Buy the article on CAIRN website Abstract

To those who have been watching Africa since independence, including many of the nearly 1 billion Africans, it is a continent of significant shortfall, if not of lost hope. If the two main dimensions of independence are self-rule and self-development, Africa has slid downward on both dimensions over the last half-century. Yet, further implosion is not the dominant scenario. What is more likely is the continuation of 'democratic autocracy.'I. William Zartman is Jacob Blaustein Professor of Conflict Resolution and International Organization at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University (US) and former Director of the SAIS African Studies Program.