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
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.
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
The outcome of the race between increasingly artful electoral manipulation and limitless possible manifestations of democratic expression is never entirely certain.
Professor of Francophone Studies (Africa, Caribbean), Faculty Affiliate with Africana Studies, World Literature Program and Human Rights Pracice, University of Arizona