Senegal

THE PAST

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After months of tension, fuelled by ex-President Abdoulaye Wade’s obstinate bid for a third term, there is a great sigh of relief that Senegal has managed peacefully to elect a new president.

In the last two weeks Africa’s democracy encountered two major events. In Senegal, a new President Macky Sall emerged after a failed ‘civilian coup’ staged by outgoing President Abdoullaye Wade, 85, to have a third term.

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Lucky man. Macky Sall, that is. Were he a Nigerian, he would certainly have had to wait till he was, at least, a hundred years old to become president.

Relief. Jubilation. Levity. And most of all: Liberation.

For peasants and petty traders living under feudal monarchies, the only thing worse than living with a plundering despotic king was not having one. When a king's excesses led dissidents to seek a pretender, everyone suffered.