In Senegal, the president attempted to cancel an election. In Niger, an elected president was overthrown in a military coup d’état and remains imprisoned in the presidential palace eight months later. In Chad, the leading opposition politician was killed in a confrontation with security forces. And in Tunisia, once hailed as a democratic success story of the Arab Spring rebellions, the president is moving the state towards increasing autocracy.
Democracy is facing challenges in former French colonies in Africa. According to some experts, the two ways it is being undermined — by elected officials who are supposed to uphold it, or by coup plotters overthrowing governments — are symptoms of the same underlying issue.
Following their independence from France in the 1960s, these states modeled their constitutions after France’s, centralizing power in the hands of presidents. France also maintained strong business and political connections with its former colonies, often supporting corrupt regimes, a system known as Françafrique. Analysts point to these factors as contributing to the democratic crisis in these nations.
Although a majority of Africans still express a preference for democracy over other forms of government, support for democracy is declining in Africa while approval of military rule is on the rise — doubling since 2000. This shift is occurring more rapidly in former French colonies compared to former British colonies, as noted by Boniface Dulani, the director of surveys at Afrobarometer, a nonpartisan research organization.
“People have become disillusioned with democracy,” he remarked.
The stage has been set for military takeovers. Eight out of the nine successful coups in Africa since 2020 have occurred in former French colonies, with the exception being Sudan, a former British colony. Former French colonies have been labeled as both proponents of coups and promoters of a superficial façade of “constitutional order” and democracy, as stated by Ndongo Samba Sylla, coauthor of a recent book on France and its former African colonies.
“Ordinary people reject your constitutional order,” Mr. Sylla explained. “We refer to this as a despotic order.”
None of the nine African countries classified as “free” by Freedom House, a pro-democracy organization, are former French colonies. Half of the continent’s 20 former French colonies received the lowest ranking from the group: “not free.” Except for Djibouti and Morocco, which remained the same, and Mauritania, which recently transitioned from military rule to holding elections after many decades.
Military rule is resurfacing, with junta leaders often using democratic language, referring to themselves as “transitional governments,” promising elections, and appointing civilian ministers.
Guinea has been under military rule since soldiers seized the presidential palace in 2021, with elections scheduled for October threatened by a decree issued by soldiers in February at the same palace.
“The government is dissolved,” declared one soldier, while 19 other junta members and armed soldiers in uniform stood behind him on the palace’s red-carpeted staircase.
Senegal was previously viewed as an anomaly in this anti-democratic trend, but in February, President Macky Sall surprised the nation by indefinitely postponing the election for his successor, just three weeks before polling was set to begin.
His administration has adopted tactics used by others determined to hold onto power in Francophone Africa: shutting down the internet, prohibiting protests, using violence against demonstrators, and imprisoning opposition politicians.
