Following a military coup in 1999 and flawed and violence-ridden elections in 2000, democracy in Côte d’Ivoire faces an uphill battle against the forces of xenophobia and ethnic chauvinism.
About the Author
Jeanne Maddox Toungara is professor of history at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she teaches courses on Africa and the African diaspora. Her research interests include political culture, gender, and state formation in modern Africa. She lived in Côte d’Ivoire for 15 years and is completing a book-length manuscript about a nineteenth-century kingdom founded in its northwestern region.
In an effort to avoid repeating the 2007 electoral debacle, Kenya’s election commission turned to technology, but its high-tech voter-registration and vote-count processes fell short. Its experience has important lessons…
Surveys show that Africans’ commitment to democracy fades over time, but also that their support can be refreshed by alternations in power via elections.
