Africa Needs Development, Not Democracy

In this February 2026 interview with The Narrative Network, Zimbabwean author, educator and Pan-Africanist Joshua Maponga sheds light on the reality of “democracy” in Africa, how the colonially imposed charade serves only to hinder development on the continent, and how the parasitic Western nations that imposed this charade on the continent are only too willing to set it aside when it comes to protecting their own interests.

Between the United States’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the European Union’s Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI)-Global Europe, the West spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually in Africa to “support democracy”.

But what is the West really supporting? Why do the so-called “flaws” of democracy in Africa always seem to benefit Western powers? And what do the ongoing developments in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have to teach the rest of the continent about what Western-approved “democracy” really is and what purpose it really serves?

Since forming the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in 2024 and abandoning the brand of “democracy” tailor-made for Africa by the West, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have seen rapid social, economic and political progress, while facing relentless attacks by Western-backed terrorists, economic isolation and sovereignty violations by Western-aligned African states, and endless slander from Western and Western-aligned media.

It is left to the people of Africa to draw the obvious conclusion.