In the early 1990s, a wave of democracy swept the African continent, leading many observers to proclaim enthusiastically that the region was experiencing its “second independence,” analyst Mamadou Gazibo writes for Foreign Affairs:
Many expected that with the end of the Cold War, foreign powers would no longer support authoritarian regimes. Others saw promise in the “democratic conditionality” policies through which international organizations and Western donors tied their aid to political reform. These hopes went largely unrealized…
