Brian Howard

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Supporters of the opposition Democratic Alliance party cheer at a rally last month in Cape Town, South Africa, ahead of local government elections. (Mike Hutchings/Reuters)

MundoÁfrica

Earlier in this pre-Summit for Democracy series, we reported that across 34 African countries recently surveyed by Afrobarometer, demand for democracy is strong and resilient. The same can’t be said for Africans’ confidence that they actually live in well-functioning democracies, leaving a “democratic disappointment” gap. Today we dig deeper into those continentwide public opinion averages to uncover a surprise: Some of the most negative trends — both in how much democracy people say they are getting and how much they want — are happening in the continent’s up-to-now leading democracies.

Washington-based think tank Freedom House identifies nine African countries as “free” on its Global Freedom Index.…  Seguir leyendo »

Demonstrators protest police brutality in Lagos, Nigeria, on Oct. 17. (Temilade Adelaja/Reuters)

MundoÁfrica, ,

With echoes of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, massive demonstrations against police brutality have rocked Nigeria. Protests that initially focused on the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which many Nigerians have long accused of abuses including torture and murder, have broadened to demands for systemic police reform.

These protests erupted, and continue, against a background of widespread public perceptions and experiences of the police as corrupt, untrustworthy and unhelpful. These negative views are particularly strong in Nigeria, but importantly, they are common in other African countries, too.

Based on Afrobarometer’s face-to-face interviews in 18 African countries in 2019-2020, almost half (48 percent) of Africans say “most” or “all” police officials are corrupt — a harsher assessment than for any other key public institution (Figure 1).…  Seguir leyendo »

A girl carries a bucket of clean water in Pikine near Dakar, Senegal, on March 9. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

MundoÁfrica, , ,

The best protection against coronavirus and other infectious diseases is frequent handwashing, the experts say. Simple enough — if you have water.

But as we observe World Water Day on March 22 during a coronavirus pandemic, millions of Africans still lack access to running water. Things don’t seem to be getting better.

Based on more than 45,800 face-to-face interviews in 34 African countries between late 2016 and late 2018, Afrobarometer found a majority of Africans see their governments as failing them when it comes to the provision of clean water and sanitation services.

About half (49 percent) of respondents said they went without enough clean water for home use at least once during the previous year.…  Seguir leyendo »