ABSTRACT
Various factors that characterized the last three decades of the twentieth century, including the end of the Cold War, the globalization process, and the aspiration of African people to greater democracy, contributed to the emergence of civil society in Africa. Despite the theoretical denial displayed by a range of Western scholars standing on Euro-centric prejudices, African civil society emerged through the ups and downs of African history sometimes as a form of anti-colonial resistance, sometimes as a quest for political pluralism and democracy, and even as a springboard for African societies to better integrate into the political, social, and cultural dynamics generated by the globalization process. The African civil society has become a kind of obligatory passage for any analysis concerning the development of contemporary African societies. The present contribution not only explores the context of the emergence of African civil society, but also seeks to highlight the many and often forgotten forms of this society as well as their subsequent challenges.
