FW: The EU censored our innovative public opinion study in Africa, "Voices of the People"

The European Union financed, commended and then banned, in late 2021, our groundbreaking study on Guinea-Bissau, Voices of the People, without any justification. Since then, we have been engaged in a long struggle to restore publication rights and ensure other EU-funded scholars in Africa do not suffer the same fate. Please support our call for academic freedom.

The Voices of the People initiative was designed to advance science and democracy in Guinea-Bissau. It crafted an innovative way to assess public sentiments in this West African nation. Our study interviewed hundreds of citizens from all walks of life. It involved dozens of researchers and three and a-half years of labor. Moreover, it drew on various scientific methods – a national survey, data mining, focus groups, a comparative review of public opinion in Africa, along with a multi-disciplinary analysis of key findings – to generate a unique and ambitious inquiry.

All this led to the preparation of an edited volume, Voices of the People: Society, Politics and Public Opinion in Guinea-Bissau, in collaboration with ten scholars from Africa, Europe and the Americas. The book was written in Portuguese and translated into English. For all we know, no other country in Africa has carried out a public opinion study of this scope and originality.

In November 2021, just before the Portuguese edition was to go to print, EU officials resolved to embargo the volume’s publication, despite a contractual obligation to publish and disseminate the research findings. The EU never explained this abrupt turnabout or requested any alterations of the work produced. In a perverse turn of events, a project paid for by EU citizens to advance knowledge and human rights in West Africa led to the opposite outcome.

A year later, in response to our efforts, EU officials in Brussels approved the study’s publication. But then prohibited any sale of our book. This constraint effectively barred the volume’s publication in English with an academic press, to which the EU originally agreed. No publisher of scholarly texts that we know of would consent to bear the costs of production and distribution of a book it could not sell.

Our volume is now available, but only in Portuguese, in digital format and limited copies. By blocking sales of the book, the EU has impaired access to knowledge and restricted market opportunities in Africa that it would not hesitate to offer to its own citizens.

Why did the EU censor the Voices of the People? Many have asked this question. Our inquiries into this matter give us strong reasons to believe that the EU ambassador to Guinea-Bissau suppressed the volume to ingratiate herself to the country’s autocratic ruler and receive a presidential award at the end of her diplomatic mission. We believe the ambassador’s actions would have required consultation with her director in Brussels, both of whom are Portuguese nationals. These circumstances may explain why the EU has been so reluctant to account for this affair.

We have recently filed a complaint to the European Ombudsman, in an effort to restore publication rights and safeguard academic freedom in EU-funded research. Your support is particularly important to us now.

Please sign our petition, either online or by responding to this email. Our website (vozesdopovo.org) also includes: (1) an open letter to EU authorities, which describes our saga, (2) an overview of our project, and (3) a digital copy of the Voices of the People volume in Portuguese.

Kindly help us publicize the petition.

Thank you for your solidarity, Miguel

Supporters of the Voices of the People Petition

Over 400 scholars, journalists, artists and civic leaders from 40 countries have signed the Voices of the People petition to European Union authorities.

We urge EU authorities to:

· Lift all restrictions imposed on the publication of the Voices of the People book and facilitate broad access to this innovative study in Africa.

· Review the facts of the case and establish measures to prevent infringements of academic freedom in EU-funded projects.

· Support initiatives that strive to listen to the voices of the people and generate knowledge and ideas designed to strengthen democracy’s demos and enhance civic capabilities.

