The Legislative Environment for Civil Society in Africa

In almost all African countries, political liberation was supported extensively by people’s movements, faith‐based formations and various constellations of civil society. There was a close link between civil society and political society. From North to South, West to East, civil societies—organized and informal—played critical roles in the dismantling of colonialism, apartheid and other forms of domination. This was not only true of Africa—it was also true of other parts of the world. In Eastern and Central Europe, civil society played a major role in the fall of communist states and the subsequent wave of democratization that followed.