In Senegal, the president tried to cancel elections. In Niger, the elected president was overthrown in a military coup, and eight months later, he remains imprisoned in the presidential palace. In Chad, a leading opposition politician was killed in a gunfight with security forces. And in Tunisia, once the only democratic success story of the Arab Spring uprisings, the president is steering the country toward increasing authoritarianism.
Democracy is in trouble in Africa's former French colonies. And, according to some experts, there are two ways this system is being destroyed: by the elected officials tasked with preserving it, or by coup plotters seeking to overthrow the government. — is said to be an expression of the same fatigue.
After gaining independence from France in the 1960s, the emerging states copied France's constitution and concentrated power in the hands of the president. And France maintained business and political ties with its former colonies, where a system known as Françafrique supported often corrupt governments. These are among the reasons cited by analysts for the democratic crisis in these countries.
While the majority of Africans surveyed still say they prefer democracy to other forms of government, support for democracy has declined in Africa, while support for military rule has declined. Its support has doubled since 2000. That change is happening much faster in former France, where there are more colonies than former British colonies, said Boniface Durrani, research director at Afrobarometer, a nonpartisan research organization.
“People are disillusioned with democracy,” he says.
Preparations are being made for a military takeover. Eight of the nine successful coups in Africa since 2020 have occurred in former French colonies, the only exception being Sudan, a former British colony. Ndongo Samba Sila, co-author of a new book on France and its former African colonies, says former French colonies are “defenders of coups” and at the same time “defenders of a constitutional order” and empty pretenses of democracy. He said he was also an advocate.
“Ordinary people, they are against the constitutional order,” Mr. Shira said. “We call this a tyrannical command.”
Of the nine African countries ranked as “free'' by the democracy group Freedom House, not one is a former French colony. And half of the continent's 20 former French colonies received the worst ranking in the “not free” group. All countries scored lower on Freedom House's Freedom Scale in 2023 than in 2019, with the exception of Mauritania, which recently began elections after decades of military rule, while Djibouti and Morocco remained unchanged.
Military rule returned, but its leaders often spoke the language of democracy, calling themselves an “interim government” and promising to hold elections and appoint civilian ministers.
Guinea has been ruled by the military since soldiers stormed the presidential palace in 2021, and elections were due to be held in October this year. But in February, soldiers gathered in the same palace and issued a decree threatening to delay the elections.
“The government has been dissolved,” one soldier declared as 19 other junta members and armed soldiers in uniform stood behind him on the palace's red-carpeted steps.
Senegal has long been seen as an exception to this anti-democratic trend, but in February President Macky Sall shocked the country by indefinitely postponing the election of his successor just three weeks before voting began. Ta.
His government has adopted tactics used by others seeking to remain in power across Francophone Africa, including shutting down the internet, banning demonstrations, killing protesters and jailing opposition politicians. Ta.
Senegal's Constitutional Court has reopened elections, which are scheduled for this Sunday. And Mr. Sall had just released two key opposition leaders, one of whom was a presidential candidate.
Of course, democratic backsliding is not limited to Africa's former French colonies. Democracies face challenges in many countries around the world, from the United States to Brazil, Hungary to Venezuela. And African countries with no historical ties to France are no exception. For example, the leaders of Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe do not object.
But what the former French colonies have in common is a political system heavily influenced by France, with very strong presidential powers, and institutions struggle to rein it in, West Africa says. said Jill Olakunle Yabi, founder and CEO of Citizens Think Tank.
“That legacy is still strong,” he said.
In Benin, President Patrice Talon was re-elected in 2021 after changing election rules to bar non-supporters from running for office. Cameroon's 91-year-old President Paul Biya has lifted his term limits and has been in power since 1982. Togo's politics have been dominated by the same family since 1963, despite calls for electoral reform. In Ivory Coast, incumbent President Alassane Ouattara controversially won a third term with 94% of the vote in 2020 in what opposition politicians called a “sham election.”
Mr. Yabi calls the recession “over-presidentialism” and has long argued that countries should enact more detailed constitutions to strengthen checks and balances and rein in individual leaders.
Yabbi said some non-French-speaking countries are suffering from “hyper-presidentialism.” However, in former British colonies in Africa, parliaments and judicial systems have been strengthened, and the power of the president has tended to be limited.
The Sahel, an arid region south of the Sahara Desert, has seen a series of coups. Five years ago, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso all had presidents who suppressed opposition parties, silenced the press, and tried to change their constitutions. They are currently under military government.
Significant changes occurred across Africa in the 1960s, when countries won independence from their colonial masters, and in the 1990s, at the dawn of multiparty democracy after decades of single-party rule or military rule. Ta.
Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, an analyst with the International Crisis Group specializing in the Sahel, said the region was at a new “defining moment”. This time, the question is whether democracy will return to countries led by military regimes. Countries have promised elections in 2024, but some signs to organize them.
Many people living under military rule say elections are not a priority. The junta has criticized France, expelled French soldiers and media groups, and partnered with Russia, even though its people are struggling to make ends meet due in part to regional sanctions imposed on junta-led countries. It has gained popularity by doing so.
“It's hell,” Abdoulaye Cissé, a motorcycle deliveryman in Mali's capital Bamako, recently admitted. But he said he did not want elections because the junta was working hard. “We have to try to support them and give them some time,” he said.
For Bamako security guard Mamadou Kone, the military regime represents “the first attempt by African leaders to completely break free from colonial oppression.” Rising prices and food shortages are just part of the “big price we have to pay for freedom,” he said.
France's influence on the continent has shifted and waned in recent decades, with recent focus on fighting jihadists in the Sahel region. But analysts say the perception that the country is still pulling the strings is a reality and is driving politics across Francophone Africa.
Some presidents and regional organizations considered allies of France have been tainted by associations, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOWAS is often accused of condemning military coups but not seizing power by sitting presidents. When the Niger coup occurred, ECOWAS threatened to invade. When Senegal's president called off elections, he only issued a statement encouraging them to go ahead.
Burkina Faso's military junta leader, who took power in 2022 and became the world's youngest president, recently said that the civilian president of the ECOWAS alliance member was a coup mastermind like him.
“There are a lot of rebels in ECOWAS,” Capt. Ibrahim Traore said in December, wearing a red beret and desert camouflage, sitting in a golden chair once occupied by his civilian predecessor. “They have never followed their rules.”
Many West Africans agree, and are more open to the military's various puttists.
In Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, military governments are often seen as representing the people and their interests, but elected leaders are cast as pawns on the side of the West, especially France.
Afrobarometer's Durrani said: “There is a sense that France is very involved in the region and that many of the leaders are basically puppets of France.” “Part of the disillusionment with democracy lies in the extent to which people think democratic governments serve France's interests more than their own.”
Mamadou Tapiry I contributed a report from Bamako, Mali.
