Introduction
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to many of the worldâ??s longest-ruling heads of state. Some leaders in the 1960s and 1970s sought to become â??president for life,â?ť with several postcolonial leaders managing to remain in power for three or more terms. By the turn of the twenty-first century, the trend of entrenched leadership had spread across the region, spurring corruption, instability, societal fractures, and economic stagnation. But the trend may be reversing, in part due to sustained pressure by civil society groups and regional blocs like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which shepherded a transfer of power in Gambia in early 2017.
How prevalent is this trend?
Many African countries struggled with transfers of power in their first half-century after independence. Leaders who gained recognition during national movements for independence consolidated power and bound their own positions in office with their countriesâ?? national identities. By early 2017, five African heads of state had been in power for more than three decades: Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in Equatorial Guinea, Jose Eduardo dos Santos in Angola, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Paul Biya in Cameroon, and Yoweri Museveni in Uganda. Eleven other heads of state had been in power for more than ten years.
