Africa’s “Generation Z” and the end of the Western illusion of democracy

A continent on the rise: Africa’s “Generation Z” and the end of the Western illusion of democracy

The coup in Burkina Faso was a reset button. Not against democracy, but against its simulation

I recently met a middle-aged businesswoman in Ukunda on the Kenyan coast. She had lived in Austria and Switzerland for seventeen years and then returned. She told me: “I feel free here. I never want to live in Europe again.”

A sentence that resonates. Not because it is exceptional. Rather, it is no longer an isolated case in today’s Kenya. This sentence expresses a renewed African awakening, one that is radically repositioned. “Generation Z” in particular no longer sees freedom as a Western export. It has its own narrative.

Africa spent decades in the school of Western democracies — hardly any country passed its examinations.

Many countries held formal elections under single-party or multi-party systems and adopted Western-style constitutions. But what followed was not co-determination, but compromises with the old elites, permanent election campaigns without development, and an idea that shattered in reality.

Kenya, the African poster child par excellence for Western democracy export and development, passed a new constitution in 2010 under pressure from below. It provides for citizen participation that the German Constitution [Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland] cannot match. But it was never implemented in practice. This is one of the reasons why, in the spring and summer of 2024, “Generation Z” took to the streets peacefully across the country and made it clear — despite brutal police violence, paid provocateurs, fatal shootings, persecution, and the abduction of individuals — that “democracy is more than just a vote every few years.”

A 26-year-old Kenyan woman said to me: “Democracy, yes; but not like in the West!”

The young people sitting at the table all nodded their heads. They no longer trust party democracy, which in the years since independence has promoted massive corruption and increased the wealth of the old and new elites, while the people continue to sink into ever-greater poverty.

When the army leadership in Nairobi refused to obey the order to deploy armed force against the protesters, a kind of military coup was in the air in Kenya.

In Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea, the military has overthrown democratically elected presidents in recent years. Western media reflexively call this regressive and authoritarian. But in the streets of Conakry, Ouagadougou, Bamako, and Niamey, people are dancing. They are young people — and among them, especially young women and girls. Without the support of “Generation Z,” the military could not have taken control.

Why? Because many people see the coup as a reset button. Not against democracy, but against its simulation.

The military, especially in Burkina Faso under Ibrahim Traoré, promises a radically new path, detached from the old networks and their puppet masters in Paris or Washington. “We are not against democracy. We are against a democracy that enslaves us,” said a young person in Bamako.

Ibrahim Traoré, one of the youngest heads of state ever, declared in a public speech: “We are not currently a democracy. We are making a revolution.” He has support from all over Africa and from Black people in the United States and Latin America. He has become the new leader not only of Africa’s “Generation Z,” but also of their parents and grandparents.

Western party democracy has become an empty shell, a masquerade. The coups are viewed as an opportunity to finally gain true sovereignty. The military? Like an emergency doctor, not a new king.

What the military articulates on a large scale is reported by many returnees on a personal level. In Europe, they often felt reduced to their skin color, patronized in their thinking, alienated from themselves, unrecognized. They see freedom there in terms of what can be said, but not what should be said.

Back in Kenya or West Africa, they discover a different understanding of freedom: responsibility instead of reaction; closeness to the people instead of function; community instead of isolation. The coup from above thus meets the transformed consciousness emerging from below.

In recent decades, Africa has learned that the people do not rule, but are constantly administered by NGO elites, credit conditions, and externally financed opposition parties.

In today’s Africa, there is a discussion that cuts to the core of political philosophy. Does democracy always require parties? Must it conform to Western norms? Can it involve communities, tribes, councils of elders, and the military as long as they serve the people?

The return of military governments is not some nostalgic yearning for uniforms and obedience. It is the expression of a continent that wants to free itself from the West and from Western-influenced illusions.

What Africa is currently experiencing is a kind of enlightenment: not about thinking, but about feeling freedom. It is an earthquake shaking our political categories. An invitation to listen instead of being lectured to.

“Here I feel free.”

This sentence sums up the paradigm shift: not the freedom to say everything, but the freedom not to be talked down to. Not the freedom to be everywhere, but the freedom to find yourself.

* Africa’s “Generation Z” uses TikTok, it understands Western debates, and consciously chooses a new path: not back to the old, but forward into its own democracy.

**  Original German-language article: “Kontinent im Aufbruch. Afrikas ‘Generation Z’ und das Ende der westlichen Demokratieillusion.” Essay von Michaela Bindernagel, junge Welt, 14.06.2025, Seite 5. Lightly edited by the translator.

*** Michaela Bindernagel was born in 1959 in the German Democratic Republic on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen She spent part of her childhood with her family in Mali. She was educated at GDR universities in cybernetics and engineering. Bindernagel is a prolific author who has published collections of short stories, poetry, fairy tales, and erotic literature. She is a resident of Mombasa, Kenya.

**** By Michaela Bindernagel, junge Welt, 14 June 2025. Translated by Helmut-Harry Loewen.

 

Source: https://www.theleftchapter.com/post/a-continent-on-the-rise-africa-s-generation-z-and-the-end-of-the-western-illusion-of-democracy