Mineral Wealth and Protest in Sub-Saharan Africa

Challenging the scholarship on the relationship between natural resources and civil society, this article advances a framework that differentiates the various types of protests surrounding mineral extraction in sub-Saharan Africa and explains how this extraction encourages contentious activity. On the basis of protest event data from thirty-nine countries in SSA for the 1990-2006 period, as well as available survey data, the article provides confirming evidence that mineral wealth increases protest activity.