Human Rights Watch (HRW) confirms that a number of African presidents with prolonged tenures first got here to energy by means of freedom actions.
Over time, many used harsh ways to safe their authority and silence civil rights, dissent, and opposition.
Their prolonged tenure in workplace is a mirrored image of Chilly Struggle alliances to safe the Western geopolitical agenda, post-colonial trauma, and structural weaknesses inherited from colonialism.
These developments impede democratic transformation and peaceable management transitions in lots of authoritarian African nations.
ARBITRARY AFRICAN BORDERS
In accordance with historians, together with the Kenyan Ali Mazrui, colonial powers drew the borders of Africa with little regard for linguistic, cultural, or ethnic actuality.
Moreover, the African Union’s Border Program (AUBP) recognises the results of colonial borders. The AUBP maintains border integrity, promotes demarcation, and fosters regional cooperation.
ZAIRE (DRC)
For 23 years (1885–1908), King Leopold II of Belgium owned the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), additionally known as the Congo Free State.
Leopold II ended his possession on 15 November 1908, when the Belgian authorities took over direct colonial governance.
Often called the Belgian Congo, the interval of direct Belgian colonial rule continued till the DRC gained independence on 30 June 1960.
Belgian rule resulted in 1960, leaving the DRC unstable, divided alongside ethnic and regional traces.
That very same 12 months, Belgian mining firms, involved concerning the nationalisation of pure assets, performed a job in influencing the Katanga province to secede from the DRC’s new authorities and grow to be its personal nation.
Katanga contained minerals corresponding to uranium, cobalt, and copper that have been very important to Chilly Struggle nuclear tasks and Western trade.
To guard mining pursuits, Katanga’s chief, Moïse Tshombe, declared independence with the assist of Belgian troops and mercenaries.
The secession motion in Katanga and South Kasai triggered a civil warfare, cut up the Congo, and weakened the nationwide authorities of former Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
To regain Katanga, Lumumba sought Soviet assist, which apprehensive the West and elevated Chilly Struggle considerations.
The US and Belgium supported Lumumba’s elimination. The pinnacle of the Central Intelligence Company (CIA) station, Larry Devlin, admitted receiving an order to kill Lumumba, regardless that the CIA didn’t perform the homicide. With Belgian assist, Katangan troopers executed Lumumba on 17 January 1961.
MOBUTU: THE WESTERN PUPPET OF POWER
Then-Military Chief Joseph Mobutu seized energy in a navy coup on 24 November 1965, promising to keep up stability, battle communism, and convey about order.
Former President Mobutu dominated the DRC, which he renamed Zaire, as its official president from 1965 to 1997. Utilizing Legislation No. 001/67, he outlawed multiparty politics in 1967, citing nationwide unity as justification.
Between 1967 and 1974, Zaire’s (DRC’s) financial system flourished as a consequence of excessive copper costs and export income.
Mobutu’s centralised authorities constructed dams and highways, arrange schools, and expanded civil service employment throughout this affluent interval.
He initiated “Zairianisation,” changing colonial names and symbols with African identities, language, and costume.
Mobutu grew more and more authoritarian as he turned involved about exterior threats, civil unrest, and elite plots to overthrow him.
After 1974, the financial system deteriorated as a consequence of unsustainable authorities debt, corruption, and falling copper costs.
Mobutu continued to obtain monetary assist from Western nations to keep up Chilly Struggle allegiance and problem Soviet hegemony in Central Africa.
Mobutu used navy loyalty, international help, and a character cult to keep up his rule by means of tyranny and patronage.
A 1994 report by Amnesty Worldwide (AI) detailed how Mobutu imprisoned opponents and made peaceable political opposition unlawful.
In 1991, Mobutu often imprisoned former prime minister Étienne Tshisekedi for difficult his authority.
Mobutu is estimated by Transparency Worldwide to have embezzled roughly US$5 billion (roughly R92.5 billion) between 1965 and 1997.
THE AFRICAN HERO STATUS
A number of African leaders have been in a position to management political affairs by means of post-colonial heroics with out being held accountable or topic to institutional scrutiny.
Liberation credentials bestowed important ethical energy, enabling leaders to rule unchallenged for many years with out adhering to democratic requirements.
CÔTE D’IVOIRE
With important assist from Western nations, Félix Houphouët-Boigny served as Côte d’Ivoire’s first president from 1960 to 1993.
Former President Houphouët-Boigny suppressed dissent in 1963 by detaining dozens of individuals, together with members of his occasion, on suspicion of plotting.
