The Crisis of Legitimacy in Africa

A bleak picture emerges from today’s Africa. One glaring aspect is the material deprivation suffered by most Africans: the situation has degenerated to outright destitution because of steep economic decline across the continent in the past decade or so. Nearly every national economy has collapsed or is on the verge of doing so.

The gravity of the situation has to be measured not just in terms of painful statistics but against the economic optimism that pervaded the majority of Af...