A new wave is spreading across Africa. Young politicians and activists are challenging ageing leaders across Africa, reflecting seismic shifts on the continent that are poised to transform governance and change the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
The new generation of politicians are in their mid 30s and can barely remember the cold war or the conflicts that brought many autocrats (and ruling parties) to power. Often well educated and urban, they are the voices standing up to decades of misrule and demanding for a shift in power in the face of an evolving global stage.
The new generation faces significant resistance from incumbent rulers, who are sometimes more than twice their age and are backed by political organisations that have been in power for decades, well-armed militaries, brutal security services and entrenched systems of patronage that have captured massive resources.
Here are a four politicians set to take the battle to the court of the old guard:
Bobi Wine
Bobi Wine is a 36-year-old former Ugandan reggae star and opposition member of parliament. Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has been in the US where was receiving medical treatment for injuries sustained while in detention in August. He has pledged to force the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, 74, out of power. Museveni has been in power since 1986, when Wine was only four years old.
Bobi Wine was elected to parliament as an independent in a by-election held last year in Kyadondo East, central Uganda.
The 36-year-old beat candidates from the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the main opposition, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). The self-declared “ghetto president” represents a new generation.
Diane Rwigara
In Rwanda, the autocratic rule of 60-year-old Paul Kagame was challenged last year by Diane Rwigara, a 38-year-old accountant. She was sentenced to jail and was recently released on bail after spending more than a year in jail on charges including inciting insurrection against President Paul Kagame’s government. A high court in Kigali recently ordered Rwigara and her mother Adeline be released on the condition that they do not leave the capital.
Diane is the daughter of the late Assinapol Rwigara, a businessman who fell out with the government before his death in a car accident in 2015. The US-educated activist, has accused Kagame of stifling dissent, was barred from running against him in the elections last year, where he won more than 98 percent of the vote, extending his 17-year-rule.
Diane started off as a lecturer at Stanford University’s Linguistic Department before moving back to Rwanda. Rwigara is an activist for women’s rights and is very vocal about politics Rwanda. In 2015, she was among the few Rwandans that expressed their reservations over the referendum that extended the presidential term limits, allowing President Kagame to run for a third term. Diane is a fierce critic of Paul Kagame.
Nelson Chamisa
In Zimbabwe, the new president is Emmerson Mnangagwa, 76, who took over the helm of affairs in the country after a military takeover forced out Robert Mugabe, last year. Mnangagwa narrowly beat Nelson Chamisa, the 41-year-old leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, in a hotly contested election in July 2018.
During the campaign, Chamisa told the Guardian that he was the voice of Zimbabwe’s youth and it was time for the old leaders of the country to step aside.
Mmusi Maimane and Julius Malema
In South Africa, the two main opposition parties, the centre-right Democratic Alliance and the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, are led by Mmusi Maimane, 38, and Julius Malema, 37, respectively. Both are capable of harnessing the disaffection of the enormously powerful but largely untapped youth vote to challenge the incumbent, Cyril Ramaphosa.
The political landscape in Africa is changing and the young gladiators are battle ready, despite the risk involved to change the status quo in Africa.
