The African elites castigating the youth for celebrating military take-overs need to climb down from their ivory tower and understand that African youths want an end to their political, economic, and social imprisonment.
The countries of the Franc Zone may have achieved political independence but they remain enslaved by a colonial pact that guarantees that France remains the main beneficiary of their natural resources.
There has been no discernible improvement since the Mo Ibrahim Prize was launched and it is fair to question whether the award is even necessary.
The mass atrocities of the 1899 French invasion of what is Niger today are finally being treated with the gravity and consequence they deserve in Western popular histories.