Despite a recent economic renaissance, some say much of sub-Saharan Africa is drifting toward a new age of authoritarianism. After the Cold War — when the superpowers propped up African dictators as proxy pawns in a global ideological chess match — the seeds of democracy rapidly spread across the continent. By 2000, nearly half of sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 countries were considered electoral democracies. But democratic progress stalled and even regressed in the 2000s. By one measure, freedom in the region has retreated to about the same level it was in 1992-1993. Human rights are eroding in influential countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast. Experts blame Africa’s continuing ethnic tensions and the emergence of China as a major trading partner. Western governments are skittish about pressing for democratic reforms now that they must compete for Africa’s natural resources with China, which ignores such issues in its business dealings.

Jason McLure is a correspondent for Bloomberg News and Newsweek based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He previously covered the Justice Department for Legal Times in Washington, D.C., and worked in Newsweek's Boston bureau. His reporting has appeared in The Economist, Business Week, the British Journalism Review and National Law Journal. His work has been honored by the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists, the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association and the Overseas Press Club of America Foundation. He has a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.