He additionally acquired substantial assist within the Nineteen Seventies in trade for his dedication to a pro-Western international coverage, although the precise quantities of French help are labeled.
In 1982, authorities arrested educational activist Laurent Gbagbo for organising strikes and student-led demonstrations.
In Jeune Afrique and different journals, Gbagbo criticised Houphouët-Boigny’s repression and censorship.
By way of the event of infrastructure, worldwide investor relationships, and cocoa exports, he remodeled Côte d’Ivoire into the financial hub of West Africa.
His Chilly Struggle connections, native unrest, and fears of inner coup makes an attempt and disintegration have been the basis causes of his authoritarianism.
ZIMBABWE
From 1980 till 2017, former President Robert Mugabe dominated Zimbabwe, turning anti-colonial recognition right into a consolidation and repression of authoritarian energy.
Political persecution, financial collapse, and deliberate manipulation of Zimbabwe’s structure all contributed to his decline in reputation.
After independence, he initially made investments in rural growth and improved healthcare and schooling for Black Zimbabweans.
Elite corruption, financial mismanagement, and land expropriation sparked the collapse post-2000, and worldwide isolation exacerbated it additional.
AFRICAN LEADERS’ WESTERN ALLIES AND COLD WAR
Superpowers backed African dictators throughout the Chilly Struggle, prioritising ideology over democracy, as US archives constantly affirm.
The US Nationwide Safety Archive paperwork Chilly Struggle ways that funded autocracies for anti-communist ends.
GABON
The French-backed financial continuity and political stability have been upheld throughout Omar Bongo’s tenure as Gabon’s president from 1967 to 2009.
Former President Bongo supported Gabon’s oil-based financial system and made investments in initiatives like Université Omar Bongo, however infrastructure growth was uneven, and schooling acquired inadequate funding, which sparked protests.
Le Monde claims that Bongo was closely reliant on Elf Aquitaine, which exchanged political funding for entry to grease.
Elf secretly financed Bongo’s authorities in trade for oil contracts, as Le Monde Diplomatique (1999) uncovered.
Whereas Bongo’s extended rule concentrated energy and wealth, it additionally inspired institutional dependence on foreign-controlled oil income.
Throughout her corruption investigation, Eva Joly discovered that Bongo’s household had lavish actual property, costly automobiles, and suspicious Swiss financial institution accounts.
Watchdog teams declare that the Bongo dictatorship embezzled a number of hundred million US {dollars}.
Between 1993 and 2005, Pierre Mamboundou led the resistance and was often arrested for political dissent.
He wrote to the African Fee on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), denouncing monitoring and torture.
Bongo remained comparatively calm, however his opponents confronted violence, censorship, and systematic exclusion from political life.
RWANDA
In 1994, Paul Kagame turned the de facto chief of Rwanda, and in 2000, he was formally elected president.
After the genocide, he restored safety, rebuilt Kigali, made healthcare investments, and led Rwanda towards financial progress.
His administration improved Rwanda’s digital infrastructure, promoted gender equality in parliament, and carried out peacekeeping missions.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented instances of dissenter arrests, torture, and disappearances in Rwanda and overseas from 2021 to 2023.
World human rights organisations have broadly denounced President Kagame’s intolerance for dissent, overshadowing his advocacy for management and progress.
MILITARY POWER AND POLITICS OF FORCE
In African nations with weak civilian establishments, navy takeovers have cemented authoritarianism, in response to the Institute for Safety Research.
In accordance with students of African governance, navy regimes flourish when democratic oversight and establishments are missing or ineffective.
UGANDA
After a guerrilla marketing campaign in opposition to the federal government of former President Milton Obote, President Yoweri Museveni got here to energy in 1986.
By issuing Authorized Discover No. 1, he put an finish to multiparty operations and established Uganda’s no-party Motion political system.
Throughout his early years in workplace, Museveni stabilised Uganda’s financial system and expanded healthcare and schooling.
Nonetheless, repression of dissenters, electoral fraud, and the lifting of the presidential age restrict have step by step compromised progress in the direction of democracy.
Former Museveni advisor Dr Kizza Besigye was arrested greater than ten instances between 2001 and 2022.
He was accused of orchestrating illegal protests in well-known Ugandan cities, inflicting civil unrest, and contesting election outcomes.
Besigye submitted paperwork to Uganda’s Supreme Courtroom in 2016 claiming proof of electoral fraud and torture.
