Abstract
This study investigated state violence against civil society in three countries, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Egypt. The conceptual aim of the study was to examine how state violence affects civil society organisations and how civil society organisations cope with such violence. The thesis provides an analysis of the post-colonial African state, its relationship with civil society, examining the theoretical moorings around state formation and civil society in Africa. It also provides a historical context for understanding state violence and state-civil society relationships in Africa, particularly in the cases examined. The study found that the state violence experienced by civil society organisations can be divided into three categories, namely, physical violence, psychological violence, and coercion. This thesis develops a continuum of state violence based on these categories to help classify the various forms of state violence. This continuum of state violence has different forms of state violence, namely murder, arrests, torture, raid, assassination, legislative repression, threats, intimidation, state gender-based violence, financial harassment, defamation, psychological violence, silent harassment, legal violence, espionage, sabotage, wilful violence, and judicial violence. The study found that civil society organisations had managed to cope with state violence by creating or joining networks with other civil society organisations, changing their registration to avoid repressive laws, creating foreign and savings accounts to circumvent funding restrictions, implementing personal and organisational security measures, and mobilising international support for their efforts.