The world should have been watching Senegal hold a fair, competitive election last weekend. Instead, President Macky Sall’s unilateral postponement of voting, ostensibly over a disputed list of approved candidates, has thrust the west African country into chaos.
To many onlookers it appears that Sall, who has been president for the last 12 years, would like to join the growing list of leaders who have rewritten the rules to remain in power despite no longer being eligible to run. While he has not yet called on the military to back him up, you can hardly blame Senegal’s people for fearing the worst.
Senegal has never before experienced a coup, but nine such military interventions have unfolded across the Sahel region since 2020. That feeds into a broader question about the viability of liberal democracy across Africa, as the continent’s booming young population appears increasingly indifferent to a system of government that for many has delivered stagnant economies and scant opportunities.
Is democracy in Africa really dying? The Observer’s Mark Townsend reports from Dakar to find political oppression rising and a wider continent seemingly at a crossroads. And with a staggering 40% of Africa’s population aged 15 or younger, the Ghanaian president, Nana Akufo-Addo, and Jakaya Kikwete, the former president of Tanzania, argue for the ongoing importance of education funding if the continent is to develop to its full potential.
That’s the Guardian Weekly’s big story this week – but don’t miss these other highlights from the edition.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
1
Spotlight | Could a ceasefire be close in Gaza?
While nothing has been agreed, it was hoped secret peace talks in Paris last week had made some progress towards a pause in hostilities. With time running out for the 1.5 million people under threat of a full-scale Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, the Guardian reporting team examines what might happen next
2
Spotlight | Food for thought
In two contrasting pieces on food production and consumption, Sam Meadows asks whether Argentina’s voracious appetite for beef is on the wane, while Angela Giuffrida meets the owners of Italy’s first insect farm for human consumption about how they hope to change attitudes in a deeply traditional food culture
3
Feature | The new science of history
Advances in fields such as spectrometry and gene sequencing are unleashing torrents of new data about the ancient world – and could offer answers to questions we never even knew to ask, says Jacob Mikanowski
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Opinion | Art and the surreal reality of wartime
Reading a poem about the war may seem less instructive than watching the latest bulletins, but the Guardian’s chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins suspects the opposite is true
5
Culture | A knees-up with Kneecap
The republican rappers from Northern Ireland may not sound like everyone’s cup of tea, but their young fans are drawn from across the province’s sectarian divide. Miranda Sawyer met them
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What else we’ve been reading
The weekly Experience column has covered everything from the jaw-dropping to the comical to the deeply moving. In the latest in the series, Trevor Cunningham winningly explains how he founded an online support group for people who share his first name to challenge the negative stereotypes attached to it: “I want the name Trevor to be synonymous with empathy, kindness and generosity.”
Clare Horton, assistant editor
Pegged to the release of the documentary film Copa 71, about the unsanctioned (and until now largely forgotten) 1971 women’s World Cup in Mexico, Emma John’s Observer feature on England’s Lost Lionesses made me appreciate the history of women’s football in a completely new light. Graham Snowdon, editor
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Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Audio | Mistakes and fakes: why are so many science papers being retracted?
• Video | Ukrainian Factory: two years of war for a Mykolaiv key worker
• Gallery | Inside the UK’s nuclear reactors – in pictures
• Interactive | 30 things we love from the world of food in 2024
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