POWER THROUGH PERSONAL RULE
In Africa, private rule endures as a result of weak establishments allow leaders to solidify their energy by means of repression and loyalty.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
Equatorial Guinean state establishments have been transformed into networks of patronage loyal to President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
In accordance with educational sources corresponding to Oxford Tutorial, Equatorial Guinea is a personalist system the place elite co-optation and patronage are important for political survival.
Obiang, who has been in workplace since 1979, considerably raised GDP within the early 2000s by utilizing GEPetrol to handle oil revenues.
Petrodollars enabled the development of city roads, infrastructure, electrical entry, and opulent developments within the coastal cities of Bata and Malabo.
But, the focus of wealth made inequality worse, and folks exterior of cities had restricted entry to primary providers.
The U.S. Division of Justice made public offshore accounts linked to senior officers concerned within the laundering of oil income and unlawful transactions.
Tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} have been seized on account of the US Division of Justice (DOJ) forfeiture instances involving the ostentatious possessions of the rich elite.
The conviction of Teodorín Obiang for embezzlement and cash laundering was formally upheld by the Courtroom of Cassation in France in 2021.
French authorities seized roughly 100 million euros in estates and upscale items bought with embezzled public funds.
Agustín Esono Nsogo, a journalist who documented human rights abuses by the federal government, was tortured at Black Seashore jail.
Findings from Amnesty Worldwide present that Equatorial Guinea’s safety forces engaged in widespread censorship, incommunicado detentions, and systematic torture.
Obiang’s long-term rule led to financial progress, however corruption, repression, and nepotism significantly jeopardised nationwide growth objectives.
POWER THROUGH ELECTORAL MANIPULATION
Lengthy-serving African presidents usually use rigged elections and politicised courts to retain energy and suppress opposition.
CAMEROON
The Worldwide Disaster Group’s (ICG’s) 2023 publications spotlight developments in election manipulation throughout Africa, however they don’t focus solely on this downside.
Since taking workplace in 1982, President Paul Biya has led Cameroon, continuously successful elections regardless of widespread allegations of voter intimidation and fraud.
Important irregularities have been famous in Cameroon’s elections in 2004, 2011, and 2018 by Commonwealth, European Union, and NDI observers.
Biya modified Article 6 of the Cameroonian Structure in 2008, eliminating time period limits for presidents.
In opposition to sturdy public opposition, the Biya parliament handed the modification, which the Constitutional Council later accredited.
Maurice Kamto, the chief of the Cameroon Renaissance Motion, was arrested after he challenged Biya’s victory within the 2018 election.
Maurice Kamto contested the 2018 election outcomes at Cameroon’s constitutional council, however the council made no choice primarily based on concrete proof of meddling.
Biya improved the accessibility of telecommunications and maintained regional hyperlinks, however highway infrastructure was nonetheless inadequate and underwent little structural change.
However after 2016, his administration’s suppression of opposition, delay in decentralisation, and poor dealing with of Anglophone considerations sparked a lethal separatist wrestle.
EMERGENCY POWER TACTICS
Many African regimes invoke nationwide safety to limit civil rights and consolidate indefinite political energy.
CHAD
Because the President of Chad from 1991 to 2021, Idriss Déby Itno established himself as a vital ally within the battle in opposition to terrorism.
He led Chad’s navy actions in opposition to Boko Haram and made important contributions to G5 Sahel initiatives.
Former President Déby turned well-known all through the world as a strongman by professionalising the Chadian navy and increasing regional energy.
But, navy priorities diverted funds from civic, instructional, and well being providers, making rural neglect worse.
Déby’s authorities continuously invoked safety rationales, corresponding to Boko Haram threats, to implement emergency measures that restricted folks’s freedoms.
Underneath Déby, the Constitutional Council of Chad was largely inactive and infrequently opposed presidential actions that restricted civil liberties.
Les Transformateurs, led by Dr Succès Masra, advocates for inclusive political illustration and nonviolent change in Chad.
Notably in 2021, safety forces brutally put an finish to Masra-organised rallies, sparking each home outrage and world concern.
In accordance with Amnesty Worldwide, mass arrests and harsh repression of protesters are commonplace in Chad.
Amnesty’s report confirms that political activists continuously suffered abuse, regardless that it doesn’t identify Masra as a sufferer of torture.
AFRICAN ETHNIC DIVIDE-AND-RULE TACTICS
Ethnic divide-and-rule ways are employed to weaken opposition and lengthen management.
TOGO
From 1967 till 2005, former President Gnassingbé Eyadéma led Togo in a mixture of extended authoritarian rule and socioeconomic developments.
He nationalised Togo’s phosphate trade in 1974, boosting income and funding infrastructure on the top of the Nineteen Seventies financial system.
