When the street becomes the opposition: Africa’s New Democratic reality 

They are questioning systems in which elections occur regularly, but opportunity remains irregular; where constitutions promise equality, but political influence is concentrated among those with money and connections; where governments speak enthusiastically about Africa’s demographic dividend while millions of young people struggle to find dignified work.

They are symptoms of something deeper: a widening distance between the institutions through which African democracy formally operates and the spaces in which a new generation increasingly exercises political agency.

The opposition has changed Africa’s young citizens are not necessarily rejecting democracy.