.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Matthew Swagler, an Assistant Professor of History, at Connecticut College, is a historian of twentieth-century Africa, focusing on decolonization and conceptions of youth in Senegal and Congo-Brazzaville.
His work combines social, political, and urban history to understand why youth organizations became the primary vehicles for the expression of popular grievances against new African governments following the end of formal colonial rule. Swagler also explores histories of childhood, Pan-Africanism, gender and sexuality in Africa, the global 1960s, and the historical dynamics of African economies.
He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Decolonization’s Discontents: Youth Radicalism in Francophone Africa, 1958-1974.
His recent research publications have addressed the rise of autonomous youth organizations following the Congolese revolution of 1963; relations between African Intellectuals, Black American Marxists, and the Communist International; and the lives of political exiles from across Central Africa who settled in Congo in the 1960s.
MODERATOR
Pedro Monaville is an Associate Professor of African History, at McGill University, Canada. His research focuses on colonial and postcolonial Congo, revolutionary movements, political subjectivities, knowledge production, popular culture, memory work, and the connections between visual arts and history. His first book, Students of the World: Global 1968 and Decolonization in the Congo was published by Duke University Press in 2022. Professor Monaville is also the co-editor of two forthcoming volumes: a collection of essays around the work of the Bandes-Dessinées artist Mfumu'Eto and an English translation of Yoka Mudaba Lye's Kinshasa, signes de vie.