AFRICA

Iva Maria Cabral, Rector, Mindelo University / Daughter of Amílcar Cabral (Cabo Verde)

Fantu Cheru, Bahirdar University (Ethiopia)

George M. Bob-Milliar, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana)

Aristides Gomes, Former Prime Minister (Guinea-Bissau)

Nelvina Barreto, Author, Civic leader (Guinea-Bissau)

Dautarin da Costa, Former Minister of Education (Guinea-Bissau)

Reginald M. J. Odour, University of Nairobi (Kenya)

Chapane Mutiua, Center for African Studies, Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique)

Demba Moussa Dembele, ARCADE (Senegal)

Eltayeb Dawelbait, painter (Sudan / Kenya)

Issa G. Shivji, University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)

EUROPE

Pedro Oliveira, Copenhagen Business School (Denmark)

Michel Cahen, Sciences Po Bordeaux / Emeritus Research Director CNRS (France)

William Fisher, The American University of Paris (France)

Vincent Foucher, Science Po Bordeaux / CNRS (France)

Donatella Della Porta, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore (Italy)

Olle Törnquist, University of Oslo (Norway)

Olga Pombo, University of Lisbon (Portugal)

Orlando Rodrigues, Polytechnic Institute of Braganca (Portugal)

Clara Carvalho, ISCTE, University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal)

Andrés Malamud, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon (Portugal / Argentina)

Lars Rudebeck, University of Uppsala (Sweden)

Bo Rothstein, University of Gothenburg (Sweden)

Anders Sjögren, University of Uppsala (Sweden)

Naïma Maggetti, University of Geneva (Switzerland)

Gianluca Miscione, ZHAW - University in Winterthur (Switzerland)

Elísio Macamo, University of Basel (Switzerland / Mozambique)

Karel J. Van der Lelij, The Hague University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands)

Dzodzi Tsikata, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (United Kingdom / Ghana)

Toby Green, King’s College London (United Kingdom)

Kathryn Hoschtetler, London School of Economics (United Kingdom)

Andrew Nickson, University of Birmingham (United Kingdom)

Fiona Macaulay, University of Bradford (United Kingdom)

Leslie Bethell, University of Oxford / Brazilian Academy of Letters (United Kingdom / Brazil)

LATIN AMERICA

Mario Pecheny, University of Buenos Aires / Director, CONICET (Argentina)

Isidoro Cheresky, University of Buenos Aires / CONICET (Argentina)

Ignacio Telesca , National University of Formosa / CONICET (Argentina)

Leonardo Boff, State University of Rio de Janeiro, UERJ (Brazil)

João Pedro Stedile, Landless Rural Workers' Movement, MST (Brazil)

Leonilde Sérvolo de Medeiros, Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, UFRRJ (Brazil)

Bernardo Mançano Fernandes, State University of São Paulo, UNESP (Brazil)

Jurandir Malerba, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS (Brazil)

Fábio Kerche, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, UNiRIO (Brazil)

Mara Telles, Federal University of Minas Gerais, UFMG (Brazil)

Aldo Dinucci, Federal University of Espírito Santo, UFES (Brazil)

Peter Rosset, ECOSUR (Mexico)

Ricardo Timm de Souza, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, PUCRS (Brazil)

David Velázquez, National University of Villarrica del Espíritu Santo, UNVES (Paraguay)

Rosa María Ortiz, Former Rapporteur, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, IACHR (Paraguay)

Benjamín Fernández, Journalist and author, Radio Libre, 5Días (Paraguay)

Alfredo Boccia, Author and journalist, Última Hora (Paraguay)

UNITED STATES & CANADA

José Carlos Curto, York University / Former President of Lusophone Studies Association (Canada)

Mahmood Mamdani, Columbia University (USA / Uganda)

Anne Pitcher, President of the African Studies Association / University of Michigan (USA)

Kenneth Paul Erickson, City University of New York, CUNY (USA)

Sidney Greenfield, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (USA)

Maxine L. Margolis, University of Florida (USA)

Ralph Della Cava, City University of New York, CUNY (USA)

Joshua B. Forrest, La Roche University (USA)

Marcela Gaviria, PBS Frontline (USA)

James M. Jasper, City University of New York, CUNY (USA)

Shepard Forman, New York University, Former Adviser to Head of UNIOGBIS in Guinea-Bissau (USA)

Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, University of Notre Dame, (USA / Argentina)

** Institutional affiliation for identification purposes only.

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