ABSTRACT
Since the post-independence era, populism has made inroads into the politics of sub-Saharan Africa. 1 Populism is defined here as a political strategy involving direct ties by individual, charismatic politicians to large masses of unorganized constituents, the use of public performances that Ostiguy (Forthcoming) terms “flaunting of the low,” and an ideological rhetoric that denounces elitism (see Resnick 2017). Quintessential populists of the mid-1980s included Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, Captain Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, and Yoweri Museveni when he initially came to power in Uganda through a guerrilla campaign in 1986. All three military figures claimed they were leading “people’s revolutions” against corrupt incumbents. They often espoused a rhetoric against establishment elites, railed against structural forces that maintained poverty and exclusion, and embraced outrageous antics to give them greater visibility to the public (see Carbone 2005; Harsch 2014; Resnick 2017; Rothchild and Gyimah-Boadi 1989). However, such populists did not operate within democratic contexts and often suppressed the opposition or banned political parties entirely.
