ABSTRACT
Until the 1980s democratic governance played little role in Africa's independent polities. If one assumes that the holding of free and fair elections on the basis of something approaching universal adult suffrage to be a sine qua non of democracy, then Africa was virtually without democratic activity once independence had been achieved. From the 1960s onward, elections, when held, were little more than plebiscites. The electorates were offered a choice between endorsing the leaders of single-party governments or staying away from the polls. In only one country, the island of Mauritius, did voters remove one set of leaders for a new group.