Nonetheless, by the Nineteen Nineties, phosphate exports had collapsed as a consequence of corruption and poor administration, which sparked a nationwide debt disaster and financial decline.
Eyadéma invested funds in public buildings and highway development, strengthening regional ties throughout central and northern Togo.
He relied closely on the Kabyé ethnic minority to dominate authorities establishments and train management over the navy.
Southern and minority teams grow to be polarised and enraged on account of this ongoing ethnic isolation.
Eyadéma’s authorities was accused by opposition chief Gilchrist Olympio of repression, which included media censorship, torture, and arrests.
The UN and Amnesty Worldwide documented torture, censorship, and political persecution in Togo of their Nineteen Nineties reviews.
KENYA
Former President Daniel Arap Moi ruled Kenya from 1978 to 2002, enhancing schooling and rural infrastructure throughout his preliminary years in energy.
He applied a free milk programme in faculties, elevated main enrolment, and constructed roads connecting distant agricultural areas.
He centralised authorities, suppressed opposition, and relied on ethnic patronage to keep up nationwide political dominance.
In accordance with human rights reviews, state-sponsored violence between 1992 and 1997 uprooted 1000’s, significantly within the Rift Valley.
Between 1991 and 1997, the Kenyan authorities used ethnic violence to weaken opposition throughout the nation’s multiparty electoral reforms.
The Goldenberg rip-off, which concerned false gold export reimbursements, embezzled tens of millions of Kenyan {dollars} throughout Moi’s administration.
Finally, Moi consolidated his energy by means of drive, nepotism, and monetary mismanagement, regardless of his preliminary perceived stabilising position.
AFRICAN CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES
Authoritarian African presidents continuously amend their constitutions to take away time period limits, eroding authorized requirements to offer themselves extra authority.
REPUBLIC OF CONGO
Apart from the political transitions in 1992 and 1997, President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been in energy in Congo since 1979.
He held a referendum in 2015 that eradicated age and time period limits, permitting for continued presidential rule.
The Workplace of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and Amnesty Worldwide reported fatalities throughout protests in October 2015 over the time period extension.
Earlier than his loss of life, opposition chief Man Brice Parfait Kolélas spoke out in opposition to persecution and electoral fraud throughout the Congo’s 2021 election.
Earlier than his passing, Kolélas launched a video through which he accused Sassou Nguesso’s authorities of vote fraud and intimidation.
He promoted election transparency and coalition constructing, which enhanced the enchantment of the opposition.
Along with ongoing city infrastructure tasks, the Sassou Nguesso administration opened Université Denis Sassou-Nguesso in 2021.
Though there are quite a few efforts, Congo’s healthcare system faces challenges, with notable disparities in entry between rural and concrete areas.
Regardless of its achievements, the administration faces accusations of inequality, corruption, and institutional decay, significantly within the southern provinces.
AFRICAN AUTHORITARIAN COST AND COMPLICITY
Past time period limits, authoritarian African dictators use institutional brutality, disintegration, and oppression to trigger widespread struggling to anybody who opposes them.
Authorities have overseen killings, torture, and financial collapse from Uganda to Chad, with tragic human penalties.
Amnesty Worldwide confirmed quite a few violations, and Hissène Habré’s dictatorship alone noticed the execution of 40,000 folks in Chad’s prisons.
These actions violate each Article 3 of the Common Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Articles 4 and 5 of the African Constitution.
Such regimes threaten opponents with violence and arrest, destroy establishments, and eradicate time period limits.
Leaders like Sassou Nguesso and Museveni advocate for rule extensions as a defence in opposition to exterior threats and instability.
They worry prosecution, retaliation, or exile if political rivals take management and examine previous wrongdoings by the federal government.
International funders proceed to assist them, prioritising regional stability, financial entry, and counterterrorism over their human rights pledges.
Regardless of the African Union (AU) and UN resolutions, long-standing authoritarian governments proceed to follow mass killings, torture, and censorship.
The African Constitution, the UN Torture Conference, and the African Union (AU) Constitutive Act all comprise democratic and authorized norms that these governments violate.
An estimated 210,000 civilians have been killed underneath the management of 4 former presidents: Macías Nguema (Equatorial Guinea), Idi Amin (Uganda), Siad Barre (Somalia), and Hissène Habré (Chad).
WHY DO HEROES OF LIBERATION OFTEN BECOME TYRANTS?
Tell us by leaving a remark beneath, or ship a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 11.
Subscribe to The South African web site’s newsletters and comply with us on WhatsApp, Fb, X and Bluesky for the newest information.
