Stop exporting democracy to Africa – start listening to what Africa already knows

Democracy is a word that travels well. Maybe the idea itself also does, but does the practice? 

Globally, there is consensus that youth are relegated to the back seat in societal discourse, especially in politics (Youth Democracy Cohort, 2025; Baloch & Barrail, 2025; Mcilo, 2026). In cases where youth have been allowed to participate, the UNDP has highlighted their ability to drive positive changes peacefully. With over 70% of its population being youth (Zizolele, 2024), the role of youth in political discourse on the African continent is not up for negotiation; it is a necessity, as they are the ones most affected by political decisions. 

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, in a bid to amplify the voices of African youth in political discourse, has, through its youth assembly, the Now Generation Network, conducted a Democracy Survey. The survey included well-educated participants from 27 African countries, representing all the regions of the continent. Amidst a renewed global confusion about the viability of democracy in the 21st century, especially in Africa (Akabueze, 2024; Emole, 2025; Odeyemi, 2026), the framing was timely: What should democracy mean in Africa – and how do we make it real? 

Nearly 70% of the respondents believe that democracy should be defined or practised differently in Africa. Indeed, the mainstream (often Western-style) model of democracy is not an unmixed blessing. The tenets of democracy as prescribed by Western-led institutions do not fare equally with the African experience. The findings suggest that many African youths distinguish between democratic principles and practice. Their preference appears to be not for less democracy, but for a version more responsive to African realities, priorities, and aspirations.

Question 24 of the NGN Democracy Survey (MIF, 2026) 

What Africans actually want democracy to protect 

African youth do not see democracy as a ritual or a set of performative acts. When the survey respondents were asked what democracy should protect above all, the rule of law and human rights emerged as joint firsts, each selected by 54% of respondents. The Western model often puts elections at the forefront. The West sees democracy as elections, and elections as democracy – this is confirmed in a declaration of Ghana as the beacon of Africa’s democracy in 2012, a rating completely centred on Ghana's successful elections. Still, African youth ranked a free and fair election third (50.8% of respondents), with accountability and checks on power following closely behind at 47.6%. The African youth is not election-obsessed. 

The African youth is not election-obsessed and the survey results reinforce this point. When asked where the mainstream model of democracy fits poorly in the African context, 61.9% of respondents said it prioritises elections over outcomes. As I argued in an earlier blog, African democracies cannot afford to perform only on election day and then fall silent on the issues that most affect people’s lives, including security, economic inclusion, and accountability. When institutions fail to deliver beyond the ballot box, citizens begin to lose faith that democracy works for them. For many young African people, the survey suggests that this moment of reckoning is now. 

What "African values" bring to governance 

African societies had rich traditions of governance long before the language of “democracy” arrived on the continent, and many of those systems were firmly grounded in natural justice. In her landmark article Sitting on a Man, Judith Van Allen shows how traditional Igbo society relied on diffuse political authority, collective decision-making, and women’s assemblies known as mikiri. These institutions reflected accountability, community voice, and the right of ordinary people to challenge wrongdoing. It was a form of governance rooted in justice, human dignity, and local ownership – one that British colonial authorities dismantled because they failed to recognise its legitimacy. 

That history helps explain the NGN Democracy Survey findings. When respondents were asked which African values should matter most in governance, their answers did not resemble a borrowed Western checklist. Instead, they pointed to a clear set of priorities: 

• Justice and fairness (65.1%) 

• Human dignity (63.5%) 

• Local ownership and sovereignty (57.1%) 

• Youth voice and intergenerational fairness (39.7%) 

Notably, youth voice and intergenerational fairness ranked higher than respect for elders or tradition at 33.3%. This is not a nostalgic or conservative list, but a justice-oriented vision of governance, one that echoes the mikiri: governance should be answerable to the people it affects, rooted in their realities, and protective of their dignity. 

Rethink, don't repair 

The gap in priorities between Western and African societies suggests that democracy cannot simply be practised in Africa as it is in the West. The NGN survey reinforces this point: 44.4% of respondents want the model significantly rethought, while only 15.9% favour keeping it largely intact and improving enforcement. For many African young people, the issue is not better elections alone, but a different democratic architecture altogether.

Question 25 of the NGN Democracy Survey (MIF, 2026) 

But what would that architecture look like? When respondents were asked to identify the strongest levers for making democracy real, the answers were telling. Economic opportunity and reducing inequality came first (63.5%), followed by independent courts (60.3%), strong civil society (58.7%), and anti-corruption enforcement (52.4%). The sequencing is significant. It suggests that, for African youth, democratic legitimacy is not purely procedural; it must be felt in people's material lives – it is an everyday thing. A system that holds clean elections but delivers persistent poverty and inequality is, in their estimation, not a democracy that is working.

Question 28 of the NGN Democracy Survey (MIF, 2026) 

This is a coherent position: democracy should be judged not only at the ballot box, but also in the market, the classroom, and the courtroom. Its legitimacy must be earned every day, not just every four or five years. That also requires those who design, fund, and evaluate democratic governance in Africa to broaden their definition of success. Africa does not need a new democracy, but one grounded in its own values and priorities. 

A generation that still believes in democracy 

The findings of the NGN Democracy Survey do not depict a generation that has given up on democracy. They depict a generation unwilling to accept a diminished version of it. 

African youth know what democracy should look like. They can define it, defend it, and, when given the chance, demand it. What they reject is not democracy itself but a version imported wholesale, judged by narrow external metrics, and declared successful or unsuccessful largely based on whether the right party loses an election. That is not the democracy they are asking for. 

What does the data point towards? 

What emerges from the data is a more ambitious vision of governance: 

• justice and fairness as the foundation 

• economic inclusion as a democratic priority 

• institutions assessed between elections, not only on polling day 

• young people treated as a permanent stakeholders in decision-making 

This vision is not new. As Van Allen’s scholarship on the Igbo mikiri shows, African societies have long understood governance as participatory, distributed, and accountable to the community. The challenge now is not to romanticise the past, but to take seriously the democratic imagination African youth are articulating today. 

African youth are not asking to be ushered in gradually. They are asking to lead.