Political Detentions and Prosecutions Data This original dataset catalogs regime threats for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania (including Zanzibar). The dataset includes information on 5,200 individuals who were accused by the government of subversive activity in the post-independence era, between the late 1950s and 2014. Each observation includes the name, occupation, and partisan affiliation of the challenger, whether they were formally charged of political crimes and the particulars of the charge, and whether they were repressed through judicial (common law court or other tribunal) or extrajudicial tactics (detained, deported, executed, or disappeared). Source material was collected from seven different archives, including The British National Archives, The British Library, the Endangered Archives Programme, The Senate House Library Archives, The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, the National Archives of Malawi, and the ProQuest Historical Newspapers Archive.
Photo: "Dr. Hastings Banda, leader of the Malawi Congress Party, waving triumphantly to his supporters with a whisk, when arriving for his press conference in Nyasaland, shortly after his party had a sweeping victory in the first general elections." From The British National Archives, dated 8 August, 1961, file number INF 10/194.