Only a small fraction of Ghanaians actively participate in protest, with just 5% reporting involvement in demonstrations or marches.
The flagship report of Pan-African, research network, Afrobarometer, has shown that young Africans are retreating from the civic space in almost all areas of engagement.
According to the Round 9 Afrobarometer report, titled African Insights 2025 – citizen engagement, citizen power: Africans claim the promise of democracy, looked at attitudes towards voting, party affiliation, political discussion, attendance of community meetings, contacting leaders, joining with others to raise awareness of an issue and protesting in 39 countries.
The research found that most African youth are lagging behind their older colleagues in all these areas but one – protests.
In the area of voting, 63% of persons aged 18-35 voted in the last elections in their country, compared to 81% of persons 36 years and older.
They are also less like to discuss politics, with 61% of them engaging in political conversations compared to 63% of older people.
Only about a third (37%) if young people said they feel close to a political party, compared to 45% of older people surveyed.
They are also less likely than their older neighbours to contact their chiefs, local government councillors, political party officials or MPs.
However in the area of protests, more young people (10%) said they had participated in the previous year, compared to 8% of older folks on the continent.
Poverty and civic engagement
Interestingly however, the research uncovered that poorer Africans in poorer countries are likelier to engage in these civic activities than their wealthier counterparts from wealthier countries on the continent, unlike what pertains in other parts of the world.
The research also found that poorer citizens are likelier to identify with a political party than their wealthier counterparts.
There has however been a 14% decline in party affiliation on the continent from 2011 to 2023.
The report also found that Africans without formal education are more likely to engage in civic activities like voting, identify with a political party or attend community meetings than their colleagues with post-secondary education.
The overall picture:
Voting
Surveys from some 39 countries showed that 85% of respondents said they feel free to vote as they please.
About 59% of participants said they’d found their national elections to be mostly free or completely free and fair, even though 34% of respondents thought their elections had “major problems or was not free and fair.”
With particular reference to Ghana 83% of people surveyed between 2021 and 2023 indicated that they had voted in the previous (2020) elections.
Despite the relatively high numbers of respondents (72%) who said they had voted in the period preceding 2021/2023, a slim majority (51%) cast doubt on the effectiveness of elections in ensuring that their legislators reflect the views of voters.
Closeness to political parties
Around 41% of those surveyed also said they feel close to a political party, with 73% in Sierra Leone being the highest on the continent while 7% in Tunisia is the lowest.
Community engagement
In terms of attendance to community meetings between in the past year, about 47 of survey participants said they had attended a community meeting at least once.
About 15% of participants said they attended these meetings often, while 21% said they attended them ‘several times’ and another 11% answered that they’d only attended ‘once or twice’.
The number was highest in Madagascar where52% reported attending community meetings often, with 29% saying they attend several times while 4% of respondents said they attended once or twice.
The number was lowest in Tunisia where 1%, 3% and 7% of respondents indicated that they attended often, several times or once or twice, respectively.
In Ghana, these numbers were pretty low, with 12% of respondents indicating that they attend such meetings often. On the other hand 16% of people surveyed said they went several times while 9% indicated that they went once or twice.
Questioned on whether they had joined with others to raise an issue, about 42% of participant answered in the affirmative, with Malawi recording the highest number with about 77% of respondents saying they’ve done so at least once in the last year.
This number was lowest in Botswana where only 23% of respondents had answered in the affirmative.
In Ghana, only 33% of survey participants indicated that they had joined with others to raise an issue.
Contacting leaders
While electoral democracies seem to be gaining ground in the continent, representative democracy seems to be lagging behind.
This is revealed by the responses of persons who said they were more likely to contact their traditional leader (37%) or local government councillor (28%), party official (20%) than their Members of Parliament (15%).
In Ghana, 36% of respondents said they had contacted their local government councillors, while 29% said they had contacted a traditional leader.
Only 18% and 14% of respondents said they had contacted a party official or MP directly.
Protests
Only 9% of persons surveyed across 39 countries said that they had participated in protests between 2021 and 2023.
This number was highest in Ethiopia where 25% of respondents answered positively.
Conversely, only 2% of persons surveyed in Tanzania said they had been involved in a protest or demonstration.
In Ghana, only 5% of persons surveyed said they had been to a protest in the year prior. 6
The survey also found that young people were more likely to protest than older people, though they are less likely to vote in elections.
