Politics - Who’s Afraid of African Democracy?

Why do so many African leaders assume they can ignore their constitutions, cling to power, and get away with it?

Helen Epstein

May 21, 2015





Security forces facing off with protesters
in Bujumbura, Burundi, May 20, 2015

Poor Burundi. Landlocked, tiny, and known mainly for ethnic conflict, it was for years the subject of one of the most intense international peace-building efforts in history. By the time the Arusha Peace Agreement was finally signed in 2003, 300,000 Burundians had died in a civil war rivaling in ferocity that of its neighbor Rwanda. Huge sums had been invested in grassroots workshops, high-level meetings and summits to end the fighting. According to Burundi specialist Peter Uvin, taxi drivers in the capital Bujumbura joke that the per diems received during these protracted negotiations built the poshest neighborhood in the city. Now, a decade after the peace process came to what seemed a successful conclusion, and despite billions of dollars in humanitarian aid, the country appears to be falling apart again.


Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza and his wife, Denise

Bucumi, attending an Africa Leaders Summit at the

White House, Washington, DC, August 5, 2014

In April, President Pierre Nkurunziza, in power since 2005, announced he’d be running for a third term in elections scheduled for June. Opposition supporters, church leaders, student and civil society groups, much of the international community, and even many in Nkurunziza’s own party say this violates the Arusha agreement, which limits a president to two terms in office. They also accuse Nkurunziza—a former warlord who became a born-again Christian and travels with his own Hallelujah football club and choir—of presiding over a regime of corruption remarkable even by East African standards. Many also claim President Nkurunziza has condoned politically motivated killings of opposition figures and provided tacit government support to an armed militia known as Imbonerakure, which could be deployed to intimidate voters during the election. Read more... on New York Review Blog