From military coups to elections: where is African democracy heading?

Democracy is universal - and African: this is the premise of Senegalese journalist Ousmane Ndiaye's book “Africa against democracy: myths, denial, dangers”.

The text, released in French on 10 July, retraces the current crisis of democracy in numerous African countries, where, according to the journalist and former editor-in-chief of French TV channel TV5 Monde's Africa desk, leaders are embracing a rhetoric that overtly and officially "rejects democracy".

Not only military regimes

One facet of the problem is what Ndiaye calls the "khaki danger", the numerous military regimes that have come to power or ensured they stay in power in recent years.

Since 2020, nine military coups have been successful, with most taking place in West Africa and in particular the "Sahelian coup belt", as some analysts term it.

Assimi Goita, initally transitional leader of Mali, earlier this month signed into law a change to the presidential term that would allow him to stay in power without having been elected until at least 2030 - and likely beyond.

His counterparts in neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso are also former coup leaders clad in uniform - and on their way to cement their grip on power.

But Ndiaye warns: it is not only generals and colonels who reject democracy, citing for instance the dubious argument of counter-terrorism or an unstable security situation.

"Take someone like Kaïs Saïd in Tunisia. He was democratically elected and nevertheless, his rhetoric casts doubts over democracy in the name of being against the system," says Ndiaye.

Democracy as a colonial product

Democracy is a Western concept: this is the notion that needs to be rejected immediately, says the author.

"In many places in Africa, there were forms of democracy that preceded the colonial era", he says.

The brutality of the colonial systems in many ways destroyed these egalitarian forms of governance and societal organisation, and led to an imposition of a Western and artifical way of democratising countries in the post-colonial period.

"Until now, what did we get in Africa? Democratisation processes coming from above or from outside. This is what I call a process of democratic evangelisation, which doesn't work," Ndiaye points out.

With his book, Ndiaye seeks to "re-universalise" democracy and shows that, although the way forward is lined with dangers - propaganda, repression of popular protest, an obsession with the West that is counterproductive to advancing the fight for democracy - there is hope: the joint force of citizens seeking freedom and equality.