Cameroon President Paul Biya during the presidential elections in October.
EPA-EFE/Nic Bothma
Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis must be addressed by the president within the first hundred days.
Supporters of Kenya’s draft constitution attend a “Yes” campaign rally ahead of the 2010 referendum.
EPA/Dai Kurokawa
Weary Kenyans are entitled to wonder if the latest referendum push will be any different from the past two.
Social media is becoming a formal political platform in Uganda.
Shutterstock
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s grip on power remains strong but pockets of dissent are emerging from digital platforms.
A protester in Nairobi, Kenya, displays a poster calling for Bobi Wine’s release.
Daniel Irungu/EPA
Bobi Wine entered the political arena with a relatively consistent background of politically critical music.
The appointment of South Africa’s national prosecutions head Shaun Abrahams has been declared invalid.
EPA/Nic Bothma
South Africa’s Constitutional Court judgment shows concern that the independence of the country’s prosecuting authority has been compromised.
A Togolese opposition supporter during protests over alleged electoral fraud in 2005.
EPA/Nic Bothma
Togo illustrates the difficulty of moving away from personalised politics.
President Kabila’s time in government has shown an inability to bring together the various ethnic groups.
EPA/Michael Kappeler
African leaders need to acknowledge the gravity of the Congo crisis and apply pressure on Kabila.
Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has been in charge for nearly 40 years. His people want change.
REUTERS/LINTAO ZHANG
Some human rights activists worry that Cameroon could be the site of Africa’s next civil war.
Members of Nigeria’s All Progressives Congress party protest the 2015 elections. More trouble is likely ahead of the 2019 elections.
EPA/Tife Owolabi
Nigeria is far from ready to hold a credible ballot in 2019.
Policemen posted to prevent a campaign rally in Zanzibar in 2005.
EPA/Stephen Morrison
In Tanzania today, political space has shrunk to the point where protests are suppressed before they emerge
Devolving power and resources from the centre to the counties was a key pillar of Kenya’s 2010 referendum vote.
EPA/Dai Kurokawa
In many counties, there are new health centres, roads and street lights that wouldn’t be there without devolution.
Solly Msimanga, centre, the mayor of Tshwane, with Democratic Alliance national leader, Mmusi Maimane, right, celebrate winning the city in 2016.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
South African parties are recognising that coalition politics is now part of the political landscape and is here to stay.
Supporters celebrate Julius Maada Bio’s victory in Sierra Leone’s presidential run-off.
EPA-EFE/Ernest Henry
It’s the fourth time a peaceful democratic election has taken place in Sierra Leone. But these are not the stories we hear.
African countries holding elections increases the quality of civil liberties.
EPA/Stringer
The process of institutionalisation may be patchy and uneven. But one thing is clear: Africa is not without functioning institutions.
Julius Nyerere (second right), his successor Ali Hassan Mwinyi (right) and Mwinyi’s successor Benjamin Mkapa (left) host South Africa’s Walter Sisulu in January 1990.
Reuters/File
A balance sheet of positives and negatives for Tanzania’s president Magufuli is perhaps the most striking similarity with the legacy of Nyerere as the country marks another independence anniversary.
Kenyan opposition supporter is confronted by policy during clashes in Nairobi.
Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
Elections, even free and competitive ones, don’t always mean that a country is more democratic. Instead of weakening the elite’s grip on power, elections might actually make them stronger.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni speaks during a presidential campaign rally in the capital Kampala in 2016.
Reuters/James Akena
As a young radical in the 1980s, Museveni publicly scorned African rulers who clung to power. Now, after 30 years in office, he is clearly clinging pretty hard himself.
The end of an era?
Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters
Mugabe and his powerful wife have been overthrown in an apparent coup orchestrated by Zimbabwe’s vice president. Will the country transition into democracy or get strapped with yet another dictator?
Ukrainians mark the first anniversary of the Orange Revolution in 2005.
REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
South Africa’s governing party is invoking concepts and emulating strategies first developed by authoritarian regimes in Eurasia.
An elderly woman displays her inked finger after casting her vote during the 2016 presidential elections in Uganda.
Reuters/James Akena
The outcome of the race between increasingly artful electoral manipulation and limitless possible manifestations of democratic expression is never entirely certain.