I had meant to post this, but now I feel like I can't say anything without sounding superfluous. I guess I'll just add that it's depressing that was 32 years (or so) until an African leader actually
lost re-election. Or, more accurately,
let themselves lose. The list of such leaders, off the top of my head, remains pitifully short-- there's Kerekou, Abdou Diouf and then (again!) Abdoulaye Wade in Senegal, Hastings Banda in Malawi, Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia, Moncef Marzouki in Tunisia, and--in where you'd least expect it-- Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria. I think that's just about it. Just them.
A distinction should probably be made, though, between people like Diouf and Goodluck who were genuine democrats (although I feel weird saying something positive about Goodluck Jonathan), and people like Banda, Kerekou, or Kaunda, who were essentially forced to hold competitive elections, and rather than step down and retire with a degree of dignity, presumably had by then bought into their own propaganda and so chose to run yet again.
I suppose one could also include several Mauritian Prime Ministers--although I think it's mainly just two people switching back and forth like Disraeli and Gladstone--but they don't count because they're in the middle of the ocean and are all a bunch of French-speaking Indians anyway.
