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Articles on Africa's strongmen

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South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir (right) and his deputy Riek Machar shake hands in Addis Ababa to signify a peace deal in September, 2018. AFP via Getty Images

Kiir and Machar: insights into South Sudan’s strongmen

Kiir and Machar have been pivotal figures in most of South Sudan’s short history as an independent nation.
King Mswati III of eSwatini, Africa’s last absolute monarch, is facing growing demands for democracy and rule of law. EPA-EFE/Yeshiel Panchia

Africans want consensual democracy – why is that reality so hard to accept?

There is more support for democracy among African people than is often recognised. Yet this can be undermined by election rigging and is lower in countries like Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa.
President Pierre Nkurunziza arrives to inaugurate Burundi’s Chinese-built state house on September 27, 2019. (Photo by ONESPHORE NibigIra/AFP via Getty Images)

Why history will judge Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza harshly

History will judge Nkurunziza as a man who brought unnecessary pain to a nation that had long suffered from political misrule.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the funeral of his predecessor, Robert Mugabe. EPA-EFE/Aaron Ufumeli

Mugabe is dead, but old men still run southern Africa

It remains to be seen how much longer the ‘old men syndrome’ will persist in Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa, despite growing frustration among the politically powerless.

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