Every Country Gets the Movement It Needs: Protests and Social Change in AfricaThe Square directed by Jehane Noujaim and produced by Noujaim Films, 2013. 95 minutes; in Arabic and English, with English subtitles.Boy Saloum La Révolte des Y’en a Marre directed by Audrey Gallet and produced by Christopher Nick and Victor Ede, 2013. 74 minutes; in French and Wolof, with

Abstract

Since the end of 2010, the world has been captivated by a new wave of citizen mobilization. At this time, a wave of protests spread across the world— seemingly starting with the Arab Spring uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East—then leading to the Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States, demonstrations across Europe, and a wave of protests across subSaharan Africa. The DNA of protests, social movements, and grassroots mobilization are affected by and rooted in the social, political, and historical conditions within a country. These new protest movements are also influenced by the youth bulge: a demographic shift across Africa (among other countries of the global South), which has resulted in an increased youth population. In 2012, a whopping 70 percent of the population in Africa was thought to be under the age of 30. The confluence of these changes is clearly illustrated in the three films discussed throughout this essay. This review begins with The Square, a documentary film by Jehane Noujaim that documents ongoing political activism in Egypt from the start of the Egyptian revolution of 2011 in Tahrir Square through 2013. This essay also reviews French director and producer Audrey Gallet’s Boy Saloum La Revolte des Y’en a Marre (We’re fed up / Enough is enough), a documentary which provides insight into Senegal’s youth-led protest movement against the attempted constitutional coup d’etat by a two-term president and the population’s attempt to stand up to