All freedom-loving people are appalled by and strongly condemn the shooting of Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known by his stage name, Bobi Wine.

In this essay for Journal of Democracy, executive director of Vanguard Africa, Jeffrey Smith, and research director for the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, Dr. Joe Siegle, argue that accommodation of Africa’s coup regimes — and their un-elected military leaders — is both woefully short-sighted and short on principle.

Like Trump, Biden is chasing transactions, not solutions, though, alongside often baroque pro-democracy rhetoric that was noticeably absent during the Trump era. This flawed approach — in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example — has been roundly criticized. Words and promises are politics. Money and resources are policy.

Africa is undergoing a swell of attacks on gay and non-binary people, often instigated by religious and political leaders. Some of these figures are prominent presidents and preachers, but others are less well known because they promote homophobia from abroad, including right-wing evangelical figures from the US.

In consecutive days this month, from 20-22 January, a trio of Africa’s brightest lights for freedom and accountability were violently extinguished. In just 72 hours, three of the continent’s most intrepid and well-respected leaders had been silenced.

It must be noted that Kenya is among many countries in the world today that are still devising rules and procedures to improve the conduct of elections. Kenya has, in fact, been at the forefront of technological advances. Nevertheless, the management of the results, and their acceptance among citizens, is what ultimately matters. Supporting and working to strengthen the country’s democratic and electoral processes extend well beyond its borders.

Many retrograde African leaders — including 10 who attended Obama’s 2014 Summit — will soon touch down in Washington, walk the red carpet at the White House, and smile for photographs that will assuredly be used for propaganda purposes back home. Perhaps no African leader plays this game of image management better than Paul Kagame of Rwanda, effectively in power since 2000. But even among this cohort of long-reigning despots and dictators, Rwanda’s president stands out as particularly ruthless in his full-throttle consolidation of political power back home—a decades-long pursuit that has been, in part, aided and abetted by the United States during successive administrations.

Washington can’t keep getting fooled by dictators.

As Africans grapple with the more present and disastrous aftershocks of Putin's invasion of Ukraine, it's important to recognize the threat that this authoritarian, predatory expansion will have on the continent if it is normalized.

President Biden's Summit for Democracy — taking place from December 9-10, 2021 — is a timely occasion for democratic allies to assert leadership and to push back against surging authoritarianism worldwide. The moment demands focus and a set of achievable goals, writes Vanguard Africa director Jeffrey Smith.

In Foreign Policy, Vanguard Africa’s executive director Jeffrey Smith and co-author Jonathan Moakes write that the military coup in Guinea was entirely predictable due to the inability of regional and international leaders to adequately address the human rights abuses and authoritarian overreach of former President Alpha Conde.

For weeks unarmed protesters have been facing off against a heavily armed and repressive regime led by King Mswati III, who has ruled the small kingdom with an iron fist, and quasi-spiritual authority, since 1986.

Autocrats and their cheerleaders have conveniently misconstrued the lessons from Washington. Despite Trump’s efforts to cling to power after having lost the November 2020 election, America’s democratic institutions ultimately held. This experience provides some guidance for how President Joe Biden’s administration can reinvigorate democracy, not only by strengthening democratic institutions at home, but by unapologetically promoting them abroad. There is nowhere better to start than in Africa.

U.S. taxpayers are implicated in the plight of Bobi Wine — and of the overwhelming majority of Ugandans, who clearly aspire to democracy and reject military rule.

President Yoweri Museveni has been in power longer than most Ugandans have been alive. His regime is sustained by the nearly $2 billion in aid it receives annually from the United States and major global institutions like the World Bank.

What is unfolding in the US — under President Trump — is not so much a different reality from the examples of democratic backsliding across Africa. Rather, they are better viewed, as different points along the same spectrum. The situation that Americans are currently facing should indeed serve as a reminder to all of us — in the US, Africa and elsewhere — that one should never take democratic progress for granted.

In Tanzania and elsewhere, the pandemic and creeping authoritarianism are colliding, making both problems far worse.

Vanguard Africa joins a group of policy practitioners, activists, former diplomats, and academics — as part of the Zimbabwe Working Group — to urge the international community to press for an immediate stop to the Zimbabwean government’s severe human rights abuses, for the withdrawal of the armed forces from politics, and an end to the plundering of the country’s ravaged economy by the ruling ZANU-PF party and senior security officials.

Paul Kagame is often portrayed as an exacting technocrat “who gets things done,” or, somewhat more critically, as the “benevolent dictator” that Rwanda — and by extension, Africa — needs to achieve human development. The underlying assumption here, that tyranny is somehow acceptable or otherwise good for business, is woefully counterproductive. Our director Jeffrey Smith writes for the Washington Post.

As with any global crisis, women have been the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The outbreak has exacerbated already gaping inequalities for women and girls across the globe and in every conceivable sphere, from health and the economy, to security and social protection. Writes Jeffrey Smith

Both authoritarian and democratic governments are responding to the coronavirus crisis by instituting frightening new powers.